when the fires burn in me

What can one say in response to such utter devastation?

Thinking about what humans can do to each other terrifies me. It's why Countrycide is the single Torchwood episode which I could not sleep after, and Toshiko's words in Greeks Bearing Gifts resonate so much:

“What's most amazing are the similarities with our own culture. But that can be horrible because we find lots of weapons, and it just makes you think, My God, everything wages war. It's not just a trait of ours, but a trait of existence.”

I doubt the “Black Saturday” fires were caused by a careless motorist throwing a cigarette out of a window, or a child playing with matches. Rather, they were the result of someone (a terribly sick someone) deliberately setting out to wreak havoc.

And it's not just the disgusting act of arson – but what some people want to do to the arsonists too. I know that it's anger that makes people say things like, “He (the arsonist) should be tortured, hung and quartered,” but I still find it chilling. I can only hope that they don't mean what they're saying. (Locked up “to rot” in jail, as Kevin Rudd said, I am all right with – I can understand that if this person is such a danger to society and themselves, the safest place for them is indoors, but I cannot condone downright cruelty.)

It all makes for extremely bleak reflections. Why the hell are we all alive if our only purpose on earth is to slowly and painfully destroy each other? Our lives are little but a constant cycle of creation and devastation. What kind of sadistic god created tsunamis, AIDS, and people with the capacity to commit murder on such a huge scale? Or even if you say there's no god, and that human beings are at the top of the animal kingdom, what kind of animals are we?

But now, my love of Harry Potter has come to put things all into perspective. Our capacity to feel compassion, empathy and love is not what makes us human. It is having both this incredible “good magic”, if you will, and at the same time, cruel, cowardly, “dark magic” within us. In my opinion, the human predicament is about the tension between our “good” and “evil” sides (Yes, I read too much Blake. If you hate him, you can leave now.)

“And you know, again, there's this thread running through the books, what Love does, and it raises people to the heights of absolute heroism, as in Lily, Harry, Neville. And it also leads them into acts of foolishness and even evil, which is Bellatrix and also Dumbledore.” (JK Rowling, 2007)

Arsonists are, literally, very sick people - a lot of them have serious psychiatric illnesses that lead them to their deeds, rather than some kind of “innate evil”. Notice, however, I'm not trying to lessen the wrong that they did (in my opinion, you shouldn't be acquitted of murder just because you were mentally ill at the time – you need TREATMENT if that is the case). A person with a mental illness is always experiencing great suffering, and the right thing to do is relieve this suffering.

But one of the points made about arsonists is they light fires because they misguidedly LOVE the chance to be “heroes” in the aftermath. (One of the people recently convicted of arson was a volunteer in the Rural Fire Service!) Is this much different from the mentally unstable Bellatrix Lextrange being driven to “burn and destroy” by her love for Voldemort?

And now, as much as a “bitch” as Bellatrix was, I wouldn't like to see her soul sucked out by a Dementor. Or tortured. I think that'd make us no better than Voldemort et al – killing to teach other people a lesson, to make an example that people will be frightened to follow? Not right. And I'm sure it's been proven that death isn't much of a deterrent for some people (why do people continue to smuggle drugs into south-east Asia even though it's an offence punishable by execution?)

I probably could support the death penalty in last-resort situations though, in the same way I support euthanasia in certain situations (allowing someone with end-stage cancer to die with dignity, and without pain, for example). My mum often says that she doesn't like the idea of criminals sitting in their cells watching TV and being fed nice, hot meals – being treated better than a bum on the street – and so she wishes they were disposed of in such a way that they wouldn't be a burden on society (if that's so, prisons need to change - I'm not advocating a return of the Victorian prisons where people died of cholera and spent all day either locked up in their cells or walking on those wheel things like in Wilde, but maybe they should be sent out to do community service?) But I would only say that a criminal should be put to death if he/she is so “terminally ill” that keeping them alive and in prison is extending their own suffering, and that of everyone around them. This should only happen in very, very few cases – because 99% of the time there is an alternative! (Yes, I'm generally quite optimistic about the human race, and about modern medicine – how else could I be a doctor?)

Anyway – this little dissertation has digressed severely. What I initially wanted to say is – I have nothing but sympathy for people whose lives have been marred by the fires.

But I also want to put a message out to others that I think the best way we can help everyone is not by channelling all our energy into anger and hatred for the culprits, but by being generous and thoughtful.

Yes, the arsonists need to be caught – but not because we are going to resort to medieval punishments. As many of the great teachers of history – Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ, for example – have told us, love thine enemy. While love isn't perfect, hatred is never constructive – it is always destructive. Although Christian from Moulin Rouge! was a little extreme, I think he was on the right track.

Love is like oxygen – love lift us up where we belong! - all you need is love...

How can you spread the love? One of my awesome friends has created a list of all the ways we can help those affected by the fires. To add to the list:

• This Friday, every Coles store in Australia will donate its profits to the Red Cross – so if you can, save up your grocery shopping till then!
• Rumour has it that Friday the 20th, Woolworths is doing a similar thing!
• If you're in South Australia, you can donate a variety of goods to Sarah's Bushfire Appeal, including food, toiletries and bedding
• You can donate money at any NAB, ANZ, Westpac or Commonwealth Bank branch, or Bunnings store.
  
  
• Westfield Shopping Centre, South Morang, is taking donations of clothing, non-perishables, pet products etc.