Padang turns into city of rubble
Numerous buildings collapse; bridges topple, power lines cut
A man carries an injured person in front of a collapsed university building during an evacuation after an earthquake hit Padang. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
PADANG: As night fell, Padang appeared to be a city in ruins and in shock.
Piles of rubble covered places where buildings had stood, fires were still burning and thousands of residents swarmed on the streets, afraid to return to what was left of their houses for fear of aftershocks. Massive traffic jams clogged up the roads, many of which had cracked.
It had taken just a moment to turn the the city of 900,000 people into a scene of devastation.
When the quake struck at 5.16pm, it took down numerous buildings, from houses and hotels to hospitals and malls, and toppled bridges across the city, pinning many under the rubble and starting fires.
Television reports expressed fear over the possibility of thousands of people trapped in collapsed buildings or buried under the rubble.
'For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half destroyed, others completely,' resident Adi told Indonesia's Metro Television.
'No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely.'
Said another resident: 'Hundreds of houses have been damaged along the road. There are some fires, bridges are cut and there is extreme panic here.'
Television footage showed flattened buildings, with at least one person trapped underneath, a foot sticking out from beneath the debris.
Thousands more were likely trapped when a major city hospital collapsed, said Mr Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Health Ministry's disaster centre.
Other buildings were destroyed by fires, including Plaza Andalas, one of the larger malls. 'The shops were ruined,' one resident Anton told VIVAnews.
Andalas University campus was also badly damaged. Malaysian medical student Murtaza Mohamad Mustaffa, 23, said all 330 students at the university were safe.
His own house had almost collapsed, he told The Straits Times, while about 15 of the students' houses had collapsed.
They were waiting in the campus grounds, many staying out in the open in the belief that it was safer, he said, adding: 'It's very dark, and it's raining now.'
Another student, second-year medical student Fashareena Nazir, 23, was woken up by the quake. Grabbing her belongings, she ran out of her rented house and walked 5km to seek shelter.
'There were rumbles and a loud noise, like a bang,' she said, recalling what she saw on the way: houses on fire, the ground caving in and some houses disappearing before her eyes.
Among the destroyed hotels was the three-star Hotel Ambacang, at which aircrew regularly stayed. A pilot told detiknews.com that several Lion Air crew members had gone missing.
Padang Industrial Technic Academy lecturer Erwinsyah Sipahutar said students rushed out of the campus when the quake broke most of the windows. 'We were shaken like matchsticks,' he told Tempo Interactive.
Although Padang lay at the epicentre of the quake, the damage extended far beyond the city. Many buildings collapsed in the resort town of Bukit Tinggi, 150km north-east of the city, TVone said.
The quake also triggered a landslide that cut off land transport to the provincial town of Padang Pandang, 70km north of Padang, where a steep, sloping riverbank collapsed, toppling houses and starting fires.
Vibrations could be felt up to North Sumatra and even to Pekanbaru, Riau.
As night fell, the city was plunged into darkness, the result of cut power lines. Damaged telecommunication lines also made it hard for officials to determine the extent of the damage and death toll.
The quake also caused widespread panic across the city, as residents, fearing a tsunami, fled to higher ground.
'The earthquake was very strong,' said resident Kasmiati. 'I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured,' she said before her cell phone went dead.
According to detiknews.com, scores of people who had descended onto the streets looked set to camp outside overnight, fearful of aftershocks.
Added resident Mr Adi: 'People are standing around, too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami.'
REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BERNAMA
Straits Times , 1 Oct 2009.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Article: Tremors Shook Singapore, Straits Times, 1 Oct, 2009
TREMORS shook buildings in Singapore at about 6.15 pm on Wednesday, shortly after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.
The Indonesian agency said the tremor had a magnitude of 7.6. Its epicentre was just off the coast of Sumatra.
The US Geological Survey put the strength at 7.9.
The shaking could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred kms away and in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
In Singapore, residents from Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Bukit Timah, Simei and Kembangan in the eastern part, reported tremors shaking their buildings.
A spokesman from National Environment Agency said it has received calls from 15 members of the public from Red Hill, Choa Chu Kang, Changi, Toa Payoh, the city area, Punggol, Sengkang, Sembawang and Pasir Ris who experienced the tremors.
Shahida Ariff, 32, from Simei, told the straitstimes.com: 'My sister felt her chair swaying for a moment and my mom felt very dizzy. I felt a light vertigo too but thought nothing of it till my maid pointed out that the mirror was shaking. That scared me for a bit and I thought there must have been a quake somewhere.'
Ms Kee Ya Ting of Woodlands thought her flat was going to collapse.
