It’s the 9th of January 2025 today and I don’t need to quote this news from any news site because it’s on every news site.

BBC News has a live update on their website and as I am preparing this the headline reads “Like Armageddon: Five fires rage in Los Angeles, with whole communities destroyed”. The lede is: “The two largest fires – in Palisades and Eaton – cover more than 27,000 acres in total and are 0% contained.”

27,000 acres and 0% contained.

There is a stream of news coming in.

The rich and famous are not spared, they lost their houses just like everybody else. Shops, restaurants, neighbourhoods, a Bunny Museum, all gone.

Five people died. Police investigating.

Early reports said something about fire hydrants with no water. Low water pressure. Water reservoir not filled. Mayor was away in Ghana?

Once the fire goes out, as it surely must, we will know better what was the damage and what went wrong.

Today’s episode of Daily Monsoon will just be a short one. I just want to put two pictures side by side to make a sobering point.

On the left, you have a picture of the rich and famous. We have millionaires, billionaires, trillionaires, living in these areas. We have world famous celebrities. Hollywood is here. California is the richest state in the richest country in the world. Hollywood is here. Silicon Valley is here. Tech companies, all the tech companies with all the brightest minds of the world.

Where else in the world would you have a higher concentration of wealth, cultural power, technological prowess and massive belief in self-determinism?

That’s the picture on the left. Now look at the picture on the right. Look at the bright raging fires, the giant columns of smoke and the embers and black ash.

When earthquakes hit, when hurricanes hit, when forest fires hit, it is also a time for mankind to pause and reflect on what insurance companies call, acts of God.

We should take a good hard look at the two pictures. Man often acts as if he has conquered Nature. That he is above all created things. No, man. A fire like this in a place like this calls for serious reflection on mankind’s boast and belief in itself.

I may come back to the California fires in future episodes. For now, I just pray the fire dies out fast before there is nothing left to save. God have mercy on us all.