No placards, no banners…..a sub-literate demonstration
With the craziness of the public transport stoppage now over, businesses are left counting their losses. Malta’s least favourite people have slipped further notches down the scale of public popularity. And we still don’t know what the stoppage was all about. You can’t really call it a strike because self-employed people by definition don’t have an employer and so can’t strike. They just stop working as a form of protest. We know what the hearse hassle was for – they didn’t want more licences given out – but we don’t know what the owners of buses and mini-vans were on about. First we were told it was sympathy action to back up the hearse people, and then it seems to have turned into something else. Within 24 hours, the bus and van people were griping about their own grievances, and to hell with the hearses. People were left to wonder exactly what the problem was, but they didn’t wonder too long, because we were all too angry at the chaos and damage being caused.
There was something missing in these four days of protesting and demonstrating, and nobody seems to have picked up on it. There were no placards, no banners, no slogans and no written messages describing in a few words what the protestors and demonstrators wanted or didn’t want. I hesitate to say that it was a demonstration by illiterates, because many bus and van owners can write, but it was certainly the first protest or demonstration that I have seen in which the written word was entirely absent – well, not entirely absent, because they did stretch to copying the Nationalist Party slogan Flimkien Kollox Possibli, but that doesn’t count.
A demonstration without placards and banners fits into my perception of Maltese society as being sub-literate. That isn’t quite the word I want, but it will have to do. It is a society which gets along as far as possible without the written word as a means of entertainment, information or communication. The written word is just not factored into the equation. So for four whole days and nights, large conveys of buses, vans and white taxis toured Malta’s busiest districts blowing their horns. Though the length of a bus is the perfect place for a really effective message-banner, and there were several buses in each convoy, those messages were absent. The result was that passers-by saw nothing but empty buses, vans and taxis being driven along while their drivers kept their hands on the horns, and had no idea what they were on about.
The same goes for the so-called Transport Federation, which caused the nuisance in the first place. I imagine, given the confusion and negativity of the last few days, that its people have had no public affairs training at all. They probably don’t even know what it means. Was there a single press release communicating the federation’s message to the public? No, there wasn’t. The public, the most seriously affected stakeholder in this whole charade, was just left out of the equation. But then, the Transport Federation probably doesn’t even know what a stakeholder is, either. I find it fascinating, the way it appeared to think itself able to conduct its work stoppage in a sort of vacuum: “This is between us and the government.” No, it isn’t. There are several stakeholders involved, too – but we’re still pretty primitive in that regard.
All week I have had that nagging feeling of dread that tightens the temples and presses in on the lungs. I have been trying not to think of the four men and one boy on the missing boat, and yet at the same time I could not stop thinking about them and those left behind. They were there every time I closed my eyes and every time I woke up and whenever my attention wandered from the task in hand. I was overjoyed when the news briefly broke on Friday night that both father and son had been found. It seemed like a miracle, too good to be true, but that’s because it turned out not to be true, after all. It turns out that the father was holding his son until just a few hours before he was rescued, but at some point the boy drifted away. We don’t know yet whether the boy was alive, or whether it was his body that his father spoke about to rescuers. Either way, it was a cruel twist of fate that the rescue came just a few hours too late.
It is already extraordinary that Simon Bugeja has survived for eight days and nights, floating with just some makeshift bits of polystyrene to cling to, and not even a proper life-vest or life-buoy. He must be incredibly strong. In all that time, he has had no food, no water and no sleep, and he has been exposed to the searing heat of day-time and the cold of night-time. The fact that he had his son with him would have given him that extra determination to survive that the others did not have. But another reason that both he and the boy survived for so long, while the others succumbed within one to three days, is that they did not drink sea-water. The others, he said, drank it. The temptation, when you are seriously dehydrated, is to drink anything liquid, but sea-water just compounds the dehydration problem because of its high salt content.
I won’t say that I can’t imagine what the boy’s mother has been going through. The sad truth is that I don’t have to imagine her agony because I know very well what it’s like, my own family having gone through a similar experience some years ago. That’s why I found many of the comments posted beneath the on-line report of the rescue to be so fatuous. God this and God that and may God lead us to the boy and with God’s help….there was even an appeal to Dun Gorg Preca. But what does God have to do with it? It seems to me obvious that we shouldn’t have to inveigle the rescue of a small boy from God, however anthropomorphic our perception of this god may be. It is equally obvious that any god with the ability to rescue small boys should have an equal ability to prevent them from ending up in that situation in the first place. I am not interested in having a philosophical debate about all this, or about why bad things happen to good people (and good things to bad people, for that matter), which is equally pointless. I just wish people would be more careful with their comments, and stop inserting God and his angels into the equation. This is harsh reality we are talking about.
Other comments that made me furious were those from people who said they were praying for the families to recover from the ordeal and to put it behind them. One man even wrote that he hoped Simon Bugeja would find peace of mind. Peace? Peace of mind? We are speaking here of a man who floated for eight days in the open sea, with scant hope of rescue, holding onto his half-dead son while half dead himself, watching his father succumb and drown after two days, one friend after three days, and another friend almost immediately, then losing his grip on his son and watching him drift off and away, with no strength to help him because he hadn’t eaten, drunk or slept for a week, just hours before a fishing-boat arrived. Any person who can recover from that is not normal. In his position, I would wish I had died as well. Mr Bugeja is going to endure his life and not live it; there will be many times when he will curse the fact that he was rescued and wish that he had died instead of being forced to live with these memories. My honest belief is that his fate is far worse than that of the others who died. Neither he nor his wife will ever find peace again. Though on the face of it they may manage to get together the semblance of some kind of life, the horror will remain a nagging, persistent presence in their lives, waking them up at night, haunting their days, and causing them to weep several years hence, at the most inopportune moments. They will be forced to conceal their slow-burning sadness because society, after several years, will expect them to ‘get over it’. They will be sad even in the rare moments when they are happy. And I sincerely hope that nobody has the lack of tact to go and quote ‘id-destin’ or God’s will at them. In my experience, those who rabbit on about God’s will have never experienced real tragedy themselves, or who have, but while being relatively unaffected by it.
