Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone,

This article from the Star in Malaysia caught my attention, reviewing New Zealands annus horriblis in 2010.

Lets hope fortunes improve in Aoteoroa for 2011.

Friday December 31, 2010



Not hard to bid adieu to 2010


TALE OF TWO CITIES


AUCKLAND


BY CHARLES CHAN

AS the curtain falls on 2010, many New Zealanders will be glad to bid “good riddance” to what has surely been a rotten year, an annus horriblis.

A slew of natural and man-made disasters — earthquakes, floods, drought, fires and corporate collapses — caused a lot of misery.

The government is running out of cash, with a deficit of NZ$15.6bil reported for the 2010-11 fiscal year, the same as in 1984 when the country was broke.

Memorial service: People sitting near individual tables covered with personal items of dead miners at Omoto Racecourse in Greymouth recently. Two explosions killed 29 miners in the underground Pike River coal mine last month.


So although not broke, the National-led government under John Key is having to borrow NZ$300mil a week just to keep hospitals, schools and other essential services running.

Finance Minister Bill English said the deficit was “at the outer boundaries of what the government wanted” but was confident the country was still on track to bring the budget back to surplus by 2015/16.

Realistically, the cash-strapped government won’t be able to do much in the area of job creation, poverty and hardship alleviation.

The easy way out is to start selling off commercial assets worth NZ$52bil to pay the bills but with the general election in the new year, that’s quite an unlikely scenario.

So it’s no surprise the Christmas season hasn’t been a cheerful one for some Kiwis, particularly those families who have lost fathers and sons from the 2010 News of the Year event — the Pike River coal mine disaster of Nov 19 that killed 29 miners and contractors.

Unlike the miracle of San Jose copper-gold mine in Chile, the Pike River tragedy traumatised the nation.

More than a month after that tragedy, there’s still no indication when or if ever the bodies of the 29 mine victims can be recovered. The presence of dangerous toxic gases in the mine tunnels make it unsafe for recovery teams to enter.

The mine disaster has more serious consequences for the living. Debt-ridden Pike River Coal has bellied up and 90% of its 160 workers are out of work.

For the West Coast town of Greymouth in the South Island, where most mine workers spend their money on daily essentials, it’s a sickening blow to the local economy.

The other big event that captured world headlines and media attention was the Sept 4 Canterbury earthquake near Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, that cost widespread damage to residential and commercial properties estimated at $5bil by Goldman Sachs.

Nobody was killed. The only fatality was a man who died of a heart attack during the 7.1 magnitude quake but more than 3,000 aftershocks have hit the area.

The latest swarm of aftershocks came on Boxing Day ranging from 3.0 to 4.9 in magnitude which sent bargain hunters fleeing for their lives as bricks and mortar crashed from buildings.

So far a total of 161,600 claims had already been lodged with the Earthquake Commission, making the Canterbury quake the fourth most-costly earthquake for insurers globally since 1970 after Northridge, California, in 1994, Central and Southern Chile in 2010, and Kobe, Japan, in 1995.

The silver lining is that reconstruction work associated with repairs and rebuilding of affected homes covered by insurance will give the local economy a much needed boost.

But in the meantime, due to bureaucratic delay and the sheer scale of repairs, many families will not be able to return to their homes for several years to come.

It’s not in the Christmas spirit to derive some satisfaction over another person’s troubles but many New Zealanders are not shedding any tears for controversial businessman Mark Hotchin.

His NZ assets have all been frozen by the Securities Commission which is investigating his role in the collapse of Hanover Finance.

The freeze order included his bank accounts and $13.5mil property on Waiheke Island and his highly-publicised $30mil unfinished mansion on Paritai Drive in the Auckland suburb of Remuera.

That collapse in 2008 has left 16,000 investors out of pocket to the tune of $413mil, shattering retirement dreams, ruining plans for holidays, costly operations and negating inheritance legacies of many elderly couples.

Hotchin is moaning that the $1,000 a week allowance given by the Commission to cover legal costs, rent and mortgage payments, and food and other household expenses, is insufficient for his needs and the seven people he supports.

The stealth displayed by the commission, activating an existing law that had been gathering cobwebs for years, took Hotchins completely by surprise, sort of like Pearl Harbour in World War II.

Usually, assets are frozen with notice of a court order following the completion of an investigation into alleged irregularities.

Some financial analysts see it as a warning from the commission that it’s prepared to play hardball to nail corporate crooks.

Hotchin, who has relocated to a multi-million-dollar beachfront mansion on the Gold Coast, Australia, intends to fight the orders and a hearing is expected in February.

In stark contrast, when South Canterbury Finance collapsed in August after being placed under statutory management, hundreds of people, including those who put their life savings in his company, staged rallies and marches in his support.

The collapse of the country’s largest finance company, triggered a payment of $1.6bil of taxpayers money to 35,000 depositors under the Government’s deposit guarantee scheme which ensures investors will get their money back with interest.

But the significance of it was all buried under the sentimental mush over Hubbard, the Timaru-based multimillionaire philanthropist who lives with his wife in a modest home and drives around in an old car.

It affected large number of rural sector loans estimated at over $250mil and poses a risk to New Zealand’s agricultural sector. This arises from the crucial nature of the rural sector to the overall agricultural industry in the country.

The real story is still unravelling but in the meantime, Hubbard who will be held accountable for approving questionable loans that led to South Canterbury’s collapse is still revered while Hotchin is reviled.

Other TV images that captured NZ’s economic woes poignantly were of tens of thousands of lambs dying in southland during the harsh winter and factory fires that put hundreds of people out of work.

Yet, despite these numbing setbacks, NZ success in sports provided some cheer.

Not often can New Zealand claim to have finished a year on top of Australia, its biggest rival, in three of the leading winter codes — rugby, rugby league and netball.

Even in soccer, it could boast a superior record at the World Cup in South Africa, thanks to a stunning unbeaten run. For the fourth successive time, New Zealand’s Black Ferns captured the women’s version of the Rugby World Cup, beating English 13-10 in a tense final.

With just the inaugural world cup victory under their belt, the ABS have a long way to go but their stunning successes in 2010 — over South Africa, Australia, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland — make them the favourites for the 2011 Rugby World Cup which NZ is hosting in September.


Winning the Webb Ellis Cup, the symbol of global rugby supremacy, will give Kiwis some cheer in the difficult year ahead.

Just imagine that — so much hope placed on an oval ball the size of a durian.