About 120 Christchurch business owners stormed the inner-city cordon yesterday to get a message across to authorities that they want access to their premises – and they want it now.
The owners converged on the Civil Defence headquarters at the Christchurch Art Gallery at 2pm. They held placards and demanded to speak to Civil Defence director John Hamilton.
When no one came out of the centre to address them, they stormed a cordon, running into the streets of the CBD.
Soldiers guarding the cordon could do little to stop them, but police quickly escorted most of the business owners back outside the area.
One man who was sprinting up Hereford St to get to his business was chased by police on bicycles and tackled to the ground.
It’s hard to know what’s going on down there. It could be that the scale of the disaster is so vast, and the danger in the CBD so great that Civil Defence is simply being prudent and making the difficult decisions with scarce resources to communicate and co-ordinate with the public. Alternately, it could be that Gerry Brownlee has turned the red zone into a wasteland in the centre of which he squats atop a throne of skulls (of constitutional lawyers) demanding more buildings be sacrificed to his glory, while at his feet cower rows of naked slaves, covered in dust and filth, signing endless demolition orders written in the blood of conservation architects.
Probably, both scenarios are more-or-less the case.
“Alternately, it could be that Gerry Brownlee has turned the red zone into a wasteland in the centre of which he squats atop a throne of skulls (of constitutional lawyers)…”
Given the limited cranial capacity of said lawyers, it would take an awful lot of said skulls to make a throne big enough to contain Gerry’s ample form. I’m not sure there are enough of us around to do the job …
Comment by Andrew Geddis — March 22, 2011 @ 10:45 am
“Gerry Brownlee has turned the red zone into a wasteland in the centre of which he squats atop a throne of skulls (of constitutional lawyers) demanding more buildings be sacrificed to his glory, while at his feet cower rows of naked slaves, covered in dust and filth, signing endless demolition orders written in the blood of conservation architects.’
I so want to see that as a Tom Scott cartoon…
Comment by Michael J. Parry — March 22, 2011 @ 10:49 am
The CD operation is being run by an ex-military man, John Hamilton, and like most military operations they are quick to move in and take over but have no exit strategy. They are also terrible at dealing with unruly natives.
Comment by ieuan — March 22, 2011 @ 11:34 am
Dim-Post titles are supposed to be a mixture of literary allusions we don’t get and ’80′s lyrics we do. This was a chance for the latter …
“Ghost town … people gettin’ angry”
Throw us philistines a bone once in a while.
Comment by sammy — March 22, 2011 @ 11:43 am
@Sammy: Heart of Darkness => Apocalypse Now => Kurtz (Marlon Brando) => Brownlee sitting on a throne of skulls
Comment by ieuan — March 22, 2011 @ 11:49 am
Yes, I got it thanks. But I think true Dim-Posters would see the reference to Conrad’s book before Coppola’s movie.
Comment by sammy — March 22, 2011 @ 11:57 am
It’s not the scale, it’s the political class not understanding the situation of the business.
The productive person who wants to get on with life is right to be frustrated by the sight of the politically connected being toured past the property they are not allowed access to, to see work stop for a day and watch the pious proclaim their feelings for TV while imposing blanket bans on personal efforts to recover and standing on the hands of people willing to work.
This is not about protecting people from personal risk. The ban on access to assets and business is blanket and takes no consideration of individual circumstance and the decisions without process to destroy property without owners consultation (let alone consent) or effort to recover assets is high handed and will be destructive of business that could recover.
At the same time as telling the nation it must be careful with it’s funds producers of wealth are being held back from production with absolutely no effort to demonstrate any neccesity.
The IRD was allowed to recover it’s essential assets to continue taxing while the businesses they tax are not. How dare the peasants object.
Comment by Fentex — March 22, 2011 @ 12:09 pm
There’s the Danyl we know and love.
Comment by Ataahua — March 22, 2011 @ 12:18 pm
Sammy: But I think true Dim-Posters would see the reference to Conrad’s book before Coppola’s movie…
But Brownlee has a corpulence reminiscient of the later Brando. Whereas the original Kurtz in the book didn’t.
Comment by Richard — March 22, 2011 @ 12:18 pm
It’s fair to say the cordon gentleman that was on the radio yesterday couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that they might have done something differently to prevent things getting out of hand.
Comment by lyndon — March 22, 2011 @ 12:31 pm
Apparently they “did not have a list of business owners inside the cordon.”
But they’re getting it now.
This will be good news to people like the woman who learned her business had been demolished when she watched the video of the CBD at the memorial service on Friday.
Comment by Neil — March 22, 2011 @ 12:33 pm
. . . the woman who learned her business had been demolished when she watched the video of the CBD at the memorial service on Friday.
Not quite true, she saw it on Facebook:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4793454/Video-relays-fate-of-office
The memorial service was a bit too soon for many down here.
Comment by Joe Wylie — March 22, 2011 @ 12:43 pm
King G would be disgusted. For a start King G has people who do the actual skull sitting and secondly King G rather fancies himself in a Jabba the Hut kinda way, Gezza the Hut if you like.
Comment by leon — March 22, 2011 @ 1:11 pm
And what of the stories of demolition teams
lootingsalvaging items?Comment by Clunking Fist — March 22, 2011 @ 1:12 pm
And what of the stories of demolition teams looting salvaging items?
