March 13, 2011

Have you watched the movie 2012? It shows and depicts world disaster. It was about another flood of astronomical proportion that wipes out everything in the world except those who were able to ride the steel man made ark that cost 1 billion euros for each seat in the ark. A chain of natural calamities preceded the flood such as solar fare, earthquake and tsunamis and more. It was a movie that seemingly showed the end of the world and the movie goer was glued to his seat from start to finish with the element of fear and suspense present.

With what is happening in recent weeks and months to various parts of the world, some people are afraid that 2012 might be the year that the world will come to an end but just like the movie, it didn't end. There were people, animals, plants and things that were saved that gave a new day and new beginning to the world. I am not saying that it can happen. What I am saying is that with prayers and appropriate preparation, the end is far from happening but we have to be ready for possible changes in our world. Actually, when it comes to natural calamities and disasters, we can never be too ready but at least by being prepared and knowledgeable, we can make well thought of, well informed and appropriate decisions. On the other hand, for man made disasters and calamities such as wars, we can definitely do something about this by letting cooler heads manage and handle things and using diplomacy and discussions to fix issues and concerns.

The morning of the day the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I attended a Crisis Management Seminar organized by the (Department of Interior and Local Government) DILG. During that time, I was asking colleagues present about how prepared is the Philippines when it comes to natural calamities since I noticed for that morning the focus was more on man made or man caused issues and problems. The night before that I was watching a well known prime time news TV program that did a survey asking viewers if the country was ready to handle and face well a massive natural calamity and the resounding answer was no. With such, I think it is an indication that we have to focus on trainings, seminars and purchases of basic and necessary equipments needed to handle and manage unexpected calamities if and when they happen.

Crisis Management, according to Wikipedia, is the process by which an organization deals with a major event that threatens the organization, its stakeholders or the general public. Three elements are common when they say crisis, namely, threat, element of surprise and a short decision time.Crisis Management deals with threats after they have occurred just like what happened after the onslaught of Typhoon Frank that hit Iloilo City and the like. We apparently were not prepared and ready for such. Given such, I would prefer and strongly recommend that we consider to shift from Crisis Management to Risk Management. Risk Management involves assessing potential threats and finding the best ways to avoid those threats. Prevention, as they say, is better than cure. Furthermore, it is better to be safe than sorry.