Tragedy vs Tragedy

The web just ate my blog!!!!

Start again.

This may or may not have reached you guys in our global news age. Recently an event occurred that was “break into scheduled viewing” tragedy. A mine collapse occurred in Tasmania, with three men trapped in the mine. After few days, one of the men was found – deceased. Clearly a sad event for the friends and family, and not on my list of top ways to die. The location of the remaining two was believed to be in a lift cage, so the drilling of an angled side shaft to come up beneath them began.

On a Sunday in scheduled programming break in style, it was learned that the two were still alive. They were able to communicate and even food and water was passed through to them, heck they even got ipods with some Fooies on it for entertainment! Days of painstakingly slow hand drilling and careful detonations was required to break through the rock that was five time the strength of concrete. To reach them without losing them was a slow, 1 man at a time upwards drilling process.

14 days after the accident the two men reached the surface and were returned to their families. The men have become media darlings, and received offers towards the millions for their story. And why shouldn’t they take advantage while they can – I doubt their families are going to allow to continue working as miners. And they have even been nice enough to set up a foundation for the money, so that they can see that the money goes to worthwhile cause, including the dead miner’s family.

An amazing tale of survival, that deserves every tear and accolade. I can even understand the medias fascination – even as stupid as the coverage would get. Half an hour of saying we don’t know when they will be free is a little pointless, and when you get this continually for nearly two weeks can be a little frustrating.

What disturbed me was the 22 day tragedy that occurred in the waters north of Australia at the same time, that only rated a sidebar in the newspaper. Three indigenous Australians were lost at sea, when crossing to one of the islands up there went terribly wrong. Two men and a teenager were lost at sea without food or water for 22 days, surviving off the seafood they could catch and the water they could collect. When rescued they were suffering from exposure and severe dehydration. Again three heroes who deserved our awe and praise, only they didn’t get it. Where were their mega- interview deals?

As someone just put it – silent racism. I think that is almost worse than active racism, as how do you acknowledge and fight something that is silent? And this is the occurrence that we hear about, what about all the other times where the silence is so great that it doesn’t make a sound?