Who to blame when a ship sinks
What do I know about sinking ships?
Lives lost,
Loved ones, left to find pieces of their hearts that never made it to shore,
Parents that would never let their twenty year-olds ride on boats,
And wives, that would never again eat fish
That fed on their husbands’ flesh.
Hearts that break when they see oceans
For they know it’s their tears that make them salty.
And those that hope,
That the storm was kind when their beautiful souls departed,
That they didn’t suffer,
When harsh waters entered their lungs
And the cold ceased their hearts.
Death. Hurt.
But who can we blame for this loss?
Not the beauty pageant stuff this time,
Could it be the captain?
How could he steer his ship wrong?
How could the wind be that strong,
To shake some two hundred fifty something souls.
And how can I be mad,
When I just sat in comfort
Waiting for some news report,
Indifferent,
As I watched them bicker on that TV station
As if their sudden burst of emotion
Would force the angry sea’s cohesion
And keep the ferry from sinking.
Life man, as if their political prayer
To stay in or out of that house of players —
Yes, playing with our emotions — players
Would make God throw life jackets
Like Manna from Heaven
And save some 1, 3, 31 kids from drowning, again.
Who should we blame?
The manufacturer,
For not accommodating extra weight,
Surely he should have known we’d overload.
The seller and the cost saving buyer of old scraps,
For caring only about their bottom line,
Or the law, for being there,
We all know don’ts are like dos, isn’t the law meant to be broken?
Or our mothers, for not learning survival skills before boarding, they
could have been spared!
Or the school system, for not having this in the curriculum
If you let your people go through this,
Why not teach them grief?
Should we blame the passengers?
For allowing themselves to enter a sinking ship,
For trusting the ship company,
Or choosing a captain
That was clearly unfit.
Or all of us,
For being silent
When we should have spoken,
For forgetting what happened,
For letting wounds heal, and ignoring scars,
Learning nothing from our past mistakes.
We didn’t want this, yet still did nothing to prevent this,
Nothing to change what caused this.
Who did we blame last time?
Did it work?
Clearly not —
Maybe this time,
We’ll go beyond blame,
We’ll take responsibility.
And correct our mistakes, or mistaken identity
As the apathetic fools that wait for it to happen again,
Bukoba, Zanzibar, then Zanzibar again,
Mbagala, Gongo la Mboto, tell me where next!
You may ask yourself —
— What do I know about a sinking ship — to write this?
I live in one,
MV Tanzania.
Related posts:
I just saw the reports/forums this morning of the sale of these vessels last year to TZ. The same questions were scrambling through my head, except I couldn’t find the words to ask them. Poignant lines here. I hope the buyers and sellers see this because they should be the first ones to respond. Yani… why?!
AK – All thanks to SN for sharing the link…it is appalling to think that people would care so little about peoples’ lives. Thanks
BBC:
“Hamza Kabelwa, director of the Tanzania Meteorological Agency, told the BBC’s Swahili service that a warning had been issued for vessels not to make the crossing because of the rough seas.”
Salamu za rambirambi kwa Watanzania… Ila jamani, hatuamki tu? Hatujifunzi?
Wow, a very powerful and sobering piece. Thank you for holding the mirror to our faces. Kwa hofu kubwa ninaanza kuamini polepole kuna kitu kibaya sana au kibovu sana katika jamii yetu. We all care about people’s lives in theory, in our reality and clearly in practice, we only care about our own individual lives. This is where we probably need to start if we are going to save MV Tanzania from its fate. Asante sana mshairi.
“Zanzibar’s Infrastructure and Communications minister, Mr Hamad Masoud, said no one should be blamed for the accident, adding that it was the work of God. He said the Zanzibar government was finalising plans to buy a new ship that would travel between Zanzibar and the Mainland.” More on The Citizen here: http://bit.ly/MvwGKp
Henh?! Guess we’re a country full of sinners. Oh, and go fix it by buying more shitty vessels. Maybe next time you can set it off into a live thunderstorm, like a sacrifice for redemption. SMH.
Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:17pm ZNZ time – “Police fired teargas at supporters of the Uamsho (Awakening) group who blocked a busy road in the historic centre of Stone Town after Friday prayers, witnesses said… Zanzibar police said they had acted to break up an illegal gathering and had made several arrests. Uamsho was banned from holding any gatherings after its supporters set fire to churches in May.”
From article by Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala @ Reuters – http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/us-tanzania-zanzibar-protest-idUSBRE86J16320120720
Hakuna ushirikiano baina ya vyombo mbali mbali vya serikali, na haya ndio madhara yake.
Kama Mamlaka ya Utabiri wa Hali ya Hewa umetoa onyo, mamlaka ya bandari inashindwaje kuzuwia meli zote kufanya safari?
Maisha ya watu hayapaswi kuwekwa rehani mikononi mwa wafanyabiashara; ao wapo tayari kufanya chochote wajipatie faida. Serikali ndio tulioikabidhi roho zetu, ilipaswa kuhakikisha “uamuzi wa kuondoa meli, huku kukiwa na onyo la hali ya hewa” ni wake na sio jukumu la wafanyabiashara.
Huyo Waziri wa Uchukuzi Zanzibar ni Mzembe wa kutupwa. Mungu kahusiana na nini kwenye uzembe wa wizara yake na serikali kwa ujumla?!
Some people just give God a bad name…….:(
..this lives lost will one day turn hands to this careless govt..wch seems to hav no eyes en that sense of humor..thea comes a tym..where we wl av no finger to point,,no word to spk,,en our tortured hearts will b fearles to any lost.. badalika tanzania..