Passengers await help on crippled cruise ship (AP)
AP - The nearly 4,500 passengers and crew of the Carnival Splendor
have no air conditioning or hot water. Running low on food, they have to eat
canned crab meat and Spam dropped in by helicopters. And for at least another 24
hours, they have no way out.
No way out? "Trapped" on a cruise ship in the Pacific ocean off the coast of Mexico. No air conditioning, as the article states, but the temperature is 62 degrees, Fahrenheit I assume, so do you really need air conditioning? The report didn't clarify between Fahrenheit and Celsius, so I'm assuming Fahrenheit, but if it is Celsius then I'll retract my criticism. 62 Celsius is 140 something Fahrenheit. That would be hot.
It is too bad that they don't have hot water, all they have is cold, running water. That's rough. Thankfully, the United States Navy has diverted an aircraft carrier to assist the cruise ship. They are bringing food to them. They are getting spam, canned crab, Pop-Tarts, and croissants. It's like camping in the living room of middle class America. Brutal.
Tug boats are currently huffing and puffing along, working to get the ship back to port. The passengers will then be bussed to California and then helped home from there. Unfortunately it is taking for-ev-er! to get that ship back to land. But they'll be safe, thanks to the escort of the U.S. Navy, the Mexican Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard. Safe from that cool ocean air and bright warm sun. Safe from errant shuttle board game pieces (I don't anything about the game).
I suppose the rescue process could be expedited if a general announcement were made to the people of Mexico. If Mexico is anything like the U.S., there are probably scores of people who would rush out to that big boat. Cold running water and plenty of safe food to eat? There are plenty of people in the world working all day to barely get that quality of life, and here these cruise people are suffering with it. It isn't fair to blame the passengers, I don't know their views on this subject. It could just be the cruise line publicists who are catastrophizing the event for the news reports, or perhaps it is the news reporters trying to make a story out of nothing. Whatever it is, I think it is ridiculous.
Just another example of the backwards priorities of the world at large. Prior to turning on the computer and finding this story I watched the Frank Capra film "You Can't Take it With You" (1938). The general message of the movie is to live life and trust in God. The blurb about the movie remarks on the eccentric family of Alice (Jean Arthur) and their interaction with her love interest Tony (Jimmy Stewart). Their eccentricities of doing what they enjoy, being with family, and not worrying about status clash with the straight-laced, upper class, status-focused parents of Tony. Alice's grandfather Mr. Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) says the phrase "you can't take it with you" when talking about the importance of living rather than acquiring a fortune. A movie with a message, how about that?
The contrast between the movie and the cruise ship story is fantastic. I love it. I only wish that in this case the movie had been real life and the real life had been the movie. Regardless of the fact that if real life were the way it was in the movie then I probably wouldn't be watching a movie about this cruise ship disaster.
No comments:
Post a Comment