Yasi

Normally , we'd just be thinking - oh, Queensland is having a cyclone. It is the flood and cyclone season up in Queensland and we know they just go through it and somehow come out the other side. We know cyclone Larry was devastating and wiped out crops and huge areas of the state.Today at work we were live streaming the ABC24 news. We just had to know. This year after the floods it seems to much to bear to see Queensland hammered again by a category 5 cyclone. We have watched it moving onto the coast. We know the Queenslanders can do cyclones but this is bigger than big and on top of the floods further south this seems to be horribly unjust and we are concerned for them. So we streamed the news updates and it droned on in the background as our day went by. It was our way of showing solidarity. Critics of the media teams up there don't perhaps understand that we now know we can see real time events ,and when it is affecting someone we know, it draws us closer to them when we can see what they are going through. Nothing unpleasant or unsavoury. We care. We care better when we can see.It is about empathy and understanding. We cannot stop the cyclone. We cannot be there to lend a hand, so we are tracking this moment by moment so we can lend our spiritual support to people who are forced to endure this. The preparations and emergency plans are as impressive as the ones for the floods and the personnel in charge of people's welfare and safety are awe-inspiring. Our government has been there through all of this since before Christmas and Anna Bligh has been at the front of these massive emergency and recovery procedures for weeks. Each day she comes on the news and calmly tells us what is to be told . She has worked with the emergency and recovery committees , the military personnel, the police. She has emerged as a strong and steady leader in day after day of crisis and tough demands. This is not a normal Premier position but she has taken on this burden and played the cards she has been dealt in a competent and confidence inspiring manner. Managing all of this and leading her state through these hugely devastating situations has shown her to be a tough, stable  leader.Not sure what you are supposed to do in Australia to be judged to be a good leader , but she is, and we are lucky she is in the right place at the right time. In the meantime we wait and though we can do nothing, we are thinking as hard as we can for our Queensland state.