Posts by Lilith __
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Hard News: The Political Lie, in reply to Sacha,
Tolerating lying behaviour undermines legitimate authority. Worth refreshing our memory of what holding a liar to account actually looks like:
Yay for journos who press the point!! At least long enough for a lying politician to dig a good deep hole.
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Hard News: Three months after, in reply to Rob Stowell,
you can virtually stroll through the central city in google streetview- and the buildings are still there
Yes. I downloaded an overlay of part of the city taken on the Thursday after the quake, and looked at my stricken neighbourhood, wondering where I was when the shots were taken...and I scrolled in towards town, and suddenly I went over the edge of the overlay, and saw the beautiful city, intact again.
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I think it's OK to change policy because of new evidence or changed circumstances, as long as it's an open and transparent process. The earthquake levy propsed by the Greens would have been that: a tax rise to pay for a natural disaster, clearly marked as such.
The political lies that rankle most with me are the self-justifying, position-protecting ones about what particular people did or didn't know. Or what they personally authorised. I remember Regan's denials in the Iran Contra Scandal. And I think Key and his Ministers need to square up to the Afghan issue, because if they did know our troops were handing over prisoners to be tortured...yikes, that's really awful. And we deserve a lot better than the evasive statements we're had.
Key's so expert at dodging issues. Remember that time he was challenged to say what early childhood services he would use if he had a young child, and he deflected the whole topic by making jokes about his vasectomy? We don't pay these people to be funny, we pay them to stand up and answer the freaking question.
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Hard News: Three months after, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
despite the shit, it’s still a lovely city
Thanks Robyn, I think so too. But as Russell observes, there’s a mind-boggling amount of work to be done. It may be decades before everything’s been put back together, rebuilt, replaced. I’ve struggled since the quake to even comprehend the scale of the damage; I’ve lived in Chch all my life, and the beautiful, undamaged city is so embedded in my mind that I keep being shocked by the same sights, over and over. The ruined city contradicts my memories at every turn; I have the crazy feeling that the devastation is less real than my memories. I keep expecting to wake up and find the earthquake and its aftermath was all a dream.
In more normal times, when a notable building is demolished, when a water main bursts, when there’s a rockfall from a cliff, when there’s a power cut, or a minor tremor, when someone is tragically killed in an accident, people talk about it for days or weeks, sharing their shock and dismay, or their story of cheating death.
In the last few months, everyone in the city has lived through so many exceptional experiences, even if they haven’t lost a loved one or their home. And the mental and emotional effects are hard to explain to people who haven’t been here.
While I was writing this, my flatmate ran in, shouting with incoherent joy. We’ve just received the longed-for flyer from the council, informing us we can now use our toilet. Hallelujah. :-)
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to David Haywood,
If you moved it 300 metres up Colombo Street to Victoria Square
That would be clever, and I like all this "heat rejection" business! But Victoria Square is already pretty awesome, whereas Cathedral Square seems to have robust "awesomeness rejection" properties. Obviously the Cathedral is nice, and the Chalice, but once you've seen them, there's no reason to go back. We need to find something that will bring people, and encourage them to linger, and come again.
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to JackElder,
I’d love for Christchurch to become the hub of a space program.
+1
Or...Torchwood!
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OK bear in mind I know nothing about any of this, but when I look at the list of things the govt will be spending money on, that one billion dollars for ultrafast broadband kind of leaps off the page. I know they promised, etc., but that hasn't stopped them cutting WFF or looking at asset sales. Given they say they can't fund families to raise children except in "good times", there must be a really huge benefit NZ will get from the ultrafast broadband, right?
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to Steve Barnes,
Thank you Steve, I would *love* a pony! And it means I don't have to mow the lawn, right? Win-win!
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Pre-earthquake, I used buses a lot. And if I was changing buses in town I'd do a whole bunch of errands/shopping in the central city that I could have done elsewhere, but it was convenient to do them between buses.
And what Athfield seems not to understand is that buses are a service, you can't only run them when they will be full. If buses don't run frequently or are inconvenient to use, people don't. The difference between a service that runs every 15 mins versus every half hour is HUGE. And particularly if you are switching from one service to another.
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Southerly: That CERA Rumour, in reply to Emma Hart,
The buses run TO town. They bring people back into the town.
I've heard the suggestion that ONLY buses should be allowed in the CBD, along with pedestrians and cyclists. There'd be parking facilities on the edge of the city centre and loads of free buses/trams shuttling all around the CBD, taking people anywhere they wanted to go. And free loan bikes for those who wanted to cycle around instead, based on the Parisian model.