Looking on the bright side of life has got us far

Aussies adept at downplaying their hardships, writes Ian Cole

As Australians, we are pretty good at understating situations. When kids in the backseat ask: “Are we there yet?” We tend to reply “soon”, no matter the distance still to be covered. Even if unwell, we can tend to reply to how we are feeling with, “oh, could be worse”. Bushfire and flood victims in Australia, when interviewed in the aftermath, can often downplay their situation by stating, “There are others worse off than me”.

Of course, worldwide there are some quite famous examples of understatements that have made headlines. Astronaut Jack Swigert, aboard Apollo 13, is famously remembered for his words: “Houston, we have a problem.”

His words may not have been precisely that but rather, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here”.

His exact words don’t really matter, as they have gone down in history as a great example of understatement because the crew of Apollo 13 faced an almost impossible task of returning to earth after an on-board explosion before reaching the moon.

Pilots worldwide are often the source of understatements, especially when the plane they are flying is being buffeted somewhat from side to side. They can be heard reassuring their passengers along the lines of, “Please fasten your seatbelts as we are experiencing a little turbulence”. Passengers like me don’t see it as a “little” turbulence. But it is often the British with their “keep calm and carry on” philosophy who have made headlines for their perceived understatements. During the Falklands War, when the British ship the Sheffield was sinking and the crew sat in their lifeboats, many of them began to sing the Monty Python refrain, “Always look on the bright side of life”. However, the most famous understatement of British origin undoubtedly comes from Captain Eric Moody flying a British Airways 747 from London to Auckland in 1982. Above Indonesia, Flight BA009 came into volcanic ash from Mt Galunggung, causing the engines to clog up and eventually fail. His message to the passengers has gone down in history as a masterpiece of understatement.

“Ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four of our engines have stopped.”

But back to us here in Australia. Recently we had a situation where in Taronga Park Zoo, in Sydney, five lions escaped their enclosure. OK it may not have ranked up there with the Cowra breakout back in 1944 when more than 1000 prisoners of war attempted to escape from their confinement in inland Australia, but it was important.

There was, however, some understating of the situation at Taronga Zoo, with announcements there had been “a fence integrity issue”.