5 billionaires from the Global North who willingly decided to pay and enter a submersible to travel to the bottom of the ocean and view a wreckage. More than 700 refugees from various countries in the Global South fleeing war, famine and conflict drowning in the Mediterranean because their overcrowded boat collapsed. More than 200 people died after a horrific train collision in India. All three have casualties. All three are tragic. But the context matters. Our response matters. Here's why.
It's Not Just About Media Coverage. It's About the Distribution of Intelligence & Resources
The disappearance of the submersible quickly grabbed the attention of the US, Canada and other Global North countries' media. It also tugged at the intelligence of these countries: Navy vessels, elusive and extremely expensive ROVs, and a crew of more than 50 were immediately deployed to search a radius of at least 700 miles. Off the Libyan coast, the Greek and Libyan Coast Guards upon viewing a sinking rubber boat chose to not rescue people scattered along the waters. More than 700 men, women, and children continued to drown and no one even sent an SOS call.
Greek authorities claim they lacked the immediate resources to rescue so many individuals but we all know that's not true. Incumbent PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis has consistently maintained a harsh rhetoric toward migrants and refugees; Pakistani and Libyan authorities have deployed all their post-tragedy efforts into finding and detaining smugglers but this is classic reactionary behaviour. In the Global South, man-made tragedies occur, authorities fail to mitigate the damage and then a process begins of prosecuting the lowest common denominator of negligence. But the rhetoric of hate used by politicians, the policies of inhumane discrimination and injustice, the lack of sufficient equipment and resources to avoid human tragedies have real consequences. They sustain a cycle of indifference and negligence.
The refugees' boat wasn't a lost cause. It wasn't a tiny vessel that just disappeared under a vast ocean. The authorities saw them. They saw them sink. And they did nothing.
Deep Sea/Outer Space Exploration Is Irresponsible & Violent When People Are Being Killed On Earth
Every year millions are spent to further human race's (read: the rich's) chances of establishing life in outer space. Countries both rich and poor spend taxpayer currency to employ intelligence, labor force and technological equipment for the possibility of habitation beyond Earth while simultaneously --actively -- denying habitable conditions, safety and security to a majority of their population. It is not rocket science to grasp that the destruction of our ecosystems is actively killing the working class, underclass, poor and homeless especially in the Global South through natural calamities, rising pollution levels, and food insecurity. Why couldn't we utilise the immense resources and intelligence to save the planet we already live on? Why can't governments forgo the desperate need for an ego trip?
Deep Sea exploration is perhaps even more infuriating considering that the vast majority of the ocean will remain beyond human habitation for a long, long time. But exploratory missions are scarcely about habitation. They're about a conquest. They're a romantic inquiry into an unreachable reality, an idealisation of the unknown. The mission to reach the Titanic conveniently forgets that it is, in fact, a wreckage. A disintegrating, decayed wreckage. But to view it through lens of exploration reflects in it the Titanic itself. The glamor, the tragedy, the sole surviving artefact from a long forgotten time in long forgotten space. When we view the wreck not for what it is but for what we wish it could be we are distracting from the reality of our time. We are also wasting our time.
Billionaire Behaviour Is To Be Complicit in a System That Kills People. But They Also Screw Themselves Over.
Flying private jets when you're contributing to 50% of total global emissions, consuming diabetes medication for the purpose of weight loss when it is inaccessible for most in the market, hoarding immense wealth while denying liveable wages for warehouse workers -- where does it stop? I don't care for the goodness or kindness of a billionaire's heart. The source of their immense privilege -- their wealth -- is a direct outcome of the capitalist system. This is a system that concentrates wealth in the hands of a few by denying it to the majority, by not giving labor its fair due, by not distributing resources equitably amongst all individuals. Simply put, you do not make all that money without stealing from the poor, without displacing the indigenous, without underpaying your labor. It is just not possible.
But there really is something to be said about the decadence of the rich. When they want to evade taxes -- or simply have no idea what to do about their hoarded wealth -- they look to the sky and the sea. Bezos went off to space, the rest take long vacations on remote islands stolen from the indigenous, some others go underwater. They delight in consuming 'exotic' and disgustingly expensive seafood often completely unaware of the high amount of toxins and micro-plastics in it (dumped by their corporations into the water). They unlawfully sneak their children into Ivy Leagues and then feel burdened by the label of nepotism.
If they're screwing themselves over, especially on the level as seen in the Titan case, it's because they could afford do. They had 250,000 dollars to spare.