I meant to write about the Bali bombings a few days ago but life gets in the way.

At this time I always deliberately think back to the events associated with the Bali bombings and the manner in which my friends and colleagues at the Royal Darwin Hospital and in Darwin generally responded.

Since that time, I now count as three of my closest friends, three men who were intimately involved in the operation to repatriate, resuscitate and redistribute the injured burns patients to burns treatment centres around Australia. The RDH outdid itself with the resuscitation and immediate care and it went on to look after all the non-burns trauma and orthopædic patients. One of those men remains in Darwin and is in a position where he can do enormous good for the people of the Northern Territory. The other two men live in Canberra. They also work in positions that do enormous good for Australians who are affected by disaster. I’d prefer the events of 12 October 2002 in Bali never occurred but I’m grateful for the friendship of these three men strengthened by the events of that time.

If you want to know more of what happened in Darwin check out this post from my old blog.

As a public servant I will not comment on our government’s national security policies, however, what I will say is that there are people in the world who are seriously disturbed. It would be great if they could be rehabilitated and convinced that peace is better and no matter what one may believe, violence is never a part of the answer. That isn’t the reality and so national security is important. Helping officials in our law enforcement and security agencies to do their job is important. They are good people doing a job that is necessary. What we all can do though is live peaceful lives and try to ensure we influence others in living a life of peace that extends to other humans, animals and our environment. Peace be with you.