Brain Gap

Milenyo, more than anything else, was a social commentary waiting to be written and analyzed.
In a matter of hours, the typhoon achieved what many activists and concerned citizens have been trying to do for years, if not decades: shock the Filipino people into realizing its deep-seated, multifaceted problems.
The response to Milenyo was a systemic failure.
A growing inability to form a government that can unite us for collective action was laid bare for all too see: a confused, dispersed, and disorganized government that, at various levels, did not know how to conduct itself in the face of fallen billboards, disgrutled citizens without electricity nor water, and crooks stealing parts from wrecked ads and loose utility lines. Why, even officials contradicted each other on when to suspend classes!
What fundamentally wrong with the system is not Pagasa's lack of weather forecasting equipment (though it is truly in need of them). Neither does the problem lie in a lack of government resources for emergency response operations (though, again, it won't hurt to have more). It's not even a question of disaster preparedness - despite a relatively uninforced public that views calamities as rare and isolated events.
The inability to respond swiftly and effectively to contingent situations, for a typical organization, is normally indicative of an efficiency problem. If a product doesn't get finished on schedule in a just-in-time manufacturing system, a supplier may have delivered late, or a bottleneck may exist somewhere in the process. Either way, something in the assembly line needs fixing - fast.
In the assembly line that is the Philippine republic, it has been argued that the entire plant needs to be overhauled (charter change). Others, meanwhile, insist that a change in management in all that's needed (elections). Either way, something needs changing - urgently.
What we need as a people, I think, are persons who can excite us with ideas - people who, with their intellect, wit, and incisive logic, will enthuse us once more with the power and potentials of freedom. We need public intellectuals. We need credible, informed experts who can put into perspective the past, make sense of the present, and provide counsel for the future.