{"id":87228,"date":"2019-10-24T03:55:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T03:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/felixr28.sg-host.com\/?p=87228"},"modified":"2020-07-24T05:32:20","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T05:32:20","slug":"the-buzz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidshaldane.com\/the-buzz\/","title":{"rendered":"The Buzz"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Haldane<\/h2>\n

Oct. 24, 2019<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was an unholy racket near my house the other night. Wait, I\u2019m exaggerating; it was more like a rather loud buzz.<\/h1>\n

Buzzes, of course, are among those things in life that are often ill-defined. They can be very bad like, say, the buzz of a saw cutting through your fence or the buzz of a bee headed toward your neck. Or they can be positive, like the buzz of good news.<\/p>\n

The buzz I\u2019m talking about was more like the latter; the buzz of excitement over something new in Surigao City. I didn\u2019t know that right away, of course. No, in order to find out I had to venture across the street to the recently completed Battle of Surigao Strait Memorial.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve written before, it\u2019s a monument to the brave men of four nations \u2013 America, Australia, Japan and the Philippines \u2013 who fought an epic naval battle there seventy-five years ago tomorrow. By there, I mean the wide expanse of ocean directly opposite the memorial and my house. By tomorrow, I mean October 25, when I will be arising at 4 a.m. to honor the battle\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n

My account of that experience will have to wait for a future column. Today, though, I want to tell you about the buzz;
\na noise that, I don\u2019t mind saying, honestly left me surprised. It\u2019s no exaggeration to say that there were literally dozens of people coming and going from late afternoon until early evening. Being the inveterate reporter that I am, of course, I couldn\u2019t resist walking down there to see what, exactly, the buzz was about. And what I saw was inspiring; entire families taking selfies in front of, well, a memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do all these people know about this?\u201d I asked City Mayor Ernesto U. Matugas, Jr., who was standing in the middle of the crowd sporting a huge smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cFacebook,\u201d he said, and we both nodded knowingly.<\/p>\n

As it happened, the city\u2019s Supervising Tourism Operations Officer, Roselyn B. Merlin, was standing right next to him. \u201cIt used to be so quiet here,\u201d she offered, \u201cbut it won\u2019t be anymore.\u201d
\n\u201cYup,\u201d I said, \u201cI guess we\u2019ll just have to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s the kind of adaptation I welcome, and here\u2019s why. In the roughly fifteen months since I moved to the Philippines, God only knows that I\u2019ve experienced lots of kindness and good will. I\u2019ve also noticed at least one thing rather disturbing; the general lack of knowledge, or even interest, in history among the nation\u2019s youth.
\nThe Philippines, for sure, doesn\u2019t have a monopoly on this trend; in my own home country of the USA, I\u2019m sure, there\u2019s at least as much ignorance and perhaps a bunch more. But there I stood, watching teenagers \u2013 let me repeat that, teenagers \u2013 getting excited over an historical monument.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing that most of them know little about the battle it commemorates. They probably don\u2019t know, for instance, that it was the last great naval battle, not only of World War II, but of history itself. Or that the Allied victory turned the tide of the war in the Pacific, paving the way for their country\u2019s liberation from the occupying Japanese. They may not even be aware of the thousands who died in that battle.<\/p>\n

But there I was, standing at a monument overlooking the sea in the shape of a battleship heading north. Back astern where the bridge would have been, sat a small museum full of artifacts from the battle. And on the front deck near the bow, I could see a flagpole for each of the four participating nations.
\nThis morning, during what appeared to be a rehearsal for the big day, I was honored to see those nation\u2019s flags hoisted aloft on those poles for the very first time. And as the sound of a solo trumpet playing taps wafted through my front door, I couldn\u2019t help but hope that those teenagers will come to understand what this monument is all about.<\/p>\n

Even after the buzz has gone far away.<\/p>\n

________________________________________
\nDavid Haldane, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer, is an award-winning American journalist, author and radio broadcaster who recently moved to Surigao City with his Filipino wife and their eight-year-old son. This column tells the unfolding story of that adventure.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally published in the Mindanao Gold Star Daily<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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