Buried underground for what seems like eternity would piss most people off. The recent
Chile disaster was the classic example. But one must congratulate the Chilean
President for getting his act together and solving the problem. Naturally the international experts were the first to offer their talents. But one must be fair and realise that those that helped did so without thought of immediate profit. However, long term gain was another matter. But one does not discuss idealistic thoughts. Human beings were at risk and profit must take a back seat. But congratulations to all concerned. Well done and so on etc. (how's that for political waffle?) But just imagine if the problem had happened in New Zealand. With the best will in the world, the Resource Management Act would get in the way. It would take at least six weeks to put the necessary ticks in the little boxes before a hearing could be organised. Then the appointees would be notified and the hearing would be heard about thirteen months later. One would of course need a council permit to drill down to the survivors. This would take three months to be issued. Tenders would have to be called for drills and other essential equipment. Another five months would pass while considerations were considered by council employees siting in judgement of their own considerations. Making decisions were a difficult proposition for those who had never received any decision making training. To drill or not to drill, that was the question? How much should a permit cost for something that had never been permitted before? Naturally Council would democratically call for private operator assistance. This would take at least four months and would justify their collective indecision of requiring further information before an appropriate decision could be made or decided upon in line with undecided Council policy. But an appropriate "hello, we're thinking about you" would be issued to those trapped underground in the name of "those who have your interests at heart." Then DOC, the Department of Conservation, declared the intended drilling site was on the National Heritage List owing to an extremely rare snail known as the Humped Flat Back that was last sighted in 1910. Thus DOC would find it necessary to bar all potential intruders from the ancient site in the name of save our snails (and our jobs). They were backed three Maori elders who remembered the Maori word for Humped Flat Back was Kia. Naturally Kai could not be sacrificed in the name of drilling holes that could prevent the long lost creatures from cohabiting their way into the modern world. It just wouldn't be fair to Kai lovers. It wasn't a racial issue. It was merely self justification, or in other words, today's version of commonsense. A number of politicians had run out of excuses for their incompetence and deliberately ignored the situation. This caused protestors to drive tractors up the steps of parliament and stop government from promising their weekly promises on national televison. A TV breakfast host stated that as extinct Humped Flat Back were browned shelled and couldn't speak English, why should they be sacrificed for a few over-paid miners? But naturally there was a way out of the situation. The miners would be declared dead and a negotiated sum of money would be paid to relatives to smooth things over. Then, out of the blue, New Zealand won a record number of medals at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the public excitedly forgot about the miners. But let's be fair. Officially dead miners don't eat snails, and extinct snails don't eat dead miners, so why should anybody worry about either of them? The more intelligent politicians heaved a sign of collective relief and gobbled down imported escargots to dream up some more fantasies for a nation already living on tax payer-funded pie in the sky aspirations. Their illusions appeared promising as long as reality was kept buried along with the non existing miners. |
