Bad News Is Good News
There is no such thing as bad news
There is a lot of truth in the statement "There is no such thing as bad news". Undoubtedly bad news is bad news for somebody but equally it will be good news and sometimes very good news for someone else. This is undoubtedly the case the world of zoos where in the event of someone being killed or seriously injured by an animal there will be a sharp rise in the number of visitors to the zoo in the days following the accident. I don't quite understand what it is in people which makes them want to do this.
It is not just a zoo phenomenon. People seem drawn to accidents. With modern technology the way it is there can be streams of cars heading to the site of some disaster within a short time of it occurring and so hampering the work of rescue workers.
Life is, happily, not always lost but somewhere someone is suffering. I recollect a huge ship being grounded on the beach in Rhos-on-Sea some years ago. Very bad news for someone. A headache and an expense lasting for some days before it was floated away. Meanwhile Rhos-on-Sea became something of a boom town as spectators streamed in. It was very very good news for Rhos and expensive bad news for the ship owners.
On Sunday the 28th March a man climbed into the elephant enclosure at the Mumbai Byculla Zoo. Why he did it we will never know. Some say he was drunk and others that he was high on drugs. Perhaps he was mentally disturbed or even a combination of all three. Without knowing more of the situation it really should be looked upon as a sad state of affairs. He could be me, or you for that matter. None of us is ever that far from the edge whether we realise it or not.
He was killed of course. Elephants do not take too kindly to someone intruding on their territory and particularly someone who is behaving oddly. It wasn't the elephants fault. She just did what came naturally. The elephant in this case was Lakshmi, an animal of normally good temperament. Her companion Anarkali does not appear to have had any involvement in the unfortunate incident.
As can be expected the number of visitors to the Mumbai Byculla Zoo have shot up since the accident with an extra special interest being shown in the elephants. On Tuesday the 30th March 2010 the elephants are still locked away. The behaviour of Lakshmi was so out of character that the zoo authorities thought it better to keep them locked away as a precaution and to observe.
Meanwhile the Zoo takings will have shot up. A man has died and so the zoo profits. It is all very sad really. One of the zoo staff has described Lakshmi as a 'Heroine' though I think that maybe he really means a 'Star'. I know just what he means. Meanwhile I feel sorrow for the man and his family wherever and whoever they are.
It is likely that the zoo will continue to have a steady rise in takings over the coming days as the incident remains fresh in peoples minds and on pages one to three of the newspapers.
Sadly Bad News is Good News for some.
