Post by Tamrin on Jan 14, 2011 19:57:04 GMT 10
An interesting view of this disaster, as so opposed to Katrina in the US, looting has been virtually non existent, it is more of people helping people, this is not seen as an opportunity to cash in on someone else's bad luck
We are already hearing of a plethora of volunteers and supplies being thankfully declined by victims who just want to get their own affairs in sufficient order to be left while they go to help those worse affected.
While such disasters bring this spirit to the fore, that spirit of community is also part of our routine lives, so much so that we take it for granted. Ironically, the manner in which we respond to our natural disasters may have contributed much to the our feeling of national well being.
Oi, Aussies,
smile if you feel safe
[Excerpt - Article by Sam de Brito, The Sun-Herald, “Extra,” 9 January 2011, p.2]
smile if you feel safe
[Excerpt - Article by Sam de Brito, The Sun-Herald, “Extra,” 9 January 2011, p.2]
When I lived on New York’s Lower East Side in the early 1990s, I developed a habit of doing a casual pirouette when I was on an empty street late at night, just to see who was behind me.
It wasn’t because I felt particularly threatened but, with six competing heroin gangs within three blocks of my apartment, it just seemed prudent with so many itchy clients wandering about.
I can’t remember ever looking over my shoulder in Australia — we accept safety as the natural order — yet we wonder why refugees risk so much to reach our shores?
It’s called feeling safe and it’s worth more than anything,
Add to that the joys of dependable power, fresh water, unpolluted air, universal healthcare, the rule of law, and comparatively low levels of political and police corruption and we should all take an oath never to moan again.
Some years ago, there was a homeless man who used to walk around my neighborhood in Kings Cross grinning like a lunatic.
He didn’t speak great English, so every time I saw him, I assumed he was two-thirds of the way through a flagon of wine or reacting to a joke from one of his imaginary friends.
One day I saw him chatting to a girlfriend of mine; he was giving her a $5 note.
I charmingly asked her if she’d joined the ranks of the area’s working girls and she replied that the bloke was simply repaying a loan.
When I suggested his top paddock had a few roos loose in it and mentioned the smiling, she assured me he was quite sane, having fled Afghanistan years earlier, and was now living here on a refugee visa.
He struggled to find work, thus the small loan, but was now labouring full-time, saving for a bond.
My friend told me: “He smiling because he’s so out of his mind grateful to be here in Australia and not getting blown up or maimed in his country.”
Amen to that.
It wasn’t because I felt particularly threatened but, with six competing heroin gangs within three blocks of my apartment, it just seemed prudent with so many itchy clients wandering about.
I can’t remember ever looking over my shoulder in Australia — we accept safety as the natural order — yet we wonder why refugees risk so much to reach our shores?
It’s called feeling safe and it’s worth more than anything,
Add to that the joys of dependable power, fresh water, unpolluted air, universal healthcare, the rule of law, and comparatively low levels of political and police corruption and we should all take an oath never to moan again.
Some years ago, there was a homeless man who used to walk around my neighborhood in Kings Cross grinning like a lunatic.
He didn’t speak great English, so every time I saw him, I assumed he was two-thirds of the way through a flagon of wine or reacting to a joke from one of his imaginary friends.
One day I saw him chatting to a girlfriend of mine; he was giving her a $5 note.
I charmingly asked her if she’d joined the ranks of the area’s working girls and she replied that the bloke was simply repaying a loan.
When I suggested his top paddock had a few roos loose in it and mentioned the smiling, she assured me he was quite sane, having fled Afghanistan years earlier, and was now living here on a refugee visa.
He struggled to find work, thus the small loan, but was now labouring full-time, saving for a bond.
My friend told me: “He smiling because he’s so out of his mind grateful to be here in Australia and not getting blown up or maimed in his country.”
Amen to that.