End of the World

End of the World

You have to give the Samoan Observer credit….they know how to sell a newspaper.  A few of us went out to breakfast, and I looked over at another person’s table and there was the paper sitting there.  The headline read, “How world will end?” 

I immediately stopped talking to my friend and asked the people sitting there about the article.  During our brief talk I did not have time to read the entire article, so I, like many others went on a search to find the newspaper. 

The previous day I also bought the paper, and it is a rare occurrence for me to buy it twice in a weekend, particularly because I am usually not in an area that sells the newspaper.  In the editorial section there was a cartoon of church.  A man is saying to a boy, “Sole, is the world really coming to an end?” The boy responds, “I don’t know, Papa.  But I hope so if that’s what it takes for you to come to church.”

With a cartoon like that, leading to a headline the next day, I was wondering what the newspaper is trying to tell Samoans.   Were they trying to provoke fear into all of the citizens here?

The article was about the billboards that were put up here, along with other countries, about the end of the world coming this year.  I was surprised to see that the man who has started the end of the world movement was from a state I called home not too long ago, Colorado.  The article talks about the end of the world probably not happening right away, telling us to not be afraid to live our lives.  It went on to describe the countless people who have predicted the end of the world in the past, and how they were still wrong.  It had a lot of interesting information in it.

But still….did they have to title it, “How world will end?”  I can see countless Samoans who are only so so with their reading ability in English seeing that title and getting extremely nervous.  Thankfully, no hysteria has happened as a result.  However, “Judgment Day” is less than a week away….I really hope no panic begin.