No Halloween party for New York City!

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve been hearing reports that the some people who went to Italy to attend the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod suddenly disappeared from their tour groups, even to the point of leaving their bags behind in their hotels or buses. At this point, most of us who went to Rome are already back in town perhaps what our travel agencies ought to do is come up with a report as to who amongst their clients did not return with the group. They should do this as a favor to Italy, who gave them their Schengen visas.

Until now, many Filipinos do not realize that things are not really economically better in Europe. The European Euro for instance has lost its value from 62 Euros when I went to Paris last year to only 52 Euros this week. Of course, Rome just had a huge tourism coup with the canonization of San Pedro Calungsod and six other new saints that brought more than 300,000 people into St. Peter’s Square. But the rest of Italy is suffering from economic problems.

What aggravates the problems of the Filipinos as told to me by many Filipinos I met, like Mr. Marlon Magpali, former Councilor of Tayug, Pangasinan, is that Filipinos now have stiff competition in Italy with the entry of people from the Balkan States like Albania who cross the Adriatic to find jobs. They often agree to accept half of what Filipinos are paid and in times of hardship, chances are, they are the ones that get that job to the detriment of the Filipino. So in the end, unless those Filipinos who recently went “tago-ng-tago” have friends in Rome to help them, they would certainly have a difficult time in looking for a job there.

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As I’m writing this piece, I’m watching CNN’s coverage of Superstorm Sandy pounding New York City and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Earlier in the evening, CNN came up with a graphic report of the thousands of flights especially from Europe that were cancelled due to the storm. These flight cancellations no doubt would have a huge economic impact in Europe, which is at the brink of a recession.

As for Superstorm Sandy, this is the first time in a long, long time that the Eastern Seaboard of the US has been forced to shut down. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), which is so close to the hole that used to be the World Trade Center, was in three feet of water. The Atlantic City Boardwalk was damaged and brownouts where everywhere. My NY friends who communicate by Facebook are suddenly off their pages as the power outages spread all over the storm affected areas. New York City was totally ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, flooding many parts of lower Manhattan.

If there is anything that is to the credit of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), it is that they gave very early warnings to US citizens to evacuate to higher ground. Many of course complied, but a lot more people have decided to hunker down and weather this storm. Think of it, there are at least 60 million people in the Eastern Seaboard. In New York alone there are some a hundred and thirty thousand Filipinos and another hundred plus thousand in New Jersey. As of press time, 11 people have already been reported to have died.

At this point, we can only hope that this natural disaster will be over soon and would not be as destructive as predicted. But as it is, this so-called “perfect storm” has made landfall in the Eastern Seaboard of the USA and FEMA’s advance early warning meant the cancellation of thousands of flights, which consequently means the cancellation of hotel bookings in their respective destinations. How much will this Superstorm cost the US economy, we shall soon find out in the next few days. Meanwhile, I have no doubt that Halloween has been cancelled for New York City!

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I don’t know why he is visiting the Philippines, but Sen. Richard Lugar (Rep.) of the State of Indiana came as a friend of the Philippines in what is being dubbed as a “Farewell Tour” to pay a courtesy call to Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. But I find his “official” reason for his five-day visit (he is on his last day today) as totally incongruous as he will be discussing with top-level officials on issues such as weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons and its effects in Southeast Asia. Is he hinting of an up and coming war against North Korea or worse… China? Hmmm let’s find out!

Few amongst our young Filipinos do not even remember the role of Sen. Lugar in the success of the EDSA Revolt. He was the one who called up then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos and gave that famous advice, “Cut and cut clean.” It was then that Pres. Marcos realized that the US was no longer supporting his regime. Sen. Lugar’s message to Pres. Marcos was the game changer and we shall forever thank him for this.

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