CBC, CTV . . . you suck!!

Why do they suck, you ask? It's simple - they're an insenstive bunch of jerks.

When the 7.1 earthquake struck Haiti last year, these news agencies were "on the ground", as they put it, for weeks and we got reports hourly for weeks on end of how the recovery effort was going, how many people died and generally how tragic it was.

And certainly it was tragic. It's still tragic that there are so many people still living in tents and unsanitary conditions. The news media have not allowed us to forget the people of Haiti.

Christchurch, New Zealand, however, seems to be a whole different kettle of fish.

Last Tuesday's earthquake, the second huge quake in less than six months, has received next to no coverage from the Canadian news media. They certainly don't have anyone "on the ground" there. Is it because New Zealand is a civilized Western nation, and thus deemed perfectly capable of helping themselves? Or was all the Haiti coverage simply a result of the fact that our then-Governor General, happened to be a Haitian refugee?

NZ's former Prime Minister, Helen Clark was reported as saying that Christchurch's tragedy was on a par with Haiti's. If that's the case, where is Christchurch's coverage? Where is Christchurch's world aid. Why are Cantabrians treated as yesterday's news?

It does seem as though it's yesterday's news. There has been no coverage since Saturday, six days after the quake. I had to watch CTVNewsnet for an hour yesterday, before I finally saw a blurb on the ticker, about the death toll. Otherwise, nada.

Yes, okay, Lybia is big thing right now. A huge thing. But the tragedy is Christchurch is no less a tragedy, just because that lunatic Gadhafi is running around inciting civil war. But honestly, the past couple of days, you wouldn't think anything had happened in New Zealand a week ago.

Except this morning. When I woke up, the MooseFM news at 6 a.m., and a brief mention of the earthquake and the death toll. Stands at 148, he said. But perhaps, it was only mentioned because a couple from Grande Prairie, AB had narrowly escaped being crushed by the falling Cathedral spire? I'm glad they escaped. At least 20 other people were not so lucky.

Reading the NZ Herald website (www.nzherald.co.nz), there are a million stories of bravery, self-sacrifice, and of Kiwis banding together to help the people of Christchurch. Yes, there are also more stories of tragedy, of family members missing or killed by the quake. But overall, Cantabrians are getting on with the task of rescue, clean-up and putting their beloved city back together.

Does the world news media care? I think not. Except, perhaps, for the BBC.

Take the University of Canterbury (my alma mater) - for example. The students put up a website, looking for a few volunteers to help clean up the liquefaction . . . the UC Student Army, now has 18,000 students throughout the city, cleaning up the mess. 

Does this not warrant recognition? They'd probably say they're just doing what needs to be done - but I think it's fabulous.

Come on Canada, pull your head out of your ass and take a look at the things that are going on in Christchurch. The tragic and the positive. Surely a fellow Commonwealth country deserves news coverage just as much as a raving Lybian lunatic does? 

If you take a look on the NZ Herald website, there are links for international donations to help the victims of the quake, as well as a plethora of stories about the quake.

And at 4:51 p.m. MST, I urge my fellow Canadians and Kiwis abroad to take 2 mins, to stand in silence, to remember the victims of Tuesday's earthquake in Christchurch.

Adendum to We'll Soldier On

Looking back at my earlier post today, I have to just add this:

I'm such a fake - I was trying to be all upbeat and positive about the future of Christchurch after the quake on Tuesday (and all the aftershocks which followed), but you know what?? I'm not really feeling upbeat at all.

Don't get me wrong - it is awesome that the clean-up has started already, and that the people of Christchurch are banding together. My aunt told me that her boss asked for a few volunteers to help clean up their factory (she works for Independent Fisheries in Woolston), and he got 120. Amazing. I've seen the photos of the Canterbury University students out there, digging up the liquefaction . . . totally amazing. And such a contrast from Haiti's tragedy a year ago (don't take offense, this is my PERSONAL opinion, okay), where they had help pouring in from all over the world, yet a year later, it hardly looks any different.

