Students Among Hundreds Missing After South Korean Ferry Sinks

[Alex_Spider]

Students Among Hundreds Missing After South Korean Ferry Sinks
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/world/asia/south-korean-ferry-accident.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0

Ferry captain apologizes; frantic search for 287 missing
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/17/south-korea-ferry-sinks-students/7809913/

I' m surprised this hasn't been brought up in a thread. There's an awful lot of things gone wrong with this tragic incident. From the irresponsible actions of the captain to the owner company of the ship. Those poor children got wasted from f**** human mistakes.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I'm surprised no one posted a thread about this either. I mean, more people died on this ferry than MH370 and that generated tons of posts. Anyway both are supremely tragic and unfortunately cases of gross managerial incompetence or negligence leading to disasters aren't uncommon in Korea (for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse ) And then there's also issues with traditional Confucian deference towards older authority figures, which sometimes leads to tragedy as well, especially when said authority figure is not to be trusted. What compounds the tragedy is the captain who told everyone to stay put while the ferry took in water, was one of the first off the ship. If he had shown the same concern for his passengers, everyone could have been rescued since the time between the impact and the sinking was two and a half friggin' hours. So he should be in jail the rest of his life.

Here's a really sad article about the last messages between students and their parents:
http://nytimes.com/2014/04/18/world/asia/messages-from-students-on-south-korean-ferry.html?referrer

 

[Alex_Spider]

I'm surprised no one posted a thread about this either. I mean, more people died on this ferry than MH370 and that generated tons of posts. Anyway both are supremely tragic and unfortunately cases of gross managerial incompetence or negligence leading to disasters aren't uncommon in Korea (for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse )

Didn't know about this.

And then there's also issues with traditional Confucian deference towards older authority figures, which sometimes leads to tragedy as well, especially when said authority figure is not to be trusted. What compounds the tragedy is the captain who told everyone to stay put while the ferry took in water, was one of the first off the ship. If he had shown the same concern for his passengers, everyone could have been rescued since the time between the impact and the sinking was two and a half friggin' hours. So he should be in jail the rest of his life.

Here's a really sad article about the last messages between students and their parents:
http://nytimes.com/2014/04/18/world/asia/messages-from-students-on-south-korean-ferry.html?referrer

Yeah, that is what's bugging me. How can the captain act that stupid and irresponsible towards the children that were abroad that ship.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

*shrug*

Cowardice? Hubris? Arrogance? Indifference? Selfishness? Take your pick. Who knows what was going through that bastard's small brain? All I know is if I were a parent of one of the missing students I'd probably want him dead.

 

[Alex_Spider]

*shrug*

Cowardice? Hubris? Arrogance? Indifference? Selfishness? Take your pick. Who knows what was going through that bastard's small brain? All I know is if I were a parent of one of the missing students I'd probably want him dead.

All of the above.

 

[KevanG]

I've been following this on the news and didn't really notice it wasn't a thread here.

 

[BestGirl]

How is it these kids remained inside the boat while it was capsizing? No power on Earth could ever keep me on board a boat while it was slowly tipping over. I wouldn't care what anyone said; I'd be sitting on deck.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

And you'd be one of the rescued.

But many people would trust an authority figure in this situation. These are the people with experience, the people we are supposed to trust in these situations. By the time they realized how wrong he was, the boat was on such a tilt it was hard to get out.

 

[Teelie]

I've been following this on the news and didn't really notice it wasn't a thread here.

Same here. I thought someone would've posted about it before now but no one did. This is almost the exact same situation as the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster from a few years back right down to the captain abandoning ship at the very first sight of trouble.

 

[KevanG]

From what I've heard the usual captain was on vacation and the one actually steering the ship was the third or fourth mate. Haven't heard on where anyone else was though.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

The captain wasn't on vacation. He was on the ship. Just not at helm.

 

[KevanG]

I meant the usual captain was on vacation somewhere else and they had a substitute captain, he wasn't at the helm though and had a subordinate steering. I meant to finish that but I got distracted while typing.

 

[Teelie]

That ships are better maintained and not sinking as often or in distress doesn't keep that training as up to date either. When you don't have to exercise that training the response starts to go away. Not that ships in the past were constantly sinking or anything but with better response times, navies, coast guard, etc. it's less common that people die at sea.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

This is beyond comprehension to me. How do you not try to save lives?

 

[terry78]

Trying to save face, it's an Asian thing. I'm not trying to pigeonhole but I suspect that's part of the reason why the flight 370 thing is so muddled. Nobody wants to be like, "we ****ed up."

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Students Among Hundreds Missing After South Korean Ferry Sinks
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/17/world/asia/south-korean-ferry-accident.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0

Ferry captain apologizes; frantic search for 287 missing
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/17/south-korea-ferry-sinks-students/7809913/

I' m surprised this hasn't been brought up in a thread. There's an awful lot of things gone wrong with this tragic incident. From the irresponsible actions of the captain to the owner company of the ship. Those poor children got wasted from f**** human mistakes.

I actually posted about it a few hours after it happened in the Weird News thread. Saw an article today that said they have issued an arrest warrant for the Captain and 2 crew members

 

[Teelie]

I'm sure it is, but it's still shocking how ill-prepared they seem to be when it does happen. I certainly hope that fire drills in schools haven't gone lax because of lesser instances of fires or better sprinkler systems.

It's a real hassle to do them when they aren't seen as necessary. I'm not excusing them but that is the reality. Unless you actually need to flex these skills and excercises they aren't going to be utilized.

 

[terry78]

Eh, I'm sure.

 

[Teelie]

In Asia saving face is more important than in other regions but it's hardly unique to them. Europeans and North Americans are more apt to place blame on someone else than admit to it. It's the same problem presented in a different way.

 

[Teelie]

Not splitting the differences. It's the same thing presented in a different way like I said. No matter how it's expressed it comes down to whoever was in charge trying to deflect responsibility.

 

[Teelie]

I don't know. These are broad stereotypes afterall and even within a culture there are people who hold more or less value to appearance and presentation.

It's the old, "tomayto, toemato" where no matter how you say it, they mean the same.

Some cultures value a great deal on the individual, others on the family. Then there are those who go to tribal identity, then to ethnicity, etc. Depending on how much you want to nitpick it in the name of political correctness I can probably do an entire thesis on it.

 

[Teelie]

I don't know what you want to prove, because it seems more important to you to argue the phrasing than anything else about it.

 

[Teelie]

Not defensive, just tired of trying to explain something over and over again where you can understand it.

 

[Teelie]

 

[Teelie]

Fake survivor texts were sent out by someone with no humanity.

Disgust, anger and shock greeted official statements from South Korean authorities that texts and social media posts from survivors trapped inside the stricken ferry had been faked.