Posted on 12/10/2010 9:44:12 AM PST by drew
Crocidiles 1
Idiots 0
I met a fellow in 1975 who had picked up some sort of foot infection in Korea during the war that he'd never been able to get rid of.
The best he could do was to keep it at bay by soaking his feet in a tray of Clorox about once a month.
Dear Monterrosa what you are talking about is calculated risk. Most activities your talking about are low risk. Do you realize how many crocodiles live in African and Australian Rivers? They estimate the population to be between 250,000 and 500,000 crocodiles in those African Rivers. That’s not counting Australia. It is almost suicide to go swimming and extremely dangerous to go Kayaking. This is not calculated risk this is suicide. Rivers are small and oceans are huge. So you can’t compare this crocodile tragedy even to swimming in the ocean. Now take in the fact that humans are nearly defenseless in the water, not our environment, and you can see why death for this poor soul was a forgone conclusion once the Crocodile focused on him as prey. I would sky dive, swim in the ocean, camp in Grizzly Bear country, mountain climb, and rescue people from a burning building all in the same year but I would never swim or boat, in anything smaller than a yacht, in Crocodile country. It’s suicide. One final word. You can’t compare any land based risk to water risk. You would have much better chance in Grizzly Bear country with no weapons than you would in Crocodile infested waters with a machine gun. Good Day, Mike.
——The body .... has not been recovered.——
There is no body Jenny. The man was eaten alive.
Ya think?
“...I would sky dive, swim in the ocean, camp in Grizzly Bear country, mountain climb, and rescue people from a burning building all in the same year but I would never swim or boat, in anything smaller than a yacht, in Crocodile country...”
Point taken!
But when adventurers overstep the bounds of good sense in their underwater cave diving, croc petting, base jumping, salmon sharing with bears, etc. I believe we should still feel a bit of empathy for them and not just laugh off their passing as some on FR like to do.
I agree with your points but don’t go too light on Ranger School. Here is what an instructor posted on a Mil site...
“...in the mid-90’s four men in one patrol died on the same night in Florida(Swamp) Phase, student deaths are tragic and are certainly not deliberate and this is not a point of pride among the cadre by any means but training deaths do occur in Ranger School and they occur in Reg also.
The training is not only tough and realistic but it is also hazardous.
In my experience alone as an RI, I know of at least a dozen tragic deaths in Ranger School alone...”
Of course Ranger School’s risk is measured against the necessary risk of the job that Rangers may be asked to do on real life missions. Paddling dangerous rivers is more difficult to justify.
To those who responded to my response. I do have empathy for the poor soul who died. I have empathy and sympathy both to be honest. I feel bad for him his family and everyone involved but my frustration is with folks who tried to justify his suicidal behavior by equating it to adventure. No one seems to respect how dangerous crocodiles are. Risk are suppose to be calculated. There is a reason people don’t regularly paddle in kayaks on rivers like the congo. The locals are taken all the time off their wooden fishing boats. Unfortunately the locals have not choice they have to fish and make a living but they do so under great hazard and stress. Africa, Australia and other places may be beuatiful but underneath their deadly. You have to respect those places immensely. You don’t just go up to a body of water in those places and say: “ Wow looks like a nice place to swim or hey lest go kayaking”. Foolish. The poor people on this kayaking trip were not taking rational risk. You can’t compare this even with going to the moon on thousands of pound of rocket fuel. The outcome was very predictable yet these adventurers thought they were invincible and now a man has lost his life. To all of you who try to justify foolish behavior STOP!!!!!!!! It was foolish and reckless to do what these three folks did and it’s a tragedy that need not happen. Good Day!!
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