Lessons for New York

Hurricane Sandy – lessons from Down-Under

by Seemorerocks

After the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand it was clear to me from the outset that there would be no meaningful reconstruction of the quake-stricken city in the context of the collapse of human and industrial society.

I had to be careful back then who I said this to; it even evinced a strong and emotional denial from at least one person in the Lifeboat movement based in Canterbury.

However, two years later my 'way-out' comments have been vindIcated. Every time I listen to the radio and anyone resident in Christchurch is able to say what they feel, they express the exhaustion and rage of a person living in a city where they are (after two years) still having to live (every day) with the consequences of the earthquake.

Many people still haven't sorted out insurance cases and are in the midst of a Kafkaesque situation of getting no answers (let alone solutions) from the government, earthquake recovery authority or insurance companies. Many, despite not necessarily being poverty-stricken, are still living in temporary accommodation.

Despite this, we are regularly fed rhetoric from government and media about the 'Christchurch rebuild' and the supposed 'benefits' to the New Zealand economy.

'Reconstruction' does not mean that people in the devastated eastern suburbs get rehomed – rather, it means that Christchurch is promised a new (and expensive) convention centre and a covered stadium that the people and, by-and-large the local city council, do not want – but is being forced on them by a central government that has imposed dictatorial powers.

In addition, the exhausted people of Christchurch are struggling to stop having their schools closed as part of a right-wing 'shock doctrine' government programme to privatize education and introduce charter schools.

The people of Christchurch would also like to have their democracy back - 
the regional council was sacked by a government Order in Council and replaced by government-appointed commissioners to deliver the results that the government wants - mostly in the area of water rights.

Essentially, Christchurch is part of a government-led social experiment.

I hear from a friend in Japan that only token reconstruction is happening. He revealed that 25% of funds earmarked for recovery are being spent on unrelated projects.

When we hear about the opportunities of disaster for stimulating the economy

as a result of the disaster I have to laugh. 

 It is, as my friend in Japan says, just 'Keynsian crap'.

You just have to ask the people of Christchurch or Japan (and try the people of Haiti!) about how disasters have stimulated their economies.

So in covering the events in the eastern United States, I feel great compassion. There are others who have gone through this before.

When I hear people being interviewed, I hear exhaustion and grief in community leaders' voices as they describe the devastation - also a certain half-heartedness in the promise to rebuild It is as if the head tells them what the heart cannot believe.

Take, for example this interview with New York Governor Cuomo, who says of the subway station they stand in -  "this is a reconstruction", and talks of "a new reality"

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I am sure that when many people in Christchurch hear in the media that well-heeled New Yorkers are insured, it just evokes an empty laugh.

They know what the reality of living post-catastrophe is.