Tsunami in America
Christmas in New York was fun. I was expecting way more hype and commercialism than actually transpired. It seems all of the focus and energy goes into Thanksgiving, and Christmas is its lesser cousin. This is emphasised by having a single holiday for Christmas (or should I say ‘the holidays’) and two for Thanksgiving. Indeed, with Christmas falling on a Saturday this year, some companies didn’t feel obliged to give a single holiday. For me, I get both Fridays off, one for Christmas and one for New Year. (Over here, holidays are vacations and Bank Holidays are holidays. Clear?)
As expected, the death toll from the tsunami on Boxing Day (there is no such concept over here, btw) has steadily increased, as the extent of the damage and loss is assessed. On the local news channels like Fox 5, they’re now focusing on the story (or should I say ‘non-story’) of ‘Could it happen to us?’. Even the likes of CNN are turning what is an international disaster into a self-centred feature – making non-local news local. It’s almost as if viewers will lose interest in a news story unless it has any impact closer to home.
Of course it could happen to the east coast of America, given that there are tectonic plates meeting in the Atlantic. However, the assessment is that it’s more likely to happen to the west coast.
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