This year, New Zealand is the official guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The Aotearoa Blog Carnival is part of celebrating this focus on New Zealand literature and letters, and the theme for the fifth instalment is “A View From Here.” Reflecting on the theme, I felt there were so many slants and angles into it—and I did intend to develop the post into four views, from the micro to the macro, centered on being a writer living in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The four perspectives were to be the view from: my study, from Christchurch, from New Zealand, and as expressed through my books. But when I began writing the view from Christchurch, it just took off and had a life of its own. So I’ve decided to go with it.

This is the view from here as, not even a writer, just a person living in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the spring of 2012.

A View From Here: Being In Christchurch—The Introduction

“A view from here” for anyone based in Christchurch has to include the aftermath of earthquakes that have defined the city for the past two years, with major events on September 4, 2010; December 26, 2010; February 22, 2011; June 13, 2011; and December 23, 2011. The most destructive and devastating of these was the earthquake of February 22, 2011. Part of my personal view on these events can be found in both my Earthquake Reports, commenced post February 22, here, and my Earthquake Poems, collected here.

As the worst of the earthquakes themselves appear to be passing away, a view from here becomes coloured by many other considerations: a city that is about loss and destruction; people without homes, or living in homes that are physically broken; extortionate rents and property prices in the less damaged sectors of the city; friends and family leaving; so many businesses gone, too; uncertainty around insurance and the rebuild or repair of damaged property; doubt as to what form of “new” will replace the “old” that is gone…

A View From Here on Health:

And then there are other factors that bear on that view: the number of elderly residents who are believed to have died, ostensibly of natural causes but “untimely” because of the shock of the earthquakes and their after-effects; reports of children in counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder; newspaper reports to the effect that statistics for winter flu infections are running at four times the national average, as well as increases in respiratory disorders from earthquake, demolition, and repair works’ dust. (The former two of which may/may not be imbued with asbestos.)

To give you some idea beyond just my own view, here are links to three health-related articles that appeared in The Press newspaper very recently:

•  Infection, Frustration, Stress

• Life becomes Harder for City’s Disabled

• CERA Neglects Peoples’ Plight – Psychologist

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A View From Here On The Royal Commission of Inquiry Into Earthquake Deaths:

Running in the background to all of this everyday reality we have the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the deaths that arose from the earthquakes, mainly from building failures, most notably the CTV and PGC buildings, but a number of other smaller premises throughout the city also figure. As always in these cases, what comes out in the wash leaves a lot to be desired. I can only feel for those who lost loved ones as a result of these failures—which reading between the lines, seem to extend beyond “acts of God” and/or “acts of Nature” to include “acts of People.”  Like many, I will await the report of the Royal Commission to see whether it confirms this impression.

A View From Here On Infrastructure Rebuild:

“A view from here ” does includes positives, though. A big part of part of the current “city of grunge” is not just demoliton, but a huge amount of infrastructure rebuild, particularly of services such as sewer and stormwater, power and roads, which is taking place as well. Although that makes the city really hard to get around right now, it is still a positive view, a looking forward to a better future.

A View From Here On Democracy, Justice, and Government:

CERA and The Recovery: What Happened to Democracy, Legal Right of Redress, and Community?

Far less positive from my view, and I believe—or maybe only hope!—that of many other Christchurch citizens, is the way the government (both parliament and the executive) has responded to the earthquakes by granting the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), and the minister who oversees it, war time powers of fiat that appear to effectively be taking away many of Christchurch citizens’ legal rights with regard to their properties, as well as a community focus on the central city’s rebuild.

The Proposed Central City Rebuild: Where Did Natural Justice Go?

Recently, and this is only one example but of major concern to me, the Minister and CERA unveiled a “gold-plated” rebuild plan for the city, that is to be completely paid for by the city’s residents. Now this may be fair enough in principle, although I note that Christchurch is also New Zealand’s second largest city so from that point of view it could be argued that there is in fact a national interest in seeing it gets back on its feet as soon as possible. (Atlhough whether roofed over sports stadiums and giant convention centres count as getting the city back on its feet has to be questionable at best.)

But, well and good, fair ’nuff and all that, Christchurch’s rebuild is a matter of local interest only and to be paid for entirely locally. So far so good: I can live with that. What I can’t “buy”, is that the people who live in those broken homes I mentioned above, or can’t live in their homes because they are too broken and so are paying both rent and  a mortgage, or are living in cars and tents and caravans because there isn’t enough housing to go round, or the rents are extortionate as also mentioned above, are the ones also having to pay a 10% increase in their rates to pay for the rebuild.

Except here’s the thing: that 10% increase still won’t cover the gilded rebuild plan, that our own parliament has enacted legislation to ensure we get no say as to whether we want, or not.

Does that sound like the icing on the earthquake devastation cake to you? Well, from where I’m looking right now, I have to tell you that it’s a pretty wretched sort of view.

Traditionally, the dictum has been that it is those who pay the piper who should call the tune. For anything else to be the case–for an agency such as CERA to have the ability to take your money for a plan you have no say over at all, either through local or national elections to appoint those who legitimately set taxes and strike rates, seems profoundly and fundamentally unjust. The just scenario, in my view, would be to say that if Christchurch is paying for its own rebuild solely out of its own pocket (because there is no “national” interest) then it is Christchurch citzens who should decide on the style of coat that is to be cut to fit our financial cloth.

Anything else is contrary to natural justice and adding a further social and financial burden to those already imposed by the earthquakes.

And that’s a pretty tough view to have to wake up to, every day.

And Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Worse… It Does! The Great Environment Canterbury Debacle

Yes, as if that is not enough, on top of everything else, there is more.

But because this could otherwise get to be a really long, not to mention “incredibly depressing” post on “a view from here” I shall chiefly refer you to:

The Press editorial of last Saturday, 8 September, here: “Black Day for Democracy In Canterbury and the Nation”

What About The Writing Part?

Now you may say: wow, I thought this was a writer’s blog and there is not a great deal, if anything, about books and writing in the above.

My reply is simply this: every writer is a human being and a citizen first, and after two years of natural disasters and their aftermaths, the view from Christchurch is very much going to be coloured, first by human concerns and secondly what it means to be a citizen in “this place.”  Mine is only one view from here, as a human being and a citizen who happens to also be a writer.

But if there is a writing perspective, besides the Earthquake Poems referenced above, it is that this is the environment within which my writing is currently happening. How I try and ensure that the writing still continues to happen, despite of or as part of everything else discussed above, will have to be the subject of another post, however.

Conclusion

I think we all hope the view from here will get brighter, but at the moment there are still as many, if not more, clouds than silver linings in post-earthquake Christchurch, and what feels like a great many big challenges ahead for our community—but also, in terms of some of the larger issues of government and accountability, for the whole of the New Zealand community.

That’s how I see it anyway. And however one-eyed or misguided, this is my personal “view from here.”