Toxic Gas Cloud Hits Santiago
BEEEEEEEEEEP. This is NOT a test. This is a Warning of the Emergency Broadcast Service.
...Ha! Yeah right.
Oh poor, poor Chile. To die of carbon monoxide poisoning while listening to Hall & Oates, "Your Kiss is What I Miss" (scroll down to the first comment there) without a word of warning from the government. Pathetic to the point of being endearing, really.
So I haven't been in the habit of posting political or newsy entries in my blog about Chile, lately. In fact, I haven't been posting much of anything. Lately. But all that changes today.
Because last night residents in nearly 10 sectors of Santiago were brushed over by a cloud of toxic gas and the government, as well as the media, are treating this near-crisis so incompetently that it almost feels like designed censorship. Or Chilean incompetence. Take your pick for all I fucking care.
A canary died and several people felt nauseous but the situation did not escalate because of "miraculous winds" that pushed the toxic gas cloud on over to the Andean steppes. That info is thanks to a burried story in Las últimas noticias a tabloid that devoted most of today's coverage, as they well should have, to Robbie Williams coming to town, including a full color centerfold of his head that we've, yes, already taped to the apartment wall.
But La Tercera is a daily with the second largest circulation in Chile, and they didn't mention anything about the toxic cloud. They did, however, report how Robbie Williams didn't greet anyone when he got to Santiago, but went straight into his suite to play his Xbox 360 all night.
Not a peep from El Mercurio, either, the biggest newspaper in Chile. But don't worry, they didn't fall short when it came to providing a, you guessed it, nice big front page headshot of Robbie.
Keep it up guys, you're doing a heck of a job.
So what happened, anyway? Something like this: at 8 o'clock pm, the authorities say, this gas cloud emerged from...well, they don't know where. The strongest concentration ended up in Ñuñoa. People from there and a bunch of surrounding sectors (Providencia, Las Condes, Macul, Cisterna, Santiago Centro and a bunch more) started calling in, reporting that there was a really strong smell of gas.
We got a call at about 10:30 from out of town. So once we got home we shut all the windows and stayed glued to the radio, which aired live interviews with the chief of the fire department Helmut something-or-other who said, yeah. It's pretty dangerous.
We don't know what kind of gas it is, but our danger meters are all way in the red. If it's coming from liquid gas, (gas licuada), then, yeah, this is bad.
But don't worry, he added. We're working on it.
The disk jockey asked what the people should do, is there any advice, should residents shut their windows?
Yeah, right. Exactly. Shut your windows. Don't let the air get in.
Neither asked nor answered were questions about evacuation, gas mask distribution. Nothing, that I remember, about possible causes (except for "we don't know"), what kind of gas lines run through the area, which company might be to blame, what kind of gas it is, what instruments they're using, how they'll find out, what kind of investigation will happen.
Was it a volcano?
In their article today Las últimas noticias reported that an investigation will proceed, but give me a fucking break. If that's the only paper reporting it, we're doomed. The government, the gas company -- I don't know. Can someone at least tell me who should be held to what and why exactly? All I know is that a canary died last night and I had to keep my windows shut. For Christ's sake, those were the same vapors that people use to commit suicide. And there was only ONE radio station reporting on it.
And TV? Forget about it. Four hours after the gas cloud emerged, Midnight News hit hard: a pre-recorded Charlie Rose style interview of some dude discussing international politics from the Chilean perspective.
The upside, though: I was provided with deep satisfaction by being the very first to inform the like 5 people I know in Santiago, one of them living right in Ñuñoa. "Hold on a sec" screeech...Slam! "My window was wide open. Thanks Will!"
So tomorrow it'll be the lead story in Santiago Times, thanks to me, I think.
Poor, poor Chile.
...Ha! Yeah right.
Oh poor, poor Chile. To die of carbon monoxide poisoning while listening to Hall & Oates, "Your Kiss is What I Miss" (scroll down to the first comment there) without a word of warning from the government. Pathetic to the point of being endearing, really.
So I haven't been in the habit of posting political or newsy entries in my blog about Chile, lately. In fact, I haven't been posting much of anything. Lately. But all that changes today.
Because last night residents in nearly 10 sectors of Santiago were brushed over by a cloud of toxic gas and the government, as well as the media, are treating this near-crisis so incompetently that it almost feels like designed censorship. Or Chilean incompetence. Take your pick for all I fucking care.
A canary died and several people felt nauseous but the situation did not escalate because of "miraculous winds" that pushed the toxic gas cloud on over to the Andean steppes. That info is thanks to a burried story in Las últimas noticias a tabloid that devoted most of today's coverage, as they well should have, to Robbie Williams coming to town, including a full color centerfold of his head that we've, yes, already taped to the apartment wall.
But La Tercera is a daily with the second largest circulation in Chile, and they didn't mention anything about the toxic cloud. They did, however, report how Robbie Williams didn't greet anyone when he got to Santiago, but went straight into his suite to play his Xbox 360 all night.
Not a peep from El Mercurio, either, the biggest newspaper in Chile. But don't worry, they didn't fall short when it came to providing a, you guessed it, nice big front page headshot of Robbie.
Keep it up guys, you're doing a heck of a job.
