(Anti-climactic) Christmas Cheer

Wow, I missed 3 whole weeks of postings. So much for promising to write once a week. Now I am pressured by what to write. Something inane? Something serious? Something cheerful? Let’s try this one:

  

This year, I decided to be really organized and avoid the rush of Christmas activities by buying all presents and wrapping them by November 15. Yup I did that. (See I don’t even have any excuse for my absence at my own blog).

In my country, Christmas season is now apparently decided by shopping malls which promptly blare Christmas songs a day after they sweep away the Halloween faux webs and ghouls. Thus when I set up my tree and arranged all presents two weeks later, I was in sync.

Not an avid shopper – yes I am one of a few females who do NOT like shopping and believe me we EXIST – I walked through shopping malls recently and disdainfully looked at the harried shoppers and long queues at cash registers which brings out the worst in me, next to frustration with choosing among the hundred choices next to too many people to compete with for the attention of a sales attendant next to… you get the picture.

I do like malling though. Malls are a cool place to be to get away from humid heat without being guilty about using up energy on home air-conditioning for a precious few bodies (minimizing carbon-footprint anyone?). Probably like taking commercial rather than private jets in the interest of the dying environment. But what do I know, I am not privy to private lears - if I were, I probably would be shopping differently and liking it!

I was so proud of completing my holiday shopping list early. Yet on the weekend before Christmas, after ghosting thru the malls and enjoying the movies, I looked at the presents and felt funny. The presents are  over a month old, they almost looked lived in. I remember being so excited at imagining people’s faces when they opened their gifts but now I struggle to feel the excitement.

I guess we do not have the capacity to sustain excitement for overly extended periods. They have to be fed within a certain, short, period to gain the most extreme satisfaction.

I realized I missed the flurry of activities that characterizes this season. The rush, the anxiety, the edginess of making a list checking it twice only to lose it on the shopping trip and desperately trying to remember all the intended recipients even as one battles through the Christmas throng.

It’s been very laid-back, very un-Christmas like, to say the least.

Also, for the first time, we will be travelling over Christmas. Hence presents that poured in from aunts and uncles were opened so that the clothes may be used on travel. Que horror, when was the last time I opened presents prematurely? Never. And we have to wait to come back home after Christmas to open the presents under the tree (too impractical to cart them off and back).

All of which add up to a very anti-climactic Christmas.

But, then again, we get to spend the holiday with loved ones we haven’t been with for a looong time!

And the laid-backness? It will be replaced with the hassle and bustle of travelling, get-togethers, and organizing meals for x families, packing and un-packing, looking for lost clothing and (heaven forbid) Christmas presents, etcetera, etcetera.

Why, I am now grateful for the quiet before the storm, look forward to the calm after it and will surely enjoy every moment of in between!

Happy Christmas Everyone!

A Gaga World

It’s a sorry state of being when people have to be almost social deviants before their golden talents get noticed by the public.

But then again, what do you do to get noticed when you are born in a world of too many people who have seen it all at least once before?

Either you go extremely simplistic so as to be pure (Susan Boyle, I love you) or go to the other end of the spectrum.

Take Lady Gaga for example. I had her dismissed as yet another performer more than a ‘singer’. Isn’t it all about circus-like entertainment and hype nowadays?

Sure the techno-pop is dancey and can certainly talk to the listening and club-hopping public. After all, millions relish all the rehashed stuff with a new kick. Who isn’t a sucker for the familiar yet unfamiliar stuff?

Yet, surprisingly, behind the glitter and freak-show, is a talented musician – pianist and composer with a wonderful singing voice.  Listening to Stefani Germanotta – the original alter ego of Lady Gaga – at the piano is like listening to Norah Jones except that Germanotta sings with more, yep, gaga gusto for life.

Her most astonishing accomplishment to date is catapulting into global stardom in a year driven by her crazy outlandish fashion.  Her next one may be getting people to uncover her real musical talents.  Just listen to her at these links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SagYW3-KNyc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiLiISBGhKQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfGIKQWQx3A&feature=related

I don’t care much for the over-the-top costumes or the overt sexy videos (whatever happened to subliminal advertising?). But let the lady work the keyboards any time and I’ll happily celebrate life with her music for accompaniment!

The Lovely Bones

No one understands violence until it has touched one in a very intimate way. Especially when it snuffs out a life before it could even begin or ripen.