But still, in spite of all this progress towards cleaning up and soldiering on, I am totally bummed. Obviously, not on the scale of those who live in Christchurch and experienced the quake first hand, but I am truly devastated by the destruction of my most favourite city in the world. Technically, many might think I have no right to grieve, my family and friends are all alive and well. Houses can be replaced, yards can be cleaned up. But people cannot be replaced, and I haven't lost anybody.

Yet everytime I see the pictures on the news, the wasteland of what was Columbo Street, for example, I just want to cry. I can talk about it now, without my voice breaking, but holy crap, what a bloody disaster! I've only seen pictures and video, but I lived there for 8 years and I know what it's supposed to look like. For the rest of the world, yeah, its tragic and the destruction is horrible, but for me, and for others who call Christchurch home, it is just devastating.

And it breaks my heart.

I love Fort St. John too, in its own way, its a pretty special city - and my husband and children are here, but somehow, Christchurch - in spite of my reluctance to move there in 1985 - is closer to my heart. It is where my family is from, where my grandparents and mother are buried, it is full of beautiful gardens, architecture, steeped in history, and I have wished every day since this happened that it was all just a bad dream.

Unfortunately, its not a dream, and I'm hanging out here on the outer edge of this nightmare, wishing I could do something, grieving and feeling a bit like a doofus for doing so. After-all, I'm safe, my family and friends are all alive and uninjured . . . but I'm sitting up here, in the Frozen North, blubbering every time I see pictures of the rubble.

I'm totally bummed, but she'll be right. Eventually.

Christchurch: We'll soldier on

My beloved ancestral home is in ruins this week, following Tuesday's 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The 7.1 in September was bad enough - it ruined a lot of homes and caused much stress for family and friends. But this one, although smaller in magnitude was literally a kick in the teeth to Christchurch, which was still picking up the pieces from September's quake.

I say ancestral home, because although I don't live there now, much of my family does and my mother traced our history back to the First Four Ships, which landed in Lytellton Harbour in 1850. My ancestor, Charles Bourn, came over on the Randolph. There's a plaque in Cathedral Square with the names of the passengers on it - no doubt covered in rubble now. For 160 years, Christchurch has grown and endured everything that Mother Nature has thrown at it, including several other strong earthquakes. It's architecture, beautiful gardens and temperate climate have beckoned people from around the world, to visit, and to settle in the Garden City.

I've spent many an afternoon, walking in the Botantic Gardens, surveying the city from the balconies atop the Cathedral's spire; many evenings with friends, just hanging out in various spots around the city, never thinking for a moment, that in February 2011, it would be in ruins.

Today, the spire of the Cathedral lies in the square. A pile of 130-year old bricks. Underneath, the bodies of visitors to the Cathedral wait to be recovered. It is nothing less than a resounding kick in the teeth to the people of Christchurch and Canterbury. Homes and other historic buildings throughout the city are ruined. Liquefaction oozing out of foundations, up from sinkholes in the roads, and in the middle of school playing fields. The Central Business District (CBD) is an utter shambles.Many are still without water or power, on this, the fourth day following the quake.

But in spite of this devastation, in spite of the 113 confirmed dead, and the 200 people still missing, Christchurch is not sitting on it's laurels, bemoaning what they have lost. Not even close. In the words of my aunt, "We'll soldier on." In the minds of Cantabrians, there's no other course of action. They pick up the pieces and carry on. Houses can be rebuilt. Yes, families have been tragically shattered, there's no bringing them back, but like the living, the dead would no doubt be saying, We'll soldier on.

Much of the CBD will have to be torn down and rebuilt. Christchurch will never look the same. But it like it's people will soldier on. They will rebuild - in fact, I read in the NZ Herald yesterday that they are already planning to rebuild the Cathedral, and the NZ Historic Places Trust is looking at repairing many of the damaged historic buildings in the city.

All is not lost. It's a kick in the teeth, to be sure. And I, like many, many others, am grieving for all that has been destroyed this week. One day, a day that will come much sooner than anyone thinks perhaps, I believe that Christchurch residents will no longer say We'll soldier on - they won't need to, because Christchurch will rise again from its ruins. We'll be able to look at the progress we've made and say, She'll be right, mate.

And she will.