Public Address | Cafe | Up Front: One

Joe Wylie

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:23:50 +1200

Thanks Kris.
We're all human seismographs now. Don't register the little ones. tend to overrate the big ones.

Kris V

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:28:52 +1200

If it's not considered too ... umm... self-promotey ... I'd like to offer up this perspective on life in Shakeytown over the last year.
Entertaining Shakeytown on RNZ National
It masquerades as a doco about entertainment but there's a bit more than that to the story, as I'm sure all…

Sacha

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:14:08 +1200

But apparently somebody did!

classic :)

Greville Whittle

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 11:06:59 +1200

My work teamed up with the Red Cross and flew a whole lot of volunteers down to Christchurch to help out. They ended up out in the suburbs helping fix up some schools.

We recently saw a video with comments from some of the people who went and they were…

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:32:40 +1200

Bog standard...
But apparently somebody did
Excellent!
Hive mind or morphic resonance d'ya think?

Jolisa

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:14:16 +1200

I am surprised no one has come up with a time travelling portaloo

But apparently somebody did!

BenWilson

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:49:20 +1200

Nah. I don’t think anyone in the world likes being reminded of their grief by becoming an involuntary spectacle.

There's a wide range of norms on this. In especially crowded countries, it's a sensitivity people can't afford. But this is NZ, and local customs should always be respected.

Ross Mason

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:26:22 +1200

A composting toilet might be useful for time travel if you use it as a worm hole......

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:02:42 +1200

Trans Uranic Relief Division In Space*
How do you know we haven’t? ;-)
Good point,
but dammit,
if I know your point
I can't know your speed
or time and vice versa...

hmmmm
I think you are on to something:
motions at a fixed point
potions at a mixed font…

nzlemming

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:06:48 +1200

I am surprised no one has come up with a time travelling portaloo

How do you know we haven't? ;-)

Lilith __

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:59:12 +1200

Time Undoes Real Disasters In Sequence?

OK I tried. ;-)

Jackie Clark

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:52:31 +1200

Yes. Going forward ( I did get it, very clever!), moving on. All completely not useful.

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:51:20 +1200

We also talked about how we hated the word “closure”.
Now that the Big Rugby Festival is almost upon us can I say how much I dislike the phrase "Going forward", everyone knows Sid was a halfback!

Jackie Clark

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:51:11 +1200

Re the disaster tourism thing, Ben, I would agree with Emma and Russell. I still felt a little awkward taking photos from the car, in town, but I would never have wanted to take photos of peoples' houses. Actually, when I came home Ian asked to look at the photos…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:44:18 +1200

Enter the Turdis...
The reflection of the portaloo in the window is a nice touch.
I am surprised no one has come up with a time travelling portaloo, it would be a great disguise for future disaster tourists heading back to view the city in the aftermath and before Bob…

Jackie Clark

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:38:53 +1200

Your column, Emma, made me think of something that happened on Saturday. A friend and I went into a little shop called Starfish, on Ponsonby Rd. Turns out they had relocated from Christchurch, the Cashel Mall to be exact. The two women in the shop had relocated too. We got…

Emma Hart

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:29:36 +1200

Also I think it’s different on a bike.

This. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there is a qualitative difference between being on a bike or on foot, and being in a car.

ETA: don’t know if it’s OK to put the photo here. If not, I quite…

Lilith __

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:17:14 +1200

My first proper trip to the CBD was in late July. One of the most striking things I saw was a little thing: a copy of Feb 22nd’s Press sitting on the bar by the window of a closed-up cafe. The pages were dusty and yellowed. I peered though the…

Lilith __

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:58:56 +1200

Also I think it's different on a bike. You're out in the environment with everyone else, not shut away and anonymised in a car. If you ogle people, they'll ogle you right back. You can also stop anytime and talk to people. It's interactive.

Russell Brown

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:52:53 +1200

It’s a very Kiwi thing, that we don’t think it’s OK to look at people in trouble or misery, that it takes something from them, their pride or dignity. We’ve got a whole set of cultural expectations about where people are allowed to point their eyes, even in public places.…

Russell Brown

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:46:57 +1200

You can “get” Avonside by driving down Fitzgerald Ave, you don’t have to crawl around River Rd pointing.

