A New Start

Those of you who have visited my blog will notice that all the old articles have been removed.

Time for a new start I thought.

In New Zealand the whole focus seems to be gearing up for the rugby world cup. A lot of fuss over a game, but that's my personal view. I must say I haven't met more that 3 people who are actually excited about the event and they are all keen participants in the sport at one level or another.

I'm hoping the weather will pick up for the event for over the past couple of weeks the whole country seems to have be deluged with copious quantities of rain accompanied with strong gales.

We currently have a Royal Commission looking into the circumstances around the mining accident that claimed the lives of 29 miners in November last year. I feel a good deal of sympathy with the families of those killed but I can't help but think there is a lot of unrealistic demands to recover the bodies of the deceased.

All the families know where the dead relatives are and it would be more fitting to declare the mine closed permanently and turn the entrance to the mine into a memorial to recognize the dead people inside.

I was raised in a coal mining area in the UK and tragic accidents were relatively common place. Mining is by it's very nature a dangerous activity and the best that can be achieved is to try and make it as safe as possible. This Royal Commission will hopefully determine what could have been done better and what can be improved to help avoid any similar disaster.

I hope the Royal Commission will look closely at the initial response and determine if the NZ Police are the best people to be running a rescue operation in an area where they have no expertise. There role should surely only be to secure the area around the site and to allow the experts to get on with the rescue operation and make the judgement calls as to what should or should not be attempted.

We will see over the coming months.