I come from York, a small city in the north of England. It’s a beautiful and historic place, full of ancient sites that show its roots as a Viking and Roman settlement. Just a couple of kilometres from my childhood home is the famous 13th century cathedral, York Minster, and the beginning of the Bar Walls — the mediaeval defences built by the Romans in 71 AD. The River Ouse runs through the city centre and its banks are lined with parks, cafes and bars.
For the millions of tourists that visit York each year, it’s an amazing place. But if you’re a teenager growing up there, it can seem like nothing ever happens. No famous bands have ever started in York, no movie stars were born there and it rarely makes the national news.
So it’s always strange when something does happen and my little hometown hits the headlines. As we were putting this issue together, the UK was hit by some heavy winter storms, and in some areas of northern England the flood defences failed. Newspapers, including the Bangkok Post, had pictures of flooded communities, including some houses very close to my mother’s home.
The odd thing about these pictures is that they’re beautiful. The bright and low winter sun is reflected in the rising water, as are the historic sandstone buildings. The city in the pictures looks peaceful, without the usual rush of cars and people.
What the pictures don’t show is the damage done by the flood waters. As anybody who was affected by flooding in Thailand in recent years will remember, it’s devastating when filthy, polluted water rushes unstoppably into your home. Water can ruin everything in your house, and when the river is overflowing and heading towards your door, there’s very little you can do to stop it.
Luckily, my mother’s house was unaffected by the floods, but many thousands of households were damaged. It seems that as much as we try to predict and control the weather, nature has its own ideas. Let’s hope that Bangkok avoids any meteorological drama this year, and that the seasons behave as they should. Although as novelist Mark Twain once wrote, “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.”
Gary Boyle
Sub-Editor
[email protected]
