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The whole metropolis it seemed, was thrown into panic mode last Thursday, when a flurry of emails and text messages warning of an impending 9.0 earthquake that was to hit Quezon City and Manila that day at 5 o'clock in the afternoon spread like wildfire. I got a call from my mom who got a call from her brother who got a call from his friend who got the news from another friend (well, you get the picture) telling me to be careful and to find a way to get to the ground floor before 5pm. I will not be a hypocrite and say that I wasn't even rattled. I mean, who wouldn't be, with so many people passing on the message that it almost appeared like it was inevitable and the world was indeed going to end then and there? Some of my colleagues actually took the elevators right about "doomsday time" to ensure they were on "safe ground". I, on the other hand, stayed glued to my seat, haplessly watching people leave their desks, resigned to whatever fate God had in store for me. (I still had to back-up for the 5-6pm shift for goodness' sake so I couldn't very well just leave. Duty comes before all else, y' know...) Five o'clock came and went. Then the clock slowly struck 5:01, 5:02 and so on. No such tremors. 6:00pm passed with nary a rocking or swaying felt. By then, people already surmised that they were "nakuryente". Excuse me? To be the harbingers of this kind of rumor-mongering is unforgivable. Causing such mindless chaos to an entire country (ok, so maybe I exaggerate at this point) is just downright IRRESPONSIBLE. Period.
This calls to mind the time news of an "aswang in the city" crept into everyone's consciousness sometime in the late 90's. There were daily headlines (albeit in the tabloids) of purported "victims" yet not one of the so-called survivors ever came forward to attest to its veracity. This is how quintessential urban legends come to be. An incredible tale gets passed on so many times to so many people, it eventually becomes truth. In this case, all the hullabaloo started from this one article in the Inquirer: http://news.inq7.net/sunday/index.php?index=2&story_id=29588&col=85. Notice that nowhere in the article was a specific date and time given by the visionary from whom the prophecy came? A similar thing happened when the deadly tsunami ravaged Southeast Asia December last year. A certain "Doug Copp", claiming to be a member of the world's most experienced rescue team, came out with an article giving tips on how to survive an earthquake. It was a good thing - or so we thought. Turns out, the article was a fraud and several disaster coordination agencies contested his "insights". Read more via: http://www.kahl.net/action/triangle_of_life.htm and http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/triangle.asp.
Ultimately, though, it all boils down to faith. Trust in God will all your heart. When faced with situations like these, prayer can be of great help. Faith can move mountains, or haven't you heard?
To find out which other tall tales you may have fallen for and which have since been debunked, check out: http://urbanlegends.about.com/ or http://www.scambusters.org/legends.html
This calls to mind the time news of an "aswang in the city" crept into everyone's consciousness sometime in the late 90's. There were daily headlines (albeit in the tabloids) of purported "victims" yet not one of the so-called survivors ever came forward to attest to its veracity. This is how quintessential urban legends come to be. An incredible tale gets passed on so many times to so many people, it eventually becomes truth. In this case, all the hullabaloo started from this one article in the Inquirer: http://news.inq7.net/sunday/index.php?index=2&story_id=29588&col=85. Notice that nowhere in the article was a specific date and time given by the visionary from whom the prophecy came? A similar thing happened when the deadly tsunami ravaged Southeast Asia December last year. A certain "Doug Copp", claiming to be a member of the world's most experienced rescue team, came out with an article giving tips on how to survive an earthquake. It was a good thing - or so we thought. Turns out, the article was a fraud and several disaster coordination agencies contested his "insights". Read more via: http://www.kahl.net/action/triangle_of_life.htm and http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/triangle.asp.
Ultimately, though, it all boils down to faith. Trust in God will all your heart. When faced with situations like these, prayer can be of great help. Faith can move mountains, or haven't you heard?
To find out which other tall tales you may have fallen for and which have since been debunked, check out: http://urbanlegends.about.com/ or http://www.scambusters.org/legends.html
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