Southerly by David Haywood

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Southerly: Tower Insurance Have Some Bad News For You

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  • Thomas Johnson,

    Wellington • Since Oct 2007 • 98 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Thomas Johnson,

    BSA win!

    But Tower were of the understanding that they'd been issued with a genuine nudge & wink-level loophole. While it didn't actually bear the Government imprimatur there was no way it'd intervene, no matter how loudly those who'd paid their premiums in good faith complained about effectively being told to go jump.

    Damn that pesky BSA. Someone better talk to Gerry.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe,

    Scandalous.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/6053877/PGC-buildings-safe-tag-questioned

    I draw your attention to this bit:

    [CCC's Steve] McCarthy said there was debate within the council about the wording of the green placard, which was dictated by the Department of Building and Housing.

    The green placard was only based on an external inspection. Building owners were responsible for a more detailed engineering assessment.

    "We clearly didn't want to say this building was safe to occupy," McCarthy said.

    He accepted some people may have placed undue weight on the green placards.

    Some people may have placed undue weight on the green placards! Heads must roll. Lots of them.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Hebe,

    Perhaps it's telling that the Press appear to have decided against opening online comments on that particular piece.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    Yes. My understanding is that one could be arrested if found in a red-placard building, but green doesn't mean it's safe. Huh?

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    The emotions are simmering as people start lying about not knowing of the Earth Quake risk added to the PGC Building LIM in 2006.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/6053877/Agents-happy-with-work-on-PGC

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Just thinking,

    I think a lot of this old-boy-network crap is just starting to be dragged out into the public gaze (and stare of horror.)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Islander,

    . . . this old-boy-network crap . . .

    Whatever it is, it’s characterised by a lame-arsed ineptitude at dealing with human issues, and a self-serving culture of legally-informed risk aversion with a demonstrably lethal track record. And as the attitudes on display at the current R. commission show, an absolute blinkered inability to even begin to comprehend the concept of personal responsibility.

    This is how the CTV building site looked yesterday. All traces removed, we’ve had a memorial service, that’s all folks, nothing to see move along. And this is what people continue to do, because as anyone with a grain of humanity knows, it’s what we humans need to do. Do the custodians of the public good provide some kind of temporary facility or shrine as even a courtesy to people’s grief? Oh please, the very suggestion gives them the vapours. The message is that if they can’t corporatise it, they just wish to hell it would go away.

    Perhaps we should be grateful that they appear to retain enough humanity to be disturbed by such reminders of their own lethal ineptitude.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    There is a very wellknown whakatauki-

    "E ki ana koe ki a ahau- he aha te mea nui?
    E ki ana ahau ki a koe- he takata, he takata, he takata!"

    But -that's just for humans...

    And I truly think there are people in the power structure of ANZ who have removed thinking - let alone talking- about other ANZers from their minds...I dont think of these people as real humans any more-*

    *mind you, sure as shit, I dont think of them as lizards either!
    I just think they have insulated themselves against all forms of human grief & misery by the
    money/power they have & are no longer concerned about any kind of social contract, any kind of looking after 'one's neighbour.'

    Bad cess to them.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Islander,

    There is a very wellknown whakatauki-

    "E ki ana koe ki a ahau- he aha te mea nui?
    E ki ana ahau ki a koe- he takata, he takata, he takata!"

    Thanks for the reminder. Presumably it's sill inscribed, with slightly different spelling but I trust essentially the same meaning, on what's left of the cathedral.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    Yes Joe – I use southern Kai Tahu dialect, but it is there-

    I am just - so sad about everything - and cant think of anything more I can do.

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    it's sill inscribed

    below the window

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Islander,

    I just think they have insulated themselves against all forms of human grief & misery by the
    money/power they have & are no longer concerned about any kind of social contract, any kind of looking after 'one's neighbour.'

    Box-tickers, who can be identified by urging their colleagues to "think outside the square".

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Hebe,

    Yes. Sadly.
    And, appreciate the word play(of all.)

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to Islander,

    I just think they have insulated themselves against all forms of human grief & misery by the
    money/power they have & are no longer concerned about any kind of social contract, any kind of looking after ‘one’s neighbour.’

    Bad cess to them.

    What insulation do they use? I'm guessing barbed wire and concrete.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Hebe,

    My understanding is that one could be arrested if found in a red-placard building . . .

    Seems that the curtain-twitching custodians of the public good now have their own little ratepayer-funded stasi to gather evidence for precisely that kind of prosecution.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Just thinking,

    Being of two minds on these issues as I head back to my office given the exact same assurances. I'm saying the rosary in one mind and the serenity pray in the other.

    Putaringamotu • Since Apr 2009 • 1158 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Finally the bare truth of it,
    ECan said identifying land as liquefaction-prone "only serves to add potential for angst and cost in ... development". The report characterised this as a "dubious approach".
    Auckland Council denote your at risk buildings now.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic, in reply to merc,

    ECan said identifying land as liquefaction-prone “only serves to add potential for angst and cost in … development”. The report characterised this as a “dubious approach”.

    Is that the post-sacking ECan? Sounds like it's all about the McMansions.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • merc,

    Just who does ECan really serve?

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    They shouldn't give up now, if Gerry is refusing to meet them. Why don't they just occupy him instead?

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Kumara Republic,

    And the Sunday Star Times got the date wrong for the eruption of Mount Pelée – by 85 - yes, eighty-five - years out.

    The southernmost capital … • Since Nov 2006 • 5446 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    So, real proof editors are an officially dead species?
    Shame.
    They were some of the most learned people I ever met during my (limited) career as a card-carrying journalist. And they were also couth – where as subbies went for
    your jugular (and their personal glory), proofreaders strolled around to your cubicle and-suggested the correction.

    It is one of my ridiculously proud moments that I once got the word* “circumperambulation” printed on the front page of the “Greymouth Evening Star”
    simply because nobody could prove it didnt exist.
    *It didnt , for the circumstances, because I made it up. But – sounded & read right!

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    fear facts…

    …the Sunday Star Times got the date wrong for the eruption of Mount Pelée – by 85 – yes, eighty-five – years out.

    They say:

    …for example, in the 1987 eruption of Mt Pelee on the Carribean island of Martinique, 26,000 people caught in the base surge perished and only two survived.

    Hmmm, I think they are also about 2 – 4,000 out
    on the death toll and you let them away with
    their misspelling of Caribbean!

    According to Wikipedia:

    The stratovolcano is famous for its eruption in 1902 and the destruction that resulted, dubbed the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The eruption killed about 30,000 people. Most deaths were caused by pyroclastic flows and occurred in the city of Saint-Pierre, which was, at that time, the largest city on the island.

    Figures vary from 28,000 to 40,000 (including not just Saint-Pierre but other nearby villages)

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

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