Two tragedies, two responses

OPINION: The Good Life by Gemma Good.

Last week saw my return to Malta for my first and final exam. This was my first exam since I sat my junior certificate after getting predicted grades due to Covid 19.

I arrived the night before. With the exam at 10am the next day, I thought myself and my roommate, both with the same exam, would spend the night cramming or catching up. We did neither, instead spending the night reading about the missing submersible.

The Titan submersible began its expedition to the Titanic site on June 18. The wreckage sits around 3.8kms below the surface in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Titan submersible had the capabilities to dive to a depth of four kilometres with “a sufficient safety margin” according to documents. It was controlled by a Logitech G F710 game controller, launched in 2010, and now costs around €40. One hour and forty-five minutes into the eleven-hour descent, the underwater vehicle lost connection and went missing, igniting a search that lasted until Thursday. On board the submersible were British adventurer Hamish Harding (58); French veteran Titanic explorer Paul Henri Nargeoloet (77); British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood (48) and his 19-year-old son Suleman; and 61-year-old American Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate. Each died during the excursion. Each undertook the expedition with an interest in deep water exploration.

With a cost of $250,000 (around €230,000) per person, and the earlier concerns raised surrounding the safety of the Titan, one wonders why anyone would undertake the eight-day journey. Be it for historical or educational purposes, bragging rights or simply having too much money, five lives have been lost.

The duration of my week was spent looking at updates, some of which gave in-depth coverage on what was happening, and others who decided to devour the tragedy with dark humour. I kept a slight eye on both. I couldn’t help but think about the natural disasters which happen daily, the lives lost as a result, or the sicknesses people endure while the media jump on something like this.

In saying this, fully aware that by writing a piece on the tragedy, I’m giving it attention. I think what the men were trying to achieve is important to them and therein lies their reasoning, as well as the fact each of them could afford to do so.

While in Malta, specifically while sitting by the sea, I often thought about how many lives the Mediterranean has claimed. People fleeing war torn countries, battling the elements, only to be pushed back to sea. Unfortunately, this is reality for many.

On June 8, a fishing boat left the port city of Tobruk in Libya carrying around 750 migrants, primarily from South Asia and Middle East.

Their goal? To try reach Europe. Their reasoning being to be able to escape war, terrorism, discrimination, to provide a better life for themselves and their families, to have a chance with proper working conditions. Just four days before the Titan went missing, on June 14, as billionaires and businessmen prepared to be among the few that have seen the Titanic, the fishing trawler capsized. One hundred and four migrants on board reached mainland Greece. Only 82 bodies have been recovered. Over 500 people lie beneath the Mediterranean, having met their death by drowning.

On both sides, family members have been lost and lives changed. The scale and the response to each tragedy though has been very different. Most the world held its breath waiting to hear if the rich and white survived. On the Eastern side of the world, rescuers work mostly in grave silence, the media seemingly unbothered by the drowning of hundreds of refugees.