Child-friendly Sinulog
When I think of Sinulog, what comes to mind is the image of my seven-year-old self perched on my father’s shoulders as we watched the dancing contingents from the sidewalk. It was only one of two occasions papa let me ride on his shoulders. The other one was when the motorcade of Pope John Paul II passed by then San Jose Dela Montaña Street (now Pope Saint John Paul II Avenue) during the pope’s visit to the Philippines in 1981. I still vividly remember how my playtime at our residence in nearby Casals Village in Mabolo had to be interrupted because little children like me must see the pope.
Thus, I came to associate those two occasions, the Sinulog and the pope’s visit, as some sort of a ritual dedicated for children. I hope that as we observe today’s solemn procession and watch tomorrow’s Sinulog parade, we think of our children whom and whose future we ask the Holy Child Jesus to bless.
While we are at it, we should strive to make the Sinulog a child-friendly occasion. We can start by rejecting all forms of rowdiness or hooliganism that has marred the occasion these past few years. Thus, I welcome the Cebu City government’s decision to deny Sinulog party permit applications. Indeed, it's bad news for the party-loving crowd. It’s also bad news for the streetside stores aiming to cash in on the celebration. But it's definitely good news for families with children in tow.
Another way to ensure your family’s safety during the celebration is to know the exact locations of 17 medical stations and eight water stations during the parade. Based on the organizers’ plan, these stations will be placed roughly equidistant from each other along the parade route. Expect also to see police officers and other security personnel in all corners. They are tasked to secure the occasion and help those in urgent need. To minimize such need, Police Deputy Regional Director Rey Lyndon Lawas has a simple yet potent advice to everyone: "Let's all be peace-loving people.”
However, we expect that there will always be those who plan to do their nefarious activities and take advantage of crowded areas. There are the petty thieves and swindlers. And there is the possibility of a terrorist attack which is the biggest concern of the authorities. The police have not been that transparent regarding the level of threat we are getting but I understand their dilemma in this case. They must balance the need to inform the public about the level of threat, on the one hand, with the need to prevent needless alarm over any degree of threat, on the other hand.
When the authorities announced that they are shutting down or jamming cellular phone signals in certain areas of the city today and tomorrow, for example, it's quite tempting to know how high the level of the threat is that such “extreme” measure has to be made. But in a case like this, it's better to defer to the judgment of security experts. We survived without mobile phones in past celebrations of the 37-year-old Sinulog. We can always take preparatory measures to get by with the celebration without our smartphones.
But if like many others you really “can’t live” without the instant messaging convenience of a smartphone, you can try an app called FireChat. It’s an app you can download on your smartphone which allows you access to a network using only Bluetooth and peer-to-peer Wi-Fi without cellular data connection. According to its creators, devices which are located within 200 feet of each other can transmit message using the app in their smartphones or tablets. It does this by using other similar devices around you to pass on encrypted messages to another until the messages reach their recipients.
Pit Senyor!
- Latest
