*Image by madartzgraphics From Pixabay.
Hello ecoTrain Family! š
I hope you are all in the best of health these days. I do agree that this is a bit more "controversial" than the usual question of the week that we are normally accustomed to but an important one nonetheless because of the many issues that humanity is facing right now, so I will go ahead and dive right in into the topic.
First of all, I believe that there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to this #QOTW but it is something that can be evaluated on a per case basis simply because the issues are far and wide, and the effects differ for each scenario that we can think of. For example, traffic in highly urbanized cities is a universal issue but it can also be looked at from a localized perspective. The infamous traffic here in Metro Manila is a good example. We can look at it from different angles, levels, and from the point of view of drivers, commuters, regulators and agencies, law enforcement, vehicle manufacturers, environment, city planning, etc.
We don't need convincing. We live in the Pacific Ring of Fire and super typhoons visit us every year.
Image by WikiImages From Pixabay.
So, narrowing it down a bit to the topic of the environment, assuming that there is already a reasonable amount of concern among the government and civil society with it, IMO, it would be easier to talk about it to everyday people here, given that we have a host of natural disasters visiting our country more and more each year. Since, typhoons have become stronger as the years pass, we can assume that people are aware of the destruction it can bring to our own backyard, literally.
There have been many lives lost and billions of property damage each time a strong typhoon visits. We are also one of the lucky ones to be in the Pacific Ring of Fire so with these tandem of super typhoons and volcanic eruptions, I believe that we have less need for aggressive protests that will inconvenience the people. Dealing with the government, on the other hand, might need a different approach and protesting is one thing that may prove effective from our bag of tools.
The effects of El Nino and La Nina can be devastating to the local communities here. Severe droughts can leave huge farmlands to waste and millions of people hungry, while La Nina have caused severe flooding and damage also. Sad to say, we are on the receiving end of these environmental phenomena.
Laws are only as good as it's implementation
There are already a host of environmental laws in the Philippines. In fact, development projects have been required to secure an ECC (environmental clearance certificate) from the EMB (Environmental Management Bureau) since the 70s. I believe that EMB was created much later but corporations were already required back then to get the ECC to check the environmental impact of the project. Aside from this, we have many laws and executive orders related to the environment. The problem, IMHO, is the implementation, which is a beast of another problem altogether. Don't let me get started with that.
We do protest a lot.
Image by PaliGraficas From Pixabay.
Moving on, Filipinos are not shy about protesting out in the streets. There have been many times where millions of people have gone out to the streets to protest. The infamous dictator himself was toppled with the help of peaceful protests protecting soldiers who said enough is enough to the abusive and corrupt dictatorship. Now, we are on the brink of proclaiming the dictator's son as the next president, which is beyond incredible and is another topic altogether so I won't be discussing it here.
To Conclude
I think that there are reasonable boundaries that the public allows for people to protest in our country. I don't know about other countries, but here it's fair to say that we have a high tolerance for protests. Even if it is an inconvenience, the people will listen to what the protesters are saying. Of course, many people don't like it also and are against protests altogether, but I would say that a large number are also not opposed to it - it really depends on the issue: students do protest whenever there are unreasonable increases in tuition fee; public utility drivers protest whenever there is a huge increase in gasoline and diesel prices; and, the public protests when they have had enough of a particularly corrupt and/or abusive president.
Sorry for the rambling flow of thoughts. I hope that you were still able to follow and get the gist of what I am trying to say. LOL. So, that's it for now. Love and peace.