Saturday, March 5

 

It’s got to the stage that I don’t want to see or hear the news in the morning.  I’m reluctant to turn on the TV or look at the internet because there is so much doom and gloom around.  If we’re not talking about floods, we’re watching the war unfold in Europe, another cricketer has gone this morning and there is more dire news about the demise of the Barrier Reef, and the prospects for more climate change catastrophes in the future.  And Clive Palmer is claiming that 80000 people have signed up to join his party!

 

I just want to go back to bed and pull the pillow over my head.

 

I have a bit of sympathy for Shane Stone, the emergency relief boss who is being criticised for bemoaning the fact that people want to re-build their destroyed homes in the same place.  How many times in the past 200 years have we rallied to support people who have been wiped out by floods or fires?  You’d think we might have learned something from that experience.   Some areas are more flood-prone or fire-prone than others.  Maybe we should live somewhere else.  Or, if you choose to take your chances, don’t expect the taxpayer to bail you out if something goes wrong.

 

And on climate change – how much more proof do our leaders want that climate change is real?   It’s not going to fix itself and if the solution affects the profits of companies which donate to political parties, or causes some temporary hardship to the man in the street, we still have to deal with it.  What’s the phrase – ‘kicking the can down the street’.  I can’t believe the Australian government has spent months debating  such trivialities as the Religious Discrimination Bill while we are faced with more than one existential crisis.  It’s fiddling while Rome burns.

 

You have to have some sympathy for the world leaders who are struggling to work out how to deal with the mad Russian who has invaded his neighbour.  Clearly some people, like the hapless senator from America who is promoting assassination, would like Mr Putin to be removed but we have to maintain some semblance of civilisation.  And we don’t want World War 3.  I’m glad I’m not in the position of having to deal with this but I wonder whether the various governments of the so-called free world are any better qualified than I am.