Firstly, the February 22 2011 Canterbury earthquake brings a very sad loss of life and terrible injury toll. People are shocked and suffering. They need resilience and to be very self reliant as it is a dog eat dog world and scum will take full advantage if they are allowed to perceive any vulnerability or cracks in the facade people must erect to give a message of strength even though they are grieving.
So far we have seen that looters have confirmed the worst predatory nature of the human species as mere animal. They are not the worst of it though. The usual suspect administrative, religious and professional entities will be enriching their coffers by working the disaster to get at funding. Some of the medical field work may also be harmful to health and disasters may be a magnet for gung ho types looking for opportunities to work unsupervised. It is horrifying the ease with which amputations can happen considering the high tech portable equipment probably obtainable these days to cut and drill rock.
Another awful aspect is the reports of survivors thanking god and claiming someone must be watching over them. These superstitious/religious sentiments are conceited. How are relatives of the dead and horribly injured supposed to feel?- The implication is they were abandoned by Satanistic gods who favoured others and let them rot.
Some people will point out that as Christian churches fell and multi ethnic colleges collapsed, God is not a Christian or multi faith deity and people have wasted a lot of praying.
Sado masochists will relish the punishment. Psych professionals will sniff money- Apparently trauma counsellors get $1600. AUS a session and people who have experienced such counselling say it is unhelpful and nothing they did not already know. Annoyingly they could have made better more appropriate use of the money themselves and this would have really eased their suffering. When people are used by professionals and others like this, they just become bitter and despising of their fellow humanity.
The rational truth is that buildings can be more earthquake proof and it is a matter of organization and money. For example, hospitals are built to a higher standard of resistance to quake damage as they are prioritized. Why not just make the highest standard the rule? - money and poor organization. High self set remuneration of administrative and other sectors has deprived the system of funds for practical building purposes.
Another factor is population numbers. Disasters are much more manageable with smaller populations. Now is the time to see the potential chaos of increasing population and reverse the increase. Zero population growth is a great policy and should be implemented.
With a stable population quotient there is more time for quality control. What are the best materials and construction techniques? Cheap imported building workers with bogus skills are not helpful. Unemployment could be alleviated by self build courses and funding for self builders. Females can also do building and there are female friendly building styles.
Science funding is probably needed for quake research and prediction and construction science.
The religious buildings that fell were beautiful but symbolic of past human failure and stagnation. The multi ethnic college that collapsed was part of a bizarre, failed economy and skewed social priorities. People can after all learn English from DVD's at home. What absurdity to journey and die in a foreign land on such ridiculous pretext. \
May all those transplanted and shaken up by the stupid schemes of humanity one day find their way in life despite all the religions and other idiocy erected in their path.
