{"id":15882,"date":"2012-09-13T06:30:04","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T18:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=15882"},"modified":"2012-09-21T21:40:31","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T09:40:31","slug":"a-view-from-here-a-view-from-christchurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/09\/13\/a-view-from-here-a-view-from-christchurch\/","title":{"rendered":"A View From Here: A View From Christchurch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This year, New Zealand is the official guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair<\/a>. The Aotearoa Blog Carnival<\/a> is part of celebrating this focus on New Zealand literature and letters, and the theme for the fifth instalment is “A View From Here.”<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This is the view from here as, not even a writer, just a person living in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the spring of 2012.<\/p>\n

A View From Here: <\/strong><\/em>Being In <\/em><\/strong>Christchurch—The Introduction
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\"\"<\/a>“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<\/em>, commenced post February 22, here<\/a>, and my Earthquake Poems<\/em>, collected here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This was a friend's neighbour's home<\/p><\/div>\n

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…<\/p>\n

A View From Here on Health:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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.)<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n