I picked up Lovely Bones thinking it was about the fantasy of a heavenly creature playfully messing with people’s lives on earth. I thought it would give my late sister a kick if I read it and thought of her in the lead.

I hunkered down and opened the first page. I read two sentences then slammed it shut. Murder. Girl. Young. Deep breath. Well, I knew it was about a dead person, didn’t I? Fine, it will get better.

On page 66, I felt I have been reading it for weeks and had put it down several times. On 211, I was a mess and ymed my other sister faraway telling her not to even think about picking up this book and watching the movie. After I briefly gave the plot, we talked no more. We did not say goodbye. I guess she was in as much mess as I was.

Five years on, the pain of watching someone so young, so beautiful fight determinedly to live despite her broken, irreparable body is still unbearable. I felt it all over again, seeing her lose the fight and feeling all her emotions – angry, sad, lonely – in me afterward.

People read Lovely Bones and they think amazing fantasy, original thought, bravo. Others would disregard it for a nut job.

I relived everything that I experienced after my sister’s death. I was Ruth, who saw her after she left and later felt and heard everything she was thinking. I was Lindsey who sometimes felt she was carrying her dead sister inside her, like a twin. I also talked to my sister when I was in pain over something. I told her I wish she were alive to enjoy this or that experience. Then I thought she was in a much better place than us down here. I hoped so.


Where is she now?


When we lost her, and after feeling her hang on to me all the time like a baby twin (someone explained that when we become souls, we shrink hence I felt her to be small), I felt her leave me. She would go telling me she’ll roam and then come back. Others felt her too (so I knew I was not completely crazy). Then her murderer was found, and I did not see her anymore. Later I imagined her on a swing, everything was white, flowers, her dress and she was carefree and happy. I felt relieved, was she finally in heaven? I hope she moved on. For her closure. And for mine.

I trudged on with the book. I felt compelled to finish it. Why? I was fighting not to feel my sister again. I don’t want to communicate again. I can’t bear it. I’m sorry I’m not strong for you. Please go away.


Then there it was, when Susie Salmon fell to earth.

I knew my sister loved someone. When she lay fighting, she allowed visitors to see her. I’ve never seen so many people stream through. Some brave and comforting. Others just broke down openly in front of her (I wanted to knock their heads). We asked her to stop receiving, that she could see visitors when she was well again (I wouldn’t want everyone to see me with tubes down my throat and me unable to speak or feel anything from the neck down), she signaled to let them through. Later I knew she was waiting for someone. I asked her friends to let that person know what happened to her.

He came at the wake. I knew he was the one because I felt my sister’s heart jump with joy when he came into the room. We watched while he mourned. My sister basked in his presence.


I picked up the book again and looked hard at the back cover summary. There, it said it was about a killer, unsolved murder, unraveling family. Why did I not see this when I was at the bookstore? I only read the part about Susie Salmon watching life on earth continue then paid for it.

Was that it? Did she want to tell of this love? I hope I just did it for her.

My family did not unravel, but it was close. We all wanted to die at the same time. Like Ohana – nobody got left behind. No mother, no parent, should ever live through it. But Mom did. Like so many parents did.

Life did continue, life was happy. And we never forgot. She lives on in us. The pain is there with the memory. It will never go away, will never fade as many other painful memories do.



But you will always be loved, I promise. I love you so much, we all do. Be at peace.

Unromancing the Stone – the Dark Side of Grandeur

Many people believe that we leave imprints of our personality in a place, a house or inanimate objects. Some say the echoes of conversations of imprinted personalities can be heard in areas where they have been.

Whether it is true or just a fanciful thought, I can’t deny that when I go to an ancient place, a very old church or mosque, I can feel the holiness of it. What creates such hushed atmosphere?

Likewise, when I stood in front of a darkened arch outside the Colosseo – I felt the creeps crawling all over me. Did I feel the anguish of the many souls who perished to the violent amusement of crowds past? Was it the reason why I couldn’t even bring myself to enter and look at the brutal arena – though they are just broken rocks, empty pits and dust now?

Certainly, when I put my hand on a massive stone block used to make some of ancient Rome’s buildings – I swear I could hear it hum with life. The hum of a thousand personalities trapped within.

And that is when you feel the reverence, the wonder of history. 

The Taj Mahal – Crown Palace

I realized I didn’t really know the meaning of the word AWESOME until I saw the imposing and literally breathtaking (I find proximity to massive stones or concrete with no vegetation can be overwhelming) Taj Mahal in Agra.

