Fellow Critical Thinkers,
On behalf of Mark T. Market, I wish to apologize for the delay on new posts. I also regret to announce that the The Critical Thinker will be on hiatus for awhile due to unavoidable circumstances.
As you may know, Tropical storm Ondoy slammed into the Philippines on Sept.26, Saturday morning, and within 24 hours poured nearly 17 inches of rain, the heaviest rainfall in 40 years, on the capital and its surrounding areas. The torrential floods burst dams and swept cars from the street. Mark and his family are one of the hardest hit by the hurricane, and while they survived, they have lost their home, their car, and all their belongings, leaving them only with the clothes on their backs.
As a long time friend of Mark, I have organized some friends to provide support for him and his family during this unfortunate disaster. Of course we will welcome any financial contribution from our readers as well. If you can and would like to help Mark get back on his feet, please leave a note and I will send you some details.
Below are some videos taken by ordinary citizens, detailing the devastation caused by the typhoon. The first one in particular is taken from a place not far from Mark’s home.
Bad news to hear.
Glad to hear that Mark and family survived and are doing the best they can.
All the best!
how can i help?
No wonder he wasn’t responding! I’m sorry to hear about Mark, at the same time very relieved that there’d be survivors like himself and the family in the hardest hit area. One big whew! Hope we could meet up soon, though.
Dear everyone,
Thank you for all the support and concern. Happy to report that I am safe with my family at a temporary relocation area. The tension has settled down, but all our belongings were lost in the disaster.
I have this momentary opportunity online to extend my warmest and deepest gratitude to everyone who called for help and provided their assistance to me and my family.
This tragedy is one for the books–and is a treasure trove of insights and story that I will very soon share to everyone. There are so many things about this tragedy that deserve our critical thought and inquisitiveness–and I hope to be able to jumpstart that conversation very soon.
In the meantime, I will have to take a temporary leave of absence from Critical to patch up things and rebuild. Hope to be back on the blog-track very soon. I have lots of things to share.
Take care always and be back soon.
Best,
MTM
Great to hear from you!!! I can feel all the ideas brewing in you.
Give it time.
And just holler when you feel like taking a nice breather from it all somewhere with us!
Mark – So glad to hear you’re okay. So often it’s the worst that brings out the best in all of us. You were the first person I ever wrote a comment to on WordPress, so you’ve got valuable Karma points with me.