Diversity in disaster conference. Day 1. Leaps and bounds

Normally I come to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch the football (although my last visit was not a happy one). But today I’m here for the Diversity in Disaster conference. This conference has been a while in the making, in some respects, probably decades. And what a conference. Tackling all the challenging issues of […]

Get up, stand up

My kids come home from school with a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities that we have to sign, and they have to sign and their teacher has to sign. It guides their interactions and standards of behaviour. I initially thought, wow, this is over the top. But then I realised it was really out setting […]

The kids are alright

Last November I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Transforming Vulnerability Conference hosted by the Global Challenges Program at the University of Wollongong to be part of a panel on Children and Disasters. Wollongong is one of my favourite cities, having spent quite a bit of time there during my Uni days. It […]

Economics=happiness

So, said my lecturer in the first lecture of my one and only economics subject. Hang on, I thought Isn’t economics about numbers and all ordinaries and budgets. And economists don’t look like happy people to me. He went on to explain about supply and demand, make choices, trade-offs, and allocating resources for the best […]

Fight them on the beaches

Tally ho red leader, bandits 11 oclock high, As the son of a WW2 veteran, I grew up on a diet of war movies and books. I thought it was a lot of fun and derring do. I remember saying to Dad, it must have been fun up there, and he said “It wasn’t fun […]

It’s been a while

I wasn’t sure if I was going to be writing these words. I wasn’t sure if this blog had a future, as at the end of last year i didn’t have the energy to think let alone write. And I wasn’t sure if I had anything useful to say anymore. As you’d all know, last […]

Ten out of ten

So said the forecaster on Thursday about the impending superstorm that would hit Melbourne and Victoria over the weekend. Living, like Shrek, in the swamp of Elwood, this fills me with a bit of nervousness. And although our house is just out of the 1in 100 flood line, and we have yet to be flooded […]

How long is recovery?

If I had a dollar for every time I was asked this, I would be rich. Actually I wouldn’t be rich, because the answer is disappointing. “It depends” usually is the answer. Or “ we can’t say” To which the riposte comes “But surely someone knows” and we shake our heads, sadly and say. It’s […]

Bottom of the stairs

I have been long fascinated with the London Underground. To say that I’m obsessed is a bit of an understatement. It surprised me that until recently, I didn’t know about the Bethnal Green Tube Disaster during World War two. I came upon it initially through the film Atonement, where Cecilia Tallis played by Keira Knightley […]

20

Well, 20 years ago, I walked into the Red Cross office on City Road Southbank, as the brand new Deputy Coordinator, Emergency Registration. You walked up the stairs, then up a hill and down a hill along a long corridor.(the building was that old and decrepit). I was to look after the State Inquiry Centre […]