That it is a monument to a great love adds to its magnificence. It represents something greater than the self. The best of humanity.

Yet, this grandeur – like many others – did not come without a horrible price.

Our local guide to the place relished his role of storyteller and tourist guide. I can’t remember how many times he reprimanded me for taking photos instead of avidly hanging on to his every word, like my companions did. But I heard everything he said. He was very good, better than most even. Because he not only gave us the fairy tale of the Taj Mahal, he gave us the dirty laundry, too. 

  

Love and Death

The Taj Mahal is all about precision architecture. The perfect calculated symmetry.  If you move 4 floor tiles to the left from the center of the covered entrance to the Taj Mahal courtyard, you will see the perfect half of the mausoleum and its towers. It’s hidden half, a perfect mirror image.

It has its own optic illusion. The uniform-sized Arabic inscription on the façade was not just an intricate inlay of semi-precious stones. It was carefully laid out with the letters at the top bigger than those at the bottom so that seen from afar– they can appear of the same size and easily read. Canny.

The carvings on the marble stone walls are masterpieces. Whole slabs of marble must be used – when one broke, it had to be replaced. And work started all over again. Capricious.

Carving them and polishing them required great attention to detail and endless hours of focus. The marble lattice work of dividers inside the tomb was especially fragile and intricate (sorry  no photos – flashbulb discolors the marble interior). One can only imagine the sweat and backbreaking labor it took for the artisans to carefully carve them out of solid marble and manually make them shiny.

And the reward for the master marble craftsmen? Amputation of their hands. The better to prevent further use of their skills - lest another rich ruler takes it upon himself to hire them and create similar magnificent artistry elsewhere. Craptacular.

And what of the great love story?

Yes it is true that Shah Jehan built the monument as an ode to his beloved Mumtaz Taj Mahal (Jewel of the Crown Palace). Yet rumors reach out across centuries of the affair between him and his daughter. Apparently, they all three lived in the main palace at the Red Fort (where he can view the Taj Mahal and) where he installed his wife’s quarters on one side and his mistress-daughter on the other side.  Creepy.

As I stood taking yet another photo, with a half-cock ear to the web of intrigue being spun by our articulate guide, I figuratively stared at him wondering if he has gone mad sharing with us this ugly love triangle. Then again, this is his story, and his people’s history.

I wondered, would Lady Diana have made the dramatic decision to pose purposely alone in front of this ‘Monument of Great Love’ had she known the unpleasant side of it?

For that matter, is the Taj Mahal diminished in my sight upon knowing the dark side of its magnificence? How many other Wonders of the World hold similar unspeakable horrors? What of the slaves who built the Pyramids or the peasants who worked to build, and got buried, under the Great Wall?

No nation would get away with such atrocities in pursuit of grandeur now. Probably.

Yet we go and visit the great works of man, time and again marveling at the age-old skills and genius that created them. They are our history, after all. And reflect our nature, who we truly are – the best and worst of us.

Grand ancient architecture is splendor at its best because of its two facets – beauty and horror… light and dark, attraction and repulsion.

And we stand in perfect understanding, indeed, in great awe of it all.

A Reason To Be Gay - Why does homosexuality exist?

I love many homosexuals because they are so gay!

To me they are among the most fun, grounded, and least angsty individuals to be with. I call them issue-less individuals.

I’m sure they have issues – but generally, they are very good at not projecting these on to others in their personal or professional interactions. Unlike many ego-sensitive straight men and women who can be difficult to deal with most of the time (argh!).

But there is one thing that has been puzzling me about them: Why do they exist in the first place?

Survival of the fittest

Survival of the fittest means fighting or coping with elements not only to ensure your life but also to ensure that your children live and so would their future children. This means your genes will be passed on and you will not become a genetic dead-end. This is the forward looking view.

The backward-looking view means that the people you see now carry the traits that ensured the survival of their ancestors through the centuries, millennia. Whatever traits you see are those that survived through wars, famine, colonization, genocide and natural disasters.

Any physical strength, intelligence, virility, beauty or behavior in men and women that ensured successful mating (i.e. producing viable children who can give birth to offspring and therefore ensure the passing of genes) is a product of this Darwinian thought called evolution.

Hence I understand why men and women exist.

What I do not understand is why homosexuals exist. How can the gay gene exist today when it cannot be passed on in matings that will definitely not produce offspring. Homosexuals should have died out a long time ago, shouldn’t they?