And yet, riding along River Road on a bike was part of my experience, and without experiencing the creepy hush of Avonside — it actually felt awkward when I occasionally encountered people…

Lilith __

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:17:19 +1200

rubble-neckers

I’m surprised there aren’t more crashes in Chch caused by people distracted by earthquake damage. Sometimes rubbernecking can be almost involuntary…you’re going on past and you have one of those “Holy crap! Look at that!” moments. Everything keeps changing. Every time we have a large aftershock, damage gets worse.…

Sacha

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:19:13 +1200

rubble-neckers

Word o Year contender

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:51:07 +1200

Chchch less than its cracked up to be...
rubberneckers
apparently the term-du-jour is rubble-neckers
(heard on the radio at the weekend)

I think someone posted these videos elsewhere in PAS – but worth a view – a drive around the central city (linked from The Press site)

News in the…

BenWilson

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:28:23 +1200

rather than any stereotype about the behaviour of southern crackers

Hell, no. It's what I'd do, if it happened here. And I fully understand both Emma's and Russell's points about respect for privacy. It's a very Kiwi thing, that we don't think it's OK to look at people in trouble…

Joe Wylie

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:28:45 +1200

Extremely tempting, though. Has anyone at all in Christchurch not been guilty of this behavior?
Seeing as you ask, yes. While I appreciate that your assumption's based on some kind of attempted empathy, rather than any stereotype about the behaviour of southern crackers, such things are a hell of a…

Emma Hart

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:25:39 +1200

but I guess I’m asking whether it’s actually a counterproductive attitude, however understandable. People might follow that message, and go home. Or even just not come in the first place. Is that actually better or worse for the place?

Ben, I'm talking about people living in quiet residential streets tucked…

Russell Brown

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:25:02 +1200

Isn’t disaster tourism one of the only possible good outcomes, keeping all the peripheral business cranking?

Which doesn't account for the feelings of the people who live there. I was very careful about photographs around people's homes, or even just staring too hard. No one wants to feel like an…

BenWilson

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:05:08 +1200

And in residential areas, having people drive really slowly through your streets rubber-necking at your house? Is horrible.

Extremely tempting, though. Has anyone at all in Christchurch not been guilty of this behavior?

Lots of streets had signs up saying things like "If you don't live here, go home."

I…

Joe Wylie

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:23:59 +1200

Quake tourism.

Isaac Freeman

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:20:00 +1200

After the September earthquake, I rather lost hope for Christchurch. I like heritage buildings as much as the next Cantabrian, but the discussion at every public forum seemed to move inexorably to the topic of nineteenth century mortar. The only future we had on offer was a titanic struggle between…

Emma Hart

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:15:02 +1200

After September, Someone was running bus tours through Avonside. That's disgusting. And in residential areas, having people drive really slowly through your streets rubber-necking at your house? Is horrible. Lots of streets had signs up saying things like "If you don't live here, go home."

The central city, though, is…

BenWilson

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:08:17 +1200

I didn't want to be a "disaster tourist". That felt very wrong to me.

That's a tricky one. It has a nasty ring to it as a phrase, but honestly, I don't think too many of the tourists are going to be anything but profoundly sympathetic and will take back…

Robert Urquhart

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:05:34 +1200

this picture is seriously doing my head in.
I don't see the full gallery linked here yet – Facespy
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.171263566282748.40926.132340030175102

Sacha

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:57:32 +1200

that second picture is doing my head in too. Cashel Mall, now a gravel parking lot.

Alice Ronald

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:51:23 +1200

Christchurch-That-Was

I like it.

@Jolisa, that second picture is doing my head in too. Cashel Mall, now a gravel parking lot. And after all that recent work to do it up.

Andre Alessi

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:23:51 +1200

I've never been to Christchurch, neither Christchurch-That-Was nor Christchurch-Now, so my understanding of the impact of the earthquake is horrifically abstract. But I'm reminded daily of the scope of what happened through work-hearing, for example, that we can't send a technician in to an area for at least another year…

Gee

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:22:42 +1200

.if nothing else, it makes me so much angrier at the way insurance companies are behaving. When they screw people like they're screwing red zone homeowners, they're not just stealing the past payments made to them in good faith, they're stealing Christchurch's future. All that effort, turned inward to rebuilding…

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:24:24 +1200

There’s definitely a feeling outside of NZ that we should be ‘over it’ by now, and that ‘insurance will cover everything’ that isn’t loss of life. But so many people are still dealing with the day-to-day coping.

Christchurch has really profoundly changed my attitude to natural disasters, in that before…

Gee

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:29:55 +1200

Thanks for this Emma. It's so strange to hear people dismiss it, now that it's been a year/6 months. There's definitely a feeling outside of NZ that we should be 'over it' by now, and that 'insurance will cover everything' that isn't loss of life. But so many people are…

Jolisa

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:52:37 +1200

Beautifully put, Emma. On Twitter you billed this piece as "a bit wrist-slashy", but personally I found it inspiringly bomb-throwy (if that's not a too, er, incendiary turn of phrase) on behalf of the people of Chch.

