Everyday new revelations are coming to light regarding the horrible negligence and the awful corruption that led to the tragedy involving the Egyptian ferry, Al-Salam Boccaccio 98, which sank in the Red Sea claiming hundreds of lives early this month. The problem as usual will become completely forgotten soon enough. This is a hazardous habit that frightens me.
In an article in Al-Eqtisadiah last week, Najeeb Al-Zamil described the ferry tragedy as cold-blooded murder. Saad Al-Ghamdi mentioned in his article in the same newspaper on the same day that the ferry tragedy is an obvious and flagrant expression of corruption.
Both writers are of the same opinion on this issue. Cold-blooded murderers get away with their crimes in this environment where corruption is rampant. This environment gives wrongdoers the energy to commit horrible crimes with utter impunity.
People in charge of regulating the safety of these sea buses gave statements that included strong emphases on the word “assumptions”, referring to the regulations and the precautions and the stipulations that should have occurred to prevent tragedies on the seas from happening. I have no doubt those readers everywhere stopped wondering why these assumptions were never implemented or executed in the first place. They are all aware of the corruption in the Arab world. They are not surprised.
Writers will compete to analyze this calamity and to warn of possible disasters in the future in other sectors. People in charge will race to praise the regulations and the precautions and the efforts put in place, and they will threaten to punish the negligent.
The Arab world will suffer as usual from listening to the usual nonsense that does nothing to solve problems or keep history from repeating itself. The corruption that caused the ferry tragedy will remain a scar, one of many, on the face of the nation and the Arab world.
