The Beginnings is always today.

 

“The Beginnings is always today.” Mary Wollstonecraft.

This morning I woke up in the early hour of this morning and sitting outside in the courtyard reflecting on our plan to do today. Rusty (my partner) was telling me about the mega bushfire in Australia over the radio news. He knew that I can not hear people talking through the microphone at the media stations. I looked out at our large silk tree standing next to the carport and there was the sun shining through many branches. Something was telling me that it is a new day for them to face the latest challenge to fight through horror times.

Horror, dismay, frustrate, pointing at someone to blame, calling for more help, and the list so on. The biggest disaster of all is the most significant bushfire in Australia from October 2019 to present the year of 2020.

 

Story from the NZ Herald and a Photo from AP

Here are several quotes that I found through my memory in my studying in History via Linguistics papers at the University of Waikato.

1. With the new day come new strength and new thoughts by Eleanor Roosevelt.
2. Every day is a chance to begin again. Don’t focus on the failures of yesterday, Start today with positive thoughts and expectations. By Catherine Pulsifer – author.
3. Every moment is a fresh beginning. T S Eliot
4. New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. Lao Tzu

Today the amount of burning fires covering about 10 million hectares around Australia than anywhere in the other countries in the past.  Many people found it is hard to believe the size of the burning lands. The last bush fire was in Siberian, and they lost 2.7 hectares the previous year.

There is a history of the bushfires in Australia dating back to 1851 – Black Thursday in the state of Victoria. They lost 5 million hectares over several weeks, and 12 people died. The temperature back in 1851 was 47C, according to the record held at the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience. Here is the picture below.

There had been 12 worst bushfires dating back to 1851, including 2019-2020 in Australia. You can check out these 2 websites here – Forest Fires Management in Victoria, Australia

– Bushfires in Australia

The hardest thing that people may or may not know that there are many people/children with disabilities out there. I learned there were two Deaf families lost their farms, business and their contents even machinery equipment from the Facebook via Deaf Community group. I recently read many comments in the social media via Facebook by other D/deaf people struggle to understand what happens, where to find help, the need for Emergency evacuation by what kind of types of equipment because they can not hear the warning sounds, radio warning or door knocking etc.

The biggest problem was the lack of interpreter on breaking news through many social media such as a news channel. Not every Media Networks, they provide an interpreter along with Chief Police, Fire Officer, Civil Defense or the Prime Minister. Of course, many Deaf people are angry for the lack of interpreter on television because it is not accessible for them as communication through visual sign language instead of voice/speaking language. To my understanding that most Social Media does not own or provide a contract interpreter for all D/deaf people even elderly people.

It is impossible for any D/deaf people to lip read them if the speaker is not facing the camera or mumbling along while talking. We, Deaf people only pick up around 25-35% of lip reading.

For God sake! Put interpreter on ALL new media programme during the disaster event and do not leave the interpreter out when downsizing the camera screen and facing the speaker only. Of course, I am getting annoyed with the Australian Media for the lacking of providing an interpreter and leaving the interpreter out when camera downsizing to focus on the main speaker during the outbreaking news in Australia. Yes, there were captioning showing but not every D/deaf people even People First (people with learning disabilities) can not read or understand the whole sentence.

Did you know about the history of the bushfire in Australia or in any other countries? Do you understand why there is a danger of having a bush fire even feeling threaten by bushfire? Do you understand why there is a long drought anywhere in the world even in here soon? Have you ever learnt any history of bushfire, natural environment disasters at school? Perhaps it is time to persuade the Ministry of Education and teachers to set up a curriculum on history at school. We can teach any children and student to learn from the past to the future so we can avoid or to adapt the life-changing out there.