What the tragedy of MH370 has revealed about our global society...
The unexplained disappearance of flight MH370 continues to perplex the global community. The flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China, vanished from radar on the 8th March 2014. 18 days later and search teams have pinpointed a crash zone in the South Indian Ocean but the journey to this conclusion has been confused and chaotic. I'd like to consider some of the developments of the search for MH370 and what it has revealed about our global community.
I have included some twitter posts in italics because I think the world's reactions to MH370 has been fascinating and has revealed a lot about our social relations and perceptions.
1. Terrorism
For me one of the most horrifying moments in the search for information was the world's reaction to the revelation that the two men travelling on stolen passports were Iranian. Passengers travelling on stolen passports was naturally a cause for alarm but once it was announced that these men were Iranian world media and social networking instantly assumed terrorist activity solely because of their national identity. Just days later, however, it was revealed that neither had terror links and that one of the men, an 18 year old named Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, was attempting to migrate to Germany to join his mother for a better life. For those brief few days, however, both innocent men were villainized ruthlessly in some cases purely on the basis of their nation of origin. It serves to highlight some of the damaging and entirely incorrect stereotypes that have been forged particularly by Western society in a post 9/11 world.
Furthermore, the last few weeks have shown the world's disturbing love for conspiracy with thousands of individuals on blog and websites macabrely explaining step by step what they believe happened. Theories have ranged from various terrorist plots, calculated decompression and a fascination with the U.S. base Diego Garcia. Whilst speculation by authorities is of course necessary to help direct the investigative process, the sheer detail some irrelevant individuals' conspiracy theories have gone to is unnerving and also disrespectful to the families of those lost on the plane.
"Diego Garcia best military radar in the world but they missed an airliner who are they trying to kid not everyone in the world" - Fronteratech
"If only conspiracy theorists were as intelligent as they were paranoid" - Harold Itzkowitz
2. Media
MH370 has proved a challenge for global media. This is because MH370 is somewhat of a unique subject precisely because it is a news story centred around a vacuum. Unlike say unfolding events in the Ukraine, which is a present, apparent process, MH370 is a search for something lost in the past. The media are unsure how to deal with this, how can you report on the news that something has no news? The world of twitter has mocked CNN for interviewing almost every aviation expert on the planet and for reenacting MH370's flight with model planes. It is indeed amusing to see CNN's attempt to disguise the fact that there still is little/no news. There has been such a thirst for news on the subject that several times information has been reported only for it to be found false the following day as with several supposed 'debris' finds.
Finally I think most people will agree that the media's insensitivity towards the families of those on board MH370 has been shocking. Close up pictures of people in the very depths of grief should never be taken and I find it very difficult to comprehend how anyone could do that.
"One thing I learnt from this is it's difficult to be leaders. Everything you do is under scrutiny, by people who aren't even experts" - DRIZ
3. Global Cooperation
One of the positives of MH370 has been the cooperation and sharing of resources between different countries of the world. This infographic displays it quite well:
There are many countries here that have been working together who have past and continuing tensions but it has been nice to see that for a human tragedy these differences can be put aside. That's not to say there hasn't been some political finger pointing over the matter though. Malaysia and China in particular have bickered and criticised each other repeatedly over the search operation. Some have even suggested that the MH370 crisis could be a catalyst for political change in Malaysia.
(See: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/malaysia-airlines-catalyst-pol-2014326114154815905.html)
The tragedy has also been interesting for the comparisons between different countries' military technology and has shown some striking inequality. The Vietnamese for instance are still using helicopters from last century's war. It has been a fascinating and valuable focus on relations in a part of the world that is often neglected by Western media.
"Highly ironic that Chinese are accusing Malaysian Government of being murderers and lacking transparency!" - Andrew J
4. Technology vs. Nature
In our modern world we all feel invincible. MH370 however has illustrated a reality that is too often forgotten that at the end of the day, nature is our master, vaster in ways we cannot comprehend. The new search area in the South Indian Ocean is known as the "Roaring Forties" due to the frequently high winds. It is 4 hours flight away from land and the area to be searched is still 1.6km squared. The seabed is mountainous with an average depth of 4 km. This is no easy task.
The limitations of our technology has also been exposed with NASA and even the world's best military radar (U.S.) failing to quickly locate the plane. Additionally big questions have been asked about onboard technology, why does the black box only have a memory capable of recording the final two hours of the flight? And why are the pilots able to turn off commercial radar? And why haven't planes been upgraded to constantly transmit flight data to satellites rather than rely on the elusive black box?
"Uploading flight recorder data to cloud too expensive? No, what's expensive is sending dozens of planes to search for the black box" - Frank Scavo
~
The search for MH370 has certainly been and continues to be a revealing and turbulent ride. I can only hope that answers are found soon for those families affected.
