General Election 2014

This year PM Key will call an election. It is almost a given that his Centre Right National Party government will cruise through it, as Labour is just as disorganised and unpopular as it has been for the last eight years. 

NZ: From Post-Dominion to Global Player (1968-1990) Published!

This has finally been published digitally! If you would like to download a free sample (20%), please visit

smashwords.com 

You may choose to download the whole book for USD2.99, and is available in about half-a-dozen formats. It will also be published to major eBook retailers within the next two weeks, such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and others.

Correction on Previous Post

Previous Post:

Should read:  "...but as a result of the close communities of the main centres and some regional ones, of which the former..."

New Zealand Jewish Community in 2012

New Zealand Jewish Community in 2012

Comprising Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and also

Palmerston North, Hamilton, and other regional centres of both the North & South Islands

The NZ Jewish community has been a vibrant one ever since its establishment in the mid-nineteenth century, concurrently with the early settlement by Britain. Its main centres have been, and still are, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and to a lesser extent, Palmerston North and Hamilton. In the twentieth century, although by sheer numbers, Auckland was the largest centre of Jews in New Zealand, some may argue that Wellington and Christchurch had more vibrant, more active communities. The 1970s and especially '80s saw a mass exodus of Kiwi Jews from Auckland and Wellington, which continued into the '90s, and has levelled off since the Milennium. Some went to Israel, some to England, a good number to the USA, but the vast majority have resettled in Australia. This comprised Melbourne primarily, Sydney a close second, and other centres such as the Gold Coast, Western Australia and South Australia. It has been a major challenge for New Zealand Jewry to maintain vibrant congregations over the last thirty years because of this massive emigration, but as a result of the close communities of the main centres and some regional ones, of which the latter have also been supplemented by entries from Russia, South Africa and Europe, their communities, synogogues and temples have survived and even prospered.

NZ @ 2012 London Olympics

As at time of writing (Friday 10 August 2012), New Zealand has won a healthy ten medals, comprising:

• 3 gold
• 2 silver, and
• 5 bronze

This has put New Zealand at the top of the alternative list of "Olympic Medals per capita in population ranking". It also put New Zealand in the top 10 nations throughout most of the Games, well ahead of Australia, which has traditionally achieved more in Olympics than NZ, and was also ahead of Australia with gold medals throughout most of the XXV Olympiad.

The golds have been won by:

• Mahe Drysdale - Rowing (single scull, men)
• Eric Murray & Hamish Bond - Rowing (coxless pair, men)
• Nathan Cohen & Joseph Sullivan - Rowing (double scull, mem)

Silver medals won by:

• Peter Burling & Blair Tuke - Sailing (49er, men)
• Valerie Adams - Athletics (shot put, women)

Bronze won by:

• Simon van Velhooven - Cycling, Track (Keirin, men)
• Storm Uru & Peter Taylor - Rowing (lightweight double scull, men)
• Marc Ryan, Sam Bewley, Westley Gough, Jesse Sargent, Aaron Gate - Cycling, Track (4000m Team Pursuit, men)
• Andrew Nicholson, Mark Todd, Caroline Powell, Jonelle Richards, Jock Paget - Equestrian, Eventing (team, open)
• Juliette Haigh, Rebecca Scown - Rowing (Coxless pair, women)

New Zealand is currently 19th on the medal table, which is an immense achievement for a nation of four-and-a-half million, and is thus far one of their most successful Olympic Games ever.

For the first time, as with other Western countries such as USA, Australia and Canada, social media (networking) has played a large part in the Games, using such websites as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This has been a double-edged sword: it keeps the atheletes in touch with their fans and often contributes to their success on the track or in the pool, but it has also created a backlash effect where some atheletes have felt overwhelmed and have underperformed due to the added pressure. This has been the case not so much with the New Zealand team, but especially with the USA, and to a lesser extent, Australia.

Blog

Thankyou very much for visiting my blog on New Zealand since 1968, a subject I am very passionate about!

So far my posts have been in the format of an e-Book I intend to publish, but may not be able to as I concluded at 1992. These posts correspond to chapters that would have (will?) make up the book:

1968-70 (a shorter timeframe due to Wahine discussion);
1971-76;
1977-82;
1983-88;
1989-91 (point where I left off);

...and the final post to-date is: Christchurch Earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. I would like to continue with shorter blog-type posts, such as the Earthquakes, if I feel there is an interest in this blog.

Thanks again for visiting this site! Please Comment and/or Join if you wish to let me know that you'd like me to continue compositions.

Miles Cheifetz,
Sydney.

