Jimmy's Corner

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The presidential spokesman said Tuesday that the owners of the Red Sea ferry that sank, drowning about 1,000 people, did not inform the government that the ship had sunk for nearly six hours after it went down.

[...]

By most accounts the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 sank no later than 2 a.m., five hours before the government was notified of any trouble, six hours before Cairo learned it likely had sunk.

Other reports say the ship sank at 1 a.m., which would have made the delay in notification at least seven hours.

"What really happened," Awad said, "was that the port authority was first informed at 7 a.m. by the ship's owners that they had lost contact with the ferry. Forty-five minutes later, the company told port officials the ship may have sunk," Awad said.

"One minute later the rescue center was notified and by 8 a.m. a plane was over the spot where the ship went down. ... It was followed by another rescue plane and ships of the Egyptian fleet," he said. CNN

The very silly farce continues, and families of the victims lost all hopes.

The government holds meetings, come up with conclusions everybody knows weeks ago. They just wanna show us they are working hard to find the one responsible for this disaster in which Egypt lost 1000 of its poor hard working people. I say they will find the one that is responsible for the disaster which will be either dead or unreachable*. I have nothing more to say... but some facts that will show where the farce is going:

• Al Salam Maritime is owned by Mamdouh Seliman, a member in the National Democratic Party and member of Shura Council in Egypt.
• Days ago Al Salam Maritime announced that it does not own Al Salam Boccaccio '98, it claimed that an Italian maritime company owned the ship and they operate it for it. (*this is the unreachable... got where the farce is going?)
• Al Salam Boccaccio '98 settles 1300 meters under the sea and it is practically UNREACHABLE (again??). Thus there will be no evidence or explanation for what happened on the ship, and so no one is to blame.

Families of the victims lost their loved one, and they got 30.000 Egyptian pounds ($ 5,228 approx.) as a compensation for each family. 5.000 dollars is what an Egyptian soul is worth. And now the families of the 1000 victims just look at the sea, praying to God to avenge the death of their beloved from the one responsible.

One thing to add: The owner of Al Salam Maritime lied twice (or may be more if other parts of the truth unconver) when interviewed in the Egyptian TV show El Beit Beitak. First he said all HIS ships are in good condition, which is far from true as the Saudi authorities inspected the ferry Al Salam '94 and ordered it to go back to Egypt without passengers as it was in a very terrible condition. The second lie was when he said that the tickets to HIS ships do not include any item that says that his company is not responsible for the lives of the passengers.

Well, a kick to your butt, Mamdouh Seliman... take this:

Item no. 2 from the second last page of a ticket to Al Salam '96 (one of HIS ships) say: The company, its sponsors and the ferry are NOT responsible for any injuries to any of the passengers during the voyage whatsoever.

And still... the farce goes on...