What I See with Peter Fiorenza: Charity party and cyclone panic buying show contrasting shades of human nature

Human nature never ceases to amaze me. This has only been reinforced in recent weeks. A few Saturday evenings ago, I had the pleasure of attending a huge cocktail party hosted by Variety Midwest. It was a great opportunity for many in the community to attend a function where people who are better off than some could put their hands in their pockets and dig deep for a good cause. Variety Midwest is a children’s charity and has for many years supported children and their families who are doing it tough. The beauty of this organisation is that it is all about Mid West kids, with the money staying in the community, with minimal overheads and administration costs. I can tell you, it was heartening to see so many people, shelling out a good quid to attend the event, then buying tickets throughout the night. But it was the generosity demonstrated during the auctions that blew me away, with auctioneer Dean Calver easily raising thousands of dollars from the floor. The donated items were truly amazing — from beautiful jewellery to exotic holidays and a catered degustation at home. This cocktail party was undoubtedly an event that warmed the heart. A week on, and the Geraldton community was warned to prepare for cyclone Narelle. Yes, like many of us, I was a little concerned about what could happen as this fierce rogue storm bore down on our city. The warnings put out by the emergency services would have only heightened community anxiety. But some of the behaviour, to me, was nothing short of selfish. It seemed from the moment the cyclone situation was announced, a lot of people started to panic shop. From buying up big on petrol, to bread, milk, meat and toilet paper, Geraldton people were going crazy. The irregular behaviour almost instantly started greatly affecting the average shopper. Suddenly, the daily routine of dropping in on the way home from work to get the regular litre of milk, some sausages and a loaf of bread simply went out the window. Suddenly, stocks were at a minimum. It wasn’t just people getting in early, it was people stocking up and buying ridiculous amounts, without any thought for others. Purchase orders were ridiculous, including lists such as 10 loaves of bread, litres and litres of milk, meat to fill the freezer to the brim, and lots of bottled water. Yes, we dodged a bullet in respect to cyclone Narelle, but in retrospect the behaviour of many now seems silly, to say the least. The contrast in human nature I’ve seen over the past few weeks is nothing short of remarkable. Peter Fiorenza hosts Sports Shed on Saturday (9am to noon) and Fiorenza on Sunday (10am to noon) on Radio MAMA. He can also be heard on Radio Geraldton