Winds of change swirl all around us

It hasn't just been Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordon to experience the extraordinary power of the internet to mobilise and inform people. Middle East dictators and "Royals" who were previously backed by many Western governments have started to see their hold on power being eroded over the past few weeks. As these popular campaigns, largely orchestrated by the educated middle classes using Twitter and Facebook took hold, tropical cyclone Yasi surged towards northern Queensland, Australia.

Whilst it was being monitored closely by meteorlogical experts, the Australian Federal and Queensland Governments responded to the looming threat by using the power and accessibility of all the tools of our modern communications era to advise and inform their citizens. Despite the incredibly destructive forces of a Category 5 storm landing in a populated area, nobody died as a direct result of the cyclone. One tragic loss of life has so far been reported but that was due to the inhalation of generator fumes.

The Australian newspapers heap praise upon their leaders for their presence and preparedness for two devastating events that have hit Queensland in particular this year: the floods and the cyclone. Using the internet and Twitter as well as FaceBook in particular, I have been able to keep abreast of how family living in the affected area have fared. I knew through blogs posted by the Cairns Post that their neighbourhood was without electricity and consequently not able themselves to reassure family in Europe or Africa. That's a definate sign of progress in my book! Once contact had been restored, I learnt that the local government authorities had already completed the clean-up of their street. That's an example of good governance and the undeniable importance of the formal public service to a community - in a land that already typifies community spirit and neighbourly assistance.

The British are sadly yet to learn and experience the real consequences of the currently proposed abolition of the public sector in favour of volunteers. It is a tragedy in my view that while we listen to politicians lecturing the world about the need for democracy, because of their current political agenda, we will most likely not be able to depend upon ourselves as a nation in the future!

However, history suggests (and perhaps we should take heart) that in our next hour of need, the social networks Twitter and Facebook will be used to alert the ANZACs to our plight and that we will be able to depend upon them to once again come to our aid - just as they have done countless times before.