Misjudging the situation

Kim!  Say it ain’t so! 

How many of you couldn’t resist yesterday’s smash headline that Kim Kardashian’s marriage to basketballer Kris Humphries is done?  Yep, she filed for divorce on Halloween.  Seventy two days.  I’ll repeat that:  72 days.  Hello, People, E! ran feature stories on her wedding dress that lasted longer. 

Do the math here.  Taking a “til death do us part” vow of love and making it only 72 days.  OK, I’ll do the math.  If you figure Kim, at 31, has another 50 years before reaching the average American life expectancy span of 81 (female), then she managed 1/254th of her commitment.  A little like:  “I promise to pay you back the £254 tomorrow” and then showing up the next day with a single pound.   Or like: “Hi Honey, I’m on the train. Should be there in 15 minutes” and then showing up 63.5 hours later.

What I really love is her irony-free explanation:  “Sometimes things don’t work out as planned.”  Little did we know that Kim Kardashian was a humanitarian. 

Anybody out there have humanitarian examples of a 254-fold underestimation, misunderstanding or flaw?  Here’s mine:  Bill Clinton’s promise that we were going to rebuild Haiti.  I’d say that was off by more than a factor of 254, wouldn’t you?  That way tops George Bush’s (non-humanitarian) “Mission Accomplished”.  Here’s one from a former colleague:  Was KK’s insight into her marriage any wider of the mark than the typical context understanding of a Western NGO?  Yours?

3 thoughts on “Misjudging the situation”

  1. … the Nobel committee giving the peace prize to Obama – if he contributed 254-fold more to World peace, we’d all be bolloxed!

    1. Thanks Paul. That’s probably a 254-fold misjudgment. Although some might think the same about giving the prize to MSF.

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