Christchurch: seven years after the earthquake

Just back from New Zealand where the delightful city of Christchurch is still toiling to recover from the earthquake of 22 February 2011, which killed 185 people. Buildings had already been weakened by another quake five months before in September 2010.

Of the victims, 115 died in the 6-storey Canterbury Television Building. The Royal Commission that conducted an inquiry into the disaster said the local authority should not have allowed it to be re-occupied after the quake of 2010.

Seven years on, the damage from the 2011 quake is still clear to see, with many buildings unrepaired, notably the cathedral which still has an end wall missing.

Concern has been expressed about the number of key reconstruction projects that have failed to get underway, and the government has admitted some will not be finished for years.

*One of the things I missed while I was away was this review of my book Secrets of the Centenarians in the Oldie.  https://www.theoldie.co.uk/blog/will-you-score-a-century

Haiti 4 years on - recovery stalled

Four years to the day after the devastating Haiti earthquake that killed perhaps a quarter of a million people, the government is facing heavy criticism over the slow pace of reconstruction.

In the capital, Port-au-Prince, the cathedral and the presidential palace still lie in ruins. Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said last week he was going to ‘press on the accelerator’, but the opposition accused the government of failing to implement the recovery plan negotiated with foreign donors.

Both parties agree, though, that a lot of the money went on emergency aid rather than rebuilding, and they also say that some of the promised funds never arrived. Mr Lamothe has asked for a further $9bn in aid.

Nearly 200,000 people are still living in very poor conditions in temporary shelters, while anti-government protests have been growing.

*A Spanish website has reproduced the section on the Rape of Nanking from my Historia mundial de los desastres (A Disastrous History of the World) -

http://www.burbuja.info/inmobiliaria/historia/489426-masacre-de-nanking.html