Christchurch Earthquake

It has been a huge three weeks since September 4th... and we weren't even in Christchurch then. Yes, we were sooo lucky not to experience the 7.1 earthquake that happenned at 4:35am on that fateful Saturday.

We were in Wanaka on a ski holiday, we were woken by a 3.6 earthquake centred up on the Snowfarm. About 20 minutes later I had a text from our security company to say that the power had gone off in our house. We thought nothing about it, other than someone had driven into a power pole.

We heard about the earthquake when we arrived in the Wanaka carpark from our neighbour who thought we were home and was concerned about our wellbeing. Subsequent calls established that our house was still standing and intact. She sounded very shaken... so to speak.

We agreed that there was nothing we could do so decided to ski for the day and return as planned on the Sunday. It was very surreil skiing around knowing what had happenned in Christchurch.

We kept watch on the news about the devastation that night and at first light went into Wanaka and absolutely packed the car with food, water, a generator and other hardware items.

We didn't get away until about 11am and after a 4 1/2 hour drive approached Christchurch. At first everything seemsed normal. It wasn't until we apprached Hornby, and then Halswell that we saw increasing damage.

A warehouse with huge dents and holes from the inside where racks and machinery had fallen through walls, broken windows, leaning walls, then slow signs and pushed up and cracked roads on Halswell Junction Rd. As we drove into Halswell there were many people digging huge piles of liquifaction sand out of their driveways. It was a 10km slalom course down the road. There were garden walls down and chimneys missing from houses. On the corner of Halswell Junction and Halswell Rds the road was severely cracked and down to one lane.

The school looked OK except the large tree out the fron of the admin block had split. Larsons Rd was impassable due to a crack about 15-20cm running right across it. We drove around the Glovers Rd and drove slowely up to our house around the liquifaction sand, man holes, which had been pushed about 30cm out of the ground all the way up the street and the cracked roads.

We arrived home about 16 hours after the first quake.

We arrived home and the gates opened, good for two reasons, they were straight and still worked and, of course, we had power. The driveway was intact, the house looked straight and intact. Inside, not so good. We entred. More to come.

Democracy in New Zealand?

Isn't is amazing how you get more interested in politics as you get older. Until recently I never really understood or cared how the system worked. Now I have a partial understanding of Democracy I would like to state that in my opinion I do not think that Democracy is democratic at all.

This is a letter that I sent to the leader of the National Party on the 3rd of May 2007.

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Dear John

Congratulation on your compromise with Ms Clark and Ms Bradford’s ‘anti-parenting’ bill. I fully understand your position on this matter and feel that a compromise was the best thing that you could have done.

It seems to me that at present, politicians lobby for my vote making election promises. As I voter I choose the party whose promises I feel will bring the best result for the country and the standard of living. But then with MMP the parties need to compromise their promised with the agendas of other parties. This is where the people do not get ANY say in the final result.

At present in New Zealand if they disagree with an issue the public can sign a petition to force a referendum. Great. But the government has the option to ignore the results of these referendums. So what is the point other than to publicise a poll on the issue.

I received a letter from Ruth Dyson in response to my objection to the anti smacking bill that states that the vast majority of New Zealanders support her, and the Labour Party’s view on the bill before it was amended. I strongly doubted this statement but could not find any figures one way or the other.

I would like to have a vote, or at least a say in a poll on individual issues more often.

The vast majority of New Zealanders would agree with me. I can make unverified claims like that if Ruth Dyson does. :-)

Is it feasible to hold official and secure online opinion polls for important issues? The papers and TV do it for their own content but there is not a central New Zealand poling centre that I know of. This could be an important tool for gauging public opinion on issues such as the anti smacking bill..

Is it feasible to change the way referendums are held and the way the results are treated?

"To have an effective democracy we need to re-engage citizens to participate in the decisions that affect their lives."
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy - JFK's daughter, (1957- )

Thank you for your time.