I am unequivocally glad that Mr Bugeja was found alive for one main reason: that there is somebody to tell Mrs Bugeja what happened. Knowing what happened is going to torture her for the rest of her life, but not knowing what happened would have been a more hideous torture still. At least, now she knows. She can picture it. She is going to need all the help she can get to cope with the knowledge, and the mental image, of her young son drifting off and alone while weakened to the edge of death, but at least she knows. Any mother in her position would be driven to bang her head against the wall until she knocks herself out, and will go to bed every night hoping that she doesn’t wake up again.
If we don’t wake up tomorrow to the news that Theo Bugeja has been found alive, then I hope against all hope that the search goes on. Mr and Mrs Bugeja need his body. Written down like that so starkly, it seems an indecent statement, but there is no sensitive way of putting it. They need his body and they need to bury it. They need a grave where they can mourn. They need to touch, to feel, to see and above all, to know.
As for my friends who report for the media, for the past nine days they have referred to one of the men aboard that boat as “the Eritrean fisherman” or “the Ethiopian fisherman”. Please, for heaven’s sake, dignify him with a name in death. Find out where he really came from. Have the decency to try to discover his story, how old he was, whether there is a family involved. Don’t carry on doing what we are so good at, and lump all black people into one nameless, faceless mass. There is a terrible poignancy in his story, if he survived the dreadful crossing to Malta, only to drown in the same sea after a fishing-boat accident.
People’s fantastical speculation about what might have happened to the fishing-boat and those on board caused me to become extremely angry and irritated with a few individuals. The principle of Occam’s Razor is apparently unknown in Malta: that the most obvious explanation is the most likely one. These are some of the stories I was told, with great conviction: that they were shot at and sunk by Sicilian fishermen in a fight over fishing-grounds; that they strayed into Libyan waters and were captured by the Libyans; that they were seized by pirates who operate in the waters around northern Italy; that they were set upon by illegal immigrants who stole their boat and left them to drown. People became very excited while discussing these possibilities: I could see the thrill in their eyes. They became annoyed when I put forward my own prosaic view that something had happened to sink the boat otherwise it would have been found by now, and that meant either an explosion on board or being hit by a large ship while nobody was on watch at night. People didn’t seem to want the prosaic explanation. It just wouldn’t do. Pirates, Libyans or marauding Africans it would have to be.
Whatever is bothering you today, you would do well to put it into the context of what Mr and Mrs Simon Bugeja are suffering.
This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.
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It has been reported that the AFM did not immediately grant permission to MXlokk fisherman to participate in the search. On whose authority? Pray, I ask?
It is the fishermen who know exactly their practices, who can read the sea currents, and the areas where they venture out to on their fishing trips. It was when eventually they were allowed to do so and it was them who sucsessfully retreived three bodies and saved Simon Bugeja. Had they been allowed to do so earlier then maybe this tragedy could have been avoided or at least greatly reduced.
What a pitiful state this country of ours is in with a Police Force failing to do its duty to uphold law and order during the mayhem this country went through the past week and with such insensitive people within the AFM.
Banners and placards don’t work. Violence and intimdation works. The bus-drivers knew that. Shame on the Maltese government for giving in to violence. What a bad example to our children! This can now be taken as an open invitation to any aggrieved workers to resort to violence to get what they want. It works!
I completely agree with this article.
Being a Catholic myself, I still disagree when people stay saying this is a Miracle. Mr Bugeja managed to stay alive because of his shear strength and determination to survive, and knowledge of the sea (Not drinking sea water, Improvising a raft etc..). This is nowhere close to being a miracle; Watching your loved ones pass away is already hard enough, even in the ‘comforts’ of a place like a hospital. One can only imagine how hard it was to lose someone in such a situation. I am not trying to be Anti-Christian or anything, but we must face the cold hard truth and stop hiding behind God and grow up (in this case), when there are people Like the AFM and those helping out in the search and rescue, pouring their hearts out to help ‘end’ this ordeal.
I really do hope Theo is found alive. but even so, this would be no miracle; If he is found it doesn’t mean he is ok, far from it. What these men (including theo) have gone through makes most of us sick, even just thinking about it.
Like everyone else, I’m happy Mr Bugeja has come out alive, I hope that his son Follows in his Footsteps. Condolences to friends and families of the unfortunate ones who didn’t share the same fate as the survivor.
No matter the outcome, you will never be forgotten; your shocking story has affected us all in one way or another. Mr Bugeja, you are a true hero for surviving through all of this
We are not puppets in God’s hands, true Christians should not believe in destiny.
From what we heard ,Theo Bugeja was a good obedient 11 year old boy . I can imagine how excited he was that after his exams he was going out with ‘nannu’ and daddy fishing on their state of the art boat.