'I was scared. I live on the 12th floor. I was sitting at my desk when the flat shook and I felt myself swaying from left to right. I thought my flat was going to collapse.'
Some people said the tremors lasted for two to three minutes.
Ms Lim Woan Ying, a consultant whose office is on the third floor of the Sime Darby building in Bukit Timah, said: 'We literally felt the earth move under our feet. The whole building shook for about a minute. We heard the glass panes rattling.
'We were all so surprised. I asked my colleague, 'I'm not feeling giddy right? The whole building shook?''
A resident who lives in The Trumps, a condominium in Kembangan, said she felt the entire 11th floor shaking.
The aftershocks were also felt somewhere in town.
Said newcastle on Straitstimes.com's discussion board: 'Over a minute's worth of shakes in the Killiney Road location. On the ninth floor, the earth really moved. Neighbours were really worried.'
Added altruist: 'I was at my 6th floor office in Ang Mo Kio and suddenly, the cubicles started to shake for a few seconds, stopped, and shook again. We all came down using the stairs.'
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.
The Indonesian agency said the tremor had a magnitude of 7.6. Its epicentre was just off the coast of Sumatra.
The US Geological Survey put the strength at 7.9.
The shaking could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred kms away and in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
In Singapore, residents from Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Bukit Timah, Simei and Kembangan in the eastern part, reported tremors shaking their buildings.
A spokesman from National Environment Agency said it has received calls from 15 members of the public from Red Hill, Choa Chu Kang, Changi, Toa Payoh, the city area, Punggol, Sengkang, Sembawang and Pasir Ris who experienced the tremors.
Shahida Ariff, 32, from Simei, told the straitstimes.com: 'My sister felt her chair swaying for a moment and my mom felt very dizzy. I felt a light vertigo too but thought nothing of it till my maid pointed out that the mirror was shaking. That scared me for a bit and I thought there must have been a quake somewhere.'
Ms Kee Ya Ting of Woodlands thought her flat was going to collapse.
'I was scared. I live on the 12th floor. I was sitting at my desk when the flat shook and I felt myself swaying from left to right. I thought my flat was going to collapse.'
Some people said the tremors lasted for two to three minutes.
Ms Lim Woan Ying, a consultant whose office is on the third floor of the Sime Darby building in Bukit Timah, said: 'We literally felt the earth move under our feet. The whole building shook for about a minute. We heard the glass panes rattling.
'We were all so surprised. I asked my colleague, 'I'm not feeling giddy right? The whole building shook?''
A resident who lives in The Trumps, a condominium in Kembangan, said she felt the entire 11th floor shaking.
The aftershocks were also felt somewhere in town.
Said newcastle on Straitstimes.com's discussion board: 'Over a minute's worth of shakes in the Killiney Road location. On the ninth floor, the earth really moved. Neighbours were really worried.'
Added altruist: 'I was at my 6th floor office in Ang Mo Kio and suddenly, the cubicles started to shake for a few seconds, stopped, and shook again. We all came down using the stairs.'
Cloze passage: Massive Tsunami killed 113, Straits Times, 2 Oct 2009.
APIA (WESTERN SAMOA): Towering tsunamis churned up by a huge
1. _______________slammed into the Samoan islands on Tuesday, killing at least 113 people as they 2. ____________ out entire villages and flattened tourist resorts.
Monster 3. ___________ that witnesses and officials said measured 3m to 7.5m in 4. ____________ pounded the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa after an 8.0-magnitude undersea quake 5. ___________ in the early morning.
While the quake toppled buildings and 6. ____________ thousands fleeing to high ground as the tsunami 7. ____________, many others were hit by the walls of 8. ____________ that swept people and cars out to sea and destroyed 9. ___________ settlements.
Samoa, an island nation of 180,000 people, is located about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. Neighbouring American Samoa is a US territory that is home to 65,000 people.
US President Barack Obama called the situation in American Samoa a 'major disaster' and vowed 'aggressive' action to 10. __________ survivors.
'I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response,' he said.
Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was 'shocked beyond belief'.
'So much has gone. So many people are gone,' he told the Australian news agency AAP.
The tsunamis swept 11. __________ the Pacific, battering Samoa, where hospital workers said at least 84 people had been killed, American Samoa, where 22 were felled, and Tonga, where at least seven 12. _____________ died.
As Australia, New Zealand and the United States led with immediate pledges of aid, scores more people were missing or feared 13. ___________in the chaos.
'Entire villages have been wiped out,' local journalist Jona Tuiletufuga said, adding that up to 70 villages had stood in the way of the waves in the worst-hit area and that each had housed from 300 to 800 people.
Nine members of one family were killed in the village of Lalomanu on the south-east of Samoa, a relative said.
