The
father in me
Maybe
just a word or two needs to be said about a number tragedies that have involved
children that I have tweeted about lately.
I find
myself having never exploited the possibility of having children and now by
reason of the effects of chemotherapy possibly having no ability to bear my own
children.
That said, age and maturity suggests and imposes on me a sense of
both parenthood and grandparenthood that it is impossible for me not to at the
very least feel like a parent would about their child or children in every way
from the ordinary things of life, the celebration of successes or the
unfortunate waves of anxiety and tragedy.
A lost
integrity
In
faraway South Korea, it was the man-made disaster of a ferry sinking that took
with it hundreds of children’s lives as the captain of the ship shirked his
responsibility and posed as a victim to get treatment.
Maritime
responsibility has changed since the days of the Titanic or before then when
the captain, Edward Smith went down with his ship rather than turn up later with
crocodile tears asking for forgiveness and what not.
The ethos and integrity of captainship does not seem to have been installed
in the captain of Costa
Concordia and
now MV Sewol, which meant that passengers under their care
suffered where they should have been better cared for especially where the
accidents in both cases were caused by grave errors of judgement committed by
men with character flaws undiscovered until tragedy struck.
English
for disasters
There
is the other issue about the crew who were both chaotic and indecisive
considering it was clear that the situation they were in was beyond redemption.
Maybe it is a problem with the Power Distance Index of the Korean language as Malcolm Gladwell observed in his
book Outliers with regards to air accidents.
It makes one suggest that in times of an emergency one should
dispense with protocols and get straight to the point about what the power is, who it affects, what help is needed
and be clear as to how soon they need that assistance.
From what transpired between the crew in the harbourmasters,
neither was authoritative nor clear, in the process we have the tragedy of the
needless loss of life that could been avoided even if the ship was
definitely going to be lost. English offers clarity removing unnecessary
hierarchies and probably should become the maritime language of communication
as we have for aviation.
Peace,
they must find
The
agony of the parents unaware of the fact of their children’s watery demise is
beyond what words can express, beyond being sorry for their loss, even
enforcing the most severe penalties against the cowardly crew would not begin
to assuage the pain of the death of the innocents.
May
they find strength, comfort and some peace through their faith or any support
systems made available to them in these troubling times.
Yet, we
must save the children from those who would not assume the responsibility they
have in despatching their duties.
