Quote:
Originally Posted by kato13
While I feel there is much blame to be put on the captain's shoulders my gf feels this is also a failure from a rescue perspective. I am not one to quickly place blame, but she has a well earned distrust of what her government tells her. In my time in Asia I have found the countries there can be very hard on individuals, very easy on corporations, and their governments are reluctant to admit anything that will cause them to lose face.
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Well, as being half-Korean myself through my mother, and having lived in Korea for a short time (albeit when I was MUCH younger) I can say this...
A lot of cultures in Asia, but particularly Japanese, Korean and Chinese (at least from my own experience, others may vary) are EXTREMELY rigid, conformist and patriarchal. YMMV of course as to whether that's a "good" or "bad" thing, and this might not be quite as true anymore due to Western influence (which some Asian cultures are not happy about, but that's another topic), but basically you won't find the rebellious nature among youths for the most part in that area of the world like you would here in the U.S.
Traditionally in these cultures, If anyone older than you, especially an elder of the family, or your boss tells you to jump, you say "How hi?" and do it. The reason I bring this up is that it's been said that the ferry's crew instructed the passengers to stay where they were and not move. As Stormlion noted, the one's who went against these orders, apparently most of them survived. The ones who stayed, sadly not. Gross negligence at the very least by the ferry crew didn't help either.
Retaining honor for both the family and clan, and not "losing face" is also a VERY ingrained part of the culture in the area. That's why you see the problems coming up with corporate negligence (which obviously happens everywhere, but I digress) because the workers don't want to report problems that might make the company look bad, especially their boss. It's why the Japanese military during WWII tended to sometimes omit certain facts from reports that might make them lose face when they were losing to the Allies. And on a more personal note, it's probably partly why my mother's family disowned her when she married an American. Having their daughter marry a foreigner to them was apparently a disgrace to them and the family.