how is now Duma??

I look at it from a different side no different then Florida. Certain areas are a high risk area and its pretty irresponsible and reckless to live in such areas. Like how Florida gets hit year after year with something or other and people just expect the Government to fix everything yet take no responsibility for poor choices. Here I see many doing the same thing being irresponsible and reckless and then waiting for someone else to fix their mistakes... mistakes they keep repeating.

Now yes some people who were smart still got hurt and I feel bad and pity them. Yet all those who live in places like next to the river often being the same ones who clog it up along with living at the mouth of the river especially. Every few years the same thing happens again and again and the same people go right back to the same place. They simply rebuild, wait a bit for a hopeful government handout, and take advantage of the now rich soil while it lasts.

I lived in Cagayan de Oro before and in 2009 a flood through the CDO river happened same scenario that just repeated again in CDO and here. Those same people the next day went right back and rebuilt their shacks and polluting and clogging up the river yet again. Now 2 years later same thing happens again, many dead.... yet again. Now some may say they have no choice but they do. They don't have to live right there, they don't have to center on the city that the rest of the city wisely stayed away from. Its a choice and with a choice comes a consequence.

Sorry but I'm a firm supporter of Mother Nature. The foolish man built his house on the sand.

 

Part of your point I agree with, take for example the Florida part. Now let's look at CDO. Where were these people supposed to rebuild AT? Up on snob hill with all the foreigners? I think you would hear the foreigners on snob hill raising bloody hell if that were to happen. They have no money to pay to rent/purchase a lot on which to build, and if they did, would the lot they can afford be out of danger of floods? Many of their livelyhoods are derived from the city, so they need to be close to the city as they have no transportation. So, assuming you have a house/lot on which you live, would you let a few families build squatter shacks in your back yard? No? Then WHERE would you have them move to? Who gives them a place to build that is free, safe, and out of harm's way of natural or man made disasters? If you can answer me just that one question, thank you very much. My wife and I will be right over tomorrow to build a new house!

Larry

 

@ CMQ, so you say the thousands of people who are just a few kilometer uphill from Dumaguete and are totally cut off from water and electricity without food and get very basic life-supply via Helicopter made a bad choice, some of the areas get their first support tomorrow (after 5 days) and they are not even close to a river, well if you don't count the suddenly appearing one a few days ago .... you certainly should go for a ride and just look what is in the other side of the street, which suddenly ends now with no way of crossing the gap ....

camote & broadside: I agree with both, yes we do need tourists here and many families rely on the money coming in. But to say all is fine is just wrong.
Snorkling and Scuba is fine but if you want to go to some of the rare tourists spots there is just not much left and one has to make different plans.

When I book a holiday for some diving and some land-trips (and I just made that in Borneo/Kota Kinabalu this year) and hear after arrival that there are not many options for excursions cause they were destroyed even before my booking, I would return home and warn everybody that I have been told lies and recommend everybody NOT to go to those liars.
I would be pretty much pissed off, planning and spending a few thousand dollar on a vacation to find out I've been lied to.

And this "we don't tell the truth" behavior has in a medium term more bad effect on tourism and the support of many families here than a lost booking now.

 

I guess if you have money in your pocket perhaps you do have a choice but when your living on the land and really living on the land the way many filippinos do, your choices are quite limited.

 

Like I said some people who were smart still get effected negatively and I feel sorry for those. Some areas are relatively safer at least one would think but still get effected badly.

But many are responsible as well for their own conditions. Yes, these people can't afford the same houses and lots we live in and we buy. But it doesn't mean these people have to live in the city or in a city at all. Many come because its easier to beg from, get scraps from others, sell and do very minor things. However these same people could have built a shack out in the country area and tried working the land. There is a lot of land owned by the government still and the government doesn't come knocking so much if ever unless your encroached onto a city and bleeding it dry. They could even end up with a better style of living but requires harder work from all adults then many of those effected do.

You can't really think there is no where else for them to go and that they have no choice. There are other areas but they chose their style.

This is a picture as an example of Cagayan de Oro where I used to live before and after their recent flooding. This is the exact same thing that happened in 2009 which left many dead and people simply came back and rebuilt because often its what they know and also because after the land is very fertile.

http://www.cdodev.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/nev1.jpg

One needs to respect Mother Nature and the land. One needs to realize in their area what sorts of common natural issues they have and take such precautions. There are always other options and other ways.

 

With all due respect, i think we should encourage as many tourists as possible to visit our fair region this winter, so that commoners will have as many jobs as possible. YES we should be fully honest about what is now closed / ruined -- and what isn't; there are still many great attractions for standard visitors to enjoy, esp the reefs.

We shouldn't let our anger at the negligent authorities -- an eternal constant in this country -- be transfered as bitter sarcasm aimed at innocent would-be tourists inquiring if it's still OK to come.

Lourdes & I have some guests coming in the next 2 months, and they have asked in hesitation, and i strongly urged them to fulfill their plans, altho a Casaroro Falls visit is now off the menu. Sure, we'll explain the devastation and show them some of it, tell them what we and others have been doing to help the victims -- and some of them might well be moved to make donations of their own.

Disclaimer: i speak as a prof. of Tourism, yes i'm biased in favor of that biz.

 

I agree that tourism should be encouraged. I also agree that honesty in advertising is important. To tell a potential tourist that all is fine and well is not exactly telling the whole truth. I think that was the point trying to be made.

Larry

 

All right, on that we agree. I thought it was clear in the first 3 posts here that Vanes was only inquiring about possibilities of beach / diving tourism, and Camote & Rarity only answered in that context, that the weather is back to normal and beach / diving tourism will be fine. Nobody ever asked, said or implied that the humanitarian situation or other tourist-spots here are "all fine", and the nasty turn it took after that was therefore inappropriate, in my humble interpretation. That people's emotions are somewhat on-edge this particular Christmas seems quite understandable....

Peace and Comfort to All Friends.