Bus Bomb in Manila

"In November, the US, Australian, British, Canadian, French and New
Zealand governments updated their travel advisories to the Philippines
to warn that terrorist attacks were likely. Some of the warnings said
that an attack would take place in Manila."

This is a quote from the local English newspaper (SCMP.com), and it catches one's attention immediately. Warnings like this are taken seriously by these nations (who gave out the warnings to their nationals) but scoffed upon in Manila.

I remember that when these warnings were given, Manila asked these countries to reconsider as there were no risks of travel to Manila! Now that this event occurred, these nations will feel vindicated and Manila ones again will appear to be a bumbling know-nothing poor nation.

I know the feeling and attitude of locals (as I'm one too!). It is something like this: "This bombing in EDSA/Buendia is a very small location (just like Glorietta, remember that bombing?), this is not going to happen in my place.". However, when you are reading a newspaper account from the outside, you will feel that the bombing is everywhere! And the decision, to be safe, is not to travel to the Philippines.

It's the same in Russia, there's just one bomb which recently exploded, but many will think twice before travelling there. One thing I noticed though is that, no country issued a travel advisory warning before or after the event!

One thing I can say about these bombers is they're real terrorists, they don't care who they hurt. The place for them to be is jail. May the authorities find them.

As OFWs, we feel helpless regarding these things. We go about our activities as usual as there's nothing else that we can do. As ordinary people, we're powerless to do anything after the fact. At the same time, we can be more alert and see whether we can be of help in identifying possible bombers and report them to concerned authorities. This is a good idea, but how can we do it? The feeling of helplessness is just so deflating..., pardon please my bubbling.