Residents reject Government claims

Claims that government is acting in a responsible manner over the handling of the cyclone recovery is absolute rubbish claims a woman who lost her house during the cyclone. “We have recently spent $25,000 doing renovations on our home and now it’s damaged. We were hoping to at least get some tarpaulins to protect our furniture but were advised that we had to wait. Unfortunately, looting has started as someone has stolen some of our property and because of the lack of hands to assist, members of my family have come over from NZ to help us. What we need right now is hands to help us and while we’ve been hit, my heart goes out to the families who have lost everything. I’ve been in Aitutaki since last Friday but there has been no one to help us, just myself and my husband and we are both semi retired,” said the woman.
The Herald took the liberty of speaking to a number of people who wish to remain anonymous who say they want to go to Aitutaki to help with the clean up but are reluctant to because of the people involved with the co-ordination of organizing volunteers. “I mean to simply go over and offer to help for a week with the clean up shouldn’t require being screened and we do understand that skilled people are required but surely government can come up with something better. We’re not interested in the politics, we only want to help,” said one person.
Minister Rasmussen in his capacity as coordinator of the cyclone recovery on behalf of government has explained through the media the process by which government is addressing a number of issues however questions still remain as to the expediency of government’s decision making process at a time when it was required. For instance, why was the Kukupa not sent over with much needed supplies when government first made the announcement it was going?
There appears to be a lot of manpower available in the Cook Islands but the lack of transport to get to Aitutaki plus the cost involved is putting people off. Right now, people are more interested in looking after their own families because of the lack of a more co-ordinated effort on the part of government to establish proper channels of communications, said another resident.
“After all, we are prone to cyclones and government should already be able to activate emergency responses but it seems officials are playing politics and not listening to the cry of our people,” said another.
“Our people have decided that they are going to rebuild Aitutaki with or without government support because we are tired of being dictated to. Right now, our Konitara are just going ahead with supplying timber and equipment because of the slowness by government in responding to our requests. Instead, government puts up a smokescreen to make it look as if they’re really doing something when in actual fact, they’re not. Our preference is that we will just go ahead and do what we can because we can’t wait and unfortunately, we will probably end up depending on our own families in NZ and Australia to help us.”
Stories like this reflect the mood of some of the people affected by the cyclone and although it is accepted that a co-ordinated effort is required to avoid panic and chaos, surely, the experience from previous cyclones should be enough to alert government and its officials to emergency responses rather than wait for post cyclone recovery assessments. One resident claims that government should be able to respond within 24 hours or at the earliest possible moment and have equipment and supplies at the ready and on the ground within that same period.
A week later and there is still little evidence of recovery efforts from government other than the massive clean up and the ongoing assessments by officials. What about the people who have been affected and traumatized by this cyclone? “We know there are good people in Rarotonga who can help but politics has created this division so our plea is to stop this politicking and to rise above this for the sake of our people. We have trained Cook Island counsellors sitting in Rarotonga, why not bring some of them over to help provide counselling for those who need it instead of just concentrating on the recovery of buildings. People’s lives are more important and it is their needs that should come first during this time of tragedy.”