Processing the tragedy

Summer school is finished
We've finished our Summer school now. My excuse for not posting in a week and a half is finishing off my assignments and studying for tests. I would say it has been a challenging time, but not for the reasons expected. I am learning to not complain about things that bug me strongly. So if I were to tell the whole story that would account to complaining. In short though, I have had some opportunities to forgive people that have a very different way of approaching things from me. It can be hard fitting into systems that seem antiquated or strict, and at times this can create conflict. I think I will have more room to grow in this area this year.
The good news is that I am quite happy with my marks. Bearing in mind that it is close to impossible to get an A here, (they mark very hard with a bell shaped curve, and an A is 90% +) I am quite happy with my B and B+. If I can manage that average for the year then I should be on track to continue linguistics studies at Masters level by correspondence when we are back in Russia next year.

Day of mourning for bushfire tragedy
It's two weeks since the devastating bushfires hit. That particular disaster is mostly over, although some communities remain on alert that bushfires could still hit. It has been quite exhausting for some. Tomorrow there will a memorial service for the nation to mourn the loss of around 300 lives. The main service can only accommodate around 15,000. So we hope to go to the Myer Music bowl and watch it on the big screen with another 5,000 or so. In my opinion this service should really have been last Sunday, but it will still be valuable and will hopefully bring sort of closure to this tragedy.

Environmental damage
The fires have seriously damaged Melbourne's water catchment area. All of our water is collected in reservoir's from run off. Drawing water from wells is not practical in this part of the world, there is no artesian water basin to draw from. When new forests grow to replace the old ones the young trees will need much more water. This will mean a 30% reduction in water catchment for the next 3 decades.
It's high time for Melbourne to build a water desalination plant now. Melbourne has around 30% reserves of water now (I'm not making up all these 30s in the stats). Some argue against a desalination plant, and say we can collect the storm water when it rains, from drains in the city. That argument is all very well, but after 12 years of drought it is a weak one. If it never rains then that won't work. It has barely rained a drop in two months now.
The highly ironic thing is that some greenies carry a lot of responsibility for the destruction. Many greenies have strongly protested against back burning in bush fire prone areas in past years. They were so successful in protesting this that the law was changed. This has meant for the last few years that bark and leaves have been collecting. As a result these fires were far more deadly and burnt far more rapidly than they otherwise would have.
One bushfire on February 7th gave off more carbon emissions than one years worth from a coal power station in the Latrobe valley. So these fires have given off over 100 years worth of carbon emissions compared to the coal power stations. All this to prove the point that greenies have shot themselves in the foot by their short term thinking. Now they want to stop us from having a desalination plant. I hope they don't like drinking water too much.

Response of the public to the tragedy
Australians have responded with overwhelming compassion and grief. Those that could were volunteering immediately. Many have given physical goods to help those that have lost everything. When the physical goods were no longer needed people have been encouraged to give money. So far $136 million has been raised for the victims. When I was working at World Vision a few years back it was a big deal when annual donations passed $200 million. World Vision is Australia's largest charity. That puts the generosity of Australians into perspective over the last two weeks.

The footy
Football season is upon us. The regular season starts on March 26th. But the preseason has started. Last week the game between Essendon and the Bulldogs was staged as a charity event for the Bushfire relief. Even though my team wasn't playing, it was a lot of fun to go the footy for the first time in 3.5 years.



Looks like my time is up for now. We are off to a presentation of oral bible story telling. One of the students who has been here for six weeks is going back to China to continue working on a One Story project.