Stories from the Lens

As with most natural disasters, the Christchurch Earthquake made world headlines as the drama unfolded. People all over the world saw the devastating effects on television and internet news, or heard about it on the radio. However, like all such events, the news lenses quickly move on to the next horrific event (in our case, the Japan Tsunami which was astronomically more devastating than what we experienced here) and we can easily forget that the aftermath of such a disaster can last for years upon years. Oddly enough, the real story of disaster isn’t the destructive event itself, but the human spirit that rises up to put things back together when it’s over.

Even now as Irene pounds the East Coast of the USA, Chili, Haiti, Samoa, Pakistan, Japan, New Orleans, Joplin, and many other disaster-ravaged locations are still fully consumed with recovery and rebuilding efforts and are as much as decades away from “life as usual”. Great stories of resilience and resolution typically go completely unnoticed by the world’s “watchful eye”. Christchurch is no exception.

Having lived in a veritable “war zone” the last 6 months has given us a much better understanding and appreciation for what others have gone through and are still going through.

And we’ve got it easy compared to most.

We still have a roof over our heads, running water, electricity, and as of 2 days ago, flushing toilets (finally!). Even from our own earthquake ravaged city, it’s still hard to imagine some of the difficulty those in Japan and other places are dealing with. It makes you think twice when a large-scale news event stops making headlines… makes you think about the long and arduous story people are still trudging out just to get back to that now elusive “normal”. It’s no easy process and it definitely doesn’t stop when the camera crews and journalists skip town chasing the next big story.

I want to be careful not to become a disaster voyeur. It’s something I can easily slip into these days – almost excitedly waiting for the next “crazy disaster” to entertain me. I wonder if we’ve all grown tired of the fictitious disasters of film and television and become overly intrigued with the far-too-real misfortune of others…

Something to consider as we watch Irene roll up the East Coast in all it’s fury.

We’re regularly asked by friends and family outside of NZ “Is life back to normal yet?” – and the answer, unfortunately, is “absolutely not”. Rather than going into much detail about the many ways in which life in Christchurch has become difficult and disheartening, I’d like to direct your attention to a recent photo gallery with revealing images from around the city – mostly from the “red zone” (the central city are which remains closed still, 6 months after the “big one” – and will likely remain closed another 4-6 months). At this point 500 of the just over 4,000 buildings in the central business district (CBD) are confirmed to be totally demolished – roughly 12% of the structural make-up of the city. This number is likely to increase as city rebuilding plans are introduced.

Have a look at the gallery here.

Thank you guys for keeping up with us and for putting up with our constant chatter about “earthquake this” and “aftershock that”. I’m sure it can get quite annoying… but I suppose if you DO get annoyed, just try to channel that feeling into imagining what it’s like living in a house with no flushing toilets for 6 months. Haha!