I'm the first to admit that I am an emotional guy. You wouldn't want to sit next to me in the cinema when the film is sad or joyous, my blubbering would drive you nuts. I'm OK with bombs, bullets and exploding helicopters, I mean you know that's not real.
Stay with me, I'm coming to the crunch! As the host of a radio show covering world sailing news, I try to keep it positive. Sailing is a sport I love and it's rarely hard news. Occasionally, hard news comes my way and I feel obliged to report it. I am not under any pressure to do so, only that exerted by my own conscience. My last show had me fighting back tears of anger and deep sadness over the ongoing problem of people smuggling between the islands of the Caribbean. Here's my radio report:
I hate opening the show with bad news but this story made me so angry, I just had to talk about it. Eight people, two of them children, are known to have died when a boat, and I use the term boat loosely, capsized of the coast of Tortola in the BVI earlier this week. The dead were said to be Haitian nationals being smuggled into the Virgin Island by a boat that allegedly came from St. Maarten. This doesn’t surprise me as it’s been going on for years, and I have seen it with my own eyes. The scum running these boats know nothing about the sea and should, in my book, be charged with murder. The passengers who line up to board these boats are dreaming of a better life, that life has now been take from them. I can’t imagine what it was like for the children when they inhaled their first mouthful of sea water. Authorities in St. Maarten have arrested three people who they suspect are involved in human smuggling, and police and coast guard in Dutch and French St. Martin, along with their counterparts in the Virgin Islands are conducting an investigation. I hope they go after these people with the same vigor as that used three weeks ago following a number of break-ins on mega yachts in the Simpson Bay Lagoon. END.
I can't follow that really. Good news next time.
