Rambles and Experienes of Sun-he

Sewol Ferry Accident

For the lack of inspiration, being grounded, and not really having anything else to do, I'm going to do a daily-ish journal thing. Bliss, I am not copying you. Nothing too substantial to write about today so I guess I'll tell you guys about what I did on Sunday.

"Sewol, however, was nowhere near capacity on the night of the 15th, when it left Incheon several hours late -- delayed because of heavy fog." (CNN) Sewol ferry sank on April 16th, a little over a month ago. There were over 400 people onboard the ferry, the vast majority, 325, were high schoolers going on a field trip to Jejudo, an island south of South Korea.

It's expensive to get there, it was probably the girls first time going. Don't think that Jejudo is some dinky island. It is the equivalent of Hawaii or the Bahamas for Koreans, not in vast beaches in luxury, but for the rich history.

The first emergency call was made by a student, she, was later found dead. Once the ship started sinking, it took authorities three days, three long days for them to start rescuing the passengers. The people who were not students, mostly adults, survived.

There was obviously something wrong, they all knew it but the captain told everyone to stay put. The ones who didn't listen, survived the accident, the ones qho did listen, did not survive.

The deaths were completely avoidable, you would think that with the technology we have today, they would've been able to save them but no. The government took it's time and took THREE DAYS to start rescuing the ones trapped inside. It's not the Titanic, they were not in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. The ferry was TWENTY MINUTES AWAY FROM LAND! Over 300 students died because the government was trying to cause a disaster. And in great disasters or tragedies, people rely on the government. That's right, I'm saying that it was all a setup by the government.

On Sunday, I went to a rally in D.C., we all wore black and had yellow ribbons pinned to our chests. Most of us were Korean and we listened to the cries of anguished parents, mourning the loss of their sons and daughters, angry at the government for not saving them. Our goal was to inform people of the tragedy, of the innocent lives lost.

We had a time of open speech and a old man, supposedly a war veteran, was walking by and spoke first. At the beginning, he seemed very sympathetic but he went on, and excuse my almost french, frickin' irked me. He said that we should have seen when he jumped out of the flipping sky with thirty others from a helicopter. He said that we were weak, that we were stupid. He said that we didn't know that we were still at war. He said that the girls should never have gotten on the ferry if they couldn't swim! Like, excuse me, then people shouldn't get on planes because people can't. Freaking. Fly.

I could feel the silent fury from the people around me, and he had an expression that looked like he was preaching the good news! He basically called those girls suicidal and stupid! We're mourning the deaths of innocent students and he comes and call us idiots! The nerve!

He was sent away and the rally proceeded with poems and singing. At the end, we all took our pickets and walked a lap around the reflecting pool. Some people noticed and got a packet of information and seemed genuinely concerned. Now, I was still pretty angry at the old man, I hold grudges, it's a huge flaw of mine, but I swear that someone, walking past us, said "attention whores" in a whisper. Maybe I was hallucinating but still, I saw people give us dirty looks. I'm sorry, if you don't care about what we're doing, just walk on, don't mock or jeer at us.  That is beyond rude.

Sorry about the long rant but it makes me feel a little better writing out frustrations. I heard that N. Korea was shooting at its sister country, S. Korea. And guess what? S. Korea shot back. This doesn't happen. N' Korea is full of useless threats and little known fact, the S. Korean president is the daughter of one of the dictators of S. Korea, when it had a dictatorship. Now, I wouldn't usually blame bad blood but this woman is insane. My home country is going to be a dictatorship with her leading!

That's enough for today I guess, sorry again for the long rant, hope your day is better than mine.

See ya

Anyeong^^