While our nation is mourning the death toll from the savage fires that have obliterated whole townships in rural Victoria, we are now also seeing experts giving conflicting reports as to what may have been the best way to escape the flames. Once again it would appear that we were unprepared for such a catastrophe. But is it possible to be prepared for such a disaster that raged so quickly that it took everyone by surprise? Can one predict what nature will do and how quickly it will do it?

When I was an 8 year-old boy living with my family in a refugee camp in Italy I experienced all kinds of things from fear to happiness to terror and anguish. By far the most terrifying thing I saw happened one night in a makeshift, open-air cinema across the way from the camp where the local farmer had some white bed sheets strung up as a film screen and then ran, at nominal cost, old Hollywood westerns. This time he ran a double bill - Revenge of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula!.

Going back to work after a month's holiday should be a happy occasion. You arrive refreshed and ready to hurl yourself into the New Year with gusto - all your energy levels recharged and replenished. The first thing you do is switch on your computer and open your emails to see what transpired while you were away. And when you see what DID transpire sometimes you wish you'd stayed at home.

One of the realities of television is that many of its programs are pre-recorded. There are a number of reasons for this. Apart from anything else it saves the network money. Take Global Village for example. If I were to sit in the studio at 6pm each night doing the program 'live' (as happens during the WORLD NEWS) we'd need the full complement of personnel in the studio, control room, tapes area, and on-air co-ordinators. Oh and don't forget the make-up people. This is a costly exercise and Global Village doesn't warrant such an expensive treatment. We -pre-record. In doing so we are more economical in dollar terms for the network (read: public purse) but we (read: I) face some pitfalls in the process.

A few actually

Doesn't matter what we read about them or how much we empathise with them and their plight I really doubt that anyone can know what it feels like to be a refugee (read: migrant, displaced person, illegal immigrant) unless you've been one yourself. Just like if you've really experienced hunger you won't throw away food just because it's a day old though perfectly edible. I've been both a displaced person/refugee and hungry.

Happy Death Everyone! What's Rivier talking about? Has he gone potty? What exactly does he mean!? There's nothing "happy" about death unless maybe you are a Christian close to death and looking forward to meeting your Maker in the after-life. Regardless where death leads the deceased, people experiencing the death of a loved on will probably tell you that it is the saddest and most tragic event in their life. So why, 'Happy death everyone'? Could there be a reason for happiness?

Thanks to some censorship/classification rules that prevent us seeing certain items at certain times, what you can't see at 6pm on television you can on the Internet, at any time. So, to all those viewers who won't be seeing this particular story in a forthcoming edition of Global Village, because it doesn't conform to the 'G' classification, we bring it to you online. Cyberspace isn't bound by such classification restrictions. Not yet, anyway.