As I was strolling in the mall, trying to find a new tv stand for my LCD I got a call from the office. I heard from my supervisor that their two storey house in the Philippines was ripped-off by the flash floods due to typhoon Ondoy. Fortunately, his family are safe now in an evacuation center far from the affected area. You see, he was a Filipino-American who just migrated here last year. He was from Pasig, which was the part of Manila which was greatly affected by the flood. The office now plans to do a donation drive, to donate cash to the Philippines in order to help those less fortunate people affected by flood.

One thing I admire with the Filipinos is “Bayanihan” – their willingness to help each other out in times of calamities. Not to offend fellow Americans but as I remember, when hurricane Katrina struck last 2005, people in Texas and Orlando were left by their own with no support from the government. Some even took advantage of these and made crimes too many to mention. Anyhow, now that we recovered from that tragedy, I hope we learned our lesson.