What is the price of progress? A Philippine Literature redux

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When I teach literature subjects, I always try to show the connection between the theme of the story and the situation today. In literature, theme is defined as the timeless human situation illustrated by a piece of literature. As people living in these (post-) modern times, we no longer believe in stories that happened “long ago in a kingdom far, far away” on heroes with godlike powers that fight against monsters.  No, we are “too modern” for that.

One of the selections I discussed in my Philippine Literature class is the Bikol epic Ibalong. It tells the story of a people in search of a new homeland after their home was destroyed. They discover a land teeming in natural resources named Ibalong. In order to live there, they had to kill or enslave the original inhabitants of the land, the monsters. As the humans continue making progress and development, they continued destroying nature. At the height of their progress, disaster struck.

Suddenly, there came a big flood caused by Unos, with terrifying earthquakes. The volcanoes...erupted. Rivers changed their direction and the sea waves rolled high. Destruction was everywhere. Soon, the earth parted, mountains sank, a lake was formed, and many towns in Ibalong were ruined.

 

When I watched the stage play adaptation of Ibalong (which largely influenced my interpretation of the story), it was just at the heels of Typhoon Maring, which has caused widespread flooding and destruction. And now we have just gone through Typhoon Santi which wreaked havoc in Central Luzon. Then there is also the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol and Cebu.

Floods and earthquakes. Sounds familiar?

What would have been our final class in Philippine Literature fell on the Islamic festival of Ei al-Adha, a legal holiday in the Philippines. We would have discussed the legend of Sicalac and Sicavay, a story the origin of man—from Central Visayas, the place where the earthquake struck. I find it an eerie coincidence.

 

Our times are characterized by the wanton destruction of nature in the name of human progress and development. The unusual weather patterns we are experiencing is brought by “climate change”, which is the result of human activity. But are earthquakes caused by humans? I don’t know; but I have the feeling that it’s because nature is “hurt”. There must be a scientific explanation; perhaps we just do not understand it now.