It’s About Making Babies!

Christy’s Coffee Break often mentions current topics. Today she points out the tragedy of the 33 year old wife, lost apparently at sea from the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship.

..Although searches are being conducted to find Jennifer Feitz since her husband reported her missing, so far they have not found the woman on the ship or in the surrounding waters.

Christy refers to the CNN story.

Christy also expresses fear of cruise ships.

I used to dream of going on a cruise but after hearing numerous stories of missing passengers, passengers falling overboard, pirated cruise ships, and cruise ship travelers falling ill, I’ve changed my mind. Taking a cruise sounds more like a nightmare than a dream come true so I think I’ll stick to vacationing on dry land.

I spent seven (7) years in the US Navy, and crossed the Atlantic twice on the USS South Carolina CGN-37, once on the USS Saratoga CV-60. I recall two middle of the night ‘overboard’ incidents. The conjecture was that neither sailor’s disappearance was voluntary nor accidental.

The last ‘wife overboard’ story I recall was a year ago or more – and was focusing on the husband. Sorry, I don’t recall more detail than that.

So, let’s say the Norwegian Pearl was on a week-long Carribean cruise. Assume that she carries 1,000 passengers – a modest-sized ship. And that she sails, say, 30 times a year. Consider how many murders, accidental deaths, heart attacks, etc. happen per 100,000 where you live. Divide by three, and .. you get something worse than that cruise ship.

There are basic safety things everyone should know that leaves their house. Keep track of your funds. Think three times about flashing expensive jewelry or accessories. Keep to your accustomed neighborhoods, and take extra precautions to stay with your group at other times. Check where you are going for reports of violence, crime, political instability, armed rebellion or military actions. I would hope that anyone from the Midwest would consider carefully before walking through various residential areas within 10 miles of the White House in Washington, DC.

In fact, any time you are around tourists or tourist attractions, a special kind of tourist predator has to be expected. Keep close control of your camera, wallet, purse, and jewelry.

People that run tourist traps usually work very hard to keep the rougher forms of crime and violence away. Noted gun author and farmer, blogger Frank W. James is currently enjoying a Carribean cruise, and wonders about how the ports-of-call use unarmed security. Frank wonders if such “gun free” zones might be more vulnerable to terrorist strikes.

And, yet, the biggest concern seems to be tainted food. Consider how many cruises sail, on how many ships, for how many cruise companies. Think of how widespread tainted food can be – including the nationwide issues of tomatoes, beef, etc. in the last five (5) years.

I think every traveler has to be wary. The farther from home you travel, for business or pleasure, the more thought you need to allot to security and safety. And by ‘further’ I really mean in cultural terms. A rancher near Oklahoma City might travel to a mall in Sioux Falls, SD, and travel less far, culturally, than walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood in nearby Oklahoma City. Join a bank group or group from church on a cruise excursion, and have less concern than driving cross country.

Christy, I would not let this incident, or even several, dissuade one from planning and taking a cruise. I would use the information available to select a carrier that experiences less trouble, and follow their recommendations for a worry-free vacation.

My thoughts and prayers go to Jennifer Feitz and her family and friends, fellow passengers, and the crew of the ship and others caught up in the search.

Frank W. James writes Corn, Beans, Spent Brass, An Empty Page, and a Deadline. He summarizes the CRA/Jimmy Carter/Bill Clinton path to the bad loans crisis (he overlooked some of the reports that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae funds trickled into a few Democratic Presidential hopeful pockets).

Sharon Astyk writes Casaubon’s Book, possibly the most contrary perspective from conservative, gun rights advocate, agribusiness farmer Frank W. James. Sharon’s premise is that the crisis today has been coming, and is part of the slide into an era of expensive energy – Peak Oil. Peak Oil predicts that by 2012, world demand will be consuming more oil than can be produced – the end of cheap energy, probably a dramatic shortfall of needed oil from what can be available. By 2012, many families will be unable to pay the utility bill, and will be living ‘off the grid’.

Sharon’s take is that economies grow as subsistence workers, farmers and others, begin working the entry level factory work force. Only now, rising cost of oil is raising food prices, and the entry level workers that had been driving economic growth are now starving, and what wages they earn go solely to food, instead of fueling the local economy. And the shrinkage is rising to the top.

It seems both summaries explain a lot. Does Sharon’s view of global food prices vs. rising oil prices happen to support her explanation, or is her explanation what it is, *because* of her premise? I don’t think it matters, both explanations are very worthwhile to consider.

But Frank may have started a bit late in his timeline. I recall President Lyndon B. Johnson announcing his ‘war on poverty’. And I think the CRA that Jimmy Carter signed was a followup to the Democrat’s favored child, the war on poverty. I also recall, during that era, when NASA funds were threatened, that an engineer showed how many people you could feed with $1,000,000 spend on NASA – with no tangible product, you fed a bunch of families – who spend their money and kept businesses going, feeding those workers and retailers, etc. $1,000,000 spend on welfare fed fewer people, the cost of getting that money to the people ate up a bunch of the money, and the low income of the recipients meant the money was spent on food and shelter, with very little contributed to either the economy or tax revenue. Since that time I have always know the need to care for those in need, but that government programs are disabling to the recipients, and a poor value for the nation.

But do check out these well thought out summaries.