'My family own the Taufua Beach Fales and we have confirmation that nine members of our family have 14. ____________, four of them children, and many more are missing,' the bereaved relative told Australia's public broadcaster. 'The tourists haven't been accounted for either.'
Amateur video footage showed villages that had been obliterated, homes reduced to metal and wood, and cars stuck in treetops, where they had been hurled by the force of the 15. _____________.
Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni said his tiny country's tourism hot spot had been 'devastated'.
The tsunami left residents and holidaymakers with little time to flee.
'We've heard most of the resorts are totally 16. ____________ on that side of the island. We've had a pretty grim picture painted of that coast,' said Mr Telefoni.
Australia said at least two of its citizens, including a six-year-old girl, were dead, while Seoul said two Koreans had also been killed. One person from New Zealand was also feared 17. ____________.
Apia, the capital of Samoa, was evacuated as officials scrambled to get thousands of residents to higher ground.
Officials in American Samoa, about 100km from Samoa, said the death toll of 22 was expected to climb.
In the capital of Pago Pago, the streets and fields were filled with ocean debris, mud, overturned cars and several boats as a massive cleanup effort continued into the night. Several buildings in the city were flattened.
The eastern part of the island was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which 18. __________ at 6.48am on Tuesday (1.48am yesterday Singapore time) at a depth of 18km, 195km south of Apia.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami 19. __________ over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far as Hawaii, which was later cancelled. The walls of moving water were so 20. ____________ that small tsunami waves were able to reach the shores of Japan thousands of kilometres away.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.
ANSWERS
1. earthquake 2. wiped 3. waves 4. height 5. struck
6. sent 7. approached 8. water 9. coastal 10. help
11. across 12. people 13. dead 14. perished
15. water 16. devastated 17. dead 18. struck
19. alert 20. powerful
1. _______________slammed into the Samoan islands on Tuesday, killing at least 113 people as they 2. ____________ out entire villages and flattened tourist resorts.
Monster 3. ___________ that witnesses and officials said measured 3m to 7.5m in 4. ____________ pounded the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa after an 8.0-magnitude undersea quake 5. ___________ in the early morning.
While the quake toppled buildings and 6. ____________ thousands fleeing to high ground as the tsunami 7. ____________, many others were hit by the walls of 8. ____________ that swept people and cars out to sea and destroyed 9. ___________ settlements.
Samoa, an island nation of 180,000 people, is located about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. Neighbouring American Samoa is a US territory that is home to 65,000 people.
US President Barack Obama called the situation in American Samoa a 'major disaster' and vowed 'aggressive' action to 10. __________ survivors.
'I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response,' he said.
Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was 'shocked beyond belief'.
'So much has gone. So many people are gone,' he told the Australian news agency AAP.
The tsunamis swept 11. __________ the Pacific, battering Samoa, where hospital workers said at least 84 people had been killed, American Samoa, where 22 were felled, and Tonga, where at least seven 12. _____________ died.
As Australia, New Zealand and the United States led with immediate pledges of aid, scores more people were missing or feared 13. ___________in the chaos.
'Entire villages have been wiped out,' local journalist Jona Tuiletufuga said, adding that up to 70 villages had stood in the way of the waves in the worst-hit area and that each had housed from 300 to 800 people.
Nine members of one family were killed in the village of Lalomanu on the south-east of Samoa, a relative said.
'My family own the Taufua Beach Fales and we have confirmation that nine members of our family have 14. ____________, four of them children, and many more are missing,' the bereaved relative told Australia's public broadcaster. 'The tourists haven't been accounted for either.'
Amateur video footage showed villages that had been obliterated, homes reduced to metal and wood, and cars stuck in treetops, where they had been hurled by the force of the 15. _____________.
Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni said his tiny country's tourism hot spot had been 'devastated'.
The tsunami left residents and holidaymakers with little time to flee.
'We've heard most of the resorts are totally 16. ____________ on that side of the island. We've had a pretty grim picture painted of that coast,' said Mr Telefoni.
Australia said at least two of its citizens, including a six-year-old girl, were dead, while Seoul said two Koreans had also been killed. One person from New Zealand was also feared 17. ____________.
Apia, the capital of Samoa, was evacuated as officials scrambled to get thousands of residents to higher ground.
Officials in American Samoa, about 100km from Samoa, said the death toll of 22 was expected to climb.
In the capital of Pago Pago, the streets and fields were filled with ocean debris, mud, overturned cars and several boats as a massive cleanup effort continued into the night. Several buildings in the city were flattened.
