At around midnight on the 12th of November, I remember I was playing Valorant with my friends, completely unaware of what was happening outside as the windows and door to my room were closed shut. Suddenly, the power went out. I was thoroughly annoyed because of it, but then soon I started hearing the howling winds outside, and how strong the rain had gotten. After around 5 minutes, our backup generator kicked in and we got electricity again. Because the internet connection had not come back yet, I decided to take a look outside, and it was what I expected it to look like. Just pure darkness, no lights can be seen anywhere in the immediate vicinity, only the smell of rain in the air and the sounds of howling winds. It was then that I realized my situation; our house was the only one that had electricity in the entire neighborhood.
Fortunately for us, the area we lived in was not prone to floods, and so for the longest time flooding and typhoons weren’t really a big problem for me. The most problematic situation for me I think would be brown outs, as I grew up with electricity and the internet for as long as I can remember, and living even one day without these makes me terribly anxious. As a result of this, I have sort of grown to hate the fact about how privileged I am compared to others, and how I have also grown to become such an ignorant person when it comes to these types of situations.
As seen in the image above, I have such a nonchalant attitude when it comes to floods/brownouts, because I know it will come back soon enough. Even for most of my friends from high school, when I asked them about their situation, most responded that they were safe and that they did not experience any brownouts, which is a good thing, but this doesn’t help my case as it only further makes me even more nonchalant about the effects of these typhoons.
The next day, as I was scrolling down my news feed on Facebook, I saw more and more pictures and videos of people’s situations and how devastated their houses were. What struck me the most, however, were the pictures and videos of people’s pets being stuck on the roof of houses with nowhere to go. Most people, when fleeing from danger, would choose to prioritize their own safety first, which is understandable. But these animals have lives too, and they do not deserve to be abandoned.
Through this photo, I, along with several other netizens, were shown the extent of Filipino “resilience”. However, this also cause people to see past this “resilience”, a word that’s being thrown around so much that it has lost its true meaning and purpose. I believe that collectively, these people are demonstrating their development of Da Vinci’s sensazione, as they are able to see the real problems presented here in that the government is not taking accountability nor action to prevent these things from happening.
In the next few weeks following the passing of the typhoon, around the week of November 17, several strikes were held and complaints were made about the government’s inaction in the typhoon situation. Specifically, students from the Ateneo called for a nationwide academic strike as a response to the Duterte Government’s negligence. Personally, I did not take part of this strike nor did I agree with their methods (academic freeze), but I do share their sentiment about the situation. Despite the fact that I don’t know much about what happened during these strikes, I believe that these sorts of things are good so that change can be made, and we can be able to better prepare ourselves for future disasters.
In applying Da Vinci’s sensazione, I realized how much I’ve been looking at everything happening around me, without actually seeing what is happening. Thinking about it now, I realize how dull my senses have become when discussing topics regarding typhoons. I remember back in 2013 when typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines, I joined in our school’s efforts to pack several boxes of relief goods for the survivors, all filled with rice, instant noodles, soap, toothbrush/toothpaste, etc. But now, the most I have done so far is to donate old clothes to the survivors. Unfortunately my family is still reluctant on going outside with the pandemic still going on, and so only my parents went to donate to my old school’s donation drive. When I heard from my parents about how my school apparently were receiving mostly just donations of clothes, it hit me different, seeing as over the past few years, our family has become so disconnected from these sorts of things.
Through seeing, thinking, and and overall becoming aware of the situation presented, I hope that in future occurrences of typhoon and disaster, I would be able to involve myself more in terms of helping and donating to those affected. I am thankful that my family was not hurt during these times, I sincerely hope that I, along with others who are like me in being nonchalant about these things, would be able to do better in the future. Da Vinci’s sensazione principle has made me realize that stimulating our 5 senses actually helps to make better sense of our experiences, and as a result, make better and more creative responses to understanding these experiences.
