Wednesday 15 June, 2005
Refreshing outlook
A helicopter crashed yesterday, plunging into the East River. Incredibly, no one was killed, although one English woman is in critical condition.
It seems that the majority of the occupants were Australian. It was refreshing to hear their press conference on this evening's news. They made comments like "it was a freak accident" and "we don't want it to ruin out holiday." The obsession with legal action in the US means that this sort of response from Americans would be unheard of. They would be baying for blood and wanting compensation. It's nice to hear a more tempered and pragmatic approach to life.
I find your remarks heinous. I am now taking legal action against you. See you in court!
What's refreshing about nearly being killed?
If you can't complain about something as life threatening as this, what should one make a fuss about?
The Western world has developed a blame culture, and this is being led by the US. Whenever anything bad happens - from slipping on a supermarket floor to an operation going wrong - people feel obliged to call the lawyers, partly because of the drive of lawyers to drum up business.
A while back, there was a plane 'accident' which triggered questions on safety. One individual was quoted as saying that every length must be taken to ensure passenger safety. At the end of the day, this is impossible. Air travel is risky by its very nature. If every single potential for disaster were prevented (this is an asymptote that can never be reached, btw), the associated cost of a trans-Atlantic ticket would be ten times what it is now, which would mean no one would travel. The cost of safety must always be weighed up against the benefit, no matter how crass and irresponsible this may sound.