It is heartbreaking to see your loved ones and friends ‘leave’ one by one.
Some people do find some solace in their religion.
Simon Bugeja did his best in the harsh circumstances to hep everybody.I hope that he will not carry a guilt feeling throughout his life.
Well done for these heartfelt comments on the Marsaxlokk tragedy. The pointed analysis of a very difficult and delicate topic is almost totally shared by me and is to be commended. Prosit Tassew. The Mystery of Suffering has haunted me for the whole of my working life. I have come to the conclusion that the only way to comment about it is to keep one’s mouth SHUT. When I was younger I argued vehemently on the subject very much along the lines followed by DCG. I am shattered by the turn of events.
I am still hoping against hope that Teo will be found, preferably alive. Not finding him does not even bear thinking about.
Like you, Daphne, I am so glad that somebody made it alive, so that at least the families of the various victims could know the truth about what happened, and not live the rest of their lives wondering about what may have gone on.
Hopefully, this sad story will inspire the sole remaining survivor of the ill-fated “Esmeralda” to finally clarify the various inconsistencies about what had really happened on that fateful night of 7th June 1990.
I find it a little puzzling that the Grecale, which brought in the illegals, found the only living survivor and the choppers and planes , which can cover a bigger area in a shorter time, would recover the dead survivors.
I also find it puzzling that a freezer explosion could cause such death and destruction.
Were the victims wearing life jackets??
As for the strike….that wasn’t a strike as such, that was a forewarning to the government as to what might entail later on.
A close friend of mine went out with a plane to help with the search, they said they saw something white in the sea, hoping it could have been one of the 5 men , they immedeatly infromed the AFM, but instead of appreciating my friend’s help the AFM just ignored them and said no one asked for their help and they had no permission what so ever to join them in the search!! So all i can say now is THANK you AFM!! for encouraging people who offered to help. Riedu jiehdu il proset huma hey… biex issa mur ara x’hadu !!
Every day that passes reinforces my mis-trust and loathing for our so-called police/security authorities. I cry when I think that I help to pay these abject twats’ salary.
When will the Brigadier and the police Commissioner resign ?
Can we make them resign ? Can we publicly whip them ? Can we draw and quarter them every time they try to cover up for their failed minions ?
I disagree that Simon Bugeja should have preferred to die: “In his position, I would wish I had died as well.” The fact that he held on is far more meaningful than despairing over coping with future pain.
@Mandy you hit the nail right on the head..Riedu jiehdu il prosit huma!!!!!No more no less there is no other explanation no matter what the so called authorities would make us try to beleive.
@Philip Grech: I think it should be obvious that the main reason he held on was because he was keeping his 11-year-old son alive. He wouldn’t have been much of a father if he gave up and slipped into the water. You obviously have no idea of what lies ahead for Simon Bugeja (and for his wife), and seem unable to put yourself in that position.
So now we know that it was Teo’s corpse that slipped out of his father’s arms just a few hours before rescue arrived. The boy had been dead since the previous day. Simon Bugeja watched his father drown after three days of floating, and then he watched his young son die slowly of exposure – and there are people who think he can ever recover, with God’s grace or otherwise. Of course not. The most he is ever going to be able to do is survive, dogged by horror and sadness.
Mr Bugeja showed that he is a very strong man. What is difficult for me to understand is the fact that if there had been an explosion so strong to rip the boat apart, surely all men, including the boy must have been injured seriously. Mr Bugeja said that he went down to actually check what was wrong when he heard the first sound, so he was closer to the explosion, however he is the only one who survived!
Although the boat was said to have had the latest technology on board, why didn’t they have any life jackets or some sort of bleeping lights on them (I’m referrering to the ones you’re showing when being on a plane).
Safety is a priority in everything.
It is increasingly clear that the police and army are there to protect the few thugs that run our country, at the expense of the law-abiding public, we deserve better, the Hinister of home affairs, police commissioner and army Brigadier should immediately resign over the debacle over the last week that has seen unnecessary deaths and suffering both at land at sea, otherwise the public may be justified in taking the law into their own hands. Enough is enough. Resign sir.
the police commissioner seems to be very happy that his team worked well and were in control during the strike. well, people out here are not of the same opinion. while the strikers were up in arms to safeguard their jobs and the status quo, they have hindered others from continuing with teir lives and many have suffered financial losses. they should have been allowed to strike without jamming the country in the pwak of the tourist season and during this extremely hot weather.
@ Amanda Mallia….a relative of mine disappeared in the Esmeralda incident, his body was never found.
Maybe the last remaining “survivor” will clear it up before he dies.
Opinions are divided upon the subject of drinking sea water. The most famous crossing of the Atlantic under strict minimum badass survival conditions was carried out by Alain Bombard, and he drank sea water throughout his trip. Same thing with urine. In any case, a life raft with a water filter would have been sufficient for these fishermen.
My heart simply goes out to Theo’s mother in this most tragic incident. Nothing and no one can ever console her. I too have visions of this boy clinging on to his father, only to have to let his lifeless body go into the deep dark waters being too weak and exhausted.Just imagine what the poor boy has been through at such a young age.
I agree with you Daphne that the poor man will never find peace, especially after he saw all his relatives and friends die. The times reported that the boy passed away on Thursday and slipped from his father’s grip on Friday morning.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080721/local/rescue-captain-recounts-fishermans-ordeal
But I would like to ask a few questions. If the boat took some time to sink after it caught fire, why didn’t anyone phone (Mr Bugeja had a mobile because he had sent an SMS on Wednesday to his wife) or send an SOS from his state of the art boat? The search would have begun immediately after the accident. Were there life jackets on board, especially if there were people who did not swim??
