Nature shows off her fire prowess while Sydney shows its fireworks
As Australian bush fires ravaged the land leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, an official alert went out on Monday night in New South Wales in the state of Victoria calling over 10,000 people to evacuate their homes as they were directly in the line of a bushfire, the biggest then blazing. The death stood at 7. Over a 100 homes had already been destroyed and thousands of acres fallen to the advancing flames.
But while nature was giving a fiery demonstration of her destructive prowess, Victoria’s capital Sydney had other more entertaining things on her mind and the city’s officials were busy planning how best to give man made exhibition of fire power.
Already over 200,000 Australians had signed a petition to the Mayor protesting at the decision taken to carry on regardless and hold the famous annual fireworks display over Sydney harbour. Their protest had focussed on simply one point: that at a time the entire nation should join and express empathy at the death and woe suffered by their fellow citizens, it was simply not right to stage an exhibition of fire when the tragedy that had befallen was caused by fire.
The Mayor, however, whilst she stated that she understood the position of the petitioners completely, remained, like a ship in Sydney’s harbour, firmly anchored to her view that the show must go on and steadfastly refused to change her mind.
On New Year’s Eve the firework show did indeed go on whilst that day two more lives were lost to nature’s raging inferno. It may have been an impressive display of man- made explosives: Gone up in smoke in a brief moment of dazzling colour. But, however spectacular it may have been in its sorry may fly life span, the decision to hold the event whilst the land was being consumed by fire, with death and destruction all around, was not only in bad taste but, worse, it was vulgar.