In times of desperation

As I watched the newscast last week where the people in a town in the northern Indian state of Bihar were stricken and devastated by flood waters, I couldn't help but notice the reporter's words on how the residents were fighting for the food being released from the helicopters bringing in relief supplies. This brought to mind, the basics of humanity and how we all react when confronted by desperate situations. I was at Ontario Place, Toronto a year ago and a crowd of probably a thousand or more had converged on the TTC station to get the street car back to the city centre.

The small street cars were still running at the usual schedule of 10 minutes or less and the crowd grew restless and started pushing/shoving each other and the customary queue disappeared. In Canada, we are not accustomed to these desperate situations however by the example I have outlined there are no exceptions when they do happen, desperate circumstances almost certainly provokes desperate responses, not just in the developing world.