By Jodi A. Shaw
For the last week, Canadians have been shaking with excitement over Canada’s triumphs in the Olympics in Vancouver. And over the past few days, I’ve found it difficult to have a conversation with anyone that doesn’t involve talking about hockey. Today at the grocery store a complete stranger cornered me in the produce section to share excitement about Canada’s gold medal win in hockey. “We won!” Her grin made me pretty uncomfortable.
“Horrible news about Chile,” I said, “just awful.” Obviously, I’m not much of a hockey fan. She hadn’t heard a thing about Chile.
On Saturday morning, an 8.8-magnitude earthquake shook central Chile causing mass devastation. An incredible 90 aftershocks, all of magnitude five or higher, have continued the devastation with over 700 dead (and the number continues to rise) and an estimated 1.5 million people affected by the quake. Less than two months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, it’s like deja vu as I sit in my living room watching images on the news of people digging through the ruins of collapsed buildings in search of survivors. And yet I have to channel surf relentlessly to find a station with coverage of the disaster in Chile, as the Olympics hog the airwaves.
Maybe I don’t get it because I’ve never been a huge sports enthusiast: I don’t have a team or own a jersey, I’m not competitive by nature, and I can’t name name any players other than Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore (and that only because I read about them on CBC.ca).
I didn’t watch any Olympic events, not because I am boycotting, though I was tempted to, but because I’ve got things to do, and simply can’t devote hours of my day to curling or speed skating. My Olympic jones has largely been satisfied by reading Facebook status updates. It’s nice to see Canadians uniting and being proud of their country and its athletes, and I appreciate the history of the Olympics, but I don’t quite understand the level of emotional involvement and time commitment so many people are willing to put forth. And I certainly don’t get why Olympic coverage trumps world coverage.
“The competition is exhilarating,” a co-worker told me.
Maybe so, but there’s nothing exhilarating about a country devastated by an earthquake competing for news coverage, and losing to the Olympics.
Yes, what happened in Chile was truely a tragedy, but there is a time and place for everything. Reading this, one gets the impression that those who watched/supported the Olympics not only wasted thier time doing so, but somehow belittled what happened in Chile by so doing so. You claim you had to channel surf to find anything about Chile as the Olympics were “hogging” every channel. Do you not have CNN, Fox News, or any other 24 hour news channel? Here, in the United States, they covered the earthquake in great depth. Yes, most other channels were covering the Olympics, also, just in case you did not notice a world event, in case you missed all the other nations flags, and athletes. There is nothing wrong with your fellow Canadians bieng happy over the Olympics. Vancouver put on a great face to the world, the Canadians had a strong Olympics, there were touching personal stories, stories of triumph over great odds, then a great overtime finish to the Olympics. They should be proud and happy, is there some reason that we can only focus on the negative? I am willing to bet, that the Canadian government was already preparing to assist Chile with food, medicine, money, and any other assistance they might need as soon as Chile was ready to recieve it, like the rest of the world will as well. But there is a time and a place, the time then was for the Olympics, and with all the problems going on to try and deny your fellow citizens a few moments of pride and joy because of an earthquake thousands of miles away is both mean spirited and petty. If the Canadian people are anything like the reports coming out of the Olympics, I am sure that they will dig deep, volunteer and do what ever else they can to help the people who are suffering from the earthquake, but for right now, enjoy your victory, the great games you put on, after all, you deserve it.
Though I love the Olympics, I completely understand that coverage of such devastation needs to be continuous and thorough. After watching this though http://bit.ly/95J0XV it seems like many outlets are doing their best, and hopefully relief efforts will be as vigorously pursued as they were for Haiti.