What About Them?: Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my Typhoon Haiyan post. Now that you have been given all the information, I want to look at the picture that I posted in part 1 and talk about what thoughts it has instilled in my mind. First off, if you would like to see the picture click here. I am not posting the whole image again, mainly because it could be a little graphic for some people.

                Now, if you choose to look at the photo you will probably see a young woman lying on the rubble of a makeshift medical shelter. Draped over her lower abdomen is a strip of cloth that is splattered with blood.  Medic’s rubber glove can be seen in the corner. According to the BBC, the woman had just given birth to a baby in the city of Tacloban, one of the hardest hit areas in the Philippines. The woman is holding onto what I assume to be the father of her child as he looks at a chair covered din cloths which I am pretty sure is where the baby is sleeping.

                This image was one that really made me wonder: what about the people? Whenever we hear about disasters be it human crimes or natural disasters like this one, it seems to be all about statistics: this many people died and this much aid is being given and this is how long it lasted. Facts are good, don’t get me wrong, but I was wondering last night about the people who made up the numbers. What were they doing while we're hearing about all this? What are they doing while they’re waiting for us to give them aid? Some might be like “oh crap I’m going into labor” like the lady in the picture and others could be doing other things that can’t be stopped by a typhoon such as arguing with their parents.

                It’s difficult to imagine what it must be like to be a person among all those statistics, and I can’t even begin to think about how long the days and nights would be with nothing to do and nowhere to stay, waiting for everyone on the other side to do something besides update their Facebook status to “like to save the Philippines”.