Then it happened...

Earlier today I was casually scrolling through the online news sites, as you do, when I happened upon an article about the storms that swept through Brisbane this morning and the previous day. There was nothing particularly startling about the reports of damage or the usual pics of lightening striking buildings and such. What did disturb me however, was the reference to the blogosphere and social media commentariat being all aghast and enraged at the lack of a timely warning from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) that there was a killer storm about to unleash its full fury on the hapless unsuspecting citizenry of the quaking defenseless metropolis.

I probably need mention at this point, that for a whole week prior to the unexpected calamitous event, all the various weather reports (courtesy of BoM) have been predicting storms for this very weekend.  Then 24 hours or so, before this great unanticipated apocalypse, those same reports were being updated, some even suggesting ‘super cells’ and such like.

So really, 'uninformed'...'unaware'...I think not.

It would appear that the great crime, perpetrated by BoM and all those devilish layabouts who work for said evil entity, for which they should be dragged into the town square and beaten and castigated so savagely so as never again to repeat such an unforgivable atrocity, was that they didn’t update their website to say, “hey folks, you know those storms we’ve been telling you about for the past week or so, well, it looks like they’re pretty serious, just as we predicted”.

Then there were the comments like, (and I paraphrase here), “well, I was outside just a' watchin’ it all roll in, ‘n I could tell it was powerful nasty lookin’ ‘n was gonna be mighty scarey, ‘n all, 'n i reckon that was a good 20 minutes or so before them fellas gave me any warnin’ on their website thingy”. So, I think to myself, ‘well, yeah, and your point is?”

And then I thought, seriously, have we all become so hopelessly bereft of independent thought and action that we can’t even be responsible enough to look outside the window and see the darkening skies or hear the rolling thunder, and think to ourselves, “looks like there’s a storm coming, and maybe I should prepare just in case”.

I mean really, isn’t it just sad to think that there are some people who are so irresponsible and stupid enough, that they would step off the footpath and onto the road, all the while staring at the truck barreling towards them, and then complain that there was no one there to tell them that what they were doing was dangerous and it might be a good idea to step back on the curb and wait for the truck to pass?

What a truly pitiful excuse for a species we have become, when we can no longer use the great gifts that were given to us, by God, or Allah, or the fairy at the end of the garden, or which ever particular divinity you subscribe to (or don't as the case may be), to take the most minimal amount of initiative and think and act for ourselves, rather than to expect that it is someone else's responsibility to make sure we even draw breathe.

And that folks, was when I decided that maybe I too, should proffer my own opinions, and so began this, my first tentative foray into the much traipsed mine field that is the blogger zone….

Happy trails.