Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Someone wrote to me over the weekend and made a really good point after I talked about the resilience of people last Friday.  They said it was true, that often times a disaster can bring out the best in people or —as we're seeing with the looters— the worst, in some cases. But they made the point that a part of that optimistic and resilient nature also prevents us from complaining because we don’t want to appear as whingers when there’s always someone worse off.  But as a result of that, they pointed out, the focus can shift away from questions that need to be asked. And as a resident of Hawkes Bay, these were his questions: what are the three things you need to be working in a disaster? Communications, power and roads, he said. What failed in Hawkes Bay, and continues to fail in many parts: communications, power and roads.  His point was that in a disaster area when a civil emergency is invoked, why is it that one phone network could run and the other could not? He asked why phone companies were not forced t