The eastern part of the island was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which 18. __________ at 6.48am on Tuesday (1.48am yesterday Singapore time) at a depth of 18km, 195km south of Apia.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami 19. __________ over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far as Hawaii, which was later cancelled. The walls of moving water were so 20. ____________ that small tsunami waves were able to reach the shores of Japan thousands of kilometres away.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.
ANSWERS
1. earthquake 2. wiped 3. waves 4. height 5. struck
6. sent 7. approached 8. water 9. coastal 10. help
11. across 12. people 13. dead 14. perished
15. water 16. devastated 17. dead 18. struck
19. alert 20. powerful
Cloze Passage: Quake killed 1,100 UN, Straits Times 2 Oct 2009
PADANG (Indonesia) - ACROSS this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to 1. ________________ Indonesia, mourners, survivors and 2. __________ workers alike clawed through the rubble.
Some, like Malina Utami, had already realized the worst. She was just looking for the shoes missing from her dead daughter's body, found in the 3. __________ of a four-story school that was 4. ___________ within seconds.
As the death 5. ___________ climbed on Thursday - to 1,100 by one UN estimate - others looked for 6. ____________, with thousands of people missing and feared 7. ____________ in the wreckage of shattered buildings.
When search efforts were suspended for the night, an eerie quiet 8. __________ over the city of 900,000.
'Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the 9. __________,' President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta.
Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island 10. __________the Indonesian archipelago.
Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with at least 440 people 11. ______________ injured. John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to 12. ________________.
President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there, as well as provide assistance to the South Pacific countries 13. ___________ Samoa and American Samoa, which were 14. _________ by a deadly tsunami on Tuesday.
Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang, where more than 500 buildings were severely 15. _________ or flattened.
Where a mall once stood was a heap of concrete slabs layered like pancakes with iron rods jutting 16. ________. Police and army rescue teams used bulldozers, backhoes and electric drills to clear the 17. ___________ in intermittent rain, or climbed the hills of rubble to dislodge pieces of concrete with 18. _________ hands.
Relatives of the 19. _________ gathered outside ruined buildings, hoping to hear 20. ________ news. But mostly, the rescuers found bodies. -- REUTERS
ANSWERS
1. devastate 2. rescue 3. rubble 4. flattened 5. toll 6. survivors
7. trapped 8. fell 9. worst 10. in 11. seriously 12. grow
13. of 14. hit 15. damaged 16. out 17. wreckage 18. bare
19. missing 20. good
Some, like Malina Utami, had already realized the worst. She was just looking for the shoes missing from her dead daughter's body, found in the 3. __________ of a four-story school that was 4. ___________ within seconds.
As the death 5. ___________ climbed on Thursday - to 1,100 by one UN estimate - others looked for 6. ____________, with thousands of people missing and feared 7. ____________ in the wreckage of shattered buildings.
When search efforts were suspended for the night, an eerie quiet 8. __________ over the city of 900,000.
'Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the 9. __________,' President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta.
Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island 10. __________the Indonesian archipelago.
Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with at least 440 people 11. ______________ injured. John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to 12. ________________.
President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there, as well as provide assistance to the South Pacific countries 13. ___________ Samoa and American Samoa, which were 14. _________ by a deadly tsunami on Tuesday.
Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang, where more than 500 buildings were severely 15. _________ or flattened.
Where a mall once stood was a heap of concrete slabs layered like pancakes with iron rods jutting 16. ________. Police and army rescue teams used bulldozers, backhoes and electric drills to clear the 17. ___________ in intermittent rain, or climbed the hills of rubble to dislodge pieces of concrete with 18. _________ hands.
Relatives of the 19. _________ gathered outside ruined buildings, hoping to hear 20. ________ news. But mostly, the rescuers found bodies. -- REUTERS
ANSWERS
1. devastate 2. rescue 3. rubble 4. flattened 5. toll 6. survivors
7. trapped 8. fell 9. worst 10. in 11. seriously 12. grow
13. of 14. hit 15. damaged 16. out 17. wreckage 18. bare
19. missing 20. good
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Article: The Treasures in the Baul, Readers' Digest, January 2009.
Readers’ Digest, January 2009
The Treasures in the Baul
Others may see them as trivial possessions, but to me they are emblems of an unforgettable love
by Josefina N. Dy-Liacco
Before I proceed, let me explain what a baul is. It is a wooden trunk made of two compartments where old folks store their clothes. The first compartment is a shallow one and stores underwear and other small things. The second compartment is deeper so it can hold bigger garments. Camphor balls keep away the rats and cockroaches.
My mother had a baul. It was her hope chest.
I was only 13 years old when Mama died. Father told me that after giving birth to my youngest brother the previous year, she had become very sickly. Yet she went on with the usual household chores. It was my role to see to my five siblings, whose ages ranged from one to ten years old. I saw to it that they were properly bathed, clothed and fed.