Christchurch Earthquakes 2010-11

On 4 September 2010 at 4:35am a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Christchurch, New Zealand region, causing massive damages to public and private properties, roads, infrastructure and a feeling of mass panic. Christchurch is considered the third-largest metropolitan centre in New Zealand after Wellington, but depending on the determination of political boundaries, some in the news media labelled it the second-largest. Its total greater population is just shy of 400,000. The event was named the Darfield Earthquake, as it was centred on the outskirts town of Darfield, forty kilometres west of the CBD. There were no fatalities directly linked to the quake, although one elderly person died of a heart attack, and there were two serious injuries. However there were recorded approximately one-hundred minor injuries. Depth of the Darfield Quake was ten kilometres, which is considered quite shallow, and this is the reason why the property damage was widespread and massive. The Earthquake Commission (EQC) has valued the costs to be in excess of $4billion, which was quoted to Treasury. Water was contaminated, power was disrupted, there were gas leaks, and one of the biggest problems was widespread liquefaction, in the CBD and throughout the large suburban area of the metropolis. Liquefaction, which involves the earth itself becoming de-solidified, was the cause of many houses’ foundations cracking, as well as roadways breaking up.

As well as many notable public buildings being extensively damaged in the city-centre, those in Banks Peninsula, Lyttleton, Horata and even as far south as Timaru experienced major damage. Some buildings had to be held up with props, such as the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church (which was later completely destroyed in the February 11, 2011 aftershock). Godfrey House (Banks Peninsula), the seven-storey Manchester Courts and the Repertory Theatre suffered extensive damage. The former ended up practically in ruins, whilst the latter had its façade almost annihilated. The Darfield Earthquake involved massive property damage, a state of emergency and widespread panic, but thankfully no one died.

This earthquake was followed by thousands of aftershocks, as is normal with a major earthquake, none of which were newsworthy, but this all changed almost six months later, on 22 February 2011. 185 people lost their lives. At 12:51pm, epicentre two kilometres west of Lyttleton, ten kilometres southeast of the city centre, the largest aftershock to the September event, struck. Magnitude 6.3 on the Richter Scale, which was smaller than the September 2010 event, but only half the depth at five kilometres down, this quake not only destroyed myriad buildings, including large ones and even skyscrapers, it killed 185 people, making it one of New Zealand’s largest peacetime tragedies.

The key areas of deaths were:

1.       115 people in the CTV Building

2.       29 people in PGC House

3.       Grand Chancellor Hotel

4.       Other central-city buildings and shops

The (Canterbury TV) CTV building involved a school of English for young people from Asia and Saudi Arabia, and this was the location of most of the fatalities in the structure. Most were from Japan and China. The total deaths were approximately one-hundred Christchurch residents, about 90 per cent from Christchurch metropolitan area, the other ten per cent from Waimakariri and Selwyn. Only one New Zealander not residing in Christchurch or Lyttleton died: from Wellington. There was hope that survivors would be pulled from the wreckage, but only one eventuated. On the upside, it was initially feared that up to twenty-two perished in the Christchurch Cathedral, but after an extensive search it was determined that no one had died inside it.

Almost half of the three-thousands buildings contained within the CBD became safety issues, and out of these one-quarter were expected to be demolished. Of structures in excess of five storeys, as of time of writing (July 2012), over half – over 100- have been or are being demolished. The iconic Christchurch Cathedral lost its spire, no fatalities occurred there. The six-storey Canterbury Television (CTV) building collapsed in full and contained many students of English from mostly Asia, but also the Middle East. Over 115 people lost their lives in this building alone. This was the main area of death in the quake. The four-storey Pyne Gould Corporation building – PGC House- also totally collapsed and twenty-nine persons perished there. The largest building, the Grand Chancellor Hotel, a 26-storey skyscraper was irreparably damaged on 22 February, and stood on a precarious angle for quite some time. It was feared to collapse, and by May 2012 was totally demolished.

Other buildings severely damaged were the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, the historic Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings- the Stone Chamber completely collapsed- and many other government buildings, churches and historic structures.

Why this earthquake was so deadly compared to the September event:

1.       Epicentre was much closer to Christchurch’s city-centre and right in the heart of the metropolitan area, whereas September one was forty kilometres out

2.       Depth was twice as close to the surface at five kilometres, cf. ten for previous one

3.       Earthquake occurred at lunchtime, where there were many office workers, retail workers and shoppers around

4.       Many structures were already considerably weakened by the effects of the September quake

5.       Liquefaction was even greater than after the previous quake

The Key Government’s response was immediate and swift, and a number of countries assisted with the Search-and-Rescue effort. These were Australia- New South Wales, followed by Queensland, Japan, UK, China, America (California), Singapore and Taiwan.

There have been many aftershocks after this catastrophic event, the most notable of which was in December 2011. Despite Wellington being regularly cited as the most likely location of a major earthquake, due to its location on the fault line, and the fact that it is well-overdue for a major event, it was Christchurch; hundreds of kilometres away that has copped the “Big Ones”. Kiwis have always been a close-knit people, and without exception, they banded together to provide financial and emotional support, as well as support in the form of food, clothing and medical provisions to their Christchurch neighbours. Although badly dented, physically and emotionally, the New Zealand Government, future governments, and all New Zealanders will aid in the rebuilding of Christchurch and Canterbury, and it will have stronger structures and more resources to cope if there is another major shock in the future.