Can we stop with the Titanic parallels now? Please.
I know it’s the 100-year anniversary of Titanic, and I know the Costa Concordia also was a big, luxurious cruise liner, and I know the comparison is inevitable. But can we please stick it back in the lower half of the story where it belongs as an quirky afterthought?
The Titanic sunk – sunk – in the middle of the North Atlantic in the middle of the night in the middle of winter with the nearest ship four hours away. More than 1,500 people – 1,500 – died in the icy water. The Costa Concordia, meanwhile, basically ran aground about 10 feet off the coast of Italy. There were probably fishermen sitting there on the rocks, going, “Hey, don’t cross my line!” The Titanic sent its S.O.S. message in Morse code by telegraph. People on the Costa Concordia were live-blogging their evacuation.
I know this makes me look insensitive. But I’m not. I just want to be able to show the appropriate amount of sensitivity without the news media trying to ramp it up to Titanic proportions. Being on that ship would have been awful, a living nightmare, no matter how close to shore you were. Lives were senselessly lost, and there is never any minimizing that. I want to be sympathetic to the horror that those people experienced, but don’t give me: The wreck of the Costa Concordia is like a modern-day Titanic! It's like comparing Balloon Boy to the Hindenberg. The only appropriate comparison is the incompetence of the crew and the metaphor for hubris and excess.
Last September, by the way, a Tanzanian ferry sank, killing more than 200 people. The big headline in the U.S. papers read: Is It Over Between Kim and Kris?
Last July, a Russian cruise boat sank, killing around 130 people, almost of half of them children. Easy to overlook that story; the Yankees played that day.
And last April, a ferry in Bangladesh capsized, killing nearly 30 people. The big headline in the U.S. was: Will Elin Watch Tiger at Masters? (Don’t confuse this with the Bangladeshi ferry that capsized in 2009, killing nearly 40 people.)
So, you know, just because this boat was big and beautiful and had a 24-hour buffet and slot machines, let’s not overplay the disaster card.
I know it’s the 100-year anniversary of Titanic, and I know the Costa Concordia also was a big, luxurious cruise liner, and I know the comparison is inevitable. But can we please stick it back in the lower half of the story where it belongs as an quirky afterthought?
The Titanic sunk – sunk – in the middle of the North Atlantic in the middle of the night in the middle of winter with the nearest ship four hours away. More than 1,500 people – 1,500 – died in the icy water. The Costa Concordia, meanwhile, basically ran aground about 10 feet off the coast of Italy. There were probably fishermen sitting there on the rocks, going, “Hey, don’t cross my line!” The Titanic sent its S.O.S. message in Morse code by telegraph. People on the Costa Concordia were live-blogging their evacuation.
I know this makes me look insensitive. But I’m not. I just want to be able to show the appropriate amount of sensitivity without the news media trying to ramp it up to Titanic proportions. Being on that ship would have been awful, a living nightmare, no matter how close to shore you were. Lives were senselessly lost, and there is never any minimizing that. I want to be sympathetic to the horror that those people experienced, but don’t give me: The wreck of the Costa Concordia is like a modern-day Titanic! It's like comparing Balloon Boy to the Hindenberg. The only appropriate comparison is the incompetence of the crew and the metaphor for hubris and excess.
Last September, by the way, a Tanzanian ferry sank, killing more than 200 people. The big headline in the U.S. papers read: Is It Over Between Kim and Kris?
Last July, a Russian cruise boat sank, killing around 130 people, almost of half of them children. Easy to overlook that story; the Yankees played that day.
And last April, a ferry in Bangladesh capsized, killing nearly 30 people. The big headline in the U.S. was: Will Elin Watch Tiger at Masters? (Don’t confuse this with the Bangladeshi ferry that capsized in 2009, killing nearly 40 people.)
So, you know, just because this boat was big and beautiful and had a 24-hour buffet and slot machines, let’s not overplay the disaster card.
RSS Feed