Not wanting to worry us, Mama carried on with her usual calm disposition, never faltering in her speech or in her steps. Still, we noticed her sudden loss of weight and paleness.
Being an optimist, Mama had strong faith in God. We would have our morning ''promenade,'' as she called it, praying the rosary as we went along. Our home - in Barangay Sagpon, Albany province, in central Philippines – was a stone's throw from the church, so after our walk, we would attend Mass.
During one of these walks Mama casually told me about her baul. She said it contained her burial dress and some treasures she was leaving for me. However, she explicitly told me that I should only open it in the event of her death. She handed me the key of the baul for safekeeping.
Her words didn't have much of an impact on me. Not having experienced death in our family, I thought that it was nothing to be reckoned with.
As days went by, Mama's health did not improve. Gradually she became weaker and weaker.
One day, I saw her sewing a brown dress by hand in spite of her condition. She was adept at sewing and needlework. It was from her that I learned all these things.
In spite of all the medications, her condition became worse. The doctor, who visited regularly, diagnosed lung infection. On her final day, a Thursday, she woke up in the middle of the night. We found her profusely sweating and struggling to breathe. But her mind was clear and lucid.
She called us one by one - my father, my brothers and sisters, my maternal and paternal grandparents and myself - to ask for forgiveness. She also told me that, being the eldest, I had to take care of my siblings and love them. She finally breathed her last breath after the priest gave her Holy Communion.
My father, who had never been away from Mama, was inconsolable in his grief. Immediately after she died, he seemed to be lost in time, not knowing what to do. God must have given me the strength and the courage to take action.
I went to my father and told him about Mama's burial dress in the baul. He broke into tears, for how long I cannot remember. He must have come to his senses at some point because he eventually started making preparations for the wake and the burial.
Obeying my mother's request, I took the key and hurried to the baul, which was kept in a storeroom. I was apprehensive; a feeling of mysterious expectancy overcame me. I wondered if a genie, like the one in Aladdin's lamp, would spring forth when the baul was opened.
As the key rattled in the lock, the lid lifted with a melodious ring. The room was filled with the scent of camphor, reminiscent of clothes stored for ages. There on top of the first compartment was Mama's burial dress. It was the brown dress I had seen her pain-stakingly sewing by hand.
I felt a tug in my heart. Mama must have imagined herself wearing it on her deathbed. Optimist that she was, she still had a premonition that death might come to her any time. So she prepared to face the Lord in proper attire.
Occupied with thoughts of the funeral, I quickly removed the dress and closed the baul without looking any further. After the burial, I could not contain my curiosity; I went back to the baul to see what else Mama had left for me.
There, underneath bed linens at the bottom of the second compartment, I found dozens of hankies - some embroidered by her own hands, others fancy ones - fans made of silk and paper, and bottles of perfumes. Were they the treasures that she had lovingly set aside for me?
That day marked the beginning of my fondness for all these things. I would rather lose a dress than lose a hanky. In my free time I embroider hankies. I collect fans. I make rag dolls, which I give to my grandchildren.
I am nearly 90 years old but my love for these things have never waned. To some they may seem trivial, very material things, but to me they are the symbols of Mama's love, mementos too sweet to forget for they bring poignant memories of a tender, loving mother. My mother is still with me when I daub her favourite scent, jasmine.
My memory fails me now, but there is a line in a song, which says, ''If you lost your mother, you lost the best of all.''
The Treasures in the Baul
Others may see them as trivial possessions, but to me they are emblems of an unforgettable love
by Josefina N. Dy-Liacco
Before I proceed, let me explain what a baul is. It is a wooden trunk made of two compartments where old folks store their clothes. The first compartment is a shallow one and stores underwear and other small things. The second compartment is deeper so it can hold bigger garments. Camphor balls keep away the rats and cockroaches.
My mother had a baul. It was her hope chest.
I was only 13 years old when Mama died. Father told me that after giving birth to my youngest brother the previous year, she had become very sickly. Yet she went on with the usual household chores. It was my role to see to my five siblings, whose ages ranged from one to ten years old. I saw to it that they were properly bathed, clothed and fed.
Not wanting to worry us, Mama carried on with her usual calm disposition, never faltering in her speech or in her steps. Still, we noticed her sudden loss of weight and paleness.
Being an optimist, Mama had strong faith in God. We would have our morning ''promenade,'' as she called it, praying the rosary as we went along. Our home - in Barangay Sagpon, Albany province, in central Philippines – was a stone's throw from the church, so after our walk, we would attend Mass.
