Current Events (Audience Participation Requested!)

New Zealand’s news broadcasts have been pretty similar to the rest of the world’s these days: Japan with a smattering of Libya thrown in. But one thing that differentiates it is that there is continuing coverage of the Christchurch earthquake, which happened a month ago.   When the tragedy is local, it’s natural that there should be so much focus on this as well.

Beyond the usual stuff – uplifting stories of near misses, tales of the agonizing hours spent waiting to hear from family members, coverage of Prince William’s speech at the memorial ceremony last week, the continuing efforts of volunteers helping those affected, etc. – there are 2 things which particularly piqued my interest in the coverage.

The first is that a decision needed to be made regarding whether Christchurch would be a host city for the Rugby World Cup, which I assume happens later this year.  We were in a shop and heard a sports radio broadcast where the very somber conversation was regarding the final decision not to have matches in Christchurch – and how important it was that an independent journalist had asserted it was an impossibility before any official decisions needed to be made (thus making the “very obvious” decision an easier one and taking burden off the decision-makers).  As an American this is unbelievable! If this were any city in the US, the decision would be easy: Heck yeah, we’re gonna keep those matches in Christchurch! We will not be held down by the forces of Mother Nature! U-S-A! U-S-A!

(Note: I do not intend to be disrespectful to the lovely people of New Zealand; simply an observation on cultural differences!)

The second broadcast of note reported that China was asking New Zealand to pay financial compensation to the families of 7 Chinese students who had lost their lives in the Christchurch quake. The reason being, because of China’s one-child policy, these students were the future breadwinners of their families and therefore the families have now lost their future financial security.  REALLY? This is mind-boggling to me on several levels.  Here’s a test: name the top 3 reasons (or even 1) why this is ridiculous. Please leave your answers as comments below. :-)