Man's penchant to destroy

Long gone has the innocent belief that life is "all things are bright and beautiful" as childhood poetry by Cecil F. Alexander once taught us. And that "beauty is its own excuse for being" is just a romantic aphorism. Or that human beings are innately good is but one truth, because as events unfold, men also have that inexplicable penchant for destruction.

That reminds me of Matthew James, one's five-year-old grandson, who relishes toys, but then also has the curiosity to tear them apart. Some say it's a good sign of innate interest in tinkering. However, it could also be a hint of that inkling to destroy.

A literary figure moralizes that the child is the father of man in guileless wisdom… But time and events work havoc on his innocence and naiveté. Man's nihilistic traits, like greed and selfishness, and monomania for affluence, get the better of him. And so, the child makes a man with consuming vanity even if it means perdition.

What's sad is that nature's pristine beauty is often man's victim of insatiable greed and sadism. The more popular refrain of Alexander's hymnal edifies this idyllic scene: "The purple headed mountains/ the river running by/ the sunset and the morning/ that brightens up the sky".

Actually, the mountains and hills, with their lofty ridges and virgin gorges, are being virtually abused and ravaged by human greed. There's no need of further proof, but just raise your eyes westward at the mountain ranges of Cebu City, parts of Talisay and Mandaue. Their continuing denudation stares at you with insulting clarity how nature's majesty in uphills of Tabunok, Bulacao, Pardo, Mambaling, Tisa, Punta, Banawa, Guadalupe, Babag, Busay, Talamban and outlying barrios/sitios, and Tawason and Cubacub in Mandaue, are being ruined with impunity.

From afar the ribbon-like roads cut off the then virgin foliage of the terrain, and the multi-colored roofs of many residential houses of the affluent are indeed sights of beauty from afar. To visitors coming in by boat and by plane, the panorama westward of Metro Cebu center conjures that indeed God made "All things Bright and Beautiful".

But at what price? There's no denial that not only the once imperturbable mountains, hills, and hillocks have been sacrificed, and their overall biota within, the birds, the various animals, the insects, the ferns and the flowers in isolated nooks, and other flora and fauna erased.

These seemingly "little losses" refer to that picturesque stanza which warmly trills: "Each little flower that opens/ Each little bird that sings/ God made their glowing colors/ And made their tiny wings".

The much greater damage wrought on Nature's abusive exploitations are lives lost, the small houses and hovels of the poor, the ravaged environment and the ecological imbalance, and such other ruins due to flash floods, denudation of the soil, loss of forest or tree covers, destruction of natural watershed.

 Sitio Dakit of Guadalupe is just one sad example. The low hills of Tawason in Mandaue being gutted to the barest bone of stony surface, the nearby ridge yonder in Pit-os, Cebu City, the many posh subdivisions in Talamban and outlying areas, the lowlands in Pardo and other southern Cebu City suburbs, etc. are all witnesses to such damage caused by ecological abuses.

So far, man of greed has not learned his lessons. What motivates him to exploit endlessly the bounties of Nature is avarice. In the name of progress and development, the leaders of society and government are still consumed by such proclivity to amass more wealth. To them, whatever ruin or damage to Mother Nature is but a necessary evil that can not be avoided.

Inevitably, that's the panorama that ushers in this December. While some modicum human efforts have tried to bedeck the already-abused lowlands with December scenes and chimes, Mother Nature is hardly ready for Yuletide.

* * *

Email: [email protected]