Sun Jun 18, 2017 11:45 am
#1541578
Maybe there is less of a reserved stiff upper lip these days. Most people are shocked and saddened by what has happened recently (the Glenfell fire, the terrorist attacks etc) and most of us can’t do anything directly to help those affected. A minute’s silence is perhaps a token, but it is a symbol that we do empathise with those affected. Perhaps it is pointless. And yes, as a nation, we are inconsistent with when a disaster merits one and when one doesn’t. I'm not going to get too worked up about that. We also don’t officially remember all the small disasters that happen to people every day. But that is life – some things are of a scale they hit the national psyche, some don’t. Ultimately the best memory to those killed and injured in the fire is to apply lessons to reduce the chances of it happening again – only time will tell if this indeed happens.
One thing different that strikes me about the fire is that for the survivors, in addition to possibly losing friends and family, they have lost 100% of their things and their homes. That makes recovering from their own individual disasters massively more difficult. Thus far the official response to dealing with the aftermath seems patchy to put it mildly. I guess we haven’t needed a FEMA type organisation because we don’t tend to have weather-related disasters in the UK such as these that often occur in the US. The system of the local authority dealing with things appears to have been overwhelmed.
I’ve just seen headlines that 57 people have been killed in forest fires in central Portugal (a disaster of not dissimilar scale to Glenfell). Grim.
One thing different that strikes me about the fire is that for the survivors, in addition to possibly losing friends and family, they have lost 100% of their things and their homes. That makes recovering from their own individual disasters massively more difficult. Thus far the official response to dealing with the aftermath seems patchy to put it mildly. I guess we haven’t needed a FEMA type organisation because we don’t tend to have weather-related disasters in the UK such as these that often occur in the US. The system of the local authority dealing with things appears to have been overwhelmed.
I’ve just seen headlines that 57 people have been killed in forest fires in central Portugal (a disaster of not dissimilar scale to Glenfell). Grim.