cblj_backup | (no subject)

(no subject)

The death toll's still rising from the fires in Australia and many of them are still not under control.

blamebrampton has a good essay about survival and blame here: So if your news service starts with the question 'what went wrong' and answers it with anything other than 'nature is a fucking bitch in Australia', please tell them to piss off...

(If you visit, remember: you're a Cafe patron, you can always disagree but play nice or I'll end you.)

And

invisible_lift is doing porn-for-charity here.

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Thanks for the signal boost, yo. I appreciate it.

My pleasure :) Hope you get some good prompts!

Now here (http://www.smh.com.au/national/pastors-abortion-dream-inflames-bushfire-tragedy-20090210-832f.html?page=-1) is a fucking douche who needs to piss off.

Pardon my French ;)

Yeah, there's always some asshole who has to bring their hateful small-mindedness into it. It's been the same for 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, about three dozen earthquakes, and several tornadoes, in the US.

Obviously no-one taught these people as children about when it's quiet time.

And the Florida firestorms of 1998. That was because Disney supported gay rights. This was, of course, spouted by more religious fanatics.

Danny Nalliah can go die in a fucking fire.

Maybe he can take the place of someone who already has.

If only things worked that way.

On the bright side, his home phone number is given at the bottom of the Fairfax press release.

Someone - probably many someones - is going to rip him a new one.

haha, oh my.

One of my friends from Victoria is thrilled that he and the Westboro Baptist Church have come out damning them, her theory, which agrees with mine, is that when people like that hate you, you are doing things right.

I like that theory, it seems about right =D

Yeah, I think most people understand that there is no answer to what happened. We all live here, we all understand that bushfires happen regularly, and we all realise that what happened this year was above and beyond normal, nature conspired to provide conditions that we could not have foreseen. It's a tragedy, and perhaps some things can be changed for next time - because there will be a next time - but no one did anything wrong this time, no one knew how different this fire would be.

I've seen some news reporters looking for wank to stir up, but for the most part they've been pretty sensible about it all, for which i'm grateful.

Yeah. The worst I saw was an interviewer asking a kid where their neighbour was when they where just told by the parents that they were left behind. For the most past though, it has been just survival stories and debate on stay-or-go. The ABC is usually pretty good at this sort of thing.

Thanks for linking to that post - I knew it was bad, but I honestly didn't know what that bad was LIKE. :-(

Oh yes.

Fires happen. We can deal. The US uses our fire procedures as a guide for what to do with fires in California. If some big chunk of the US starts to burn, we're usually the people who turn up and fight it for you.

This...it's like a perfect storm. Every single factor that can turn a fire bad all slotted into place at once.

I wrote about fires and Australia on my journal a day or so ago, too. I left it unlocked, in case anyone's curious. It's sort of an expansion on what I wrote in comments, but also a lot of explanation of things.

The weather, the fires, and Australia in general (http://iamshadow.livejournal.com/284401.html)

Also, ABC reporter Michael Vincent has been writing some incredible on-the-scene articles from the Kingslake area over the last few days. (That's the Australian ABC, which is completely different from the American.)

People might be wondering how the locals will ever get back on their feet and start life again - the answer is, they already are.

Tears and laughter as life goes on in Kinglake (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/11/2488703.htm) by Michael Vincent

Here are some links for charitable organisations helping injured and displaced animals. Donate if you can.

RSPCA Victoria (http://www.rspcavic.org/campaigns_news/news_bushfires.htm)

Triple R Equine Welfare Inc (http://triplerequinewelfare.org/_mgxroot/page_home.html) (scroll to the bottom for the 'donate' button)

Animal Aid (http://www.animalaid.com.au/support-to-bushfire-victims.html)

Wildlife Rescuers (http://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/cms/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=51)

One more:

WRAP - Wildlife Rescue and Protection Inc (http://www.wrap.org.au/pages.php?pID=4)

Also, ABC forums have an excellent list of Things you can do to help (http://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/melbourne_bushfiresoffer_help/index.html), including donations of money, but also listing donations of time from skilled volunteers (such as electricians), temporary housing, blood donations and donations of non-perishable food and clothing.

I've created a comm to try to bring together people who are offering fic or other crafty things in return for donations. Would you mind helping me get the word out about

australia_aid?

I just donated AUD40 (US$25) to the Australian Red Cross.

aoifene will gift you a pair of earrings if you donate US$25, or a bracelet for US$50.

Thanks very much for posting regarding the fires. There has been a noticeable level of overseas donations to most of the charities dealing with the recovery efforts, and I suspect that a not-insignificant portion of that has come from lj. It's lovely when the power of an flist can be harnessed for good!

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