Dehli Commonwealth VIllage Not Ready Either!

Article from Stuff.co.nz

VILLAGE SHOCK: Photos taken inside the athletes' village this week have been leaked to the BBC by an unnamed Games official.

Indian officials hoodwinked New Zealand Commonwealth Games administrators by using a model tower to suggest everything was fine with accommodation in the Delhi village.

This extraordinary revelation was made by New Zealand chef de mission Dave Currie as he explained the last-minute rush to get the games village ready for the event that is due to start on October 3.


New Zealand has delayed its takeover of its tower in the village until Sunday and told athletes not to arrive until Tuesday – two days later than original plans. As the frantic efforts continue amid late monsoons, Currie tried to give a satisfactory answer to why the "filthy" conditions weren’t uncovered earlier.
"It is probably a fair question," Currie said.

"We'd had great difficulty getting to the accommodation area on any of the visits we've had.
"They had this model tower, which is immaculate. They had said all towers would be finished and furnished to the [specifications] of the model tower.
"In May when we were here, we finally did get in and had a very brief look at one apartment.
"It wasn't finished, there was a lot of debris around, but we were more concerned at that stage where we were going to be in the village and what decorations and banners and signage we needed, to get some measurements around all of that.
"Still they wouldn't let us into any significant areas of the tower."

 HOW IT SHOULD LOOK: A photograph claimed to have been taken on September 16 of Indian staff cleaning one of the apartments at the Commonwealth Games village during the soft launch of the athletes' residential complex in New Delhi.

Currie said the Commonwealth Games Federation had obviously faced the same challenges but he believed they could have done better in getting the finishing touches to the village sped up.
"We're somewhat grumpy with them, that they didn't have a better process of understanding how bad things were," Mr Currie said.

In a telephone conference with New Zealand media last night he regularly repeated that he felt the games' organising committee had been in denial about the problems.

After a meeting with fellow chef de missions yesterday he felt increased optimism about the games.
That was mainly through the presence of Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and 40 of her officials.
They appeared to finally provide a challenge for frustrations to vented and hope that the problems in the village could be rectified.

"But she has a mountain to climb. She is in charge ... now we wait to see the process and evidence that things can be rectified. There has been a lot of talk, now we want evidence," Currie said.
"But she has brought leadership and a layer of administration to act. They have brought in some resources because there have been a lot of people milling around not being effective.
"There is some hope now. I’m more optimistic now that someone has taken ownership. But it’s a bit like trying to stop the Titanic and putting it in another direction."

The worry now was that the rush to get things fixed could mean a compromise in safety standards.

Skyhawk for the playground anyone?

Article from Stuff.co.nz

Skyhawk 'giveaway' after failed sale

By TRACY WATKINS, ANDREA VANCE and MICHAEL FIELD - Stuff  

 
The mothballed Skyhawk fighter jets will likely be "given away," Prime Minister John Key has admitted.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp today admitted that unless there are dramatic developments in the next 24 hours, the Skyhawks will be either junked or turned into museum pieces.
Earlier today Mr Key said the failure to sell the jets has been a "a disaster" for the taxpayer and frustrating for the Government. On his way to the House this afternoon, Mr Key said he was "disappointed".

The American buyer, Tactical Air Service, has a deadline of tomorrow to come up with the money, after which American State Department approval - required for the sale - expires. Mr Key said it was not likely this would be made. He admitted: "We've got some sense of what the alternatives will be, but none of them look terribly flash. The most likely would be that they are given away.
"If that's where it ends up then at some point you have got to cut your losses."

But he refused to attribute blame for the failed sale. "We just have to deal with the situation we've got which is at the moment there's not a lot of buyers that have got cash for the Skyhawks."

Earlier today, Mr Key said that even if the Skyhawks were sold there would be been enormous costs in refurbishing them and getting them up and running again. "It's not just as simple as handing over the keys. There will be an awful lot of work that has to be done and the reality is that time has moved on and technology has moved on. There's a limited demand for them," Mr Key said.

He said one of the Skyhawks may go to Australia, and some of the avionics could be sold. "We are considering a number of other options that are available to us. There is probably more demand for the Aermacchi than the Skyhawks but we will have to see how we go from here. "It may well be that they end up in clubs around New Zealand and maybe one going to Australia. It's obviously disappointing.

