Wednesday 11 April 2012

Titanic Versus Lusitania?

What a waste of time, all this stuff about the 10th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Is it because it seems so gratuitous?

Three years later another big ocean liner went down, killing just about as many people. When the Lusitania was torpedoed by the Germans, 1,119 people of the 1,924 abooard died. Compare this to the 1,514 who died on the Titanic which was carrying 2,224 people.

Willl there be as much hoopla about this 100th ananiversary? Probably not, if onllyl because the Germans are our friends now, and the Lusitania sinking was used to ratchet up anti-German sentiment since it was wartime.

More importantly, some pretty impressive amounts of cash are being spent by the CBC and other news outlets to cover the Titanic commemorative ceremonies. That is money that would be better spent in covering the wars and near-wars that unfortunately continue even though the 1914-1918 war was supposed to be "The War to End All Wars."

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