Hmmm… Parts of Australia have been under water for almost a month. Have you noticed there have been no reports of looting, shooting, raping and other savage behavior? I wonder why that is… Discuss.
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1. because those are already common behaviors in Australia
2. The part that was flooded wasn’t as densely populated
3. who wants to rape a kangaroo?
Sheer laziness
To date, 10 looters have been charged by Queensland Police; if the locals had caught them, the flood fatalities list would be somewhat higher (16 at present, at least 20 more still missing). It’s a disappointing figure, even for a population over 2,000,000, but at least they were caught. It’s a huge area too, the size of Texas (?), and the water was estimated to have been of the same volume as Sydney Harbour…
We don’t rape kangaroos, and we aren’t all criminals…
Perhaps there is less of a “dependant class” among the citizenry?
@jack I’m just insinuating…
I have little to no facts to go by. I’ve never been to Australia (but, I’d REALLY love to). All I’m going by is the little news coverage that we have and the fact that this blog post is leading it to compare towards what happened in Louisiana. And you know if this blog is leading towards something, you have to fall in.
As a Queenslander living in the flood affected region (someone said it is the size of Germany and France put together, so I looked at a map and realised just how small Germany and France are, but thats another story), let me address some of the comments:
Gorillamonk:
1. because those are already common behaviors in Australia
- Fair call.
2. The part that was flooded wasn’t as densely populated
- Yes and no. A lot of the areas that flooded aren’t densely populated, Queensland as a whole only has about 6 people per square mile, but several major centres were hit, including Toowoomba (about 130,000 people) and Brisbane (2 million people).
So basically that is like four New Orleans right there.
3. who wants to rape a kangaroo?
- Exactly, they kick too much. There are a number of actual factors like less wealth disparity (eg. most Australians already have the same “stuff”, even if there is a difference in quality depending on income), but its pretty dry and boring.
Also, my thoughts on why the floods didn’t lead to a major loss of life are very simple – it comes down to building standards.
Even in the Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba, which copped it worst of all, not many houses got knocked down by the extremely fast moving flood waters. They mostly got completely trashed, but many people caught unaware were still able to shelter on their roofs and not have the house collapse under them.
Compare this to what happens in regions with crappy building regulations when floods come through. Its the same reason that a massive earthquake in New Zealand last year that would have killed thousands elsewhere caused minimal damage.
People, including myself, bitch about council interference in building design all the time, but even I have to admit that making sure buildings meet strict structural guidelines saves lives, its that simple.