A friend of mine told me that if the AFM asked the fishermen to help them in the rescue, they would have had to supply them with fuel for their boats. Was this the real reason why they did not? ON TV a fisherman said that they went out against the orders of the AFM, and found the bodies soon after.
Philip Grech: That comment you refer to is an observation of Simon Bugeja’s determination, not a criticism of his not having a death wish. It’s admirable that the man had the strength and willpower to survive under horrendous physical and psychological conditions.
If this fishing boat exploded – as is being alleged – how come no debris was found?
And if Simon Bugeja went down to where the explosion is supposed to have taken place how come he was not severely burnt in an explosion that disintegrated (apparently) a whole fishing boat?
And why did many fishermen admit (on TV) to being scared of going to look for their friends?
Do fishing boats have dinhies or some sort of life-boat? If they do, where was this boat’s dinghy? Did it disintegrate in the explosion too?
The evidence surely does not point to a “simple explosion” On the other hand we can’t just concoct a story about pirates and Libyans and assorted whatnots …
@Vince
“I also find it puzzling that a freezer explosion could cause such death and destruction.”
Most nautical fridges/freezers run off butane gas when at sea!
“Were the victims wearing life jackets?”
The chances are no. Unfortunately few fishermen do whilst at work due to the fact that they are bulky and hinder them, so when bearing the fact that these type of accidents are so rare, the chances of them wearing them are remote.
A good life jacket could buy even a strong swimmer up to 48 hours!
I can’t understand why all the conspiracies theories and suspicion: read my bit above about the principle of Occam’s Razor, which simply put means that the most obvious explanation is the most likely one.
There is obviously no hidden agenda or cause for suspicion here. The strongest argument against the fishermen being ‘up to something’ is that one of them had his 11-year-old son with him. No father in his right mind would take a son that age with him in a situation that might prove to be risky or dangerous.
That said, the situation was risky and dangerous from the start, though apparently not by Maltese standards of false economy and disregard for safety features. In one of the first newspaper stories about this sorry tale I read that Mr Bugeja called his wife using a satellite phone, to ask her for the weather forecast. I thought it was strange. Didn’t he have radio contact, on a fishing-vessel that ventured so far offshore? No, he didn’t. Another newspaper story reported that because the boat was just a little bit shorter than the minimum length at which radio/GPS becomes a legal requirement, it didn’t have that elementary equipment. The attitude appears to have been that they weren’t in breach of regulations by not having it, and that’s why they didn’t bother fitting it. But you don’t do these things to conform with the law. You do them for your own safety. It beggars belief that a party of four men and one small boy would set out on a week-long fishing expedition in open sea, with all that can happen, with no more than a satellite phone whose usefulness seems to have been dubious.
They appear to have had no life-vests or life-buoys with them, but this is just a guess as we weren’t told – thanks to the sort of fabulously detailed reporting that we have to put up with in the newspapers – the ‘minor’ detail of whether the corpses were wearing them. In the time it took to collect bits and pieces to put together a makeshift raft, they would have been able to pull out their life-vests and put them on – so if they didn’t do this, they didn’t have any with them. That wouldn’t surprise me.
Mr Bugeja said that they tried to inflate a life-raft but it wouldn’t work. That’s another safety measure that many don’t bother with. Life-rafts have to be checked regularly for inflatability. Vince here says that he lost a relative when the yacht Esmeralda went down 18 years ago off Sardinia. So did I. Of the two life-rafts on board that boat, only one inflated, and so two men got on it and were saved (one of them the owner of the boat) and the other two – one of them the skipper and Vince’s relative, and the other my mother’s brother and a guest on board – drowned and their bodies were never found despite an extensive search that ran into weeks.
People persist in the attitude that it can never happen to them, despite these tragedies. I imagine that after this recent unhappy case, there will be a flurry of checks on safety equipment, installation of radio equipment, a run on life-vests, and so on, then after a few years people will forget and go back to their usual ways, until somebody dies again.
@Claire Pace Harmsworth and Zizzu: Mr Bugeja was quite clear that the boat took a while to sink. This means that the explosion didn’t blow it apart (which is why the men weren’t killed immediately), but it must have blow a hole in the hull, causing it to take in water very fast. It would then have sunk in its entirety, hence no debris. And Mr Bugeja WAS injured by the explosion. The reports of his rescue and primary care all say that he has burns over his body. I don’t think that meant sunburn.
So now we know that it was an engine fire that took the boat down over six hours, and that the first man to die after just 48 hours succumbed so quickly because he was badly burnt. We also know that the satellite phone had stopped working/wasn’t picking up the signal.
@Daphne Caruana Galizia: “You obviously have no idea of what lies ahead for Simon Bugeja (and for his wife), and seem unable to put yourself in that position.”
Wrong again. You, on the other hand, are making a huge assumption about me and a prophecy about Simon Bugeja.
Well, here’s somebody who was born under an unlucky star: the Eritrean/Ethiopian was actually a 21-year-old Somali who had been working on that boat for just four months. His father was murdered in 2002 and his mother fled with him and his three siblings to Kenya. He married there, made his way here, and ended up dying like this at just 21. He was asleep when the fire broke out and so was badly burned, being the first to die. The Emigrants’ Commission will be burying him here in Malta after securing permission from his family, with whom they are in contact.
