Opinion
Chileans forgotten amidst Haitian aid, Olympic craze
Hey, Chile. Thanks a lot.
You couldn’t have picked a more inconvenient time to have a natural disaster.
Come on, who decides to get hit by a quake during the Olympics? The Olympics! Didn’t you know the whole world would be distracted? Not to mention you’ve copied Haiti, minus the massive death toll. That’s a disaster faux pas, Chile, in case you didn’t get the memo.
In light of your colossal screw-up, please take note of the following guidelines for future reference. (Other countries feel free to listen up, too. I’m sure some of you African states are just dying to have another drought.)
First and foremost, don’t have a natural disaster during other major events. The Olympics were a no-no for obvious reasons. But interrupting a finale of Dancing with the Stars or The Bachelor with breaking coverage of your tragedy wouldn’t be any better. With one exception: should you have an environmental catastrophe while being the country featured in an upcoming season of Survivor, that is just good TV for us here in North America — all the drama, none of the nagging sense of obligation.
Second, don’t rip off other disasters. The earthquake thing, with its shocking death toll and widespread devastation, was hip the first time around. Kind of like that 2012 movie –– you don’t make a sequel for something like that. And guess what, Chile: right now, you’re the sequel that nobody’s going to watch.
Third, give us a breather! There are only so many disasters our poor hearts can handle. Haiti took a huge toll on our emotional well-being, not to mention our wallets. We threw fundraisers, raised the cash, and we’re feeling pretty darn good about ourselves. Couldn’t you have given us a bit more time to bask in our philanthropic successes before plopping another tragedy in our laps?
Overall, Chile, your timing couldn’t have been worse. Maybe next time you can have a natural disaster at a more convenient point in the year. The off-season for hockey, perhaps. Or at least give us a little variation to spice things up — why not a volcano or a monsoon? At the rate you’re going, you won’t be capturing the international spotlight any time soon.
Better luck next time, Chile.
3 Comments
This piece was horribly written. Sure I understand the fact that the aim was to somehow give a “fun” attempt to the dire situation going on in Chile. But honeslty, this was no where near that. A better approach would have been to actually talk about the issue straight up instead of resorting to a comedic approach. I was actually thinking about the situation in Chile and its lack of media coverage in Canada. Then I thought it would be interesting if The Gazette did a piece on it, and then I read this…Therefore I ask the Gazette to re-think their approach of writing especially when it deals with events that aren’t comedic in any nature.
I think people are tired of footing the bill for every single little thing that happens outside of Canada. That’s why this story wasn’t aired. I don’t mean to sound like a cold-hearted jerk, but we have enough problems to deal with in our own country. Let’s try to solve our own problems first before we start throwing money at the developing world everytime something goes wrong.
All I could think about as I read this is how the headline reads ‘Chileans forgotten’ and the first sentence, and in fact the whole article, is actually addressing Chile. I was expecting a stern lecture about my free-wheeling western ways but instead I got a legitimately funny satirical piece. I just think it would’ve been better served by a satirical headline.