The other side

What has been missing from the coverage of MH17 has been the impact on the Ukranians. THe way it has been depicted until I saw this article in the New Daily was that it was a solely western tragedy perpetrated by an evil “other”. The Ukranians to date have been depicted drunken callous marauding looters […]

Bringing them home

The journey has begun for the downed. The scene of a dilapidated old freight train pulling out of a station doesn’t give high hopes for dignity to be maintained in death. Having said that life wasn’t respected in the first instance, so one wonders why would dignity be respected. As they make their way home, […]

MH17

Like everyone, the horror of MH17 touches us. We all fly, we have all been in that situation, a plane a cruising altitude, shoes off, headrest adjusted, checking the movies, waiting for dinner service (chicken or beef, sir). This is why we relate to this, more so than, say the Korean Ferry Sinking earlier in […]

Keith

One of the more fortunate things to happen to me in this work I do, was last Friday night a the Strathewen Remembrance gathering. I was given a chook. I’ll let that sink in. A chook. This is not any old chook. It’s a strathy chook, and rather than me go on about it, Barbara […]

Memories

Memories John Schauble from the Fire Commissioners Office, and ex Age journalist has penned a very thoughtful piece about remembrance. In it he poses the question about whether events such as Black Saturday should be remembered. It is a must read article. This is a very interesting question. Anne Eyre has written extensively on commemoration […]

February 7

Today marks the 5th anniversary of bushfires that devastated Victoria. They were dubbed Black Saturday, although I do often hesitate often to use that label. Some of the people I worked with in the bereavement support groups struggled with being labelled. They were already grieving in public, with media and public interest in the funerals […]

Sydney From A 727

Some random thoughts. It’s mid October, serious fires are ringing Sydney. It’s out of the ordinary. the Disasters Database tells me that the earliest major fire in the so called season was in NSW in November. It’s Thursday, people got up went to work, as they do everyday, only for some return to nothing at […]

Bali

The Bali bombings are now over ten years ago. What I write has the fog of the intervening ten years shaping it. Take this how you will. This is also a “crossing the streams” post (see the How did I get here page for an explanation). The Bali Bombings were really where I cut my […]

Weak Ties

Out walking the dog this morning, I didn’t feel like listening to music. I popped on a TED talk, from Maria Bezaitis on the surprising need for strangeness. Bezaitis is a data engineer for Intel, and talks about the need for us to interact with a range of people to come up with new ideas. […]

9/11

Warning: Content Advisory. I describe some graphic scenes, if you aren’t feeling like it, don’t read on today, maybe another day Today, of course, is the 12th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. My thoughts go out to all those affected, through bereavement, through subsequent trauma, and through the fear and suspicion that pervaded society. […]

Sastrugi

recovery