Thoughts on dealing with disasters

Iwas once told that a character in the Chinese alphabet can be read as either disaster or opportunity.

I am not sure about the correctness of that statement, however, it does resonate with me. Through history disasters have often prompted change, improvements and rejection of failed ways.

Letting my mind wonder, I fielded some random thoughts.

My farm has been flooded eight times in the past three months.

Each time filthy, silt-laden water has coursed across the fields and flowed on down the river system and eventually would leave another layer of silt in what should be our pristine Rangaunu Harbour.

Now, all of that silt is highly valuable enriched particles of mother earth and I am letting them go by.

If I could invent a method of precipitating the solids out of the water I would have thousands of tons of someone else’s enriched top soil in which to grow crops.

Yes, that is dream-land stuff at present but I am sure some young boffin could turn disaster into a world of opportunity.

All that water meandering down stream must surely have possibilities for water sports such as rafting, canoeing or marathon swimming races. At present great opportunities are lost.

My mind wondered further considering how the seldom used length of state highway in Victoria Valley could be diverted to another use. A small airport? A series of Tennis courts? Feed lots for cattle? I can see it as providing a great venue for training drivers.

The country is desperate for bus and truck drivers and here is an excellent piece of vacant road ready for another use.

Well, those are probably unlikely to happen in the short term but what about the length of the unused highway over the range to Mangamuka.

I can see great opportunity for using it as a great tourist attraction of walking tours, geological field trips, marathon races, rally car courses and perhaps even selling some of the now unused bitumen as souvenirs.

Then perhaps, the possibility that with reinstating the highway years away, the army might want to use that part of the world once again for jungle warfare training.

Or else there could something at the opposite end of the spectrum with solitude retreats to help recovering politicians back to normality.

Disaster or opportunity. I wonder?