The Madness Continues

Yes, I know we're in the midst of a pandemic. Yes, I know these are unprecedented times for humanity. Yes, I know everything is scary and unpredictable but really, people, can't we behave with some decency towards our fellows?

I'm driven to ask this because of the appalling way some people are behaving and it seems to be a fairly international problem. There have been reports in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US - it's probably happening elsewhere as well but these are the places I have contacts in - of city dwellers heading out to small country towns (places with few residents and only one relatively small supermarket or convenience store) and buying up much of the stock on the shelves. These vultures - though to call them that is pretty insulting to vultures since they only take what is left over unlike these greedy invaders - then presumably head back home well equipped to last out the apocalypse - which doesn't even seem likely to happen - leaving the resident population with limited or no supplies of food and other necessities. Given people in these areas often make only one shopping trip a week or even less frequently if, for example, they live on outlying farms and have to travel considerable distances to get  supplies, the consequences of this selfishness are obvious. These are people like my niece who has to undertake an 80 km round trip to do a grocery shop for her family and retired folk who can't drive far and have no access to public transport so rely on the local shop to provide their needs.

How anyone can justify this sort of behaviour I find hard to fathom. Talking about Australia since that's the place I have the most direct knowledge of it's even more bizarre. We produce the bulk of our food here. We even export food worldwide for heaven's sake. So why would you think for one moment that you need to stockpile at the cost of others? Yes, the shelves are currently bare of staples but that's not because we don't have enough food. It's because people keep stripping the shelves and it takes time for fresh supplies to get to the shops. Australia is a vast country and if you live say in Western Australia and the major food supplies come from somewhere on the eastern sea board it will take anything up to a week or more for them to reach out into rural areas.

I have to agree with our Prime Minister on this. He said 'Just stop it. ' and, honestly, that's what everyone should do.