What is the reason for homosexuality?

This question has been puzzling me for some time and, finally, I have come to a couple of Eureka moments on this:

First one concludes that many men (and women) before were gay but because of the dictates of society, they had to be married with children. Thus, whatever gay gene they had, has been passed on to the offspring of today. Ok check.

Still, why is there a NEED to have the gay gene? Surely, if you look at the population proportions, the homosexual population today must be disproportionately larger than before, taboos or not.

(And there has to be a gay-ness gene because, my dears, if it is not in your genetic makeup, there is no way you can act or respond in a certain manner, no matter what or how strong the external stimulus is.)

Population-regulation

Over a midnight snack of delicious Angus beef tapa and raspberry-oreo pancakes a few nights ago, my best friend Blue Soon explained it to me: Homosexuality is a population-regulation mechanism.

Apparently, the trait for homosexual behavior has various levels of “penetrance” (ok guys, this is a respectable technical term in the field of genetics, alright?). That means the gene is expressed in varying degrees of strength or expressed by varying numbers of individuals within a population.

I guess, it also means that, potentially, many of us carry this gene (hey humans carry both female and male hormones! And there are sex reversals in the natural world e.g. fishes but that is a topic for another day). And the manifestation of this gay trait is dependent on external influences.

He quotes a landmark experiment by John B. Calhoun (published in 1962) on rat and mice populations mimicking overcrowding conditions in inner cities. When resources became scarce, the rodents exhibited ‘strange’ behaviors. Among these are: increased aggression against females and the young, females forgot to care for their babies properly, and the males engaged in exclusive homosexual behavior.

Yup, it appears, homosexual behavior is our way of naturally regulating our population. It is our way of saying, enough is enough. Either we, all of us die now or we act to ensure the survival of the remaining – and future – humankind.

Cool.

Linked:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Escaping+the+Laboratory%3a+the+rodent+experiments+of+John+B.+Calhoun+%26...-a0197666893

Woman, Choose Thy Happiness & Be Kind to One Another

Womenomics

In barely 5 years time, women will be two times richer than India & China combined, a CNN article quotes the World Bank.

And no this is not because they marry several rich husbands each. It’s about more women joining the workforce in developing countries and outnumbering their male counterparts in the US, for example. It’s now about “womenomics” and asking companies how to best serve the potential ‘saviours of the world economy’.

For those who have tirelessly worked to empower women – these are sweet, sweet words.

I say, yeah! We’ve come a long way baby, and we rock!

Grumpy Women

Yet, despite this, surveys of over a million women in developed countries show that women’s happiness in the last 40 years have dimmed (while men have become happier). In addition, women are less happy with their lot in life as they grow older while men become happier (so much for grumpy old men).

I thought this increasing unhappiness and dissatisfaction is all because of the “superwoman” syndrome that we women (yes, us, not men) inflict on ourselves. The need to be everything all at once: successful careerist, excellent mother, supportive wife (sister & daughter), community paragon, faithful BFF and a supermodel.

Nobody can be all that.

True enough a book (Supergirls Speak Out: Inside The Secret Crisis Of Over-Achieving Girls) and surveys show that the pressure for young girls to excel in “school, sports, relationships and looks” are making them - supergirl wannabes - very stressed and yup, unhappy. A 2009 UK survey says teenage girls are twice likely to self-harm as boys. Many of them are increasingly diagnosed with depression, have eating disorders and serious body issues.

Is feminism a double-edged sword?

We see a lot of working moms defending their position not to be full-time mothers. We see non-working mothers being pitied by many women for being “just a mom”. We see women blaming the feminist movement for wrongly selling them the idea that they will be happy childless and alone – having treated men as disposable commodities. We see women celebrating motherhood late in life and declaring their careers never gave them the same amount of fulfilment as raising their children.

Note, that in all this debate i.e., offensive vs defensive positions women take in justifying their chosen roles; it is women who are the best or worst critics of each other. Men, I think wisely refuse to get on this bandwagon – after all we dug this hole for ourselves.

This feminine judgmental view is a very knee jerk thing. We do it unconsciously, even subtly. I remember, in between careers and staying home with small babies, my girl friends became increasingly uncomfortable in my company. I felt that they pitied me because I could not contribute sensibly to their upward professional mobility discussions as I was stuck with raving about my son’s first words, or antics. Without stimuli other than what motherhood brought, I increasingly felt stupid and gauche among my peers. I stopped seeing them altogether.

