The current Suez Canal kerfuffle seems out of place in the age of high speed internet, but then again, so do many things in the year 2021. This clunky catastrophe has taken the internet by storm, on top of costing the global economy $400,000 an hour. For those unfamiliar, I will recount the important details. Last Tuesday, a 1,300 foot container ship became firmly lodged in the Suez Canal at a diagonal angle, completely blocking off the route from hundreds of other ships. The cause of this event seems to be a combination of human error and bad weather, and it is still stuck as of Saturday night. All re-floatation attempts have failed, and the Egyptian government’s protocol for dealing with emergencies like this seems a bit haphazard, to say the least.
The little digger that could. Trying its best, just like the rest of us.
If hearing about this story gives you second-hand embarrassment for the ship's captain or the Suez Canal Authority, you are not alone. Most of us have made some type of horrifyingly embarrassing mistake in our lives, whether it be sending the wrong company email to thousands of people or knocking over a row of 30 skis, and we cringe every time we remember them. The evolutionary purpose of this emotion is to motivate us towards cooperative and socially acceptable behavior. We feel vicarious humiliation for the Ever Given’s captain because most of us have been in a somewhat similar situation, just at a much smaller scale.
Perhaps a lesson we can all take from this is that, no matter what goes wrong, the earth keeps turning. Still, the unfortunate consequences of this event will affect us all, even if in a small way. It’s times like these I’m humbly reminded that we’re really just monkeys on a dirt rock.
A persons whose errors take 1 billion dollars to correct is quite a person, a slightly changed Oppenheimer quote . I hadn't heard about this event until reading your post and I am glad I did. It's crazy to think that the ship is still blocking the canal right now and the situation hasn't been resolved. It makes me think about what the options are for getting it out if everything has failed so far? I enjoyed that you tied the situation to universal embarrassment, as everyones been embarrassed, and this story may help us put our own mistakes into perspective.
Reading the last few sentences of this made me smile. Sometimes, reading the facts can feel mundane, but your takeaways from the Suez Canal fiasco was refreshing to think about. It's funny how accurate you are in comparing the ship to many of us this past year –– "trying its best, just like the rest of us." Events like this not only evoke personal embarrassment, but they usually incite public criticism for who is to blame. I appreciate your alternative approach to empathize with those involved in the situation–– whether it be human error or poor weather conditions at fault. I believe that news reporting with a perspective like yours will do more good than harm for readers worldwide.
I have seen so many memes about the ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal, but I am embarrassed to admit that I did not know how it happened or the details. So first off, thank you for providing us a snapshot of the situation. I think your take on this headline is refreshing and wholesome. We all have experienced embarrassment in one way or another, and I believe it is important to bring back emotions to journalism. Before reading this article, I thought the boat getting stuck was comical. But your post humanized the situation, and I put myself in the captain's shoes, and now I have a very different take on the situation.
Eliana, this was the perfect Sunday read that I didn't know I needed. First, I was still a little confused about the Suez Canal situation, and I appreciate you re-counting the details. Second, I really enjoy how you tie this back to the universal feeling of embarrassment. As a journalist, I think it's important to bring this empathetic approach to more news stories because often times we are numb to reading the facts and forget to analyze the bigger picture. In this case, the boat getting stuck in the canal allows us to feel for the captain because we've all been in similar situations. I'm interested in this writing approach and would love to see you take some more emotional…