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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > MASSIVE NEW ZEALAND QUAKE SHOWS WEALTHY COUNTRIES UNPREPARED FOR DISASTERS
MASSIVE NEW ZEALAND QUAKE SHOWS WEALTHY COUNTRIES UNPREPARED FOR DISASTERS
September 3 2010
Christchurch, New Zealand - Disaster almost always brings out the best in people. Despite depictions in fiction of chaos in the streets and mass exploitation in the wake of some catastrophe, real life disasters rarely cause such chaos. True, there are 
isolated incidents in such circumstance, most likely a result of criminals being a part of the displaced people, but all-in-all people are not only well behaved in most disastrous situations, they are familial and compassionate, bringing the best of us to the situation.
For better or worse that best of us has been on display in many situations around the world this year. In Haiti with the massive earthquake, in Russia with the devastating wildfires, and most recently in Pakistan with the deadly monsoon floods the best of humanity has been on display because Mother Nature decided to do her worst. All of those situations have displayed not only the incredible power of nature and the incredible spirit of human beings, but also the general lack of readiness we have for such disasters. In all of those situations many lives could have been saved with better preparation and that is something the people of New Zealand are starting to understand as they dig themselves out from the rubble caused by a major quake, a quake which has displayed the lack of readiness in most first world nations.
“The damage is very, very significant...much more than is readily apparent. The most important thing at this stage is that there’s been no loss of life. We are just coming to terms with the scale of the damage,” said Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker. “There has been substantial infrastructure damage to bridges, utilities, and sewer and water facilities. Many buildings have been damaged likely beyond repair and we have had to close the rail service and airport. We were totally caught off guard by this thing and we feel we are lucky to have gotten off so easily.”
The quake was a 7.0 on the Richter scale but occurred in the middle of the night likely saving many lives.
“When we see the destruction in place like Haiti we almost expect it. I mean we all 
knew that the building were pieces of junk and ready to fall down with even a rough bump or two. The fact that they fell down when the quake hit wasn’t really a surprise, it was really just a matter of time before they collapsed,” said Scrape TV Disaster analyst Walter Lim. “In this case the level of destruction seems very high which is very strange for a relatively wealthy country. I mean New Zealand isn’t the richest nation on the planet but they are still classed as a first world nation and these types of things really shouldn’t happen, at least not at this scale. This type of thing is supposed to happen in poor countries not well off nations. This is actually very disturbing.”
New Zealand is ranked 33rd in terms of GDP per capita.
“I mean it’s not really a country like most people would think of it but it is one of those
British descendants and many of them have done really well and New Zealand has done really well, well at least since the Hobbits came around. Perhaps that’s the issue, they simply haven’t had time to improve infrastructure in such a short period,” continued Lim. “What this does display though is that earthquakes can really inconvenience wealthy countries. Sure you don’t have the mass death or disease like we see in places like Haiti but still these people are going to be without indoor plumbing for a few days. Even the mayor has recommended not using the toilet which is really not going to go over well if it last for too long.”
Reports from the city indicate the strong stench of freshly baked bread wafting over the city from a local bakery which had its main wall collapse.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
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