Manila. August 1, 2012.
Traffic was at a standstill last Wednesday, August 1 2012, while I was on my way to the office. What normally took an hour to get to the work ended up as a four-hour ordeal through jampacked roads and flooded side streets.

There was a light rain early that morning and there were no indications of urban flooding which has become part of one's existence during the Philippines' rainy season. At first I thought that the traffic jam might have been caused by an accident somewhere ahead but as I reached the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Quirino Highway, members of the Department of Public Works and highways in their orange garb were jumping off a dump truck and unloading road blocks. Traffic officers started warning commuters that the road ahead was flooded and impassable. As our cars slowly crawled their way towards the detour, I saw what had caused the flooding. Strong winds were battering Manila Bay and pushing the sea water into Roxas Boulevard. Typhoon Saola had just passed the country but its tailend was causing a storm surge this morning. The wind was strong enough to rock my car and the high tide in the Manila Bay combined for a recipe for disaster.

As tsunami-like waves battered the Manila Bay walk, pedestrians stopped to look at the phenomenon oblivious to the danger it posed to them. I rolled down my window and took photos of the situation. Filipinos are a happy-go-luck bunch. In the face of disaster, you will find people gathering nearby watching the event as it unfolds. Today was no different as children and adults stopped to watch waves as high as 3-meters crash over the seawall.

Later that evening, the nightly news reported that 48 truckloads of garbage from Manila Bay were dumped back onto the streets. Nature's patience seems to have been stretched and she fought back by disgorging the refuse back to the people who dared give it to her. Let's respect the environment. Let's protect our world for generations to come.