And to take everything this last couple of years has thrown at you,…

Sacha

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:56:16 +1200

From the building where my partner used to work, there are about three buildings still standing on the entire block.

See, I'm struggling to imagine that now.

Joe Wylie

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:35:06 +1200

Awaiting the group hug, Chch botanics gardens, Sunday Sep 4.

Megan Wegan

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:40:03 +1200

I blame Megan myself.

I thought we agreed we'd blame Russell

Megan Wegan

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:37:54 +1200

Yep, Emma et al rekindled how I feel about the place too.

When I talked to my Dad about going in, I tried to convey that you really had to see it to believe it. I sobbed driving down barbadoes st, at the catholic cathedral. I cried walking up tuam…

Emma Hart

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:29:00 +1200

All those things that don’t show up on TV, like not having your local shops now.

We got a supermarket back three weeks ago, and about the same time, a Mad Butcher and accompanying greengrocer replaced our Raewood Fresh. Which is a bit of a downgrade, but meant we didn’t…

Russell Brown

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:20:21 +1200

I was saying on Megan’s blog ...

I had the same response as Megan: I was shocked how bleak things were. Not from you guys, or David and Jen — you're all far too polite to be bleak in front of visitors — but from actually spending that time at…

Megan Wegan

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:02:35 +1200

I was slightly disturbed at how much I thought about the Dux. But, on reflection, that bar _was_ Christchurch to me. It, and le cafe, hold many of my favorite memories.

Plus, it's one of the few places Emma and I have never been kicked out of.

Jackie Clark

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:01:03 +1200

When I came down earlier in the year, Kath drove me round some of the more devastated areas, and we had to drive down past Knox Church to get to her new job. She kept asking if I wanted to get out of the car, and take photos, but I…

Emma Hart

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:24:16 +1200

I was saying on Megan's blog that I find I don't really know how to engage in this conversation, because I cannot speak for anyone else's experience. For people who live here, it's ranged from minor inconvenience to total devastation and everything in between. One thing I loved about the…

Russell Brown

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:16:11 +1200

Apart from that, it seems that we really do need to get our arses down there to appreciate the extent of what you have all been through, and are going through.

As I've noted previously, my last visit, and that bike ride around the CBD red zone, was bloody sobering.…

recordari

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:55:24 +1200

Thanks for the continuing updates. I'm struggling to find the right way to engage in this conversation from outside, without the benefit of being there. I was due to get on a plane to a conference on the day of the quake last September, but it was cancelled that day.…

Lara

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:40:43 +1200

Long comment is long. And rambling. Sorry.

September.....how was I feeling in September? Shocked, running on adrenaline and sunlight and digging. Reassured that this was apparently as bad as it was going to get. Pleased, proud even, of how well this city had stood up. Relieved that no one had…

Alice Ronald

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:33:49 +1200

For me, the thing about the Dux was the different people it attracted. I could pop in there on a Friday or Saturday evening & be pretty much guaranteed that there would be 2-3 groups of friends & acquaintances there. There'd be workmates & social groups & families, and even the most vehement meat-eaters…

Emma Hart

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:16:44 +1200

Is that really the final word on the Dux? I hadn’t heard. God.

I wouldn't take a "final word" on anything that hasn't had a bulldozer driven through it already, frankly. We got a report from the kids' school the other day:

Vicki Buck reported that the Grand Chancellor is…

Greg Wood

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 11:09:40 +1200

"...that you’re never going to drink in the Dux again" – it's that sort of thing, isn't it, that really gets you.

Russell Brown

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:59:09 +1200

I can’t even remember September any more, not without going back and reading what we wrote: Jolisa, Russell, David and I. There for all to see forever, and just as bloody well, because memory is a tricky bugger.

I'm glad I wrote that post — I'd forgotten enough of it…

Lucy Stewart

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:50:53 +1200

We’d seen the photos and the film, but until you stand there and you look and you realise that you loved Knox Church, that you’re never going to drink in the Dux again, it just isn’t real.

Is that really the final word on the Dux? I hadn’t heard. God.…

Jordan Carter

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:47:59 +1200

Thank you Emma.

Lilith __

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:22:52 +1200

For anyone who hasn’t seen it, the Ministry of Health has a factsheet about post-earthquake stress which is interesting. Chch folk are well aware of “quake brain”: difficulties with memory and concentration that most of us have had. But there are stranger symptoms, including fears and nightmares which seem unrelated…

Public Address

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:22:52 +1200

Discussion from blog post.