Tuesday, June 20: Greek Tragedy
A shipwreck left hundreds missing and raises questions of who's to blame
Hundreds of people remain missing in the aftermath of a shipwreck off the coast of western Greece on June 14 in one of the worst maritime disasters in modern Mediterranean history. The ship was carrying hundreds of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East and capsized near the town of Pylos. So far, only 104 survivors have been found, none of them the women or children who were allegedly kept in the hold of the ship.
There are growing questions as to whether the Greek coastguard should have intervened earlier to help get the migrants onboard to safety. Up to 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, Palestine and Pakistan were on board the ship trying to reach Europe when it sank. Sadly this isn’t the first and likely won’t be the last shipwreck of desperate migrants attempting to traverse the Mediterranean.
The UN has welcomed an independent probe into the ship’s sinking as well as the slow response from the Greek coast guard, and the European Commission stated that any investigation should be “thorough and transparent”. This is in direct contrast to the position expressed by the Greek Supreme Court, which has urged absolute secrecy in the investigation. I’m no expert, but an absolutely secret investigation into the deaths of hundreds of people seems a bit counterintuitive.
Side Items
Titanic Sequel: If anyone ever tries to convince you to pay a quarter million dollars to hop in a homemade submarine, probably don’t take them up on that offer. Five people are missing after a carbon-fiber submersible named the Titan (the irony) carried a pilot, a renowned British adventurer, two members of an iconic Pakistani business family and a Titanic expert to see the wreckage of the iconic ship. Personally, if I were an expert on the most famous shipwreck in human history, I’d be a bit more cautious about venturing to the bottom of the ocean, but that’s just me. The Titanic is approximately 2.4 miles deep in a remote part of the ocean, so any rescue attempts border on futility. The submersible was controlled by a game controller and had a 96-hour oxygen supply when it took off on its adventure Sunday morning, so chances are those five adventurers are absolutely dead
Justice for a Troll: Social media troll and general scumbag Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, have both been charged by Romanian prosecutors with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women. I don’t often pray on the downfall of others (that’s not entirely true), but it’ll be a welcome sight when I don’t have to hear about these brothers anymore. Tate’s recent conversion to Islam and increasing habit of quoting the Quran on his social media has made him a darling for some young Muslim men, but my memory is a bit longer than that of a goldfish, so he hasn’t quite won me over. Sometimes bad guys get what they deserve