And the funny thing is, when I rejoined the working world (and ‘regained’ my intelligence and confidence), I only felt pity for full time moms who felt inadequate especially when they had husbands having affairs with successful office mates. The only comfort I could give was to encourage them to stop just being a mom and do other things and be in shape. Ingredients that collectively puts pressure on women to be everything all at once! A recipe for unhappiness, if you will.

Lady’s Choice

I think, feminism gave us wonderful opportunities and choices. However, what we do with those opportunities and choices is our own business and should not be subjected to unrelenting disdainful criticism. We should not buckle under women pressure – whatever their philosophy is. And definitely we should not allow our teenage daughters to be burdened with all our issues.

Happiness is a choice. And life is a parade of never-ending trade-offs. Either we adjust our attitude to make the best of what we have or we should reassess and select only those that we feel would best suit us. It’s our life and we alone will deal with the consequences of our choices, not the other critical females (and true friends will support us no matter what, anyway).

For the rest of womanhood out there – we’ve arrived, we’re in the mainstream. Now, can we be kinder to each other, regardless of the roles – CEO, working mom, homemaker, wife, fat or thin – we choose to take?

Linked:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/10/25/intl.women.global.economy/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcus-buckingham/whats-happening-to-womens_b_289511.html

http://tailemac.multiply.com/journal/item/18/Why_women_are_more_unhappy_today_than_yesterday

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1221344/Supergirl-meltdown-How-middle-class-girls-today-unprecedented-pressure-succeed.html

Architects of Adaptation

Since Climate Change is a foregone conclusion, the appropriate response to it has gone beyond reducing risks to learning to live with its consequences. In evolutionary speak, we will now need to adapt to new and unsettling environment.

Clear actionable plans are emerging around the world – Maldives is focusing its tourist income to purchase a new suitable homeland elsewhere (preferably with most similar landscape and culture to their own) and relocate its 300,000 inhabitants.

But what would a similar archipelagic country do with its tens of millions of population?

Beyond the creation of a Climate Change Act with some vague strategic and policy framework, private individuals and associations are taking steps to increase awareness on the need to adapt and provide practicable solutions to adapt to changing environments.

Design Against the Elements

First up is the architectural challenge to create a blueprint for disaster resilience in community housing. This is an international design competition launched on June 2009 by the Institute of International Education (IIE) at the United Nations Plaza in New York and supported by the Philippine Consulate, Gov. Lray Villafuerte, Gawad Kalinga, United Architects of the Philippines and My Shelter Foundation.

To quote Illac Diaz of the Global Design Against the Elements Project:

“Design Against the Elements will focus on the climate displaced communities in Metro Manila, Philippines. Combined with research recently completed by the Manila Observatory on the future challenges of climate in the Naga region (which is a sample of similar challenges in other areas of the Philippines), it aims to design and build a redesigned low income community which will be the new blueprint for how people in the vulnerable coastal areas can successfully cope with impacts of climate variability. The knowledge generated from this study will facilitate the development of policies that address these humanitarian challenges.

The main objective of this competition is to contribute to rural adaptability to climate change impacts, in the form of architectural resiliency to strong typhoon winds and heavy rains. Capacity building in the present social networks such as community, non-government, and government organizations involved with these areas will allow a shift from post-disaster reconstruction to preparing ahead of the storm. The main hypothesis of this project is that having safer structures "ahead of time" will lead to less injury, number of climate refugees, and loss of life and property.”

Run Against the Elements

Associations and musicians are also collaborating to put awareness of climate change adaptation into the mainstream consciousness. Ally Lim who heads the project Run Against the Elements writes:

“Ateneo's Collegiate Society of Advertising (COSA) will be having its first-ever Fun Run on January 24, 2010 (Sunday) at the Ateneo campus grounds called, RUN AGAINST THE ELEMENTS: Ateneo COSA Fun Run 2010 with our slogan: Stand Up to Climate Change. We have partnered with social entrepreneur, Illac Diaz, who started Design Against the Elements.

We are going beyond the spirit of volunteerism. By choosing Design Against the Elements as the cause for our fun run, we will also be promoting its anthem, Stand Up, a collaboration of 50 of the Philippines' finest artists like Kjwan, Cookie Chua, Karl Roy, Jett Pangan, Noel Cabangon, Barbie Almalbis, Migs Escueta, etc.”

The music video Stand Up will be ready for distribution soon.

