NO SUPER TYPHOON CAN KNOCK US OUT
By Rich Mazon
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 09 Nov 2013
A colossal heavyweight came upon our shores and our lands Friday morning. It packed a heavyweight of a punch that sent the entire Visayan region in shambles and ruin.
It did not need any moniker, it is simply called ? ?Yolanda? or ?Haiyan.?
And Yolanda/Haiyan wreaked havoc in southern Philippines, the province of Leyte taking the most hit of this merciless monster, who brought with him heavyweight winds and rains.
The images flashing in the screens of CNN and other major news network and various forms of social media are heartbreaking, gut wrenching. We have not fully recovered from the devastation brought about by the earthquake of last month, also affecting the Visayas region, or ?Typhoon Maring ?which affected Luzon last August- and yet, here we are again- in the eye of what is called as the most powerful storm that has made landfall.
It is one calamity after the other, like a heavyweight boxer in his prime, raining hooks and uppercuts upon us, round after round after round.
But, we are not going down from this onslaught. We will take Mother Nature?s punches and roll with it. We will put up our guards up and weather the storm - literally. Until, he stops because of exhaustion or from learning that ? we as a people do not easily give up.
Our structures may be damaged, but we will repair it. Our homes may be swept away to the sea, but we will rebuild it. Lives may be lost, but they will be remembered. Our spirits, will never, never be shaken. Not by any earthquake, not by any storm and it does not matter how ?super? it may be.
These natural disasters may have knocked us down, but we are not staying in the canvas. Our ?bayanihan? spirit will pull us through. We will help each other, wherever we may be. We will pull our resources together as brothers, as countrymen, as a people. We will not depend on our political leaders, who like these calamities are a cause of despair to our people. We will be strong and take care of each other, because that is what we do.
Life they say is like boxing and vice versa. And there is no better example than the plight of this boxing-crazy nation. We are fighters in our own right, with our own struggles, with our own fight. And none of that fight is greater than our fight to survive and recover against a string of natural disasters that has befallen our land.
The sun has risen today in the Philippines. Yolanda is exiting the country like a spent fighter who underestimated his foe. The extent of the damage will grow, and it will add to the burden of the moment. But, nevertheless, we will go out there, repair our roofs, cut the fallen trees in our roads, build our bridges and help and console our neighbors.
Our enemy has retreated, despite her 235 mph wind gusts and massive amount of rainfall, just like ?Maring? et al. and the earthquake of last month. And we remain standing, never down for the count, never taking a knee, never quitting.
In the end of the day, it is just another storm, another fight, another test of the resiliency of our people. And unlike any typhoons, be it a ?Super Typhoon?, we always answer the final bell.
God speed Philippines.
(You can help by donating to the volunteers of the Philippine National Red Cross who are deeply and heavily involved in the rescue and relief efforts of those affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan / Yolanda and other disasters via this link to their site: http://www.redcross.org.ph/donatenow )
You can reach the author at rrmaze24@aol.com and on Twitter @Freemazon910.
Photo: A man searches the debris of his destroyed house near Tacloban Airport on the island of Leyte in the Philippines on Saturday. AFP/GETTY IMAGES.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rich Mazon .
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