Loss (of Hope) and Damage (to Dignity)

My hometown (earlier struck by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake) was fortunately spared from the worst during the onslaught of Typhoon Haiyan but our power supply has been cut off. News from our Department of Energy says that we will have to make do with rotating supply (2 hours max / day) for a few months to a whole year.

Mom sent me a message earlier asking me when I will be home from Warsaw because she’d like me to ship over a power generator, more emergency (rechargeable) lights and boxes of candles from the capital (Manila, where I am based) because supplies were running out in our region (Visayas). My little sister is apparently having a hard time reading her lessons and doing her homework at night because of the meager lighting in the dark. She also told me how the economy of our province is starting to tangibly fail. She’s afraid lawlessness would follow.

I could only imagine how worse it is in the Provinces of Leyte and Panay where the people have absolutely nothing to hold on to as of the moment - just the hope of people from all over the world helping them surmount the disaster with humanitarian assistance and expressions of solidarity

My heart has been breaking for over a week.

And then this:

The Group of 77 (developing countries) and China walked out of negotiations on loss and damage at 3:55 AM Warsaw time(almost 11 AM Manila time) over the draft negotiating text seen as insufficient in meeting the needs of developing and vulnerable countries.

I think about my Mom and Dad and little sister, my hometown, the people of Visayas especially Tacloban and Panay. How much more suffering do the leaders of the world need to behold before they finally realize that addressing Loss and Damage is about survival, dignity, and justice?

I resonate the following call from Mr. Voltaire Alferez, the national coordinator of Aksyon Klima (the Climate Action Network of the Philippines composed of 40 civil society organizations).

“What happens to the Philippines after Haiyan and other extreme weather events which have been fuelled by climate change? What happens to us and other countries when we feel the brunt of sea level rise, drought, and other slow-onset impacts? We in vulnerable countries will depend on these answers to recover, but developed countries want to avoid these questions entirely. We denounce the actions of Australia and other developed countries in blocking progress towards a loss and damage mechanism, or which prefer to bury the issue under the adaptation framework, even though loss and damage goes beyond adaptation. We developing countries need that institutional arrangement, which can be an international mechanism. We want finance, technology transfer and capacity building to be incorporated in this arrangement. But as the talks stand now, it seems developed countries want to give car crash victims first aid when they need crutches and even wheel chairs.”

I quote Mr. Alferez instead because I can’t find the words to express my frustration. I can’t feel anything right now.

Have we just been biting into a poison apple all this while?

With what little hope that’s left in me, I hope not.

With the battered dignity of my people, I choose to continue trusting that Loss and Damage talks would spring back to produce a just outcome.