OWell a bus load of asian ethnic people turned up in a bus yes a bloody bus and hoovered the shop clean and departed
I'll be controversial and I'll happily accept the flak.
The one thing this situation is teaching us is that "globalisation" is an abject failure. And it's punitive to countries, communities and cultures.
Let's be clear. Humans are prejudiced creatures. We're tribal. Is that good, or bad? Well, that's a little esoteric.
Italy is Italy because of Italians and their culture.
Austria is different to Germany, though they speak the same language, because Austrians are Austrians, not Germans. They have Austrian culture, preferences and desires. And good on them.
Immigration has and will be the norm for people. Australia benefitted from the mass immigration of Europeans post WWII to rebuild our shattered economy and to home the homeless from the conflict which we were rightly part of. There was an early 'fitting in' period for the newcomers. They didn't understand us, and we didn't care to understand them. But bit by bit, they educated us, as we did them. They bought such rich and enviable culture to boost the pretty staid and BritishAustralian culture of the late 40's and 50's. Nowadays, the Croats, the Greeks, Italians, Brits, Germans, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Estonians, Maltese (and the list goes on and on) are all "real Aussies." Why? Because they chose to integrate. They assimilated our expectations, rebelled at times, and conceded that maybe we could work and live together quite easily, when we decided to be "us."
Fast forward to the past 10-15 years and the unchecked immigration we have taken from certain cultures that are patently at odds with our beliefs, behaviours and traditions and we have multi-culturalism. This is a caustic situation where we have pockets of immigrants choosing to establish and run their culture with primacy over the national and regional culture. This is the divisiveness of 'multi-culturalism.' Its a foolish notion that effectively says that The Vatican City must accept a block of Pagans and Devil Worshippers in the bounds of the City, because that's the multi-cultural way. Another silly analogy would be to have a square kilometer of Extreme Shia Muslims ensconced in the middle of Jerusalem. It doesn't quite work, does it?
So what we have in Oz nowadays, is many pockets of Chinese mainlanders, all ex-CCP controlled, or card-carrying members of the Party, in amongst our liberal-democratic society which is still based on a moderate form of capitalism. We're seeing oil-on-water here...
Cinder's comments are real. They're not prejudicial, they're factual. They are, in fact, evidence of the problem of this complete debacle that fuels this 'panic buying.'
What they demonstrate is that humans, as tribal beings, do have a preferred 'behaviour of the tribe.' Sadly, we have let other tribes take precedence over our one big tribe. And we're paying the price for it.
Let's hope that after this stupidity dies down, we all have a good look at how we handled the situation and take some very positive steps to prevent such a self-centred outbreak happening again in the next century, at least. It doesn't take vigilante mobs, or violence. It takes self-discipline and respect. Respect for your neighbour as much as yourself.
Go in peace, all. Be safe and be good to one another.
Last edited by 22SqnRAE; 03-21-2020 at 05:01 AM.
Trying to save Service history, one rifle at a time...
A good source (my oldest daughter) has informed me that we may be facing a shelter in place order tomorrow. Only way you will be able to get anything is by delivery. Now she didn't say if this was going to be for our county, our state or the entire nation. Nor can we be certain that it's going to happen. Trump did seem to imply it could happen in his speech yesterday. Our governor also implied it could be the next step. He however has backed down just a bit on the state shutdown. He pushed enforcement back to Monday morning and is allowing waivers.
In any case, we made a last run to Walmart for whatever odds and ends we didn't have before and extended our soda stash further. Picked up a few canned goods that looked like they might make a nice change of pace.
One things for sure, I won't be lacking for reading materials. My wife on the other hand is out of luck unless she suddenly develops an interest in military history.
793 dead today. Mostly elderly people, but that does not change the tragedy of such a number.
I feel for all these people as I never felt for anybody else.
Especially Bergamo. Bergamo is a strange city. Wonderful, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Small, at the feet of the Alps, with a fairly large province climbing up the mountains.
Almost everybody, until the end of military conscription, was an Alpino there.
Tough, silent and generous people, they have an extremely strong religious feeling. Wherever you go around the world and find missionaries or people working for non-political NGOs, if there are Italians, there will be an over-average percentage of them.
I'm from Milan, a few kilometres from Bergamo, and know them very well.
We always argue, as it is usual in our country, where we have the so called "bell tower feeling", which makes you consider everyone far from your small circle an outsider. But we respect them, and so do they with people from Milan.
Today I want to tell the whole world that we, here, all feel for them.
SIAMO TUTTI BERGAMASCHI, FRATELLI!!!
Thanks for sharing this message and for any support you can give this people.
They are great mountain people. They deserve every inch of solidarity we can give them.
BROTHERS!
---------- Post added at 07:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 PM ----------
Originally Posted by Aragorn243
My wife on the other hand is out of luck unless she suddenly develops an interest in military history.
They waited until close to midnight before telling us that all non essential businesses will be closed down.
Now let’s see what that means.
I’m starting to think that our government doesn’t really know what to do and are taking the easy way.
Stop everything. Kill the Country.
We’ll see...
This is something that concerns me here in the US. People in the cities do not shop for food on a weekly or monthly basis, they shop for food daily. They have a fridge but it has a few drinks in it and that's about it. Small amounts of food in the cabinets and closets. The stores only have enough food for one day, shippers have to bring food in daily. I've heard that at best, the average city person has 3 days of food before they all run out if new shipments stop.
Growing up in the country, we have a completely different outlook on things. We have two freezers and both are pretty full. They were well stocked before this all happened. What we bought at the stores during this crisis were canned goods just in case the electricity goes out which doesn't seem very likely but it is possible. We buy food when it's on sale and put it in the freezer. Used to have deer meat in there but it's been a few years and any that's left likely isn't any good.
Personally, I feel bad for people that are having trouble finding food but at the same time have a little trouble relating. We grew up in a culture of the scout motto, "Be Prepared" city folk don't seem to have ever heard that or understood what it meant.
Now this isn't supposed to be the end of food shipments, they will continue but at the same time, they may restrict everyone to their homes. Delivery only and if you live in the country, now you're the one with the problem as you're too far away for delivery. And again, if deliveries are overloaded, you may be going hungry for a day or two before yours get sent.
I hope people at a minimum are paying attention to this and learning. Hopefully we will get through this and be better prepared for the future, especially if there is a really deadly virus that hits. The zombie appocalypse kind.