It is discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
Noel Coward
This is the last in a series of posts addressing how funds - donated/collected unconditionally in Nelson for victims of the earhquake/tsunami in Japan, 11. Mar. 2011, by several groups and many individuals - were hijacked by one small special-interest group among them, to be applied to a small area only: Onagawa.
This group proving to be so insensitive to even Onagawa, that the collected funds sat in a City bank-account for over a year and a half.
My concern, since Aug. 2012, has been that these funds should immediately go to a coordinating authority in Japan, for application where most useful: at Ground Zero - the north-east coast.
I presented my arguments in every Committee of the Whole (COW), since 17. Sep. 2012, to a stoic City Council. What became clear - immediately after my first presentation - was that Mayor Dooley has been actively involved in this Onagawa-Only fixation: acting as the group's de facto spokesperson and guide around City Hall and its resources. Which may explain Council's public unresponsiveness.
A series of the mayor's statements over months showed that applying these funds in total to Onagawa was a foregone conclusion: unquestioned by Council, unapproved by the never-asked Nelson public and despite his group's inept dithering.
The funds are still held in the same City account, without any legal documentation as to who has authority over safekeeping, releasing and applying them. Without any legal documentation giving the Onagawa-Only group authority over spending them. Without any legal documentation backing the City Manager's public claim that these funds had been donated to the City. Mr. Cormack's positioning-or-not in this matter is astounding.
I kept on presenting more arguments - as I looked deeper into this disaster-relief disaster - soon not necessarily speaking to Council in front of me any longer but those members of the Whole sitting behind me. Wanting at least some there to see that - in this case - at City Hall feeding egos of a few seems more important than feeding the humanitarian needs of many.
And I kept forwarding all material presented to the mayor and Council; I kept on posting on this blog.
The posts are:
Onagawhat Now?
6. Sep. 2012
Nelson: Blessed Relief? I Wish!
23. Oct. 2012
Onagawa Trucking Ltd.
28. Oct. 2012
Onagawa Trucking Ltd: What a Load...!
11. Nov. 2012
Onagawa Truck: Life Giver
19. Nov. 2012
Originally I had planned to present the following material as a counter-weight to the Onagawa-Only group's presentation at the COW, 17. Dec. Its first: no update, account ever before given to the donating public.
But I decided against it, because it was obvious that Council - in this COW - would release the funds to the group: its prior unresponsiveness and the mayor's previous clearly-in-charge truck-related declarations conveniently shrugged-off in a backroom-deal - also called in camera - as: WE really had no part in this; and: WE know how incorrectly the media report wink-wink. Neither legal documentation nor the greater Whole's opinion a consideration - while collective 2nd-floor comfort a concern, indeed!
The Counter-Weight
A member of the Onagawa-Only group - in a recent CBC interview - claims that although right after the disaster many in Nelson responded emotionally - manifested in financial donations - THEIR interest waned quickly. Leaving only HER small group: totally pro-active because totally dedicated.
I find that breast-beating spin troubling: it clearly aims at glorifying their narrow agenda - Onagawa only! - at the expense of the greater giving Whole and the needs of the larger disaster-area in Japan. Interest among the general public here did NOT lessen: they had given unconditionally - expecting their donations to be forwarded to those most in need as quickly as possible! Applied affectively NOW! SIMPLE! DONE!
While the Onagawa-Only group settled into an absurdly long Quixotic fight against windmills - with no qualms over claiming the funds of those disdained for supposedly having lost interest quickly!
Not to forget: It is a member of the LET'S-HELP-WHERE-WE-CAN-NOW! Whole - who, since Aug. 2012, has consistently shown concern for the lack of progress made - within a year and a half - by the membership-fluid, sporadically active and dubiously focused Onagawa-Only group! THAT'S how come they FINALLY are here today!
To The Rescue!
The group's claim They also declined our suggestion of a donation of the money to the (Onagawa) hospital, as they felt the funds would not be identifiable is telling. Surely it would be extremely rare in the history of medical institutions that a financial contribution is not accepted because the institution can't guarantee a commemorative whatever to the donor.
So I wonder: did the hospital decline the funds, or did the Onagawa-Only group decline making a definitive offer because it wouldn't be officially - carved in stone - recognized for it? Like: No plaque - no donation?
The group makes it sound as if THEIR truck would be the only one in town. Obviously there are more! Thus - use of THIS truck would be occasional, a non-essential convenience for some only. Hardly disaster-relief!
Claiming that it could help in an evacuation - during a coming disaster - raises the question: Help how and whom? What makes a disaster disastrous is that it strikes unexpectedly - but the group's scenario has it that the next disaster will wait for the truck to - by itself - help get people and stuff out, before it eventually strikes to collapse buildings, make roads impassable and kill people - including truck-drivers!
According to Reuters: thousands of cars and trucks - swamped and destroyed in the last disaster - are now being dismantled for parts or scrapped.
Claiming that this truck would lower everybody's anxiety-level in Onagawa sort-of makes it a cargo-cult. The whole town worshipping a truck!
Colonial Wonderfulness
Japan is a developed country - educated and wealthy - and gaijin fixated on taking care of these Japanese indefinitely sounds like the age-old colonial attitude: WE know what's best for you! Making them believe they're helpless and perpetuating that belief!
How that attitude is perceived in Onagawa should have become clear when those there - unfailingly polite - wouldn't accept any of the group's previous suggestions. Which - in turn - frustrated this self-promoting, baffled Nelson group into exhaustion thus lengthy naps on the job.
Onagawa Reality
There actually is good reason for PERMANENT anxiety in Onagawa. Eleven days ago, another quake hit the north-east coast, causing a tsunami of one meter in Ishinomaki - in the Miyagi Prefecture, where Onagawa is also located. What with Japan highly earthquake-prone: once before - in the 1960s - parts of Onagawa were leveled by a quake-caused tsunami. That - plus being situated at the confluence of two ocean-currents and hosting a nuclear power-plant in the vicinity - should cause anxiety in a big way!
Will relevant administrations - because of their poor planning largely responsible for loss of life and property - finally learn?
Meanwhile in Nelson
Attempting to lessen anxiety there with manifesting a truck here is a feel-good exercise by/for a small special-interest group - guided by the mayor, questionably supported by City Hall staff - and an abuse of the sentiments which created funds out of ACTUAL CONCERN with HUMANITARIAN DISASTER-RELIEF as such.
End of my intended counter-weight.
Councillor Macdonald demands - yes, demands! - respect for the COW's Chair (at least - when she is IT!). What she and all other elected officials at City Hall need to realize is: respect does not automatically come with the job.
An elected official earns respect by being respectful of constituents! All of them!
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