So what happened, anyway? Something like this: at 8 o'clock pm, the authorities say, this gas cloud emerged from...well, they don't know where. The strongest concentration ended up in Ñuñoa. People from there and a bunch of surrounding sectors (Providencia, Las Condes, Macul, Cisterna, Santiago Centro and a bunch more) started calling in, reporting that there was a really strong smell of gas.
We got a call at about 10:30 from out of town. So once we got home we shut all the windows and stayed glued to the radio, which aired live interviews with the chief of the fire department Helmut something-or-other who said, yeah. It's pretty dangerous.
We don't know what kind of gas it is, but our danger meters are all way in the red. If it's coming from liquid gas, (gas licuada), then, yeah, this is bad.
But don't worry, he added. We're working on it.
The disk jockey asked what the people should do, is there any advice, should residents shut their windows?
Yeah, right. Exactly. Shut your windows. Don't let the air get in.
Neither asked nor answered were questions about evacuation, gas mask distribution. Nothing, that I remember, about possible causes (except for "we don't know"), what kind of gas lines run through the area, which company might be to blame, what kind of gas it is, what instruments they're using, how they'll find out, what kind of investigation will happen.
Was it a volcano?
In their article today Las últimas noticias reported that an investigation will proceed, but give me a fucking break. If that's the only paper reporting it, we're doomed. The government, the gas company -- I don't know. Can someone at least tell me who should be held to what and why exactly? All I know is that a canary died last night and I had to keep my windows shut. For Christ's sake, those were the same vapors that people use to commit suicide. And there was only ONE radio station reporting on it.
And TV? Forget about it. Four hours after the gas cloud emerged, Midnight News hit hard: a pre-recorded Charlie Rose style interview of some dude discussing international politics from the Chilean perspective.
The upside, though: I was provided with deep satisfaction by being the very first to inform the like 5 people I know in Santiago, one of them living right in Ñuñoa. "Hold on a sec" screeech...Slam! "My window was wide open. Thanks Will!"
So tomorrow it'll be the lead story in Santiago Times, thanks to me, I think.
Poor, poor Chile.
posted by Chileno @ 2:58 PM
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5 Comments:
That just shows you what the Chilean media views as important. I mean ok it's Robbie Williams, but it's not the most amazing scoop a journalist can break. And it gets old pretty quickly. Most of the serious newspapers have turned into nothing more than a "chinchoso" newspaper.
Yeah that's why La Cuarta and perhaps Las Ultimas Noticias tabloids are a more honest reflection of their readership, even Chile as a whole although they don't have the highest circulation. It'd be nice to see El Mercurio go in that direction. Or dramatically improve it's quality rather than stay on as a B-Side New York Times.
Actually "El Mercurio" used to be the South American equivalent of the London Times or the UK Daily Telegraph. Over the years they have "cheapen down" their content. Those Robbie William stories are what serious editors call "fluff pieces". If you ever get the chance to read the archives from "El Mercurio" I highly recommend you spend a day reading them. At least the Mercurio from Santiago did not crop down its size like the Valparaiso Mercurio; Look similar to a tabloid now.
I've started reading (slowly) the selected articles of Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt Letelier published in El Merucrio from 1992-2000. Probably not the golden era for the Mercurio, but at least this dude promises to be interesting.
What years would you suggest for El Mercurio archives?
Will
Ironic isn't it ;) El Mercurio de Valparaiso is touted as one of the oldest Spanish-speaking newspapers in the world, founded in the early 1800's and it acts more like Miss17. Until one or two decades ago it maintained it's prestigious reputation as a paper where you got serious news. Over the years the simplistic content crep in. Once the broadsheet format was adandoned they had succesfully turned this once higly regarded newspaper into nothing more than a cheap tabloid.
El Mercurio de Santiago was founded in 1900. The paper also has suffered a similar fate as its Valparaiso edition just not as drastically. However for long-time readers the "Teeny Bopper" content is insulting to their intelligence. Feels like the Mercurio is going through an identity crisis by trying to appeal to a segment of the population who views el Mercurio as conservative while alienating it's core audience. When the Mercurio went so low as to print articles like the one on a TV-Presenter's alleged sexual habits, it ceased to command the credibility it once had. So many of their current stories are filled with ambigious tidbits and inuendos that borderline defamatory. Those titillating and gossepy headlines are better suited in the Tercera or La Cuarta.
Will, you need to go back further than the 1990's to find the "Gloden Era" of the Mercurio. When it was truly a "newspaper of record". Also check the new defunct "La Union". Some say the "Golden Era" was after right after the turmoil of the Civil War in 1891 to the outbreak of the WWI when the Germans developed the synthetic "salitre". I would read as much as one could possibly read in the archives. Try looking at anything that was published in the 19th century all the way until the 1970's. :)
If you look at other papers like the New York Times they maintain their status as one of the "Gray Ladies". Somewhere in the middle you have middle-market USA Today. The libertarian Village Voice is filled with trendy and edgy stories catering to the hip urbanites and psuedo-intellectuals. At the bottom are mostly the tacky tabloids such as The National Enquirer with their sensational scoops on celebrities and politicians. While in Chile the papers are bleeding into one another. It is alarming when all the media outlets swing towards one idealogy. Resembles the same thing that happened when Pinochet was in power, one group bullying another. I can't wait when the stigma fades.
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