Perspective on the Earthquake

Today my firm [which is actually mine] made a reasonably large donation to the Student Volunteer Army .  

 As I wrote to a couple of colleagues today - "I made a donation to the student volunteer army this morning  - 10,000 of them who apparently clean up streets, remove liquefaction and rubble. I thought the best thing was to help the majority have as great a sense of normality as possible – less than 2000 physically injured but probably 400,000 distressed and dislocated".

I know the usual thing is to give to the immediate supporters and rescuers - and it's great that many people will do that - but on Tuesday 22 February I was on the phone with my daughter as she walked down one of the four avenues of Christchurch - and I just want her and all the people walking those streets on that day with that mix of fear, disbelief and courage to have something that says "it's going to be fine."

These students, doing what they can, using the simplest human tools of connection and organisation to achieve their aims, are helping to make it fine. And fast! You see Haiti a year on looking as devastated as it was on the day of its earthquake. That won't be the case in Christchurch. There may be quite a few gaps [hopefully gravelled with a couple of park benches and a tree]  but I think it will look fairly tidy.

Second, I decided I would like to go and live in Christchurch in the future.

The commitment to live there is because I think it's going to be one of the most exciting places to be in New Zealand for the foreseeable future. But they will need people who haven't lived through two earthquakes and who don't have the images of destruction and loss in their minds,  to help make it happen.

In my head is the image of the Napier earthquake and how it led to the building of amazing  buildings in Napier - the cutting edge of the 1930's and, with Miami, one of the  treasure troves of the Art Deco style. I wonder how that happened?

Leap-frogging over the present devastation as if it was a mere moment in time [which it is]  I'm envisaging this fantastic safe, most modern city in the world outside Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai, with an amazing eco-friendly, people-friendly, earthquake proof [important]  New Zealand twist.