VISION CHRISTCHURCH - Resilient and Sustainable Public Forums for Re-envisioning our City

The city of Christchurch has been devastated by the February ’11 earthquake. In the rebuild, it is vital that the people of the city have proper engagement. Decisions must not be left to central government to make without adequate public consultation and input. We have a unique opportunity here to develop a strategic vision for a new city based on 21st century values and technology.
This first of a series of three public forums invites the public to make that input into the future of Christchurch. We suggest that three principles be recognised:
- community resilience
- risk management
- ecological integrity

Peering into the Abyss: The Red Zone of Christchurch

In a very compelling sense, I never really wanted this.

Under the custodianship of the National Controller and a USAR colleague, I entered the Red Zone today. Frustrated at the political machinations of inter-party politics, I requested a one-on-one visit and, to my surprise, was given it. Adorned with hard hat and jacket, and having signed away my life, in we went.

Today I peered directly into the abyss that is the broken heart of Christchurch.

Along with all others I have seen the photographs that have circumnavigated the world. And I have, since week 1, been in the yellow zone that includes my office and the Art Gallery, almost on a daily basis. I know how crumpled buildings look. I know what it is to sense death among the rubble.

Yet nothing prepares you for the inner city.

Imagining a green manifesto

by Claire Browning

The Greens’ policy platform needs as much rebuilding as any other party’s, to make it strong and sustainable


When I was a child, before I put away childish things, about, well, a year or so ago, I used to think that eventually, if I kept my ears open, the Greens would explain themselves to me; if I kept my eyes open, I would figure them out. They had a communications problem, I thought.
I was wrong. Communication is not the problem. In fact, I think that the Greens present a pretty true picture of themselves, and get reported pretty accurately, on the whole.

At Last, the Tears

First it was the shock. Then it was the shovelling, then the door-knocking, then the food delivery and ‘informal’ counselling.  We have tried, in our myriad ways, to help.  Adrenalin relentlessly drove us through the early climactic days.  The sheer intensity of physical effort successfully kept the emotions at bay.

That can never last, nor should it. Today the emotion came, sweeping over us all like a tsunami. 

A memorial service was held at Burnside High yesterday, for the victims from just one tragic address – the CTV building.  Even more specifically, the staff and students of King’s Education, the language school housed on the 3^rd floor. 

Out of the 180 presumed dead across the city, 80 (71 students, 9 staff) are from King’s Education alone.  Five staff, all 71 students, were foreign citizens.  28 were from Japan. New Zealand was, effectively, remembering the visitors among us – they who chose this land for the opportunity of a lifetime. 

A mournful flute caresses the faces of cheerful students, recently deceased, their trusting smiles beamed onto a giant screen before a packed, and hushed, auditorium. 

Ngāi Tahu’s Mark Solomon gives the whakatau.  Dean Peter Beck officiates (“This is so hard”.)  Mayor Bob Parker apologises to the world for the anger of Papatuanuku. 

We all pray. 

Prue Taylor, widow of deceased head of the school, Brian, reads the lesson – dignity and beauty personified in the moment of grief. Two pākehā men, members of the Board, struggle through their tributes – Southern men, constricted of throat.  Pui Mungkorn, a recent graduate, bids farewell to four Thai compatriots in beautiful, halting English.  Margaret Aydon, staff survivor, bespeaks her love for nine colleagues.

Yet it is the music that brings on the tears.  Graeme Wardop’s Let It Be – my very own vintage.  Once the tears come, they just roll on of their own accord.  Emily Twemlow sings You Are My Sunshine – the school favourite. She staggers back, flops into her chair, wracked with sobbing.   

Gerardo Torres, of Peru, sings a song of farewell to his sister Elsa, head teacher, deceased.  Raw Latin emotion sweeps over New Zealand’s cosmopolitan crowd.

I speak later with Chan, Malaysian Kiwi who provided homestays for King’s students. On Monday 21^st, he had introduced four young Filipina women to King’s Education.  They had registered, taken tests, and got themselves ready for their first day of tuition in English on the Tuesday.  Tuesday, 22^nd, they had duly turned up.  Day 1 was their last.

Chan himself had been in the building that morning to see the Director, and had walked out at 11.30 a.m., into the fresh air.

And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree,
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
There will be an answer, let it be.

Greens get out to hard hit Christchurch suburbs

Seeing the destruction of Christchurch has been tough for Ilam based Green MP Dr Kennedy Graham. Kennedy and many Cantabrian Green Party members have been doing their best to regroup and organise help for Christchurch residents. These Green teams have been going door to door offering what assistance they can - concentrating on the hard hit eastern suburbs.

Cry the Beloved City

I am engaged in an official lunch in Parliament when the news comes in. I move to the side of the room for cell-phone privacy. I cannot get through to my wife. I get my sister-in-law; she is seriously distressed. I contact Grace, my colleague in the Green office in the CBD. She is fleeing the city in her car. She does not frighten easily but her voice is quavering. I do not worry easily but I fear for my wife. Then she phones – calm and in control. I begin to breathe again, to think more clearly.

A Week in Town can be a Long Time

One week after the 7.1, and we are all facing challenges here in Christchurch. To a strange extent these are shared and yet individually unique.

Above all there are those who have lost homes. I know a few personally. They shrug it off, avoiding self-pity. They help others, even as they struggle to sort their own lives. My Labour colleague, Brendon Burns, is one.

Thoughts above Saudi Arabia

It is 30 hours since I flew out of Christchurch, 24 since I was flying over Australia’s Nullabor, 2 hours since taking off from Dubai.

I am en route to Kampala, Uganda. The parties to the International Criminal Court are holding their first Review Conference, eight years after the Court’s jurisdiction came into force. New Zealand is a party, with 109 others. I shall blog more on that later. Suffice to say, for the allayment of public concern, that I am going at no cost to the nation’s taxpayer of whom I am one, nor even the consumer of whom I am one.