Here are some links about the above and related initiatives:

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/articles/design-structures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaB73B4k6lc

I am so glad to see some practical approaches that the people can understand and participate in. I hope to see more of it in the future.

Note to scientists, economists and the government: please translate all your ‘impact-simulation results’, ‘frameworks’, and ‘policies’ into strategies for adaptation that everyone can understand and help put into doable action.

Plan. Do. Act. NOW.

Living in a fragile environment - surviving disasters and fighting climate change

Constant pummeling by an event can leave one numb from it. For a country that gets hit by up to 32 typhoons in a year, we’d go “What, another one coming? Wonderful, no class, I will go to the mall – the better to avoid flying debris on the streets”.

But in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana) which left 80% of the capital underwater, something has changed. We stopped chuckling over typhoons. We became fearful of yet another one coming. It did not matter where we were in the country, we got antsy.

For many of us, the devastations wreaked by super typhoons in the past were something of a 9-day wonder – we watched avidly the gory details on the news, maybe cried a little or perhaps might send some relief goods if someone really asked or if devastated area was near enough. And then life goes on, we forget about them. Usually these typhoons hit the typhoon-prone provinces, places we may or may not know or only read about in typhoon news.

The capital gets its share of regular flooding – knee high, waist high. But that is part of our life in the typhoon season. Not a big deal because we are a sturdy, resilient people who have the wonderful ability to find laughter in the midst of any disaster – earthquake, deaths, you name it.

Our sense of humor is infallible.

But after Typhoons Ondoy & Pepeng (Parma) we can barely summon a smile. Instead, what is in our minds is how to prepare for the next one. Even those of us not living in the normal paths of storms, wonder what we should do if our houses get flooded to the roof. It seems no one can escape these disasters anymore.

Suddenly, we know, we can feel it in our bones, that Climate Change is here - now. It is no longer an abstract thing that learned people talk about and celebrities espouse. And, it is not just the future, distant, generations that will be affected. It’s our generation too.

It is real. And its effect can be devastating. We could lose our entire families in one fell swoop of a landslide or flashflood (although a bizarre part of me acknowledges it may not be such a bad idea - it’s better than watching one of your kids get carried away by raging waters while you hang on to another one for life).

Yet Climate Change is like a hurtling runaway train, unstoppable in its trajectory. We may try to slow it down but we can’t really stop it. We might as well lay ourselves down and die, we think.

But wait, there is HOPE. While it is true that climate change is beyond dispute, man’s activities have exacerbated it. There are things we can do to fight global warming and prepare for disasters. Here are simple, easy ways to be proactive and prepared:

Preparing for disasters

• Know your route to safety. Plan it, memorize it and practice going to your safe place. Assign safe areas (e.g. higher ground in case of floods) in your neighborhood or city and plan to assemble there in case of disaster. Make sure each family member knows the plan well.

www.californiavolunteers.org/familyplan/

• Keep mobile phones with spare batteries handy. Communication is very important. Best to ask someone out of town (even out of country) to check on you in an event because local lines tend to get clogged.

http://www.wellsphere.com/green-living-article/3-ways-to-prepare-for-a-disaster/35837

• Bring basic survival kit if you can. Food, water, first aid, multi-tools, flashlights, money, identification cards, some clothing and survival devices. Make your list, gather the items and store in easy-to-carry bags.

http://www.redcross.org

• Invest in a heavy-duty safe and store it on ground floor. Keep electronic copies of everything or put them in electronic storages. Seal your disks and computers in waterproof cases. Store these in the safe. You can also save your electronic files in reputable internet sources.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/disaster-preparation.html

Fighting global warming

• Walk or bike whenever you get the chance. It is good for your health and healthy for the environment. Take the bus or car-pool.

• Turn off your TVs and DVD players when not in use. I mean switch off at the socket not just from the remote. Residual power (usually for clocks) wastes energy.

• Switch to energy-saving devices (e.g., light bulbs, appliances, cars). They are not just marketing spin, people. They help use less fossil fuel - the burning of which is the primary cause of global warming.

• Know more about global warming and what you can do to fight it. You can even advocate for policy reforms about it. It is your right as a citizen of this world. There are a thousand internet sources out there easily within your fingertips’ reach. Here are a couple of easy-to-read ones:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids

http://www.eartheasy.com/blog/2009/03/global-warming-climate-change-what-we-can-do-about-it/

Plan. Do. Act. NOW.