All week, people have been glued to their televisions and cellphones as the news of the missing submarine that ventured to see the Titanic dominated headlines. Sadly, one catastrophic event has overshadowed another. Many are now discussing how a boat carrying several hundred migrants that capsized near Greece has been overlooked.
“A billionaire who is missing at sea viewing the Titanic is front-page news. [Three hundred] migrants die in a boat off the coast of Greece, and the British media talks about them like they aren’t human,” one tweet on the discussion read. According to an article published today (June 23) by CNN, last Wednesday (June 14), a migrant boat transporting an unspecified number of passengers sank near Spain’s Canary Islands. Some say as many as 700 asylum seekers were on the vessel.
On Sunday (June 18), the Titan submarine embarked on a journey to take five men to see the historic Titanic wreckage. The famous sunken ship has been resting below the sea since 1912. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British billionaire Hamish Harding, and French dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet reportedly paid $250,000 each for the fatal excursion. “There’s a potential tragedy unfolding with the submarine that is getting minute-to-minute coverage all around the world. And it’s understandable because obviously we all want and pray that these folks are rescued. But, the fact that that’s got so much more attention than 700 people who sank is — that’s an untenable situation,” Former President Barack Obama said last week during a trip to Greece.
On Twitter, some attempted to make sense of the incident. “People can name the rich billionaire who died, but not one can name the [thousands] of migrants who also perished… After 111 years, nothing [has] changed with human society. That’s why the Titanic story [is] so unique and everlasting,” one person posted. Another wrote, “Yes, the sub gets more attention than the boat, but this [isn’t] because of the lives at risk. It’s how interesting and unique the situation is. How often do you [lose] a sub 10,000 ft below [the] surface, and how often do [you] see migrant boats?”