"It's historic, they'd [Australia] like to have one in their collection over there and I think it would be a nice gesture on our part. And let's face it, there's not exactly a lot of buyers who are clambering in front of them." He added: "There's some avionics in them and we'd still have to get clearance from the State Department before we can actually sell those avionics."

He said it was "frustrating" copyright around the avionics was blocked by the US State Department. "I don't want to blame anyone. I haven't see any advice on why it's been held up but there's been a number of blockages along the way."

(BACKGROUND INFORMATION)

The 17-strong Skyhawk fleet has been in mothballs since 2001 when the then Labour government decommissioned the air combat wing and reorganised the defence force.

They were sold to TAS for $155 million but the sale was stalled by the need for State Department approval, which took four years. But TAS is yet to hand over the money.

Mr Mapp said he would be getting an update from officials later today: "The key issue there is have they got the money or have they got an extension of the date".

Unless either happened in the next 24 hours the Government would have to look at alternatives.

"If no one wants to buy them they end up being museum pieces - at some point air craft reach the end of their life."

The other option was selling the planes off as spare parts.

A Spring 'Sting In Its Tail'

Article from Stuff.co.nz
20 September 2010
Click here for full article

Snow-laden Southland schools and businesses were last night considering closure after copping the worst of a three-day storm that lashed the country.

Emergency management teams were last night assessing buildings in Invercargill after exceptionally heavy snowfall in the southern city.

The roof of Wren's paint shop in Yarrow St caved in under the heavy snow yesterday and the building remained cordoned last night.

The roof of the Windsor New World supermarket had partially collapsed, and Farmers department store and The Warehouse both had sagging roofs, Civil Defence spokeswoman Adrienne Henderson said.

The damage to those buildings followed the Saturday morning collapse of Stadium Southland, which sent dozens of tennis players running for their lives.

Jason Smith was standing outside the courts in the stadium when the doors in front of him blasted open.

"It was like a big explosion and I remember seeing what looked like a panel off the roof fly past me a couple of metres away," he said. "I thought it was a bit of an earthquake in the beginning and then realised nothing else was moving and just ran."

Keiran Fahy had just showered in the stadium when it collapsed.

"I heard this hell of a bloody bang. "I walked out [of the changing room] and looked to where the courts were and there was just light.

"It would have been a bloody disaster if everybody was in there."

Tennis coach Andre Van Rooyen said the experience had left him and others shaken and feeling lucky to be alive.

Players had been sent away immediately after training to avoid getting trapped at the stadium in the deteriorating weather, he said.

"It was just lucky. I really think it could easily have been a few deaths.

"It was just carnage; it looked like a tornado coming as the roof collapsed," Van Rooyen said. Stadium staff member Brad Sycamore was in reception when he heard a bang.

"People were running at us and yelling and all the alarms were going off.

"It was shaking like crazy."

Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt said the design for Stadium Southland had been controversial from the start.

He said he can recall people saying on numerous occasions that the stadium's roof could collapse in a major snowstorm, Radio New Zealand reported.

Mr Shadbolt has announced a full investigation into the collapse of the $10 million building. Most of the building will have to be torn down and rebuilt.

However, the chair of the charitable trust that owns the stadium, Acton Smith, said the mayor's comments were unfounded.

There were never any shortcuts in the stadium and insurers have never had any problems with it, Mr Smith said.

With more snow expected today, the Invercargill City Council was last night considering asking schools and businesses to remain closed.

A Southland weather expert says the weekend's snowfall could be the heaviest in Invercargill for 50 years.

45South Weather Services managing director Andy Fraser said there was no accurate way to measure the fall, but it was unusual to have snow of this magnitude.

Last week, he told people that the weekend's weather could be a shock but he never thought it would be this bad.

The snowfall was 10 to 12cm deep and up to 14cm in some areas.

In the North Island more than 55,000 homes had their power supply cut over the weekend. Last night, about 600 households in Wairarapa, Whanganui, Rangitikei, the Bay of Plenty, South Waikato and Taranaki were still without electricity.

Powerco network operations manager Phil Marsh said more than 100 staff had worked throughout the weekend to replace broken poles, clear trees from lines and replace other damaged components.

Federated Farmers Manawatu dairy chairman Robert Ervine said the storm had contributed to the wettest two weeks in the past decade.

The storm closed several major roads. Highways in the Manawatu, Waikato and Taranaki regions were particularly affected by slips and flooding, with some closed or with speed restrictions as crews cleaned up, the New Zealand Transport Agency said.