So we know that an inquiry is underway. I would like to know whether the authorities will be aksing for assistance in retreiving the boat. That will answer many of the questions being put forward.
At first it was said that an explosion took place. Today we read that the boat caught fire. How ?
How come nothing from the boat was found? Does fibreglass float in the case of an explosion ?
Will the makeshift raft be taken in for forensic evidence ?
The autopsies revealed that all died because of drowning ? Is that all ? Why did the police keep Mrs. Carabott from seeing her husband ?
According to Mrs. Carabott on Bondi+ yesterday, Mrs. Bugeja did not raise the alarm on the Friday, fearing that the boat might be taken away from the family. Why ?
This tragedy will remain an open mystery.
Daphne – (Regarding the Esmeralda)
If I recall correctly, there weren’t two life rafts on board the Esmeralda that night of the 7th June 1990 – There was supposedly one life raft (which would have to be inflated, and which would normally be equipped with meagre dried food + water supplies, flares, etc) and one dinghy (which would usually be permanently inflated, and kept on deck, and the primary use of which would be as a tender to the main vessel, and not a life-saver.)
The two survivors of the Esmeralda (one of whom has since passed away) were found on the dinghy, which means that the life raft either did not open or possibly was not there at all. Given the choice, I assume that the survivors would have opted for the life raft, and not for a tiny dinghy (in proportion to two burly men) with no supplies.
For some reason, one of the survivors (who also happened to be the owner of the Esmeralda) clearly stated in his first TVM interview from hospital that our uncle and the other man (John Schembri) “(Jekk jinstabu,) dawk qedin ahjar minna” (because of the supplies, the flares, etc).
Coincidentally, I had already posted a comment regarding this life raft / dinghy “business” on http://www.timesofmalta.com, which I am reproducing here:
“… Unfortunately, too many sea-faring people think that it “won’t happen to them”. This is not the 1st, but at least the 2nd such case that I can remember, the 1st being one in which a close relative & another man were victims, & whose bodies have still not been traced to this very day.
Like the Simshar case, rumour then had it that the liferaft “didn’t open”. (The owner of the yacht was in fact found with another survivor – now dead – on a dinghy.) Rumours were later going round that owners of “neighbouring” vessels in the yacht marina knew that the life-raft on such yacht needed servicing or something, & had even offered their own life rafts to the yacht’s owner prior to their departure on the ill-fated trip. Unfortunately, such rumours cannot be verified, both such “neighbours” having since died, at least 1 of them himself under awful circumstances. The owner of the ill-fated vessel, as in this case, is the sole remaining survivor. I sincerely hope that this sad story will inspire him to clarify the various inconsistencies about what happened on that fateful nght in June 1990.”
and which can be found here:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080721/local/rescue-captain-recounts-fishermans-ordeal
This last update by Daphne is very much in order. This boat was equipped with everything or almost. BUT fire is fire. It spreads “like wild fire”. Years back a ten metre brand new power cruiser berthed next to mine in Messina went ablaze and under the surface in less than twenty minutes. We have been told that engines, freezers and diesel do not explode. They might not, but they most certainly catch fire and how. This was a dreadful accident of the first order. The ifs and the kiekus are utterly irrelevant. Only if we had got to them quicker would the final tally have been less dreadful. Therefore, only the availability of a distress radiobeacon on board could have helped. PERHAPS.
@Vince – I remember the Esmeralda case very clearly, my only uncle having been one of the two known victims.
Having a good idea of what the relatives of the victims are going through, and knowing that Simon Bugeja – no matter what happened – lost his son, one could safely say that no amount of prayers will help him “get over” it. How can anyone having gone through such an ordeal at sea themselves “get over” it?
Some survivors may blank it out and go about their lives in a “normal” way, but surely it is always “there”, at the back of their mind; others may live angry about what really went on, frustrated that they can’t speak the truth for whatever reason, carrying it with them to their deathbed. I doubt that Simon Bugeja will fall into either or the two categories. How could he, having seen – amongst others – his own father and son die before his very eyes?
I don’t agree with DCG that there is not something fishy about the whole tragedy. If not why did Simon’s wife tell Noel Carabott’s wife not to report to the AFM that the boat was overdue (on Friday afternoon, the day after the accident) or else the AFM will take away their boat? Why should the AFM take away a boat because it was overdue????
Many emergency equipment either did not work or were missing on the boat (which was practically brand new), satellite/mobile phone, fire extinguisher, VMS, life boat, life jackets. Why they did not send an SOS before abandoning the boat?
Philip Grech – Before hearing the same thing said by the doctor on Bondi+ last night, I had come to the conclusion that Simon Bugeja would have fought for survival for Theo’s sake, at least till he saw him (Theo) safe and rescued.
Since Theo (so it has since been stated) died on the Thursday, and sadly slipped out from his father’s hands early on Friday, I doubt whether Simon Bugeja – at that point in time – would have had any further impetus to live had he not been rescued when he was. Furthermore, there’s also what is commonly known as “survivor’s guilt” for him to contend with. Sadly, the worst is probably yet to come for him and the families of all the other victims.
Joseph in-Nazzjonalist – There’s what is known as “sue and salvage”. As far as I know (though I stand to be corrected), anyone bringing/taking a vessel to safety, where such vessel has no other means of being salvaged, is entitled to keep such vessel, though the owner of such vessel would have the option to pay the “rescuer” a sum of money proportionate to the value of such vessel to retain the vessel himself.