Regards
David Scott

My Politics

Well now what are my politics? New Zealand, One country - one people. Sometimes I thing that this country of ours has gone P.C. mad. I have a few points that I feel strongly about. Bear in mind that these views are not necessarily held by my family, I am not highly educated in the specific areas of New Zealand History or Politics. The Waitangi issue where it seems that the taxpayer pay huge amounts of compensation to the Maori for 'crimes' committed as retaliatory war actions by the British government over 150 years ago. It's not that I don't want the Maori people to get a fair deal or, Maori folk to get ahead but the huge payments made to Iwi to date seem only to benefit a very small number of charlatans. It does not seem to be about justice and compensation any more, just the greed of a few people. I feel that the Maori people, every Iwi, need their grievances address ONE LAST TIME so that New Zealand can look to the future and not its past. I believe that each and every Iwi need to then take responsibility for the actions of the people administrating their wealth. I am not racist! I hate bigoted people. Racism though is Maori-only seats in parliament and lower tax rates for Maori. (Although seeing how much confidence it gave the Maori people to be able to control their future by having a Maori Party in Parliament makes me re-think this statement.) "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves." Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) Waitangi Day - why do we celebrate a day in history that is infamous for it's inaccuracy's. The Waitangi document was flawed because it was not translated accurately. New Zealand's Independence Day was on the 25th November 1947 when legislation was passed that granted New Zealand its independence. New Zealand Day should be celebrated on November 25th each year. "Maybe it's also time to take a fresh look at our national day. As Waitangi Day is again gearing up to be another day of protest and trouble, is it appropriate to consider celebrating the anniversary of New Zealand becoming a fully independent nation - the 25th of November 1947, the day the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act was passed - rather than the 6th of February 1840, the day Aotearoa ceded sovereignty to Britain to become ruled by the Governor of New South Wales?" Dr Muriel Newman’s - ACT MP in her Weekly Political Commentary publication 17th January 2003. Think what you like about Winston Peters, but the man who is surely the country's most determined political nationalist neatly summed up a national phenomenon in a speech this time last year. "Each year we have an annual tension," the New Zealand First leader told the audience. "For about six weeks before February 6 we wonder: what fun and games will we witness this year... What national embarrassment will there be on Waitangi Day?" And he offered this observation: "New Zealand must be the only country where most of its inhabitants dread their national day. That is sad, and it's a sign of an immature country that still has much to learn and is still in search of its own identity." Excert taken from The Press, Saturday & Sunday, February 1 - 2, 2003. Politicians don't seem to listen to the people. Two referendums taken in 2002 that received over a 90% result were completely ignore by the government. Less politicians in parliament and stricter punishment for violent offenders. It's for the politicians to work for the people again rather than their own interests. Referendums are a tool that the Government should use to gauge public interest and ALWAYS act upon the results. More referendums should taken to gauge what the public want, the results should be acted upon. "To have an effective democracy we need to re-engage citizens to participate in the decisions that effect their lives." Caroline Bouvier Kennedy - JFK's daughter, (1957- ) New Zealand Day The first meeting of the New Zealand Parliament took place in Auckland on 24 May 1854. Its almost 100 years since New Zealand became a Dominion in 1907. Its 150 years since New Zealand achieved Parliamentary Government in 1854, an event we can celebrate in July 2004 as one of the world's oldest parliamentary democracies. Since Canada was the first and archetypical self-governing unit of the Empire (apart from New Zealand, which had had self-government since 1852. The European settlers of New Zealand were granted responsible self-government in 1853. For instance, New Zealand-built ships could not be entered in British shipping registers - in 1829, it was decided that two New Zealand-built ships were stateless. Busby thought to solve the problem by "recognising" a pre-existing nation state. He and some Waitangi chiefs invented a flag in 1834 to furnish the legal form. The year following, 1835, Busby hoisted the flag fiction further by encouraging the creation of a body called the United Tribes of New Zealand. Here was Busby trying again to establish a credible sovereign body, complete with regular assemblies, which could and would make formal decisions. Acquiring sovereignty became the goal of England's representatives. The acceptability of British title would be enhanced if this acquisition was well managed. As we know, 155 years later, its management was slipshod. Waitangi was a ridiculously hurried affair. The drafting of the Treaty itself was semi-improvised. The standard of translation was dreadful. There is no agreeably clear way of distinguishing between what was said and what was meant. Prime Ministers of New Zealand