Dispatches from the sunburned wastelands

Australia is experiencing its one of its worst bushfire seasons on record, even though summer has just started. There are about 45 fires burning in the state of Victoria, south of Canberra, and several others in New South Wales. You can see, on the image above (which includes the whole of Victoria and most of New South Wales), where all the hot spots are, and the massive smoke plume that's extending across the ocean. It's become so bad, that the Aussies have even asked the US and Canada to send help...

And, in other news, the small pacific island state of Fiji (to the north-east of Australia), has just experienced its fourth coup in 20 years , when the military took control of the governmentyesterday. The Australian Government, meanwhile, won't be doing anything about it, saying that historically, all the Fijian coups were mostly bloodless. One just wonders why it is that Australia cannot even keep the peace in its own backyard, while it happily went to war in Iraq, to "bring democracy to the people". The Fijians surely needs a lesson in democracy too...

Posted by HannesB at 7:38 AM Comments