The two maritime tragedies in recent days could barely be more different. Likewise the response of governments in the Global North and the coverage in the main stream media.
In the first case, it was poor migrants from the Global
South…
“Last Wednesday, a fishing trawler
carrying more than 700 migrants primarily from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan went
down off the coast of Greece, in one of the worst such disasters in more than a
decade. Though the death toll is officially at 81, Greek authorities have only
counted 104 survivors. Their testimony suggests all the women and children
aboard perished. By some estimates, more than 300 Pakistani nationals on the
boat died, with one account alleging many were forced to stay below
deck in the hold as the ship capsized and sank.
……
“Pakistan is in the middle of a
devastating economic crisis, with the rate of inflation at a 50-year high, food
shortages, energy blackouts and mounting unemployment. The conditions have
compelled numerous people, especially among the poor, to seek a better life
abroad.
“The desperate situation has led to
the mushrooming growth of people smugglers in Pakistan,” wrote Zahid Shahab Ahmed, a senior research fellow at the
Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalization in Australia. “In
exchange for large sums of money, they offer people transportation, fake
documentation and other resources for a swift departure from the country.”
“Shocking as it is, this disaster
in the Mediterranean is all too familiar to a global public largely numb to the
plight of those making the perilous crossing. The migrants fell victim to a
familiar chain of misfortunes: They were exploited by people-smuggling networks
that stretched from their countries of origin to the coast of Libya. With
the threat of violence, they were forced onto an overcrowded,
unseaworthy, ill-equipped boat. The ship that took them to their deaths was
stranded for days on its intended journey to Italy without help, despite
apparent distress calls made by the migrants. And they endured this all in a
desperate attempt to find asylum on a continent whose governments have failed to come up with a
collective plan on migration and where many locals would rather push them back
into the sea.”
On the other end of the economic spectrum…
“Far away in the North Atlantic, a
cinematic ordeal is playing out that has news media and the global public
riveted. Somewhere near the famous wreck of the Titanic, a deep-sea submersible is missing. At the time of writing,
the search for the 21-foot craft, known as the Titan, was entering its fourth
day after it lost contact with Canadian research vessel Polar Prince on Sunday
morning. The U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Air Force had scrambled to
locate the submersible over a vast 10,000-square mile search zone in the ocean,
which reaches 13,000 feet deep in some areas.
The Titan was carrying out a dive
organized by OceanGate Expeditions, a private research and tourism company that
has conducted trips to the Titanic wreck site. Its passengers reportedly pay $250,000 a head to go on the journey. Though the
names of those on board had not been released by authorities, reporting
confirmed that British businessman and explorer Hamish Harding, French diver
Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush were inside the Titan. So
too were Shahzada Dawood, heir to one of Pakistan’s biggest private fortunes,
and his teenage son Suleman.
Over 27,000 migrants have gone missing and are
presumed dead in the Mediterranean since 2014. In general, no US or NATO
aircraft or naval vessels scramble to locate and rescue the migrants before
their ships go down and even after the tragedy unfolds, “search and rescue”
efforts don’t begin to match the efforts made for the 5 who we now know died on
the Titan. The mainstream media doesn’t follow the tragedies which take the
lives of the poor, again and again. They are expendable, or worse, undesirable.
Both events are terrible tragedies but of very
different magnitudes, The response says a lot about our society and those of our
allies and friends in Europe. And this is not alone in laying bare the
underlying racism and class bias of Western nations and media.
For another excellent analysis of this "Tale of Two Disasters” from the American Prospect, check out https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-06-23-tale-of-two-disasters/
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