North East Australia is in flood.
And the media is flooded with the news.
It’s on every television station.
It’s on the radio. It’s on the Internet.
The amount of flooding is said to be an area
the size of Germany and France combined.
People are waking this morning, after sleeping on the floor. The scenes are not dissimilar to those in refugee camps. (The hearts of Australians break as they watch the news, but no one recognises the same need in foreign refugees.) The refugees will eat whatever food they are given. Water is becoming scarce. E coli has been found in the water of one Queensland town. Mosquitoes are predicted to cause havoc, spreading disease wherever they land. People have lost their homes... their furniture... their cars... their treasured possessions.
Some have lost their pets. Some have lost their families.
And still, they show it on the news.
They show the same footage again and again.
And again.
I think, though, that the thing which most irritates me, is their interviews. The media are interviewing people suffering terrible losses. Brave Aussie men struggle through tight throats and teary eyes to keep from crying. All around them, their lives float in the brown sludge of flood water and the media expects them to share their story. Even worse, the camera zooms in at the slightest sign of a watery eye.
I wonder at the money the media has spent. Hours of time have been spent in helicopters. Helicopters don’t come cheap! Every network has camera people, behind the scenes people, news people.
I’d like to see each of the networks donating the same amount of money spent on broadcasting the floods, to the cleanup.
There’s no doubting that the floods have caused unimaginable damage throughout the state. There’s looting, with people taking advantage of other’s misfortune. Electricity has been cut in Brisbane. Shops are closed. Industrial areas are under flood.
Food prices in Australia are set to soar after crops and grazing lands have been lost.
Queensland (Qld) boosts our economy – well, it did. Qld generates more than half of Australia’s coal exports... but at least 40 coal mines have closed because of the flooding. The floods caused world coal prices to hit a two-year high this week.
Queensland is responsible for almost half of our meat exports and a quarter of our food exports. It’s also a major exporter of sugar, cotton and wheat... until the floods washed the crops away.
Tourism dollars will be lost, in the busiest tourist time of the year.
I wonder about the animals... the echidnas, the blue-tongue lizards and kangaroos. Did they get out?
There are so many stories that aren’t told.
My home town also flooded. The river floods annually. The area is so used to flooding that floods come and go without fuss. The area didn’t receive media attention – the flood didn’t cause enough damage. One media report suggested that the locals in my home area are bred tough. I don’t think so. They are, instead, experienced. The people are too prepared for floods. Here’s classic proof: A local pub fills with flood water during each flood. Locals still make it in for a drink, they just pull up in their boats!
As the people go back home and the massive clean-up begins, my thoughts go to the people. I hope they have a chance to cry without a camera in their face. I hope they can seek help and discuss the horrors of what they saw and heard and experienced. I hope they can clean the stinking mud and filthy water from their homes, furniture and belongings. I hope they can start over.
I hope time heals the loss of loved-ones.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/05/3106548.htm
http://www.smh.com.au/business/counting-the-cost-of-the-floods-20110112-19nqq.html
1 comment:
So very very true. Our thoughts exactly
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