During one of these walks Mama casually told me about her baul. She said it contained her burial dress and some treasures she was leaving for me. However, she explicitly told me that I should only open it in the event of her death. She handed me the key of the baul for safekeeping.
Her words didn't have much of an impact on me. Not having experienced death in our family, I thought that it was nothing to be reckoned with.
As days went by, Mama's health did not improve. Gradually she became weaker and weaker.
One day, I saw her sewing a brown dress by hand in spite of her condition. She was adept at sewing and needlework. It was from her that I learned all these things.
In spite of all the medications, her condition became worse. The doctor, who visited regularly, diagnosed lung infection. On her final day, a Thursday, she woke up in the middle of the night. We found her profusely sweating and struggling to breathe. But her mind was clear and lucid.
She called us one by one - my father, my brothers and sisters, my maternal and paternal grandparents and myself - to ask for forgiveness. She also told me that, being the eldest, I had to take care of my siblings and love them. She finally breathed her last breath after the priest gave her Holy Communion.
My father, who had never been away from Mama, was inconsolable in his grief. Immediately after she died, he seemed to be lost in time, not knowing what to do. God must have given me the strength and the courage to take action.
I went to my father and told him about Mama's burial dress in the baul. He broke into tears, for how long I cannot remember. He must have come to his senses at some point because he eventually started making preparations for the wake and the burial.
Obeying my mother's request, I took the key and hurried to the baul, which was kept in a storeroom. I was apprehensive; a feeling of mysterious expectancy overcame me. I wondered if a genie, like the one in Aladdin's lamp, would spring forth when the baul was opened.
As the key rattled in the lock, the lid lifted with a melodious ring. The room was filled with the scent of camphor, reminiscent of clothes stored for ages. There on top of the first compartment was Mama's burial dress. It was the brown dress I had seen her pain-stakingly sewing by hand.
I felt a tug in my heart. Mama must have imagined herself wearing it on her deathbed. Optimist that she was, she still had a premonition that death might come to her any time. So she prepared to face the Lord in proper attire.
Occupied with thoughts of the funeral, I quickly removed the dress and closed the baul without looking any further. After the burial, I could not contain my curiosity; I went back to the baul to see what else Mama had left for me.
There, underneath bed linens at the bottom of the second compartment, I found dozens of hankies - some embroidered by her own hands, others fancy ones - fans made of silk and paper, and bottles of perfumes. Were they the treasures that she had lovingly set aside for me?
That day marked the beginning of my fondness for all these things. I would rather lose a dress than lose a hanky. In my free time I embroider hankies. I collect fans. I make rag dolls, which I give to my grandchildren.
I am nearly 90 years old but my love for these things have never waned. To some they may seem trivial, very material things, but to me they are the symbols of Mama's love, mementos too sweet to forget for they bring poignant memories of a tender, loving mother. My mother is still with me when I daub her favourite scent, jasmine.
My memory fails me now, but there is a line in a song, which says, ''If you lost your mother, you lost the best of all.''
Article and Summary: Iraq's once mighty river drying up.Straits Times, July 15, 2009.
July 15, 2009 Straits Times 2009
Iraq's once mighty river drying up
Water misuse, drought and neighbours' dams causing Euphrates crisis
JUBAISH (IRAQ): Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat.
'Maaku mai!' they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. 'There is no water!'
The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq's neighbours Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought, and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.
The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilisation that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, left fishermen impoverished and depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.
The poor suffer more acutely, but all strata of society are feeling the effects: sheikhs, diplomats and even Members of Parliament who retreat to their farms after weeks in Baghdad.
Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned into baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams and fishing boats sit on dry land. Pumps that are meant to feed water treatment plants dangle pointlessly over brown puddles.
'The old men say it's the worst they remember,' said Mr Sayid Diyia, a 34-year-old fisherman in Hindiya, sitting in a riverside cafe full of his idle colleagues. 'I'm depending on God's blessings.'
The drought is widespread in Iraq. For two years, rainfall has been far below normal, leaving the reservoirs dry, and United States officials predict that wheat and barley output will be a little over half of what it was two years ago.
It is a crisis that threatens the roots of Iraq's identity, not only as the land between two rivers but also as a nation that was once the largest exporter of dates in the world, that once supplied German beer with barley, and that takes patriotic pride in its expensive Anbar rice.
Now Iraq is importing more and more grain.
Droughts are not rare in Iraq, though officials say they have been more frequent in recent years. But drought is only part of what is choking the Euphrates and its larger, healthier twin, the Tigris.
The most frequently cited culprits are the Turkish and Syrian governments. Iraq has plenty of water, but it is a downstream country.