Maybe that’s what was insinutated by the AFM “keeping” the vessel, though I may be wrong.
D Fenech – Please see my comment addressed to “Joseph in-Nazzjonalist”, above, re “sue and salvage”. Maybe somebody could clarify whether or not I am correct about it.
@Amanda,
You are quite right, from what I remember the two survivors in the Esmeralda case were indeed found on a dinghy.
As you rightly pointed out a dinghy is NOT a life raft as it provides no protection from the elements, is not as visible and can capsize relatively easily, plus the survival equipment you mentioned.
I think the real reason for the lack of survival equipment is a simple one. The liferaft I own is for 8 people and cost me 10000 euros. In all I have about 16000 euros worth of safety equipment on board, including a beacon (which automatically launches a distress signal with our position on contact with water), solar distillers for water and so on.
Reliable safety equipment costs money, so does servicing it.
A good life jacket for my sons costs about 50 euros each (which they do their level best to outgrow as quickly as possible may I add)
I suspect that is the main reason that there so many boats in Malta are lacking in this regard
Joseph – in Nazzjonalist: “Why did the police keep Mrs. Carabott from seeing her husband ?” Maybe it was to spare her the shock of seeing the disfigurement wrought by decay. This was a corpse that was described in news reports as ‘badly decomposed’.
May I point out that I don’t have any super-yacht or anything but a very modest second hand sailing boat :). The safety equipment cost little less then the boat itself, but the point is the boat had NO safety equipment to begin with!
Simon Bugeja and his wife have another son; that may have helped motivate Simon as well.
I am sorry about the fishermen. I knew them personally. Except for the child and the somali man. I cant help not thinking about them constantly. The family needs to find the child’s body. I agree with Daphne. As for the SAR effort, in the glaring sun and across miles of sea, its not easy to spot a dot in the water. Remember they didnt have anything. Maybe its time that fishing boats are equipped with automatic life rafts as well as EPIRB’s as well.
On another note i saw that the Govt. will be monitoring marina prices during the privitization process.
Is-soltu ragunament mintoffjan u socjalist immuffat fuq il prezzijiet. I didnt expect this from Austin. If you privatise, you give up all right to set prices and let the market decide. If people want cheaper prices, then allow more marinas and therefore more competition. Why do we let some tree huggers with questionable motives, like the FAA, dictate to the government where it can do marinas or not. St Paul’s bay and M’Scala are crying out for a breakwater. Come on Austin. Are you going to let some bantam chick get the better of you?
On yet another note: I have just heard from a very good source that there are too many buses, about 200 extra, for a new swedish company that is saying it is earmarked to take over public transport, to buy out. At Lm 20,000 each, thats Lm 4 million. Is this true? If it is…….
@T – yes, and I read today that his wife is expecting another child. I wish everyone would stop it with the conspiracy theories. This is about nothing more than the confluence of serious accident and a total dearth of functional safety and communications equipment.
T / Daphne – Apparently, Simon Bugeja and his wife have another boy, aged 6, who has been shielded from this horrific story.
David Buttigieg – Yes, possibly the cost of life-saving equipment and of it’s maintenance, coupled with the usual “it won’t happen to me” attitude.
Ironicallly, in both the Simshar case and the Esmeralda before it, the people involved should have known better, but apparently didn’t.
This should serve as an eye-opener to all the die-hard sea-faring people to ensure that any boat (be it a sailing boat, yacht or fishing vessel) they travel on – be it to Gozo, Sicily or further – has at least got some sort of life-saving equipment on board, especially if travelling with children. You should never be too proud to ask. Better to look a fool than risk death.
Joseph in-Nazzjonalist / Vince / David Buttigieg / others – Re “sue and salvage”, which seems to be the innuendo instigated by a comment passed by Noel Carabott’s wife on TV yesterday, I clearly remember the same comments being passed in the Esmeralda case.
At the time,rumour had it that the people on board had been baling out water several hours through the night before finally sending a MayDay message saying “sinking fast, sinking fast”, by which time it was too late.
The similarities between the two cases are uncanny. All I can say is that Simon Bugeja has so far been mostly consistent in his version of events.
@Corrine Vella
The police could also have hindered Mrs. Carabott from having a full view of her husband in order not “divulge” any info which they ( the police ) would not like to spread. If for example the unfortunate gentleman died of severe burns to the hands and upper torso the inquiry would need to establish what caused this. Got it ?
@ Amanda Mallia
In retrieving the boat I meant that all efforts should be made to bring to the surface remains of the boat – presumably on the seabed – in order to establish the cause…….
@Amanda
It was not a case of sue and salvage. Her words were, ‘cempilt lil sharon u ghidtilha li se ncempel ghax qed ninkwieta. Sharon qaltli biex ma ncempilx ghax inkella ‘johdulna d-dghajsa’……’.
Keep in mind that she was more preoccupied about loosing the boat, than her boy, husband and the others. On the other hand Noel’s wife kept a watch out for them, until finally it was she (without telling sharon) who phoned the AFM to tell them that simshar did not return.
Why wasn’t a call for help sent on radio? Satellite phones normally have GPS.I cannot understand exactly the sequence of events.
I am also confused :
fear of “sue and salvage”
search party wanted free fuel
AFM had some key person on leave in Gozo.
