Sink or swim

The past two weeks had been very eventful. There was the shock of the death of Pope Francis. Although I'd like to write about the pope, everyone seemed to have written about him that there isn't anything new I can say about him that I haven't read in newspapers, social media, chat groups etc. Suffice to say Pope Francis was much beloved almost universally, Catholics and otherwise.

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What caught my eye was the report of seven persons dying from drownings, which seems to be a perennial event during Holy Week, year after year.

While some were intoxicated which figured significantly in the causation of death, others drowned because they didn't know how to swim. In fact, a large number of Filipinos will admit to not knowing how to swim, yet they will indulge in “swimming” during outings and vacations. And so, there will be drownings every now and then in the news.

Now, we live in an archipelago surrounded by seas, other than the rivers, lakes and man-made bodies of water such as esteros and dams. The odds are we will frequently encounter bodies of water everywhere we go in this country.

That is fine because we derive our main source of protein from the seas, aside from other bless-ings of nature. But you'd think our people would be well-acquainted with water other than something to drink. We regularly cross bodies of water either via bridges or boats of all sizes, and sooner or later, we will get into mishaps that throw us into the water, so if you don't know how to swim, there's a danger that the lifegiving bodies of water will claim your life.