Daily Lesson from Life 13 January 2009

Another tragedy in Indonesia - Ferry capsized with many deaths and still 200 missing since Sunday?

The most tragic part of this story is that this has happened on numerous occasions before! Even the news reporter in Indonesia commented that nothing significant has been done after each deadly accident of overloaded ferries capsizing left, right and centered! He does not think that anything significantly different will be done after the public fury subsided after a few days, weeks or at most months!

Overloading and the 'devil may care' attitude and the clamouring by the passengers to cram on to a overloaded ferry to save time were identified as the key reasons for the repeated tragedies. So, why do people not learned?

Lessons for me are are:

1. human being has very short memories, even when they may be very painful one like seeing someone lost their family and friends! Also those who are in authorities to make changes and ensure such tragedies do not happened again do not take their responsibilities seriously as they did not lose any family or friends in such accidents! So when the passengers forget about the deaths from such accidents, the authority also used that as an excuse to 'let the passengers get what they clamoured for'!;

2. so independent thinking and taking actions are very critical. For some passengers, boarding an overloaded ferry and ignoring treacherous weather forecast to save time is a no-brainer - NOT WORTH the risk! They decided NOT to board such a ferry! That saved their lives!;

3. as Authority, the is NO excuse to say: the passengers want to got on as they need to get to the destination urgently! This is plain irresponsible! As leaders, we sometimes have to make the tough decision of calling off mission and lowering our lofty initial targets when the situation showed itself to be so. Make decision and adjustment despite displeasing some or most of the people affected! You just need to learn to communicate with them and accept their complaints or negative comments. This is far better than having to deliver the news of their loved ones perished in the sea due to you not taking the tough decision!

May the deceases find peace in their watery grave while those who are still missing somehow get save later.