With all the news coverage you would have to live under a rock to not have heard about the shipwreck and the unfortunate death toll from it. It seems that the Captain who is ultimately responsible for the safety of the ship is in serious trouble. I have never taken a cruise but I want to. My Dad was on a cruise last week and really enjoys them. I was encouraged by a friend to write a story speculating on how this happened.

        I have read and seen accounts of total pandemonium, crew members pushing through passengers to get on lifeboats, misinformation from the crew, and total panic. It has all been blamed on the Captains exit from the ship before anyone else. I took a look at the numbers and the facts about cruises on the web and I believe there is more to it. Up until now it has been said that the absence of the Captains leadership was the cause for the breakdown of order.

       The Costa Concordia had 4200 on board. 3200 were passengers. So 1 in 4 of the occupants of the ship were crew members. Most cruise line websites state that all employees are given an emergency station on the ship and are certified in at least one station for emergencies. Well what if half of them fell asleep in the class. So that is one in 8 should have been able to help get seven passengers and the guy who fell asleep in class to safety. In an emergency who of us that have any common sense whatsoever can't get 7 people to listen to us. In the absence of leadership and communication it didn't seem as many even tried and went into self preservation mode. At a minimum the crew who did maintain their calm and followed procedures should have had the crew members who panicked themselves supporting them.

       So what about the passengers. Is there no blame to assign there. Some may be thinking , Geez, he's not gonna say anything negative about those poor victims is he? Yep. Who hasn't seen Titanic? Who gets on a ship and goes straight for the bar and card table and doesn't take a second to think, If this thing starts sinking how do I get off without drowning? What a buzz kill on the vacay to consider a little safety and caution before throwing  all responsibility out the window for a few days. Oh my God, or OMG for gen occupy, do you mean that I am ultimately responsible for myself and my families safety? What a novel approach. Of course not, it is the responsibility of the crew to heard you to lifeboats, load you on them and paddle you to shore. I am sure they have every possibility figured out especially with all the practice they have had on all the other sinking cruise ships they have been on. Oh yeah not to much recent history, just the Oceanos, google that it will give you all the faith in the crew you need.

        In both sinkings, people assumed that the people that were in charge were going to take care of them. In both cases the people were abandoned by the people they expected to look out for them. They assumed that in the absence of order that they would restore order and guide them to safety. Let's put that into another context. Disclaimer: This is the part when it gets dark and scary. There are around 330 million many people in the U.S., of which around 23 million work for the government, Fed, state , local. That is one for every thirteen. I think we can safely agree that the guy that had you stand in line three times for one transaction at the DMV will be of no help. If we count first responders and military you are at just under five million that makes one emergency trained individual for every sixty or so citizens. That's alot of people to take care of. What happens if all of those folks stopped getting paid because of say a Global economic collapse. Would it be safe to say that maybe thirty to forty % of those folks may not show because they are protecting their own families. So now we are at one for every one hundred or so.

        Does anyone think that the government will fix it. Is it practical to believe that one person working with no pay can take care of one hundred people. That is, food, energy, water, fuel, communication, and also take care of any criminal element that may arise from lack of any of the former. In that context it is easy to find some blame in the passengers.  Many times tragedies occur because people think that it is someone else's job to lead us and provide us with safety. Fact is that the government can't give you any of it. You pay for it through your taxes and you don't get alot of bang for your buck. It amazes me that anyone can ask how did this happen. I can answer that with one all to common attitude, " that ain't my problem, ain't my job." That is uncommon sense.