#11. The Dragon Boat Tragedy

Today commemorate the first week anniversary of the Dragon Boat Tragedy that took 6 lives of a teacher and 5 students from Chung Ling High School, Penang on the fateful day of 17th January 2010. Penangites especially the Chinese society really struck with this incident. Me myself were one of them. I learned this incident through Facebook when one of my ex-student who now in secondary school posted a message asking everybody to pray for the safety of those missing students.

On that very night, me and my family went to the tragedy scene after dinner. A lot of people still waiting there even though the rescue effort had stop at night. The surrounding area are so calm and all of us wonder how they can drown in a such narrow place like that where there are a lot of small boat and tongkang there.

Arriving at home that night, i start to see memorial page of the victims had been created by their friends in Facebook. From there, i learned that all these students are very active in their school life and a lot of people really missed them.. . By Tuesday, all remaining missing body had been discovered and that ends all hopes to find some of the victims alive.

This tragedy affect my life too. I've not taken dinner for the whole week because I have no appetite at all. Looking their pictures in their memorial page really makes me cry and feel as if they still alive. I feel like they are my boys and i know them. Looking at their sorrowing family members especially their parents really make me cry. I try to share the grief but i can't.

There is a number of question that keep running in my head about how things leads to this tragedy.

#1. How come some of the victim, even though wearing a life jacket, can still be drown? Life jacket, if you wear it properly can make our body float for at least 72 hours before the air in the life jacket disappear. I used to take a water confidence test during our teacher's training camp and it proves. Even though i don't know how to swim, but my body really float in the water.

#2. Some of the victims that are safe told that all 18 of them wear the life jacket but half of them took it out during training because they feel hot. I just wonder how those student neglect their safety by taking out the things that can safe their life?

#3. I can't believe that its not a requirement for those who participate in dragon boat competition to know how to swim. It just like you are in teaching profession but you don't know how to read and write.

#4. Extra curricular activities can be done during Sunday? This is ridiculous because how busy we are with our life, Sunday is a day where you should stay at home, had your leisure time with friends and family. Moreover, you have to recharge your energy after going through 1 hectic week by resting or have fun on Sunday.

#5. A narrow place like McCallum Street seaside can be a danger place? To read all the safe victim story saying that a very big current might pull down all those drown victim in the water can't be acceptable.

Whatever it is, things had happen. What we should do know is hoping that this thing would not happen again. For me, God try to tell us something about this and the thing is - don't take for granted all those small things in your life because those small things, can make a bigger things happen and our concern is, those resulted 'big' things should be the good one or the bad one? Think about it!