A First-Person Story About A Third World Tragedy We Forced Ourselves To Finish Reading
Why did the WP decide to let Robin Leach cover the tsunami aftermath? Sure, he's writing under the name "Michael Dobbs," but you're not telling us that some actual reporter would spend the lead of a story called "Survivors" running down the menu for Christmas dinner, are you? "We handed out presents, ate turkey and Brussels sprouts hand-carried from distant lands, drank a lot of wine and champagne, wore funny paper hats and read silly jokes from Christmas crackers." Oh, and they also had Stilton, which his brother "instructed us how to slice. . . On no account must the Stilton be dug into with a spoon, he insisted."
In any case, he's doing a great job of covering how really rich people are dealing with the tragedy: With humor! Like so:
The first few hours after the disaster seem almost unreal. My brother was worried about his other properties along the coast -- and we were all in a kind of trance. At one point, a helicopter hovered overhead, looking for survivors. "What they don't know is that we are all down here, eating Stilton," cracked one of the Aussies.Hilarious! See, people around them are rotting on the beach, but they're ok! Eating expensive moldy cheese! Hope they used a spoon.
Survivors: In Sri Lanka, a Vacationing Family Meets the Ultimate Challenge [WP]