Which earthquake?
Well could be Italy where slow reaction to an earthquake in 2009 was one of the issues that resulted in riots recently.
Could be the Haiti earthquake where poor follow up & corruption has resulted in riots after all the deaths & more recently lynchings over the cholera outbreak.
But no I am talking about the Canterbury earthquake here in New Zealand.
Bureaucrats at all levels have been using any excuse to not do anything.
In the last few days more examples have come to light.
New Zealanders do not like to complain but the anger is building so much underneath that they need to start complaining soon as a release. There is some release on talkback radio as it acts as a bit of a pressure release valve, but this time I don't think it will be anywhere near enough.
The bureaucrats are not living in the real world & yesterdays 'Press' showed some of this though it involved an elected official.
There was an article talking to people who have fled Christchurch for a break since the latest series of shakes. I know talking to some small businesses that clients of theirs had just up & shifted from the city altogether.
Yet in the article below it we have the Deputy Mayor saying how people just shrug them off & carry on now. Some of us do but many, & I have been surprised by who & how many, are just not handling it.
Disaster Recovery
But it has not been helped by the corrupt bureaucrats.
EQC(earthquake commission), which is a unique form of insurance company(the only one of its type in the world apparently), for example has been using every excuse in the book to decline claims or put people off.
People living in their houses know what is normal around their property & what isn't. Yet when one person has rung on at least four occassions, they have been told that geotech engineers have been around that area & there is no issues with their land.
Well right from the start there have been comments like that, but very few people have seen these engineers & each property is different. They actually need to visit every single property in Canterbury not just Christchurch & listen to what the people who live there have to say.
Though EQC has sacked some 'not understanding' inspectors/assessors people will find it is just a manipulation to not do anything. Its like since the shakes on the 26th many people are reporting they can't get through to report new damage.
High Availability and Disaster Recovery: Concepts, Design, Implementation
For me in a commercial lease with an apartment warehouse EQC doesn't get involved but it is no different. Though the owners would like things fixed to ensure their property remains viable. But then enters the corrupt bureaucrat known as the body corporate representative.
They have taken the attitude that nothing needs fixing & any excuse will do. They even had the effrontery to tell me a noise I had been hearing in the roof over the previous week, didn't happen.
Suffice to say he got his pedigree given to him for calling me a liar. I don't lie. It is probably my greatest strength therefore weakness. Also been a former soldier, as another former soldier said to me, we get in tune with our surroundings. Helps the two of us in our security work but also in other areas. We know when something is not right & it is not paranoia.
In the same vein I don't think most people are actually lying about what they feel in their properties. Bureaucrats dismiss those feelings at their peril.
Disaster Preparedness: A memoir
This sort of behavour results in the story of the Minister of Earthquake recovery not wanting the area close to his fixed until after the revaluations have finished getting widely spread.
As I say not sure if it is true, but people will believe it if nothing is been done or excuses been used to not do anything. One thing we do know is that those areas where it is 'thought to be unaffected' prices of properties have jumped whilst they have dropped in the areas seen as 'badly hit'.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Disaster Preparedness
Then there is the fact that it is not just a Christchurch city issue even though the main focus is there but wider throughout the Central & lower North Canterbury area.
Up until the wee shakes on the 26th Christchurch had felt few of late as they were localized in particular around Rolleston. As people found out small localized & shallow quakes can seem very strong but not felt elsewhere.
Probably the biggest difference is Christchurch is built on a swamp & Rolleston is on very hard ground. I know I have dug there.
So we don't hear much about the other damage out that way.
The one glaring bureaucratic answer that people noted in relation to the country area was when asked about how farmers could be helped to fix their land with a large crack in it the Minister of Recovery replied along the lines "well we will have to work out what type of crack it is".
Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis
If that is not a do nothing statement feed to him by a bureaucrat I am not sure what is.
Then there have been the insurance companies who are suddenly changing the amounts paid to businesses for loss of custom. The reasoning is that with the earthquake they wouldn't be having the same amount of custom coming to their businesses.
Excuse me?
Isn't that why you have business disruption insurance?
Then there are the householders finding insurance companies not been helpful or they are not as insured as much as they thought they were.
Financial Reckoning Day Fallout: Surviving Today's Global Depression
It is something I have had debates with members of the insurance industry about in how the liability insurance for business was costing more each year but covering less & less.
Or how the liability insurance for company directors actually covers you for very little as the directors of finance companies here in New Zealand have found out.
Just more bureaucrats using any excuse to not do something which amounts to corruption.
If the predicted large shakes on about the 20th March 2011(actually if you read the material time is about 10.44am on the 20th using astrology) are shallow enough to cause more damage I think the bureaucrats will find that their excuses no longer wash if it all hasn't come to a head sooner.
The continuing financial crisis is only going to raise the tension.
Apart from immediately following the initial quake there has been no real leadership shown & the frustrating methods probably showed best when the Mayor of Christchurch made his comment "I am over democracy" when there was a request to have another debate prior to the local body elections.
Corruption is essential for the forms of democracy we have now to work. That is to ensure what the people want (like action after a disaster) doesn't actually happen. Then peoples reactions give the powers that be the excuse to give themselves more power.
Not that the likes of police don't need more power but it will just give the powers that be an excuse (like the Patriot act in the US) to give themselves unchallenged powers.
http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz
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