stuck in the middle

Metro Manila is '7-11 of disasters', says the regional director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

So, of all the cities in Southeast Asia, Metro Manila is the most vulnerable to typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, epidemics, landslides, droughts, volcanic eruptions and forest fires. Gosh, I hope not all at once.

Part of the blame falls on a laughably inadequate drainage system, barely-enforced anti-logging laws, and a badly-designed water collection system. Regarding the latter--seriously, every single fucking year the La Mesa Dam dries up to near-catastrophic levels, and no one has yet hit upon the very simple idea of a decentralized cistern network to collect the tons of rainwater 20+ typhoons dump on us annually?! And don't get me started on the corruption rife in the bureaucracy, we'll be here all day.

At least the building codes are pretty redundant. And our unfortunate geography isn't our fault. (Stupid ancestors.)

Well, I've yet to tick tsunamis, landslides and forest fires off my Personal Danger List.