For now, let's tend first to the needs of storm-shattered Philippines
Curtis Chin says politics - and recriminations - should be set aside in this hour of need
Like so many others, I have seen the media reports of death and destruction that emerged from the Philippines in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan. The initial estimates of the damage were horrendous, but some figures, including the number of estimated fatalities, have mercifully gone down.
The latest figures counted about 4,000 dead and over 10 million people affected by the storm known in the Philippines as Yolanda.
No uncertainty exists, however, about the intensity of the typhoon and its deadly storm surge, which wreaked tsunami-like havoc on the city of Tacloban and numerous other communities. Economic losses from Haiyan could total US$15 billion, or 6 per cent of the gross domestic product of this nation of some 100 million people.
Having spent nearly four years in the Philippines, I see the still unfolding tragedy as much more than a distant news story. Like many others with ties to the nation, I have reached out to learn how friends and their families fared, and watched from afar the tales of life, and death, that made the TV news.
Like others, I also took to social media, as other forms of communication proved unreliable. On the pioneering Philippine social network site Rappler, I wrote: "I have faith in the Philippines."
And, indeed, even as the news seemed to worsen, there also emerged tales of great fortitude, bravery and recovery, and examples of the strength of the Filipino extended family, as well as of that indomitable Filipino faith and spirit.