Irony or ironies

By Churchill Aguilar

THE mining issue in the city has gone viral but the campaign against it is still found wanting. Yes, there are organizations like Sulog that have dedicated their cause specifically to fight against this social evil and somehow have started to snowball already but I still think that the greater majority of the Kagay-anons are apathetic and indifferent about the whole issue. Without a strong public cry, such cause may just end up to be an irritating small gong.

In my previous column, “My father’s take on mining,” I have arrived at a conclusion that mining is a social evil. It has a great adverse effect on our environment and it generally destroys the whole ecosystem. And while I criticized the mining companies for their selfish exploitation of our river, I failed to see the other truth that such evil existed not only because of these companies but more so because the greater majority allowed them to be. The public indifference and apathy through our collective silence about the issue are tantamount to an approval. In this thinking, we somehow had our last year’s disaster coming. We therefore have no one to blame but ourselves.

Ironically, we as humans claim that we are the highest and most intelligent of all species. Yet while we think that we are the pinnacle of creation, we behave far worse than animals. By the looks of it, we can even be the downfall of the story of creation.

Let me simplify my thoughts with an example: the presence of the miners in our river basin shows that we have expert engineers who through their expertise were able to identify precious resources in our soil. That same expertise could have been used to map out hazards on our community so we can get protected from natural calamities yet due to our desire for profit, such expertise was used to exploit our resources to the point of putting the whole city to harm’s way.

Secondly, while we are gifted with great minds which could have been used to forward good governance and protect our community in any hazards, we use our brilliance to hide such evil and justify our lapses.

If we continue to be indifferent about all this, then the real sulog (current) is bound to devour us again.

This should be a good chance to reflect on a few practical ideas that could help us navigate these waves. Our first concern should be how can we lobby against the existence of mining in our city? There are agencies that have led us the way, all we have to do is jump into the bandwagon to show our support and intensify our cause.Our second concern would be on how we can help rehabilitate our environment. It is one thing to stop miners from operating but it’s another thing to discipline ourselves on proper waste disposal, recycling, and planting more trees.  I mean, how many of our companies, institutions and corporations in the city have very effective environmental management systems (EMS)? Do we have a system of monitoring them? How many of us segregate our waste and dispose them well? How many of us have programs for planting trees? These are things that we don’t just leave to the local government.  It is our prime duty to our community.

At some point, we have to stop the cycle of pointing fingers to others and start pointing the fingers to ourselves. On that note, let me leave you with a personalized twist of JFK’s line: “Ask not what your city can do for you, but what you can do for your city.”