There are at least seven dams on the Euphrates in Turkey and Syria, according to Iraqi water officials, and with no treaties or agreements, the Iraqi government is reduced to begging its neighbours for water.
With the Euphrates showing few signs of increasing health, bitterness over Iraq's water threatens to be a source of tension for months or even years to come between Iraq and its neighbours.
Many US, Turkish and even Iraqi officials, disregarding the accusations as election-year posturing, say the real problem lies in Iraq's own deplorable water management policies.
'There used to be water everywhere,' said Mr Abduredha Joda, 40, sitting in his reed hut on a dry, rocky plot of land outside Karbala.
Mr Joda fled to Baghdad when Saddam Hussein drained the great marshes of southern Iraq in retaliation for the 1991 Shi'ite uprising.
He moved to Karbala in 2004 to fish and raise water buffaloes in the lush wetlands there that remind him of his home. 'This year, it's just a desert,' he said.
Officials say nothing will improve if Iraq does not seriously address its own water policies and its history of flawed water management.
Leaky canals and wasteful irrigation practices squander the water, and poor drainage leaves fields so salty from evaporated water that women and children dredge huge white mounds from sitting pools of runoff.
The farmers, reed gatherers and buffalo herders keep working, but they say they cannot continue if the water stays like this.
'Next winter will be the final chance,' said Mr Hashem Hilead Shehi, a 73-year-old farmer who lives in a bone-dry village west of the marshes. 'If we are not able to plant, then all of the families will leave.'
NEW YORK TIMES
Summary Question
Read the newspaper report .
Summarise the causes and effects of the drying up of the Euphrates River.
Iraq's once mighty river drying up
Water misuse, drought and neighbours' dams causing Euphrates crisis
JUBAISH (IRAQ): Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat.
'Maaku mai!' they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. 'There is no water!'
The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq's neighbours Turkey and Syria, a two-year drought, and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now.
The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilisation that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, left fishermen impoverished and depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.
The poor suffer more acutely, but all strata of society are feeling the effects: sheikhs, diplomats and even Members of Parliament who retreat to their farms after weeks in Baghdad.
Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned into baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams and fishing boats sit on dry land. Pumps that are meant to feed water treatment plants dangle pointlessly over brown puddles.
'The old men say it's the worst they remember,' said Mr Sayid Diyia, a 34-year-old fisherman in Hindiya, sitting in a riverside cafe full of his idle colleagues. 'I'm depending on God's blessings.'
The drought is widespread in Iraq. For two years, rainfall has been far below normal, leaving the reservoirs dry, and United States officials predict that wheat and barley output will be a little over half of what it was two years ago.
It is a crisis that threatens the roots of Iraq's identity, not only as the land between two rivers but also as a nation that was once the largest exporter of dates in the world, that once supplied German beer with barley, and that takes patriotic pride in its expensive Anbar rice.
Now Iraq is importing more and more grain.
Droughts are not rare in Iraq, though officials say they have been more frequent in recent years. But drought is only part of what is choking the Euphrates and its larger, healthier twin, the Tigris.
The most frequently cited culprits are the Turkish and Syrian governments. Iraq has plenty of water, but it is a downstream country.
There are at least seven dams on the Euphrates in Turkey and Syria, according to Iraqi water officials, and with no treaties or agreements, the Iraqi government is reduced to begging its neighbours for water.
With the Euphrates showing few signs of increasing health, bitterness over Iraq's water threatens to be a source of tension for months or even years to come between Iraq and its neighbours.
Many US, Turkish and even Iraqi officials, disregarding the accusations as election-year posturing, say the real problem lies in Iraq's own deplorable water management policies.
'There used to be water everywhere,' said Mr Abduredha Joda, 40, sitting in his reed hut on a dry, rocky plot of land outside Karbala.
Mr Joda fled to Baghdad when Saddam Hussein drained the great marshes of southern Iraq in retaliation for the 1991 Shi'ite uprising.
He moved to Karbala in 2004 to fish and raise water buffaloes in the lush wetlands there that remind him of his home. 'This year, it's just a desert,' he said.
Officials say nothing will improve if Iraq does not seriously address its own water policies and its history of flawed water management.
Leaky canals and wasteful irrigation practices squander the water, and poor drainage leaves fields so salty from evaporated water that women and children dredge huge white mounds from sitting pools of runoff.
The farmers, reed gatherers and buffalo herders keep working, but they say they cannot continue if the water stays like this.
'Next winter will be the final chance,' said Mr Hashem Hilead Shehi, a 73-year-old farmer who lives in a bone-dry village west of the marshes. 'If we are not able to plant, then all of the families will leave.'
NEW YORK TIMES
Summary Question
Read the newspaper report .