While the fishermen ought to be congratulated for finding Simon, we should keep in mind that the AFM have their hands tied with standard procedures and officialdom.
And I was really shocked when I saw the fishermen laughing at what the brigadier was stating on Bondi+. If anything they should have looked angry at him .Their body language was not fit for the occassion . I felt that the fishermen were sort of ridiculing the AFM , because it was they who found Simon.
PS The Esmeralda case got Daphne the sack from the STOM , I remember the article she wrote on her magazine (was it the Sunday Circle?), where she pointed fingers at someone who should have a guilt feeling.
Somewhere I read that on some island in the Mediterranean the body which could have been that of John Schembri was found, an expensive automatic watch was the clue.
@Mario Debono
I’m afraid that this is not just a case of tree hugger hysteria (what’s wrong with tree huggers, anyway,i don’t see many people hugging the concrete phalluses going up -but that’s another story). I think you would have a lot of beach huggers up in arms too. It may come as a surprise to some but rampant capitalism is not an ideal, as it is driven by purely selfish motivation. Haven’t we seen enough of this in the property speculation sector. (I am still very surprised at how buoyant the local scene remains, despite the world economy, but then again..only in Malta).
When you have a finite amount of a product, you have in effect a monopolistic situation, so controls are very necessary. So to give an example, whereas you can have an infinite amount of newspapers, and therefore no regulations are needed, this is not the same for the broadcasting media (at least until recently) where teh amount of available wavelengths was very limited, so regulations are brought in- even in America – to allow the best use of a finite resource.
That this system should be transparent and well understood is another matter
I have no doubt whatsoever that Simon is saying the truth. His version of events is perfectly plausible to all those who know the sea. This was a horrendous accident. The end result COULD have been mitigated IF everything had been perfect. What is ? May I suggest that the distraught xlukkajri families be allowed a moment of peace to digest their deep sorrow in absolute solitude. This is what they must need above all. On a more positive note today the news of Johann de Bono’s landmark discovery was flashed across the world. Johann was brought up down the road from Marsaxlokk in Birzebbuga. He is responsible for bringing to light a new treatment for prostate cancer that is almost certainly revolutionary. In fact it is Nobel Prize stuff in the Charles Huggins tradition.
It has been known for a while that Johann together with Gerhardt Attard who is a junior member of his team, was on to something really big. Now we have it. It should make us all really proud. I will never forget the day when Johann’s father told me that he was sending him to sixth form in Scotland at great personal financial sacrifice. It was 1984 and not many people went to secondary and tertiary education overseas then. The local situation in education was abysmal in those dark days and Johann would have probably been denied a place at University had he stayed here. Keep it up Debonu, urihom x’insarrfu. After all the heartbreak from Marsaxlokk we have had a light moment with this terrific news from London.
I though the Brigadier’s attitude on Xarabank was appalling, his attempt to put the onus of the blame onto the wives of the fishermen was insensitive. His responses to the Fishermen’s co-operative were vague and inconvincing. Faced with such accusations and with no reasonable defence I cannot see any way out for the Brigadier but to resign and let someone more able take on such an important job. This is the time for him to be a man and take the major share of the responsibility for these deaths. The Fishermen’s co-operative should also take a look at themselves and look at why they did not enforce and encourage certain basic safety measures amongst their members.
D Fenech – Precisely. At that point in time she seemed to be more concerned about “jehdulna id-dghajsa” than about the welfare of those on board, most importantly her own young son.
Was it a case of fear of the boat being “taken” (kept) after being salvaged by the AFM (which probably would not have been the case)?
Was it because of something illegal on board? (On Bondi+ one was led to believe that there could have been explosives – for fishing – on board the vessel.)
Or was it simply a case of denial? (It couldn’t happen to me (us).)
John Schembri – Daphne was not “sacked” by the STOM, never having been employed by them in the first place. She stopped writing for The Times for an entirely different reason, so please don’t cast doubt where there should be none, simply to deviate from the subject here.
As far as I know, it was actually her contribution towards the Esmeralda case that had kick-started her journalistic career, though I stand to be corrected. If I recall correctly, in it she had more-or-less stated the facts which I outlined in my post of Tuesday 22.07.08 at 1300hrs above.
I remember that “news item” about a body possibly being that of John Schembri (I feel uncomfortable using the name when addressing you) possibly being found (at Lampedusa or Linosa?), though I do not know the outcome of any investigation there may have been. Likewise any news regarding the watch you refer to.
The whole story is shrouded in mystery, and I think that it is fitting for any inquiry about the case to be made public.
London Area – It was not only the brigadier’s attitude which was shocking, but also that of the soldier accompanying him on Bondi+.
How could he – when directly involved in the search and rescue operation – not know when the helicopter searches where held or when the first corpse was found “ghax ma’ kontx xoghol dak in-nhar”? Most of Malta probably knows each and every detail. I find it hard to believe that somebody supposedly active in the search does not.
@Joseph In-Nazzjonalist: another conspiracy theory? The police – and anybody else for that matter – have no right to conceal a corpse or any part of that corpse from the next of kin. Your suggestion that they might have refused to show Mrs Carabott part of the body because there might have been burns that are evidence of something or other is totally out of order. The police suggest that the corpse is not seen – they can’t actually refuse to reveal it – only out of common decency if they believe that the sight of mutilation or decay will shock or disturb a parent, son, daughter or spouse. That is why it is usually in-laws, cousins or family friends who do the identification in cases like this.
