Friday, November 5, 2010

Safety First

The US, UK and Australia issued warnings against traveling to the Philippines to its citizens recently. This is due to alleged imminent terrorist attacks on major urban areas in the country.
Of course, various people have various reactions with regards to this. Some people are for the travel warnings, some are against them.
The intentions of the three powerhouse countries in issuing the travel warnings are pure -- to protect their citizens. After what happened on 9/11, you can never be careful enough in protecting yourself from terror attacks.
Paranoia is gripping everyone, and nobody can blame anybody for it.
Sure enough, the tourism industry will suffer as an effect of these travel warnings. So, we're now faced with a dilemma: what should we prioritize -- everyone's safety or the economy (the tourism sector is essential to our economy)?
It is up for our leaders what to prioritize. Personally, I'm okay with the travel warnings. Of course, these warnings were directed to the citizens of the countries that issued them but because of these warnings, the public is now aware that there is a possibility of terror attacks happening. I'm not saying there are terrorists right here, right now. What I'm saying that we tend to get complacent when everything is peaceful. Only when tragedy strikes do we get vigilant.
Again, I'm okay with these travel warnings for the above reason. If terrorism strikes on our country, the economy will collapse hard. I mean, if the warnings issued will affect tourism which in turn will affect the economy, the latter can still recover soon anyway. On the other hand, a terrorist attack-induced collapse in the economy will likely be a hard one to recover from.
Hopefully, what the PNP say is true. There is no sign of any imminent terror attacks. But being doubly sure never hurt anyone, right?

No comments:

Post a Comment