The Power of Nature

updated by Paul

I never thought I’d say that London seemed like a safe place to live but based on some of the events of recent months in Australia and New Zealand, it seems increasingly like that is the case. Although I’ve been lucky not to have been in any of the major disaster zones when they have struck, it has been shocking to see the wrath that mother nature can wreak on such a scale – devasting floods, tropical cyclones blowing away whole towns, Raging bush fires, and fatally destrucive earthquakes all act as a reminder that there is no more malevolent a force on Earth than the Earth itself.

Maybe its because Its raining today, or possibly because it’s the end of a long and tiring week at work but this is more of a reflective entry than the usual lame attempts at humour I try and put in these blog entries. More likely it is because I’m writing it soon after the Christchurch Earthquake that has torn apart New zealand’s second city and claimed the lives of hundreds of people in buildings and places that I was in no more than three months ago. I make no apology for the serious tone but when you are actively scanning the news channels and looking out for names of deceased that you may know, it kind of puts a different slant on travelling away from the safety of home.

The time I spent in Christchurch was probably a week in total over three seperate periods. There were tremors whilst Anna and I were there but they were only gentle aftershocks from the original 7.1 quake in September which brought down buildings but did not cause any loss of life. Looking back at it now I guess there was an element of luck that the big one didn’t strike. The images of the collapsed Cathedral on the TV are most jarring because as the main attraction in the middle of the city it is where we spent a lot of time and our accommodation was maybe fifty metres away. To see people being pulled from buildings you were in is a shocking experience.

In Australia, the state of Queensland has been hammered in recent months. Floods have washed away whole towns and communities claiming the lives of people just going about their daily business. The wall of water is of Tsunami strength and again the pictures of cars being picked up and washed away as well as solidily built homes crashing down are ones where you can’t do anything but look on in awe and say “bloody hell!” As if that wasn’t enough the same state was then hit by Tropical Cyclone Yassi – a storm that when it hit land was stronger than Hurricane Katrina that devasted New Orleans a few years ago. All this in an area that last year suffered devasting drought and hard earth-baking heatwaves that destroyed crops and caused bushfires that were unrelenting in burning homes and all that stood in its path – nature is fickle!

Despite the heavy rain and floods on the eastern side of Australia this year it doesn’t mean the western side escapes. Bush fires have destroyed homes in the outer suburbs of Perth – again the devastation to normal family life is laid out bare on the TV news.

So that really is the balancing act in Australia. Comfortable beachside living, with easy access to one of the world’s great, clean citys. Low crime rates, low risk of terrorism, friendly people, a sky that’s blue and a sun that shines. Contrast that to London – yeah sure you run the risk of being blown up on a bus or having a knife run through you but you’re not going to have your house blown over or knocked down in an earthquake!

So that seems to be the choice – tackle the myriad dangers of nature in the land down under (and I haven’t even mentioned the snakes, spiders or sharks in the sea!) or return back to grey old Tory-run, crime ridden London. On the plus side, QPR are doing well and it looks like I could be watching a Premier League team next year! Let me book that flight now…..