In the Context of Disaster, Where is Morality?

The Baby in the Backpack is an example of a modern essay which was written by Patricia
Evangelista. She is a columnist and writer for various publications, but most recently with the
online news portal Rappler. She has been credited to have changed the face of Philippine
journalism and has sparked discussions with her brave essays on Filipino culture, disasters and
events. She recently received the NCCA’s prestigious Ani ng Dangal award for her journalism.
The Baby in the Backpack talks about her real life experience in Tacloban when super typhoon
Haiyan hit the Philippines.
The essay paved its way to address personal issues regarding the society. The writer
wrote her experiences the time Tacloban was strucked by typhoon Haiyan. Covering after the
disaster challenged beliefs as a writer and as a human, herself.
Being a journalist is a very challenging profession wherein it separates you from your
own personal feelings to the write-ups on matters affecting society. In a context of the disaster,
how do journalists deal with that kind of situation? Does journalism save the world? Does it
make a change? Where is morality during the disaster?
The essay emphasizes the social issues involved, may it be political or the disaster itself.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. The U.N.’s 2017 World
Risk Index places the Philippines as the third most at risk of natural disasters among the 171
countries ranked. Vanuatu and Tonga ranked first and second. Typhoon Haiyan is a tragic event
where in total fatalities increased up to six thousand people and million-peso worth of properties
were destructed. Many residents of Tacloban decided to stay in their houses during the typhoon
in the fear of the thieves. A normal thought of residents that it is just a rain that will later on stop
led them to the downfall of Tacloban. As what the quote says, “Learn from your mistakes,”
people must not ignore the ways of prevention for our own safety and security. With the help of
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), we can prepare for
natural calamities.
Government was blamed for their slow response to the victims of typhoon. But the
government officials helped to save the locals to the extent of their capabilities. The Philippine
government is insisting that it is "doing quite well" in its response to the devastation and chaos
created by the typhoon Haiyan, despite the continuing failure to get aid to the 2.5 million people
the UN estimates are in urgent need of food. We must not blame the government for what had
happened. As Filipinos, not only rights were given to us but we have also obligations to make or
do. We think, the writer only focused on what is lacking but at the same time, it may become an
eye-opener for the government.
The writer thinks that journalism through social media is not saving the world. It is only a
tool that can move things. Of course, mostly people are touched by stories. She believes that we
choose stories that move us which is very true. Stories of life experiences are more to our ears or
eyes.
 Being a journalist is like stepping away from being an ordinary person. “I” is not used in
every storylines because it is personal. Instead, “we” is used. We believe that journalism is only
made to make people imagine. It limits your perspective as you can’t protest to anything. As
journalists, they were limited to tell things. They were limited to tell the whole stories in every
angle. Indeed, journalism is meant to make the public imagine, allowing them to understand that
some things are bound to happen again and again.
One thing that the essay is telling us, the dead people should not be dead. They have the
dreams to live but only the dreams were left. But in a phase of a disaster or storm, morality is
irrelevant. People do things as what they believe in, not what they see things as right or wrong.
Because in every disaster, morality is dead just like the dead people who should not be dead.