CANTERBURY
What is leaving to pass next? If this is the `one magnitude less` aftershock that we were told to look after the Sep 4th 7.1 magnitude earthquake, then (even though this one was 6.3 not 6.1) perhaps that entire saga is approaching to an end?
Perhaps that era of our history/present is winding down? As time passed we did not recollect the `one magnitude less` would happen, after all five and a half months had passed, and to be honest, many of us probably thinking it would get from the saami location. Instead it hit hard, and in a different location, right under Lyttleton Harbour, a quarter of the distance out from the Sep quake and half the depth. We got pummelled, there`s no other way to identify it! We did not expect something so massive and destructive. We considered the September quake and thinking that a 6.1 from the saami location would not be too destructive, so we thought we-and our city-would all be okay. We did not ask what happened. The pick up is massive. Liquifaction brought sand/silt to the rise in many places, and if you did not acknowledge any better you would wonder why we built on beaches_but these places are nowhere near a beach! They are inland. Then there is the end of houses, homes that are torn apart, split in half, wrecked beyond comprehension. The buildings in the metropolis and in Lyttleton, are (to use a very technical term) munted! The CBD (central business district) is passing to miss many more buildings as the severely damaged are brought down. There is talk that entire blocks of buildings will have to be demolished. We nevertheless do not live if the 22 storey high Grand Chancellor Hotel is loss to settle down in a decent aftershock, or whether a controlled demolition will give to make place. None of us wish that aftershock, but we too require that building down so that no one is endangered any longer. Our central business district will never be the like again, but I trust that when it is rebuilt it will be better, more beautiful, more resilient, built upon the combined hopes and know of a city`s people. We possess a risk to gain a fresh start in the CBD. And we take to have a monument or art work somewhere that will constantly remind us of the multitude who died in this disaster. Let us always honor them, and know that they walked here and were loved. As time passes people are passing to get worried that things have not miraculously been fixed, that the sewage system is not already fixed, that their houses are not fixed, that the CBD is even a mess _that zero is happening fast enough for their liking. But let us all be patient and realize that things need time. Let us get the joy in the simplest of things, and only keep moving forward with love, compassion and patience. In our fair city I ask this: let there be no way for ira in your heart, no way for frustration, no way for impatience, and not a single thought of uttering a rough word. Let kindness be the `way` you live. What is loss to occur next is, to a degree, in our hands, in our hearts and in our thoughts. We are a city that has been ravaged by the office of this earthquake_and we will reward those who died by construction a better city, and existence a better people. And we will cover our realm with far greater honor and appreciation.
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