South Island residents have been to hell and back the past few weeks. First South Canterbury Finance going into receivership and then the Earthquake which rocked the region.
While the Government is stepping up to help out with both tragedies, there are long roads ahead for the people involved. However, the community spirit we witness on television shows the true Kiwi heart and if I were one I would be proud to be a Cantabrian. They have rallied together to help out neighbours in the aftermath of the earthquake and soothed strangers during the ongoing aftershocks.
Also, the folk of Timaru still have unwavering support for Alan Hubbard and I say good on them. And while I don’t wish to antagonise the situation that is the so called Great Divide between rural and urban New Zealanders, I couldn’t believe that while this is going on an urban welfare dependant woman emailed into a breakfast show demanding to know if the money needed to help out SCF will be taken out of her benefit?
I have also heard some town folk moaning about the amount they will have to pay in tax to help this company out. OK, it may have been left too long, but they did have keen investors and were exploring all avenues.
In my opinion, it wasn’t blatant disregard for people's investments. And while SCF was only one of Alan Hubbard's interests, the way I see it is the Hubbards have lived a very modest lifestyle, and while there is still an investigation underway and no doubt more information to come out, we cannot in any way whatsoever lump them into the same camp as the low-life Eric Watson and Mark Hotchin who are gallivanting around the world without a care after leaving many a hardworking Kiwi’s life turned upside down by sending their life savings down the gurgler.
Alan Hubbard may or may not have made some wrong decisions, however he has lost a lot of his own money also and I believe his decisions weren’t made to feather his own nest.
His decisions seemed to have been made to help out his country folk and ensure that the New Zealand farming families and hard working small businessmen could stay afloat during immensely uncertain economic times when he may have genuinely thought he could get them out of trouble.
The New Zealand public needs to stop thinking about themselves and get back to their roots, be proud of Southland people and perhaps try to emulate some of their behaviour for the better of themselves and our country. There are always two sides and I’m tired of the farmer bashing so excuse me if I seem one sided in this great divide, but spend a month walking in some of these folks' shoes and you will find something worthwhile to whine about.
When disasters such as Canterbury’s earthquake strike, Federated Farmers and Fonterra have also stepped up to the plate. Fonterra donated $1 million to the mayoral fund to help those in Christchurch and surrounding communities; they had tankers delivering much needed water and were working with civil defense to provide food and milk to emergency centres. REMEMBER FOLKS, they didn’t just help out farmers.
Federated Farmers worked efficiently ensuring rural milking sheds and businesses received much needed power in some cases in the form of generators. Without these farmers would have had huge influxes of mastitis and loss of production for the entire season.
It has been a great effort from all areas of the community to help out those folk in need. And these businesses who are often receiving negative publicity in the media deserve credit where credits due.
For the folk in what I’m fully prepared to now call our Mainland, I hope that the problems within the infrastructure in the Canterbury regions are remedied as soon as possible and their lives can get back to somewhat normal.
From what I’ve seen of these amazing people so far, I’m sure they’ll pull through.
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