The Crisis Bond

There’s a few certainties about Australian’s.

We will get pissed and become too rowdy at the drop of a hat.  We will generally go with whatever the Government tells us.  We will become obsessed with whatever sport we’re winning at the time.  

But there’s one other thing.  When faced with a crisis, we will stare it down and know that we have the rest of the country at our back.

For as much as I can occasionally deride our culture, I am never as proud of my country as when we’re faced with a catastrophe.  Bushfires, earthquakes, floods, it doesn’t matter; we'll deal with it.  What’s more, we will do whatever it takes to help each other.  Whether it’s donating to a cheesy telethon or swimming against a raging torrent to rescue an elderly neighbour.  Anyone that’s been watching the floods will have seen jaw dropping acts of heroism and stoicism.  No matter what happens in an emergency, Aussies know one thing – we will do anything we can to assist one another.

Compare that with America and Katrina.  In the aftermath there was non-stop footage of folks complaining about who was going to look after them.  My home.  My thirst.  My hunger.  Then there were the rapes.  The murders.  America collapsed in on itself and what it exposed was dark.  It was ugly.

You won’t see that in Queensland in coming days.

What you will see is strangers standing shoulder to shoulder and not only dealing with the devastation and disaster, but rising above it.  Folks will open their homes to people they’ve never met.  Strangers will save each other’s lives.  People will flock to the aftermath to assist in rebuilding homes of people they’ve never met and will never see again.

I know this.  You know this.  We’ve seen it before.  We’ll see it again.  It’s perverse to think that we’re at our best when it at it's worst, but it’s true.  

Yes there are certainties about us Aussies.  And because of that, I am eternally proud.