generalspeaking

Most Awful Scream

There are not many who will have experienced the horror of losing a spouse a mere few weeks after marriage, far fewer who will have done so with the gruesomely dreadful memory of hearing that loved one screaming in pain and terror as life ebbed from him, after a deadly shark attack. This, though, is the legacy that has been left to the wife of Ian Redmond, Gemma 27, after an ill-fated honeymoon in the Seychelles.

His funeral is to be held at the church were they married several weeks earlier. For 30-year-old Ian, married life was short and his end brutal. For his teacher wife, left now a widow, their choice of honeymoon may not appear to have been such a wonderful idea, after all. Sometimes what passes as Paradise-on-Earth may really be Hell-on-Earth.

It certainly was that way for Nicolas Virolle, a 36-year-old French teacher on August 1st, when he too was attacked and killed by a shark at the same beach. Although the first reports that came out in the local media were that the unfortunate death had been caused by a boat's propeller.

It is understandable that local authorities would wish to maintain a tight-lipped silence about anything that threatens their tourism industry. Is it ethical? Responsible? Trustworthy?

The couple was sunbathing on the beach on Praslin Island. Earlier there had been talk of killer sharks at large in the area. When Mrs. Redmond had asked the hotel receptionist what she knew of sharks posing a danger on the beach, she had been confidently given assurance that there were none in the waters off the island.

And her husband had laughed off the merest suggestion that there might be danger lurking in those awesomely beautiful waters. People do have a fanciful propensity to believe what they prefer to believe, not to succumb to a suspicion that would have the effect of ruining their expectations, so looked forward to.

"One of the reasons that we picked to come to the Seychelles was the beautiful waters, the fact that it's like an underwater aquarium and there's not really any dangerous animals", explained the bereft widow.

And though she is in mourning, she is also forgiving. "The last thing I would want is for any of these events to affect the Seychellois people, their livelihoods and the tourism in the area. It's a beautiful place, people must come. It's a one-off accident and I know that everyone is doing everything they can to ensure that the island is safe."

One must suppose that the previous death earlier that same month was another one-off accident. And that the deaths are incidental, unfortunate occurrences that must not interfere with the livelihoods of the people who live nearby, dependent on tourism.

This attitude ranks as typically forgiving noblesse oblige. Does it not occur to this woman that her husband's death might have been averted had they been fully apprised of the previous 'incident'?

Labels: Biology, Environment, That's Life

posted by Pieface @ Friday, August 19, 2011