Summarise the causes and effects of the drying up of the Euphrates River.
Grammar Cloze: El Nino, Straits Times, July 11, 2009
Name__________________( ) Class _______ Date _______
Grammar Cloze Passage – EL NINO
STRAITS TIMES JULY 11, 2009
NEW YORK - WHAT meteorologists have suspected for weeks now is apparently official: El Nino 1. _______________(arrive).
WEAKER THAN NORMAL MONSOON IN INDIA
The main source of worry for commodity market players is India, where the weather cycle seems to have contributed to a weaker-than-normal monsoon rain season
2. ___________(consider) critical to the country's sprawling farm economy.
While rains 3. ____________(be+ now+ cover) all of India, its Meteorological Department said that as of July 1, the rains were running at 29 per cent below normal.
... more
The US government 4. ________________(warn) that that a dreaded El Nino weather pattern 5. _______________(develop), putting countries from Asia to North America on alert for meteorological havoc to crops, infrastructure, ports and mines.
The phenomenon, caused by a warming of the seas in the Pacific, 6. _____________(be+ already + bring) drought to Australia and 7. ___________(delay) monsoon to India. It's impact could be felt in Latin American and North America by the fall.
The Climate Prediction Centre, an office under the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said in a monthly report on Thursday that the equatorial Pacific Ocean 8. ________________(be) 'transitioned ... to El Nino conditions.'
The trends favour a 'weak-to-moderate strength El Nino' into the northern hemisphere winter of 2009, 'with further strengthening possible thereafter'.
It was first noticed by Latin American anchovy fishermen in the 19th century and scientists say it tends to come in cycles of three to five years. The 1997/98 El Nino 9 _______________(kill) more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages.
This El Nino 10. ____________(strike) just as global economies are struggling to overcome the impact of the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in 1929.
An El Nino-spawned drought would 11. __________(pose) a major risk to wheat production in Australia, affect palm oil output in major producers Malaysia and Indonesia, and 12. _____________(hi) rice production in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer of the staple.
News over the past few days that this El Nino may be weak to moderate 13. ____________(lead ) to a sell-off in Malaysian palm oil futures, which 14. ____________(slide) to a three-month low on Tuesday. -- REUTERS
ANSWERS
1. has arrived 2. considered 3. have now recovered 4. has warned
5. is developing 6. has already bought 7. delayed 8. has
9. killed 10. is striking 11. pose 12. hit 13. led 14. slid
Grammar Cloze Passage – EL NINO
STRAITS TIMES JULY 11, 2009
NEW YORK - WHAT meteorologists have suspected for weeks now is apparently official: El Nino 1. _______________(arrive).
WEAKER THAN NORMAL MONSOON IN INDIA
The main source of worry for commodity market players is India, where the weather cycle seems to have contributed to a weaker-than-normal monsoon rain season
2. ___________(consider) critical to the country's sprawling farm economy.
While rains 3. ____________(be+ now+ cover) all of India, its Meteorological Department said that as of July 1, the rains were running at 29 per cent below normal.
... more
The US government 4. ________________(warn) that that a dreaded El Nino weather pattern 5. _______________(develop), putting countries from Asia to North America on alert for meteorological havoc to crops, infrastructure, ports and mines.
The phenomenon, caused by a warming of the seas in the Pacific, 6. _____________(be+ already + bring) drought to Australia and 7. ___________(delay) monsoon to India. It's impact could be felt in Latin American and North America by the fall.
The Climate Prediction Centre, an office under the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, said in a monthly report on Thursday that the equatorial Pacific Ocean 8. ________________(be) 'transitioned ... to El Nino conditions.'
The trends favour a 'weak-to-moderate strength El Nino' into the northern hemisphere winter of 2009, 'with further strengthening possible thereafter'.
It was first noticed by Latin American anchovy fishermen in the 19th century and scientists say it tends to come in cycles of three to five years. The 1997/98 El Nino 9 _______________(kill) more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages.
This El Nino 10. ____________(strike) just as global economies are struggling to overcome the impact of the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in 1929.
An El Nino-spawned drought would 11. __________(pose) a major risk to wheat production in Australia, affect palm oil output in major producers Malaysia and Indonesia, and 12. _____________(hi) rice production in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer of the staple.
News over the past few days that this El Nino may be weak to moderate 13. ____________(lead ) to a sell-off in Malaysian palm oil futures, which 14. ____________(slide) to a three-month low on Tuesday. -- REUTERS
ANSWERS
1. has arrived 2. considered 3. have now recovered 4. has warned
5. is developing 6. has already bought 7. delayed 8. has
9. killed 10. is striking 11. pose 12. hit 13. led 14. slid
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