No to Australia Day Fireworks!

   Well, I have spent the better part of my week pushing mud and muddy water in the clean up from the massive Queensland Floods. There really is nothing interesting to report about this, aside from my finding a prawn (shrimp) in a shed in Rocklea (a suburb of Brisbane, badly affected be the floods).

   Today I want to mention the current appeal for people to say no to Australia Day (January 26) Fireworks, with the money instead being spent on the Flood Recovery effort. There is a causes page on Facebook that you can sign up onto... they already have almost reached their target of 50,000 people.
   Basically the gist is that Fireworks are expensive and unnecessary and we have things that need rebuilding now, so let's put the money towards that.  But I also support this cause for environmental reasons.
   Call me a wet blanket if you must, but I'm tired of seeing fireworks at almost every public event. It seemed that they were all the more exciting when they were on just twice a year, and tell a kid these days "Hey look, Fireworks!" and they give you a look like "Well, so, same as every other event this year...".
   Fireworks are bad for the environment, do some research and you will quickly see that they are toxic. And if they are terrifying for dogs (an animal used to our (humans) selfish stupidity), then imagine what it must be like for the other small animals that live amongst us.... Possums, squirrels...
   So, for me I'd like to see Fireworks at an occasional event throughout the year, and the rest of the year, let's find some other entertainment.

If you'd like to support the Facebook cause:

STOP Australia Day fire works, GIVE that money to QLD!

just do a Facebook search for it and I'm sure you will find it as I did.

Flooding here versus there

   The flooding in much of Queensland this week has been bad, really bad, but Queensland is in a good position to recover. We are very fortunate compared to other parts of the world.
   Yesterday morning I decided to check BBC World News (they have a fantastic iphone app) to see if there was actually anything else happening in the world (because mostly we seem to only be getting news about our very own disaster that has been unfolding right here). I discovered that there are floods in Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines also at this time. With over 400 people dead in Brazil, it really makes our problems pale in comparison. (We have 16 confirmed dead so far, and 28 missing)
   In those countries, recovery is a much tougher item. Lose your house here and it is a tremendous lose, but, likely, you will still have your job, or welfare, and with either of those, if you spend carefully you will have enough money and support to house and feed your family and enough left over to start to push ahead again. In other parts of the world things aren't likely to be so easy.

   Years ago I was in Guatemala during a landslide that left a whole village buried without chance of recovery and the next village (to where I was staying) with 1 metre of mud through it. Risk of disease was great, water and sewage were posing risks, as were the decaying bodies in the mud. Many of my friends went and helped dig the mud away, but I donated some money and kept working on another volunteer project I had already been on.

   What has been tremendous in both locations is the sense of community spirit disasters like this produce. So many people are helping out, and both the helped and the helper are reaping the rewards of this assistance.... for the person being helped the benefits are obvious, but for the person helping it is also giving them a great feeling of being of assistance to others. Lets hope none of this charity and its rewards are forgotten anytime soon.

Flood Photos

We don't normally have footpaths like this, but this is what the water of Mondays flood in Toowoomba did.

Also in Toowoomba, check out the side of the building on the right... like a bomb went off, but all the damage is water damage.

 A yard in Dalby after the water has risen and fallen multiple times. It was a pleasant garden before the floods.

That's not chocolate lining the cupboards and floor, it's mud! But with help we cleaned the entire bottom floor of this Dalby house today.