I've had enough! I'm literally sick of this. I want to scream and cry at the same time, because there's nothing worse than utter helplessness. What people in Australia are experiencing is literally hell. Hell, which apparently cannot be fought at all. Or with great difficulty. Otherwise, I cannot explain why an area as big as Slovakia has already burned down and half a billion animals have died. And what are we dealing with over here? Fireworks. I'd ban those too.
I know, sitting here at the computer in the comfort of my living room, it's easy for me to be a smartass. But these two issues - Australia is burning and Prague with fireworks or without them - have been connected in my head for some time, and the more I think about them, the more furious I get.
Firecrackers
About the firecrackers... Personally, I hate them. This issue pops up every year, and every year I hear the same information on the news. Firefighters are dead because they have to put out fires caused by fireworks, doctors serve the emergency, because people are apparently incapable of handling pyrotechnics the right way, which often results in burned or - in worse cases - missing limbs. Veterinarians and dog owners are raging, because let's face it, this level of noise simply isn't good for animals. I guess I'm an animal because it's not good for me either.
For some reason, the City Council decided that at the end of 2019, there would be no fireworks. For a good reason, really. Regardless of what I think about Hřib, the guy's not completely out of it. And what does a handful of Czechs who think that the mayor is trying to turn them into a herd of stupid sheep do? They all pitch in so that they could buy their own New Year's fireworks.
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Tenhle ohňostroj rozzářil oblohu v Praze. Source: Facebook Jardy Mitha
Animals
One thing I learned from Jana Bernášková's Facebook was that a certain person (read politician) from ODS Prague 4, who is responsible for education, i.e. teaching of youth, enjoyed the ten minutes of beauty immensely. 10 minutes of beauty once a year is a must. We're entitled to enjoy them over dead bodies - the animals can deal just this once, right?.
Pronájem luxusního mezonetu s terasou, Praha, Praha 2
Show property
What I saw next was someone else's status, saying they were looking for their dog that had gotten so scared it'd run away. And then came the photos of swans literally chopped into pieces, because people had been throwing firecrackers by the Vltava. Whether it happened intentionally or not matters little. Some suckers even thought it was great fun to stuff firecrackers in a mutt's maw... Now that doesn't make me want to cry; it makes me want to vomit.
I also saw that a zoo in Germany was on fire, apparently because of a paper lantern. One of those was found in our zoo, too, thank God without consequences.
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Labutě kvůli petardám přišly třeba o křídla. Source: Záchranná stanice hl. m. Prahy
Fire
That brings me back to fire. It flares up in the blink of an eye. Before we notice, it's burning bright. In 99.9 % of cases, it is the fault of man. I mean, it's hard to imagine a koala striking a match... Sometimes, of course, a higher power strikes: nature itself. And then an entire army of firefighters is virtually incapable of taming the flames. People are dying, animals are dying, the planet is suffering.
When Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris burned down, millions of euros were raised just like that for its rescue and restoration.
In the case of Australia it took several weeks, or rather months, before support money was raised. And so far, Pink was the only celebrity about whom I've heard that she sent 500,000 dollars to the people from down under! Of course, in the last few hours I've noticed all my friends on FB contributing to the accounts of the organizations helping to combat the element. And I applaud them. More of us should follow their example. Because there's nothing worse than being helpless.
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Není vám do pláče při pohledu na tuhle fotku?Source: Facebook Fire in Australia
I just hope we will soon stop seeing those touching photos of people offering their bottled water to a koala or a kangaroo who had been miraculously rescued from the flames. And although I'm not a believer, I pray for this hell to end.
Clairvoyants and witches promise that 2020 will be a year full of changes. Let's hope these changes are for the better...
