The media sob stories about stranded Kiwis are getting on my nerves.
There are a couple of stand out examples. The first is the family of tossers who went on a skiing holiday in Northern Italy at the beginning of March. You know, when Italy’s case count was already over a 1,000 cases, and mostly in Northern Italy. They were featured on 1News:
For Phil Boorman, his family ski trip to Italy may become one of the many getaways that could become a long term stranding.
Despite spending over $10,000 on tickets, their flights were cancelled at the last minute.
“We live our days, at the moment, on a rollercoaster of ups and downs, “ said Mr Boorman.
I’m sorry, but that father is just a natural-born idiot. Travelling to the centre of the plague because you didn’t want to lose your airfares is just stupid, and now it has him stranded in plague central unable to return. Well, tough titties pal. I’m sorry but the New Zealand government isn’t there to save you from your own stupidity.
We should have shut our borders weeks ago, not the soft, get in before the deadline, which is likely to have imported a whole lot more cases than if we just shut down and isolated those arriving. This kindness rubbish has likely infected a whole lot more people than necessary.
Don’t even get me started on the selfish pricks visiting granny in the rest home after just arriving home from overseas. That isn’t going to end well for granny and her pals in the rest homes of New Zealand.
Finally, there is the tragic case of the woman on a cruise ship who despite the virus sweeping the planet wanted to go on a cruise as her trip of a lifetime they’d saved for ages to have. NewsHub reports:
A Kiwi family trapped on a cruise ship off the coast of Hawaii has made a desperate plea for their mother to come home.
She has terminal cancer and is facing weeks stuck at sea as countries close their borders to cruise ships.
Zane and Dana Gardiner, with their mother Raewyn Schultz, set sail on the Norwegian Jewel off Honolulu just a couple of weeks ago.
But now, thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, they’re trapped – a big problem, since Raewyn has terminal lung liver cancer and desperately needs to get off.
“If we can’t get her off, then my mum is going to die on this boat,” Zane said.
It’s tragic. This selfish family wants the New Zealand government to help get sick granny (and presumably them) off the boat they deliberately went on despite the virus already sweeping the world, and again well after the first cases appeared in New Zealand. They chose not to cancel and instead take the trip of a lifetime…which has become hugely ironic and sad as a result. Personally I blame the Prime Minister for her prevarication two weeks ago while she did nothing so she could have the Christchurch memorials and guaranteed media coverage worldwide. Even then even Blind Freddy knew there was a crisis but a decision was made by this family to go anyway.
Now they don’t want her to die on the ship. They want her back here so she can die here, with them. That’s nice, but I don’t think they understand that even if she did make it back here alive, she wouldn’t be spending any time with them, they would be in quarantine for 14 days, then she would likely wind up in hospital where no visitors would be tolerated. There won’t be any funerals as people start dying. The fact is as a terminal cancer patient she ran the risk of dying at any time on her trip.
..it’s not looking good. Cruise ship passengers are unlikely to get off, with protesters urging them to stay home.
High-profile American politician Tulsi Gabbard is leading the charge.
“Cruise ships should not be allowed to dock in Hawaii or any other state. These cruise ships are basically floating incubators for this disease,” she said.
Tulsi Gabbard is right. I’m sorry for Mrs Shultz, but sometimes bad decisions lead to bad outcomes. This is one of them. It’s sad, it’s tragic, but it’s way past too late to help them. They are with their mother on the ship. It could have been worse, they could have been here with their mother on the ship. At least they have that.
The media need to stop pandering to these attention seekers. They chose to leave New Zealand to have a holiday. Tough breaks.
The Government should have acted sooner. They didn’t and now people will suffer. But we can’t put the poo back in the donkey, so we just have to cope with this appalling imposition on our society the best way we can. That means some people will have to stop where they are.
