Selfies in Chernobyl are All the Rage This Season

In 2009 cable TV host, Josh Gates and his, "Destination Truth," crew visited town of Pripyat, which is adjacent to the ruined nuclear plant at Chernobyl. They were looking for ghosts in the city which was forcibly evacuated due to massive amounts of nuclear fall out. Whether they actually found any, or not, is up to individual interpretation of the tape they made, plus personal belief systems. What we know for sure is, first, Gates and his team donned bulky safety suits to protect them from the lingering radiation. Second, within the same hour of air time the subject bounced from an eerie night in Pripyat, to a fruitless and some would say silly search for the Egyptian version of werewolves along the banks of the Nile.

In 2017, the late Anthony Bourdain and his pal, Zamir Gotta made the same trip north of Kiev. The difference being their footage was shot during the middle of the day and the only ghosts they were hunting were of the metaphorical variety. That and they were allowed to roam around without protective suits so long as they didn't touch a single thing, even by sitting down, be it flora, fauna, or man made. In addition they were instructed not to kick up any dust as they walked, and not consume food, or water outside of a closed car. They did bring along a Geiger counter which went a little crazy, moving Bourdain to quip, "I came here to see what was cooking and it's me."

Gates has since moved from cable's Syfi to The Travel Channel. Bourdain, sans Gotta went from The Travel Channel to CNN. A year ago he hung himself in a French hotel room.

The adventures of Gates and Bourdain in Pripyat had relatively small audiences and didn't prompt any sort of mad rush to visit either place. The same can't be said about the HBO five part mini series, simply titled, "Chernobyl," which was broadcast last month.

Coming on the heels of the wildly successful, "Game of Thrones," the series chronicles the April, 1986 nuclear disaster which struck the power plant and the fight to contain its effects. It was a nightmarish accident which released 400 times the level of radiation that was let loose by the standard of all bad things atomic, the Hiroshima bomb.

A small time tourist industry catering to those wishing to visit the disaster area, now that things have cooled down, so to speak, sprang up eight years ago. Limited guided tours began in 2011--something Bourdain, as always trying to be cutting edge cool, failed to mention. However, thanks to HBO and what is known as Instagram Influencers, visiting Chernobyl has now become all the rage this season.

In fact Business Insider and Reuters say local companies providing tours to the site are reporting business has jumped over 40% thanks to both the series and Instagram personalities such as Austrian, Julia Baessler posting selfies taken there.

While it is not entirely known how much internet blow back HBO has received from this unexpected turn of events, Baessler, who has over 300,000 followers, has begun to complain critics don't understand her motives.

Ms. Baessler is, she says, a student who is  simply trying to pay her way through college. She maintains her trip to Chernobyl was planned not because she is a leggy blonde Instagram model, but has a, "deep interest in physics."  She and her boyfriend, she said, were allowed special access to control rooms inside the actual plant because he is an engineer, not as a result of her considerable good looks, and sexy poses during visits to other places.

Whatever the case tourists are, "flooding," the area. Business Insider reports in desperate attempts to gain followers on their social media accounts many have flaunted those strict rules about not touching anything by posing on furniture left behind in Pripyat and petting stray animals running around the place. One sent a photo while she wore nothing but a bra and panties. Another was half naked walking down one of the town's deserted streets. Others smile broadly using abandoned amusement park rides as a back drop.

The official Soviet account says 31 first responders died at Chernobyl. Pripyat had a population of 50,000 before the disaster. All of them, many with precious few belongings, were removed from their homes without warning 36 hours after the radiation began to spread. In the long term the death toll due to the accident runs anywhere from 4,000 to 200,000 human beings, depending on who you believe. What is known as, "the exclusion zone," remains the deadliest polluted place on the planet.

Now there are some truly valid reasons to smile and strip nearly naked.

There aren't any reports concerning how the Russian government is reacting to this weird and tasteless stampede to Instagram fame, but we know they aren't happy with the HBO series. Russian media has called it everything from crass fiction to sophisticated propaganda. Most outside observers are convinced they are just pissed HBO beat them to the punch.

That's right, Russia's NTV has shot its own series on Chernobyl and their version of what happened and why. It is in post production as these words are typed. According to the producer there was more to the accident than a screwed up safety test. His take on that terrible April morning is there were American CIA agents at the plant who might have, could have, sabotaged it, causing the ensuing explosion and fire.

Well it is the age of conspiracy isn't it? Zionists are behind planes plowing into skyscrapers, mass shootings are faked, and no one has ever been to the moon. That's what YouTube used to tell us anyway.

It is unknown at this time, because cancer takes a while, how many of the goofs running around Chernobyl will end up dying from some ghastly form of the disease. But, honestly, given their behavior, the species might be better off without their DNA in the collective gene pool.

Besides, you don't have to go to Pripyat, or Chernobyl to contract cancer. Do it the old fashioned way. Stroll over to the nearest 7-11 and pick up a carton of cigarettes. At least you won't be out the cost of air travel to and from Ukraine and some suddenly overpriced tour company run by a guy who suspiciously resembles Boris Badenov.

Hey, why not? After all, the medical bills will ultimately be the same whatever you do.  


sic vita est


6-17-19