On 16 April 1912, the New York American ran with the headline “J.J. Astor lost on Titanic, 1,500 to 1,800 dead”. John Jacob Astor IV was one of the richest men on earth when the Titanic sank in the early hours of 15 April. One hundred eleven years later, the media stereotype hasn’t changed: First-class passengers have priority.
The saga of the Titan submersible, which went missing on 17 June and whose tragic fate was learned five days later, has dominated the headlines of the Western press, overshadowing bigger news, even the war in Ukraine.
The latest news is that debris from the tourist submersible has been recovered, with presumed human remains inside.
In comparison, the boat that capsized near Greece on 14 June with more than 500 people drowning, got minimal media attention.
Although the boat sank presumably with many women and children in its hull, no national or international authority has tried to recover their remains.
The search and rescue of the five glamorous people in the tourist sub has reportedly already cost $6.5 million at the time it became clear that there could be no survivors.
Conversely, the efforts to find survivors or dead bodies following the boat tragedy near Greece were minimal, and the EU’s border security agency Frontex has questions to answer about its role – or lack thereof – in the rescue operation.
Obviously, the fate of five rich adventurers greatly overweighs that of 500 poor and desperate people, the third class of humankind.
Has anything changed compared to the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, when the press focused on the drama of the glamourous first-class passengers?
As a journalist, I feel uncomfortable because our profession has paid so little attention to the deaths in the Mediterranean.
The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world. But yet, we look elsewhere.
Every migrant who delivers our pizza has a frightening story to tell, but we don’t ask. Maybe we don’t want to know.
It is ironic that Titan imploded 500 meters from the Titanic, which in this way continued to make victims 111 years after sinking.
Some 1,500 people died in the Titanic sinking and the drama keeps inspiring Hollywood.
Remarkably, James Cameron told a story in which a third-class passenger (a glamorous-looking migrant in search of a better life) was the main male protagonist.
Third-class passengers, prospective migrants, were doomed to die. There were no lifeboats for them and they were locked behind bars so as not to disturb the first-class passengers.
The Bulgarian village of Gumoshtnik near the city of Troyan counts eight young men who went down with the Titanic. All 38 Bulgarians on board the Titanic drowned, all were young men.
But I’m not aware of any filmmaker taking the risk of making a movie about a migrant shipwreck in the Mediterranean.
Is it because today’s migrants don’t look like Leonardo DiCaprio? Is it because the Western civilisation, the so-called Golden Billion, has little empathy for the Global South?
Why do we look elsewhere while these countries are hit by earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and droughts, or suffer from epidemics and hunger, as if this was their acceptable human condition by default?
Ironically, the Global South countries also have their own tycoons and one of them, from Pakistan, with his son, perished in the Titan implosion.
He was the holder of a Maltese golden passport, by the way.
At least 350 other Pakistanis went down in the shipwreck near Greece. When they realised Italy was too far for their sinking ship, they hoped to reach Malta, but they will remain anonymous.
Meanwhile, Lloyd’s insurance company scrupulously noted all the names of the Titanic passengers. Yes, 111 years ago prospective migrants travelled with insurance. This helped Gumoshtnik to erect its eight lost sons a modest monument.
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The Roundup
A massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock in Norway, pitched as the world’s largest, is big enough to satisfy world demand for fertilisers, solar panels and electric car batteries over the next 100 years, according to the company exploiting the resource.
Alexis Tsipras, the former prime minister of Greece and leader of the main opposition Syriza party (EU Left), resigned on Thursday (29 June) following a poor showing in a national parliamentary election and will not run for the party’s presidency.
Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, has reportedly turned down the post of French prime minister, meaning the incumbent Élisabeth Borne, whose popularity is waiting, particularly after enforcing an unpopular pension reform, is likely to keep her job.
Spain will double its 2030 biogas production target and almost triple its green hydrogen goal as part of a broad upgrade of its energy and climate ambitions, a draft of the government’s strategy showed on Wednesday (28 June).
Europe’s forests must be restored to strengthen them against new threats brought about by climate change, but communities, local knowledge and foresters need to be at the heart of this to make it a success.
Authorities in Kazakhstan have detained a Russian cybersecurity expert wanted by the United States, his employer said on Wednesday, as authorities in Moscow issued a court order in an attempt to pre-empt his extradition.
Don’t forget to check out this week’s EU Politics Decoded: The EPP on manoeuvres and the Economy Brief: EU leaders talk China de-risking, but will they start walking?
Look out for…
- European Council continues on Friday.
- Commissioner Thierry Breton delivers keynote speech at EU-RoK high-level Cyber Security Conference in Seoul on Friday.
- Commissioner Kadri Simson joins panel on “Energy Sustainability Trilemma” at 8th OPEC International Seminar next week.
Views are the author’s
[Edited by Alice Taylor/Zoran Radosavljevic]
Source: euractiv.com
