A reminder of what's lost and what's ahead

Nelson Mail editorial, March 18, 2011
As everybody expected, Christchurch's post- earthquake agonies have moved to a troubling, unhappy stage. That has made for an odd backdrop to today's national memorial day in Hagley Park. The timing of the commemoration, less than a month since the quake and well before a final death toll is clear, has been widely criticised in the city, and the sense is that the Government has not got this part of its response right.
Nevertheless, for better or worse it has gone ahead, many dignitaries have made the effort to attend, and the day will play its part in helping Christchurch to take a short time out and ponder all it has lost.
But what then? That question remains as impossible to answer, even to contemplate, as it was straight after the quake. The city is not just broken, but beaten down - exhausted, dispirited, confused and anxious. A sense of foreboding refuses to lift. The dreadful events in Japan over the past week have darkened the picture, adding to the doom-ridden air and threatening to overshadow Christchurch's needs.
The decision that the city will play no part in the Rugby World Cup was at a rational level entirely sensible, understandable and predictable. Emotionally, however, many Christchurch people will feel betrayal, the move a harsh reminder that however much others may sympathise with their plight, there is no disguising the depths the city has fallen to.
Similarly, the destruction of many historic buildings under the direction of Civil Defence has been the rudest of awakenings. It is easy to accept the principle that buildings which are dangerously damaged must be cleared to ensure the city centre is made safe as quickly as possible, but the reality of the clearances and the lack of communication about them has been heart-wrenching - yet another of those slaps in the face as the full meaning of the earthquake begins to sink in.
Civil Defence is not helping matters in that regard, appearing arrogant over the demolitions (or "deconstructions" as its uncomfortably-Orwellian jargon has it). That it operates under the powers of a national emergency - and largely out of the view of the public, with no obvious intention of fully accounting for itself - is an unsettling aspect of the experience to date.
There has been cause for some positiveness, most of all the stunning displays of generosity and support from the rest of New Zealand. Every ounce of that will be needed, and much more. Maybe the best that can be hoped for from today's memorial is that it is not treated by anyone as an attempt to "bring closure" to or "move on" from the city's tragedy. Christchurch has not yet properly picked itself up from the rubble. It has not farewelled all its fallen, it doesn't know how it will cope with the coming winter. It has a rebuilding task never before contemplated in this country. The social consequences lying in wait are unfathomable.
If its road ahead is the longest and most difficult imaginable, it must not be a lonely one. The only thoughts of moving on that should be entertained during today's solemnity are those which acknowledge that as a nation, we will do so as one. As of now, we've hardly even begun.