Guest Blog by Jolie Wills Okay, this may sound a little odd, but it strikes me that working in recovery is a lot like first-time parenthood. How so? When you embark on the journey you know it will be one of the most meaningful and valuable roles you will play, but also one of the … Continue reading
Filed under Christchurch Earthquakes …
My Valentine’s Day Disaster
It is a valentine’s day like no other and it starts early. I look out the jeep window, a little bleary eyed from the 4am start. Tacloban flashes past as we drive to a relief distribution. We slow a little as we come to a roundabout – it looks a little odd, kind of lumpy … Continue reading
Cosmic Engineering
To be honest my former self would have thought that an ‘inspiring engineer’ was an oxymoron. It would seem that the universe has intervened on the behalf of the engineering profession to set me straight. You could call it a feat of ‘cosmic engineering’. Whether sitting on a bus winding around rural Taiwan or random … Continue reading
How will the greater Christchurch earthquake experience influence kids in 50 years time?
How will our stories, images, achitecture and recovery vision influence future generations? I was raised in Napier fifty years after the 1931 earthquake ‘that wiped Napier town off the map’ and have looked back at my own formative years to try and gain insights into this question. I remember being on school camp, sitting with … Continue reading
Leadership, wisdom and the post-disaster recovery process
And it is done. After much toil please find the link to my Winston Churchill Report – Leadership, wisdom and the post-disaster recovery process. Elizabeth McNaughton Winston Churchill Report 2013 Final This Winston Churchill fellowship focuses on post-disaster recovery leadership. The purpose of this study is to seek the wisdom of recovery leaders, in the US, … Continue reading
10 New Year Resolutions for Recovery Leaders – 10 Ways to Ease the Burn!
If we say recovery is a marathon then I have got the burn! I look at peers, colleagues and volunteers and see them too pushing hard to keep thinking, listening and empathising. As part of my fellowship I asked twenty five recovery leaders (from all realms) – what impact does leadership fatigue/burnout have on the … Continue reading
The Earthquake Soundtrack – L’Aquila
The notes from a single violin drift through the cobblestoned street. It has such an eerie sound that the Italian Red Cross volunteers and I stop and look at each other. We wonder who is playing the violin in what we think is an abandoned street. It is a fitting serenade to the street, filled … Continue reading
Katrina: it’s a hurri-can’t
I arrive at New Orleans’s airport with my head hurting and my eyes watering having just read 60 pages about planning for the rebuilding of New Orleans – oh dear, words fail me on that count…….. So it is with relief that I step into the barmy night air of the Big Easy, I pass … Continue reading
The art of recovery with Art Agnos – former Mayor of San Francisco
Before meeting with Art I did the usual Wikipedia scan which turned into a ‘Wikigasp’ when I looked at all he has achieved. I had come prepared with my ‘meeting tax’ a loaf of Vogel’s bread – Art’s favourite! Well, I can tell you by the end of the meeting I wished I had brought … Continue reading