@John Schembri – I don’t know where on earth you got the idea that I was sacked from The Sunday Times because of an article I wrote about the Esmeralda case. I wasn’t even writing for The Sunday Times. The Esmeralda sank on 7 June 1990 and I started my column for The Sunday Times in July 1990. I left to join The Malta Independent full-time in the pre-launch period in February 1992, left in December 1992, started writing a column for The Sunday Times again in January 1993, and fell-out with Allied Newspapers over an article I wrote in September 1996, criticising the then deputy prime minister’s daughter for taking up the defence of a man standing trial for the attempted murder of the prime minister’s righthand man – a very odd set up indeed. Her father, a director at Allied Newspapers, went nuts, to the extent of calling a national press conference to condemn me, taking advantage of the fact that the prime minister was away and couldn’t stop him. The attack was so harsh my phone rang off the hook with people offering me solidarity and even shelter (the rest of my family was away), and the next day people were even sending flowers and offering help. This was just before the general election and I am quite sure this act of aggression on national television helped erode votes for the PN, because there were people who didn’t know that the deputy prime minister was acting alone. Of course, what he should have done was advise his avaricious daughter of the political and personal embarrassment of taking up that case, but instead they got together to carry on propounding the entirely false myth that lawyers are not allowed to turn down cases (unless the client can’t pay, of course). I have been writing for The Malta Independent ever since. I hope that sets the record straight.
@ DCG
Please give me a break. This is no conspiracy. Conspiracy and set-ups were something of the past.
This is what the italians would term as “inquinamento di prove”……and therefore “keep” any sensitive details from being divulged
Joseph, under no circumstances can the police conceal the body from the next of kin. They can keep the body from being buried for a limited time until the forensic examination is completed, but that’s about it. The body belongs to the next of kin, not to the state.
Whilst Daphne is totally correct in her illustration of the facts that happened in 1992 regarding the Demarco shambles vis-a-vis the case of the attempted murder of Richard Cachia Caruana (and heavens knows what else), it should be pointed out that there may be more than meets the eye in the whole matter.
Rumours are rumours and whilst one may declaim them to be based on fact, I rather take the route of ignoring them unless they are indeed proven and therefore I shall refrain from making statements on the matter which are not based on actual and known truths.
I do have one question, though, and this is whether it is true or not that Daphne and Richard Cachia Caruana are friends… Not that this would diminish in any way her contribution regarding the Demarco saga but rather would possibly justify other odious rumours which may have been spread around regarding the so-called PN strategy team and even Dar Malta in Brussels (the contract for the purchase of which was, in part, publicly handled by the law firm in which Daphne’s husband and Dr. ABC are partners in).
@ Daphne: it was not my intention to cast any doubt about your career ,I just recall the strong article you wrote about the Esmeralda. Was it on a magazine ?If it wasn’t I’ll bang my head against the wall!
Probably Amanda Mallia’s contribution made me recall that article, I am not good at remembering dates.
Before the Esmeralda tragedy there was that of the “Queen of Peace”. Was it 1974?
Religio et Patria – You must be one hell of a mixed-up person, first trying to sound ultra bombastic and holier-than-thou, and yet contradicting yourself in the same comment. What a pompous little (oops, not) twit.
John Schembri – Have you got any special interest in the “Queen of Peace” tragedy? What has it got in common with the Esmeralda and Simshar cases, other than the fact that there were casualties too? Surely these were not the only 3 “accidents” at sea, but I have already stated the reasons why I brought up the Esmeralda case, and it was not purely to discuss any such misadventures.
Incidentally, yes, it must have been around 1974.
@ DCG
It is the magistrate who is conducting the inquiry who gives the go-ahead for the burial. As a matter of fact the 3 bodies found haven’t been buried yet.
@John Schembri – it wasn’t an article. It was a letter to The Sunday Times.
@Religio et Patria – and your point is, exactly? No point, I imagine, given that you seem predisposed to wallow in what you yourself call “odious rumours” along with all the other bored fishwives.
The man you call ‘Daphne’s husband’ is actually Malta’s foremost authority on property law. He is consulted by other lawyers and by the Lands Department, and he wrote Malta’s legislation on property acquisition in the run-up to EU membership. It is in that capacity of expertise, and not as ‘Daphne’s husband’ that he handled the research into the acquisition of the Malta building in Brussels. To put it in a way that a simple mind like yours might comprehend, what Alex Manche is to heart surgery, my husband is to property law. You really are out of the loop if you imagine that the government would hand over such responsibility to somebody just because he is married to me. Both my husband and I do very well without government contracts, for the simple reason that we are very good at what we do. You might also wish to know that he was paid a pittance, and suffered a considerable opportunity cost in terms of time spent working on that contract, when he could have been working on something else and earning decent money for far less hassle. He did it to be of service. You might also wish to know that I objected to his working on the contract, because I knew that it would expose me – and him – to precisely this kind of malicious insinuation, and for that kind of rubbish money it just wasn’t worth the bother. One of the things that public life has taught me is that there are certain people who can’t survive without conspiracy theories, most of them seem to live in Malta, and at least half of them stalk me. I get the news about myself from other people, which is an interesting experience, I can assure you. So take your odious rumours and stuff them up some orifice, preferably your own.
From what my friends (who are qualified refrigeration technicians) , it could have easily been a leak of the refrigerant (R 600) which caused the fire or explosion on the Simshar.