Man and the stitched Curse

By: Florence Ruby C. Bayog

“Man and the Stitched Curse Our quest for our destiny and how destiny quested our lives”

Hurricanes, tsunami, floods, and other sudden disasters get the big headlines, but day after day other tragedies of otherwise avoidable dimensions unfold: the one child who dies of malaria in Africa every 29 seconds, the one person who is infected with HIV every 6.4 seconds, and the 8 million who die every year because they are too poor to stay alive (TIME, Dec. 26, 2005- Jan. 2, 2006).

Three months ago, as I usually turn on the television I witnessed so much from the world beginning from the Popocatepeti volcano eruption in Mexico to the Kenya food riot, Chile wildfire destruction, Yangon flood and to the biggest calamity that twisted China into rubble.

The world is flooded with so much disasters, human diseases and natural calamities that brought endless misery in the planets as if the odds of today brings no more tomorrows. These are all because man never stops his quests. From that quest, man stitched unexpected events as longs as it fulfills his ambitions nature.

The sad thing is, man never knows that those dreams are the ones that will extinguish human race. He never thought that everything he has done from mining, drilling to logging is the nightmare of the world where he is living. He never thought that these quests for his dreams could be a curse.

Symptoms not Problems

Man is the unpleasant root of everything and because of his quests for something he made the destructive symptoms cited in TIME Magazine. These are symptoms and not problems because these are man’s results of his quests. Man suffers and slowly swallowed by his actions as the world seems to make its way to destruction. This is a nightmare that human race cannot escape from.

Today, unexpected rainfalls have just arrived, long dry season coats the land and even the fall of ice pieces have been observed these do not normally happen in the tropical region like the Philippines. Even myself, is afraid of what had happened and what would happen next. We know that these are all effects of Global Warming.

For the past months, we witnessed different floods. We saw how it took so many lives, destroyed thousands of homes and drowned hundreds of living. Then, it takes me a second to think what if it will happen again. How many lives more will be lost again? How many homes more will wreck? How many livings more will be drowned? Or what if on the next flood, I’m on the list of the missing persons?

Where’s now the reason to laugh if we are already swallowed by the result of our actions? We are already grinded by the toxics of the highly automated plant, stung by the heats released by sophisticated jet planes this making the earth warmer. We have been boxed in a situation that we can never run away.

This man who quests for his dreams has a bountiful living, has a house made of rock, he looked up by many because of what he has done, has plenty of food, and thousands of dress locked in a closet. But take a look at the African people who have been the victims of that dream, they have been enslaved of mining. Is there anyone who can pull them from the quagmire of misery and be truly happy? And those black South Africans who suffer discrimination from their fellow South African citizens, Is there anyone who can resolve this world’s apartheid? Nelson Mandela spearheaded in addressing dismantling his problem and yet has not been resolved. Is there anyone who can stop these symptoms of the problems?

Rise from the Symptoms

We cannot find the solutions from others in coping with miseries that we have for these solutions can only be made if we start in ourselves.

It is from the moment that we answer the questions why things are happening in a way that we are not expecting as they are and how we do things in a way that we are expecting in a way it should be. From the moment that we realize and take a stand on it, this is now the time that we should set our goals, start working on that goal, keep motivating ourselves to pursue that goal and be happy for we have now a contribution to the resolution of the problem.

Three months ago, we have witnessed China and its quick transition. We have witnessed how they won the battle against the curse. As I remember, that was May 12, 2008 2:28pm while people in the Sichuan province of China were on their job, laugh with their officemates, dealing with investors, transport vegetables to nearby provinces, play gulf, sleep a killer 7.9 Richter scale earthquake struck enough to rock the world of its axis for nearly three minutes, making the hearts of women, men, and children of all ages pound in terror as they cried out in panic.

Two months and twenty seven days later. August 8, 2008, 11:30pm, is another milestone to these very same country as it holds the world’s prestigious event, the Olympic Games. It’s almost three months from the tragedy yet another event unfolds. From tragedy, this time people are shouting, giggling, jumping and keeping an eye for another fireworks display, another record to break, another hot and excellent athlete and for another hand to hold the coveted trophy for the Olympics.

If all countries will look up China on how they work harder on the things they need to fix and on how they put solutions to the existing problems, surely they can attain what they want and what the world is looking for. Everyone can do what they want as long as they believe that everything has a purpose if they only Almighty. In the Psalms 125:1, Revised Standard Version says “those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” If you’re a believer you’ll not be daunted even in the harshest of the trials, and China is an example of the modern times situation. They proved that not only wealth can complete them, but it is the spirit of collaboration that makes everything good.

This is what exactly China has done from the moment the buildings collapsed, as the white smoke and dust arose like some apocalyptic dream, to the construction of Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, and the Laoshan Velodrome for the Olympics held.

Indeed it is but natural for the Chinese people to rejoice and not to deprive their present lives with the tragedy of their past. China, just like any countries is just “like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8).

Turning Point

What do we get from this? You may say that it’s all hypocrisy because man cannot sustain his life without mining, drilling and logging. You might be true, but you have to choose either to quest your dreams or be swallowed by your actions or quest your dreams while giving value to life. At the end, we may either face a curse or a reward that could be either we will be the one to quest our life or our life will be one will quest us.

The world’s suffers so much from various calamities. The world was bitten by the fangs of these symptoms because of man. And we may not know that there are still more to come and will cast more lives and destroy everything.

Whatever curse we may suffer because of man’s interest, whatever disaster that will untold the world “if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty, if you are pure and live with complete integrity, he will rise up and restore your happy home. And though you started with little, you will end with much” (Job 8:5-7, New Living Translation).

And this indeed, the man and how he stitched his curse.