Are you also asking....

....What on earth is going on?

Barely 3 weeks after Christchurch suffered its second earthquake in 5 months and the most deadly in New Zealand's recent history, Japan has been struck by an 8.9 whopper and a 10m tsunami that carried all before it. I, like, millions of others across the globe watched the images of ships, houses, bridges and cars swept aside like matchsticks before the onslaught of the tidal wave. When I went to bed on Friday night (Perth time), the farthest reaches of the Pacific Ocean had been alerted to the possibility of the tsunami hitting their shores. Hawai, Russia, the US west coast, etc. Although none of these places suffered any major damage, for Japan, things have gotten rather worse. A nuclear power station has suffered a massive explosion and authorities have confirmed a huge jump in radiation levels.

At last count, over a 1,000 people are confirmed dead and many thousands more missing. The devastation is extraordinary. Seismic experts, according to the News.com.au website, adjudge the Japan earthquake to have been 8,000 times more powerful than the recent Christchurch earthquake. 

This is the latest in a series of violent cataclysms and strange events that have captured the attention of everyone on earth over the last 12 months, at least. Birds falling out of the sky en masse, dead fish washing up on beaches in their millions, violent and increasing frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, ad infinitum. Barely a week before the Japan earthquake, hundreds of dead fish (mackerel?) washed up on the shores of Western Australia, and millions of dead sardines choked a little marina south of Los Angeles. This is quite apart from the Iceland volcanic eruption and subsequent ash cloud that paralysed European air travel for several days, or the Indonesian volcano that spewed out similar clouds of smoke. Need one go into the Chilean earthquake, and all the others that have happened within this period of time? What about the devastating floods and cyclones that Australia has endured over the past few months? In fact, while one part of the country was battered by rain and water, another part was battling wildfire. 

Shall one speak of food riots that broke out in several countries over the past year? Small scale, no doubt, but a food riot is a food riot. It says there isn't enough to go around. Or, at least, there isn't enough actually going around - which is probably more accurate. 

And what of the events in North Africa and parts of the Middle East, where a frustrated populace has decided to give their hoary old dictators the heave-ho, and take matters into their own hands. Or, so they think. 

One might be forgiven for thinking that the whole world had gone mad. Coming on the heels of the events of 2007 and 2008 that resulted in a global financial meltdown that we haven't seen the last of, it would not be surprising to hear people wonder where the world of peace and prosperity promised by the likes of Barack Obama, and Tony Blair, and the Asian tigers is? Death and destruction lies all around us. 

Where indeed is the peace, and the prosperity?  The unlimited economic growth? The inexorable progress of man towards divinity and unimaginable excellence? The evolution, if you will, upwards and onwards...?

Now, this may sound simplistic, but for the real answers you need to go back to the very beginning. To the very beginning of man. To the Bible, and the book of Genesis - the book of beginnings?

Oh? You don't believe in the Bible, you say? You don't believe in the God of the Bible?

That's ok. Nobody's perfect.

Stay tuned.