Never fear, it’s all being safely stashed in some faceless Turners Auctions facility. Anyway, those macho bastards look as if they could do a media type some damage. Look at that furtive kid over there, with the demeanour of one who spends much of his life in the darkness.
Comment by Joe Wylie — March 22, 2011 @ 1:38 pm
Then there’s the sad story of the roofing bloke killed in the red zone when he leaned against another building and got electrocuted. Sure, someone is to blame but isn’t that just the sort of thing you’d expect to go wrong after a big quake.. and why there’s still restricted access?
JC
Comment by JC — March 22, 2011 @ 2:03 pm
I think they’re managing access prudently for such a dangerous situation. If the person who wants to get in is someone irrelevant like the Prime Minister of Australia, they let her in. But when the people who want in are the small business owners who the future of Christchurch’s economy depends on, they’re wise to take greater precautions. Foreign heads of government can always be replaced.
Comment by kahikatea — March 22, 2011 @ 2:22 pm
sammy: re ghost town – ahhh sooo apt. didnt it get to no 1 in the Uk? The specials are pretty special….
Comment by k.jones — March 22, 2011 @ 2:50 pm
On their respective tours, how many actual buildings within the red zone did Gillard, Prince William et al enter?
Comment by Adam — March 22, 2011 @ 3:10 pm
How many? Are you asking about the number they viewed or the just the ones they entered for looting purposes?
Comment by Jono — March 22, 2011 @ 3:27 pm
I heard the Prince stole a bunch of ‘Beached As’ tee-shirts from a surf shop but the mainstream media covered it up.
Comment by danylmc — March 22, 2011 @ 3:31 pm
It would take a heck of a lot of skulls to keep Gerry upright.
Comment by Tim — March 22, 2011 @ 4:12 pm
this graph is also illustrative of the NZ problem
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&strail=false&nselm=h&met_y=sp_dyn_imrt_in&hl=en&dl=en#ctype=b&strail=true&nselm=h&met_x=ny_gnp_pcap_pp_cd&scale_x=lin&ind_x=false&met_y=cm_mkt_lcap_gd_zs&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&idim=country:NZL:AUS:IRL&ifdim=country&hl=en&dl=en
Comment by leon — March 22, 2011 @ 5:54 pm
Wow Leon, you found some sophisticated-looking data-stuff, eh?
Pity it doesn’t have anything to do with the Christchurch civil defence cordon. It doesn’t even say anything particularly meaningful in relation to the thread you presumably meant to post it in.
Still… fancy graph, eh?
Comment by kahikatea — March 22, 2011 @ 6:46 pm
er, if you resist your kneejerkiness pinetree I’ll explain – posted on the wrong thread.
( clue: see http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/hodge-shall-not-be-shot/#comment-38856 )
thanks for caring.
Comment by leon — March 22, 2011 @ 7:04 pm
I am amazed that Gerry can get upright.
Comment by peterlepaysan — March 22, 2011 @ 7:36 pm
Gerry will have his throne of skulls shortly in the Ministry for Earthquake Recovery (or whatever they call it), and he will, once finished dining on ECan, sup on blood of the Christchurch City Council.
Comment by Philoff — March 22, 2011 @ 11:01 pm
I would never dream of being kneejerky around you, Leon, but please don’t call me Pinetree. Confusing a podocarp with a pine tree is a philistine’s mistake.
Comment by kahikatea — March 23, 2011 @ 9:34 am
it’s distasteful to try and politicise this when you have no understanding of how fucked parts of inner christchurch are, I hope you can see these videos taken by my brother inside the red zone (he’s been feeding the USAR teams) Engineers are working furiously to sure up buildings so people can get back in.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150186863949913&comments
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150183304784913&comments
If you can’t see these I’ll get them posted elsewhere.
Comment by James — March 23, 2011 @ 10:36 am
“How many? Are you asking about the number they viewed or the just the ones they entered for looting purposes?”
Point being, entering a munted building to retrieve stuff is likely to be a whole lot more dangerous than strolling with the media down a few streets, yes?
Comment by Adze — March 23, 2011 @ 9:02 pm
it’s distasteful to try and politicise this . . .
So much of what’s been written, often by well-meaning outsiders, can seem like vapid tosh when you happen to live here. Maybe big bro could update his vids by highlighting the buildings that have vanished since he posted them.
Then again, what’s so tasteful about putting the stuff on your page where you’re wearing dorky plastic fangs, and the best response you get is “So fucking fucked,” from a pimple farmer calling themselves Panda Orgies.
Comment by Joe Wylie — March 23, 2011 @ 9:46 pm
panda orgies? I’d say that commentator is for panda rape.
“dorky plastic fangs”? Jesus Joe, have you looked at your own gravatar lately? How distastful to be making comments about Chch whilst pretending to be a cartoon caveman, why don’t you grow up. /sarky
(Of course, if you ARE a carton caveman, my apologies: I did not mean to disrespect you.)
Comment by Clunking Fist — March 25, 2011 @ 1:05 pm
How distastful to be making comments about Chch whilst pretending to be a cartoon caveman
It’s not a caveman you drivelling self-absorbed tosser, it’s the Groke. Not that you’d no anything about that. I live in Christchurch and post under my own name. Go fuck yourself.
Comment by Joe Wylie — March 25, 2011 @ 1:23 pm