How Stupid Some People Can Be

**Mayet** · January 19th, 2006, 01:03 PM

Over the last few days our local media has been bombarded with reports of a crocodile, who was spotted swimming next to one of our beach enclosures in the northern beaches suburb of Kewarra Beach.

Some pics of Kewarra Bach

Kewarra Beach is beautiful, It has a netted swimming enclosure which is manned by lifeguards and theres an undercover free gas BBQ picnic area with a little kids playground there and other facilities.

All over the newspapers and special broadcasts on the radio and tv were warning people about the sighting of the croc. In our town we get to know the hazzards after a while, you cannot swim in unetted sea between Nov and June dude to box jellyfish, irikandji and year round there is croc danger along with sharks and well suffice to say, we get used to being careful. Our town is the 2nd top tourist destination of Australia. Not even six months have passed since the last guy got taken and killed by a croc, just a little north of here. Theres been a box jellyfish death this week of a seven year old girl and two other local beches were closed at same time after they dragged the enclosures and found irikandji (a tiny tiny critter that causes death pretty quick.) They usually kill, within the city limit beaches around 4 people yearly, with many others hospitalized.

Anyway yesterday and the day before as i said every five minutes they had warnings over the radio, telling pople not to take children or animals on to the beach due to the croc. The TV warning were thick and fast and the towns gossip mills were grinding away talking about the danger.

Yesterday afternoon I took the kids for a drive and ended up at Kewarra Beach. We all piled out of the car and I said to them the first one that goes down on the sand will be the blame for cutting a nice afternoon short. So the kids started playing in the playground. Brodie sat on the edge of the playground where the sand begins trying his hardest to build a sandcastle (to no avail) so he dug a big hole instead. Krystal and I sat on the benches there and chatted while we relaxed looking out to sea at the reef islands.

What amazed me was this... the enclosure had red flags flying everywhere. Danger No swimming signs had also been erected everywhere. The lifeguard sat on his chair in front of the little wooden hut looking rather bored as his job for the day was only to stop people from swimming in the enclosure.

But there was, in the time I was playing with the kids, at least five groups with small children go down to the beach and three groups of people walking dogs, along with two fishermen (one with three young kids) fishing. The kids were all splashing in the water and the dogs were all being walked along waters edge and the fishing family was all splashing around too.

The lifeguard just looked at them all and shook his head, wasn't his job, his job was to keep people out of the enclosure waters.

How totally stupid and idiotic. all the resorts would have warned guests, as I said it was blitzed in the media and here was all these people seemingly not giving a damn and putting small childrens lives at risk as well as Fluffy's and fido's. Are people that Blase' about these things?

If you had been warned of a croc (two metres long) spotted swimming right next to a nettted patrolled beach area would you take your kids or even your pet there and expose them to it?

Of course when my kids saw other kids splashing at waters edge they wanted to go down there to and couldnt understand why mummy said no..

So are people blind, deaf, mad or just plain stupid?

As it was we were at another beach today picking up shells and Brodie pointed out to sea and said look mummy sea monster.. i dont think you've ever seen someone grab small children and remove them from the beach so fast. Even the thought that his sea monster might have been a croc was enough for me.

**Stalemate** · January 19th, 2006, 01:54 PM

"It only happens to other people."

**slgrieb** · January 19th, 2006, 06:49 PM

Well, Mayet, I think the saying "nothing can be made fool-proof because the ingenuity of fools is limitless" may apply here.

**Tecumseh** · January 19th, 2006, 09:01 PM

"So are people blind, deaf, mad or just plain stupid?"

I am afraid, all of the above. I sometimes get the feeling that a sub-species is evolving on this planet, just a few steps up from pond scum.

BTW those pics of the beach are awesome. Stunningly beautiful locale.