Posts by Craig Ranapia
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Megan Wegan,
Having said that, my Aunt, who has lost her house, points out that a church isn’t a building, it’s a community, and the people involved in it.
Quite right, and that was my point - which I didn't make that well, obviously. As that great philosopher Hal David put it, a house is not a home when there's no one there to hold you tight and no one there you can kiss goodnight. But any urban plan that forgets the human factor is one I don't want to touch with anything less lethal than a seal club.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Keir Leslie,
I think it should be left in ruins. It’s a far more powerful image now than it ever was before. Before the Cathedral looked almost toy like often; now it looks utterly sublime.
I know it’s not a precise analogy (and potentially a rather tasteless one), but there was a long and rather heated debate about rebuilding Nagasaki’s Urakami Cathedral between the city government (who wanted to leave the ruins (which were 500m from ground zero) as a memorial, and the Catholic community for whom the church’s value went way beyond aesthetic or heritage values -- if you want to get right down to it, in art historical terms it was (and still is) a not particular distinguished example of ecclesiastical Romanesque Revival.
The reason Nagasaki's Catholics fought so hard to be allowed to rebuild on the original site was that it was the heart of their community of faith that had endured – and survived – not only the atomic bombing, but often brutal persecution.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Sue,
Napier turned out as well as it does becuase it was down to (i think) 3 architects who re designed the entire city.
Well, that makes me a tad nervous because sometimes you get Baron Hausmann’s boulevards and other times you get Oscar Neymeyer’s proof that nothing dates faster than the future.
Or put another way, I prefer the human chaos of cities like Sydney and Melbourne than a "planned" city like Canberra – whose central brief seemed to be “fuck you, puny human ants”.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
surely it’s good for Christchurch’s recovery to help Auckland’s economic performance improve?
Theoretically, yes. But in the cold hard light of pragmatic reality, I don’t think Auckland is the only local body who’s going to find a lot of big ticket projects depending on substantial central government support aren’t going to be as well-received in Wellywood as they once were. I’m not naive enough to think that when the next round of local body elections roll around that’s not going to be problematic.
Or put another way, while I’m sceptical whether Brown’s plan for the CBD loop is entirely sound, I really think making Christchurch’s CBD fit for human habitation is a much higher priority. You can call Fran O'Sullivan a right-wing douche all you like, but she's not the only one stating the bleeding obvious.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to giovanni tiso,
In different circumstances, I’d be more than happy to.
In the current circumstances, I think my response is best sent to you privately.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to giovanni tiso,
If you don’t get how it’s infinitely worse for the Minister of Corrections to say something like that, and phrase it so casually, I guess that’s that.
*very deep breath taken* Don’t go there. Please.
that’s not what Danyl is saying. he’s saying that lot’s of people think that prison rape is part of the punishment.
Well, if that’s what Danyl meant to say that’s what he should have wrote.
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I’ve avoided even looking at the vile twatcockery being said about dealing to looters, and really didn’t need to see the Minister of Police and Corrections get in on the act but WHAT THE FRAK, DANYL!:
It’s natural for private citizens to feel this way and this is the kind of grim humour you’d expect to hear from, say, a talkback radio-host. But Collins is the Minister of Police and Corrections and – in theory – she represents the state’s monopoly on punishment and violence. She really shouldn’t encourage individual citizens to rape each other.
Seriously, dude, Moby Dick of fail whale there. It’s not acceptable for Collins -- or anyone else -- to say shit like that under any circumstances because NOBODY EVER "DESERVES" TO BE RAPED. Rape culture is no more "natural" than casual racism or sexism. .
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Sacha,
Only took me all arvo – the blighters had buried it well.
To be fair, there's rather a lot of off-schedule material and I don't think it's unreasonable that someone gets a weekend off. :)
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to recordari,
Exactly -- and it's not a bloody competition. I'm sure Debs Coddington and whoever wrote the headline to her HoS column had their hearts in a good place, but "Today, we're all Cantabrians"/ Nope - nowhere close.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Emma Hart,
Meh... I contained my disappointment by picturing you topless on the radio.
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