This could be you

I´m shocked by what´s happening in Queensland and what’s in store for Brisbane, Australia´s third largest city. But it´s driving home what people I don´t know in places like New Orleans, Haiti, Pakistan, Poland, Austria, China, and god knows where else must have felt when they lost loved ones and everything they had. And it makes it so clear that we are all in this together.

It is our world and we´re screwing it up. We´re looking the other way, turning on our TV and eating our chips. That´s the news. Change the channel. We don´t want to hear bad news. We want to live in our comfortable world, not make any waves, not see any waves. Oh, yes, argue about the budget and what cuts we might face and gripe about that. But such a lage majority is silent when it comes to speaking up, saying that something is terribly wrong, that climate change talks, for example, are steered by “I´m all right, Jack” and I want stay that way. Après moi le deluge. But the deluge is already here.

They´re rising up in Tunisia, getting killed, and how long does it take for world opinion to react? The list is so long of places where there is strife, where people are suffering, where we aren´t reacting, can´t find the scissors to cut the red tape, don´t even wonder where they are. But there´s always someone around ready to make a buck out of the misery; it´s even in the politics of national security, protecting the status quo.

And when the leaks come, and the floods, what you hear loudest are the cries of the lynch mobs. And the issue is not how many have died, but how not to lose face.

The irony of it all is that the face will always be there and will be staring back at you from the mirror despite all the makeup that you think let´s you say, it wasn´t me.