i'm just glad this whole thing is over. what a sick world we live in where five billionaires in a submarine sparks wall to wall coverage and five hundred migrants lost at sea gets barely a passing mention
I find it incredibly sad that the teen, Sulemon Dawood, only agreed to go on the trip to appease his father. Left on his own, the teen was not interested in going. And although I’m saddened to hear all five perished, the four older adults made their own independent decisions to take the risk. I feel an extra sense of sadness for the teen though who was influenced by his father into going.
It sucks that 4 other people were killed by the CEOs own hubris. But at least they don't appear to have suffocated to death. At that depth, it would have been instantaneous.
The more I have read about this, the more disgusted I am. This company generally, and the CEO personally, took all sorts of shortcuts to build this thing.
The CEO stated that he didn't want to have any ex military submarine experts as part of the team, because they were "uninspiring" and "50 year old white guys", and he'd rather have young college grads who are inspiring. The real reason: the college grads were simply cheaper. He didn't want to pay the ex military experts. That's it.
The CEO lied to CBS news in their CBS Sunday morning report and told them that Boeing and University of Washington consulted with them on the design of the submersible. Both organizations told the NY Post today that they had no involvement with it. So that was a fucking lie. All he did was use the UW lab after hours.
The use of a Logitech PS3 style controller to navigate the vehicle...what the actual fuck.
Because this was a submersible in international waters, there are virtually no regulations. That needs to change. If the UN needs to draft a treaty for countries to ratify to regulate these things in international waters, then that's what needs to happen.
I ought to concede I have plenty of disappointment around this. I feel like there were well established means to do this kind of thing safely, and I think because Seagate failed to meet that, five lives were needlessly lost. I wouldn't be surprised if this story lives on for a while as a sort of fable in hubris. That's not even getting to, say, the sense of injustice invoked in comparing how this was handled to the recent shipwreck in the Mediterranean. I think all of those thoughts distill down to the Eat The Rich flavored fan faire, and I think there's already plenty of that here.
Still, the Rich and Foolish nature of this trip all said, I find it commendable that the likes of the US Coast Guard, the Navy, and international groups came together and put up a sizeable and respectable search and rescue effort. I think it would've been well in their right (and in fact realistic) for them to wave it off and say something like "they made the wine, they drink the cup." But they didn't. I can respect that the collective weight of the wallets on board likely played a big part in it to say the least, but I'd also wager that it also takes a mighty large amount of forgiveness in people being foolish to go through that kind of effort to try and save them. Similar can probably be said for rescue missions helping out others in equally foolish incidents.
There's a lot directly and indirectly connected to this disaster that doesn't reflect well on the bulk of society, but the effort to try and help others even if they don't necessarily deserve it? I'll admit it feels naive to say, but I'd rather live in that kind of society than one that errs toward extending a callous hand. I hope we'll hear more often about us extending a hand to those who indeed deserve it, like those in the Mediterranean, but I'm also in the camp of continuing to extend that kind of forgiveness to The Foolish we'll continue to stumble upon. I hope to have the will to do that, at least.
We're all going to be foolish from time to time in life, and I sure know I'd sincerely appreciate a kind hand when it's my turn.
good thing we put so much effort into saving a billionaire with a deathwish while we let all these poor people die. Good thing so many peasants were more interested in a billionaire's life than our brothers and sisters the billionaires oppress and exploit out of proud, insatiable, sociopathic greed.
With all the red flags I've seen in the 4 days of them looking for it, I cannot understand how anyone spending that kind of money on this didn't see enough to back the fuck off.
For those wondering about James Cameron's comments, I'd thoroughly recommend watching the Deep Sea Challenger documentary. It is enthralling. I have a friend who actually worked on the sub and went on the expedition with Cameron. In his words: "to underestimate the safety requirements is, put simply, to die."
It's sad but ultimately this is the kind of thing that can happen when you explore the frontiers of humanity's reach. People die every year climbing Mount Everest. It's inevitable that space tourism will eventually result in tragic accidents. I applaud these people for their bravery and passion to push forward the means by which we explore our world. I hope that future explorers are able to learn from the mistakes that were made and that future endeavors will be safer because of it.