auti-spiritual(ism)

Hey there is typhoon, I better bring an umbrella! As I am cowering in the relative safety of my cement house during typhoon Nina in Laguna, Philippines, watching the torrential rain and gale winds of a signal 3 typhoon on the other side of my window, there are many thoughts racing through my head. Back home, we would probably be declaring a state of emergency. People would be crying foul over the lack of government intervention, the absence of emergency services in the stricken zones, the refusal of insurance companies to provide cover for those affected. There would be countless stories on the news about this or that person losing all their belonging, being made homeless, damaged cars … and a list of tragic stories to make our sensitive perception overwhelm with indignation and sorrow. Yet here life continue as normal. Nothing stops a Filipino from doing everything they can to put food on the table of their over-sized extended family. The shaky sari-sari store (the loca