NEW BOAT SINKS OFF LAMPEDUSA ISLAND

ITALY BOAT SINKING, HUNDREDS
FEARED DEAD OFF LAMPEDUSA ISLAND

www.bbc.co.uk - At least 130 African migrants have died and many more are missing after a boat carrying them to Europe sank off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. A total of 103 bodies have been recovered and more have been found inside the wreck, coast guards say. Passengers reportedly threw themselves into the sea when a fire broke out on board. More than 150 of the migrants have been rescued.
Most of those on board were from Eritrea and Somalia, said the UN. The boat was believed to have been carrying up to 500 people at the time and some 200 of them are unaccounted for. Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said the ship had come from Misrata in Libya and began taking on water when its motor stopped working.

It is thought that some of those on board set fire to a piece of material to try to attract the attention of passing ships, only to have the fire spread to the rest of the boat. Simona Moscarelli, a spokeswoman from the International Organization for Migration in Rome, told the BBC that in order to escape the fire, “the migrants moved, all of them, to one side of the boat which capsized”. She estimated that only six of about 100 women on board survived, adding that most of the migrants were unable to swim. “Only the strongest survived,” she said.
It is one of the worst such disasters to occur off the Italian coast in recent years; Prime Minister Enrico Letta tweeted that it was “an immense tragedy”. The government has declared a day of national mourning on Friday.

A boat carrying an estimated 500 people caught fire and capsized near Lampedusa, the closest Italian island to Africa, which has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to enter European Union countries. Over the years there have been numerous disasters involving migrants off this island and such deadly shipwrecks are all too common. Alan Johnston, from BBC News, Rome, explains that “Furious demands are being made for an end to the dangerous trafficking of people across the Mediterranean.” The material world is certainly full of miseries. Guided only by their selfish ends people practice different ways of aggression towards others. One of them is trafficking people. One of the methods is transporting people into exploitative conditions by taking advantage of their urgent needs. Insensible men deceive migrant workers who want to escape poverty and improve their lives and send money back to their families. To get a quick gain money, traffickers put desperate migrant people in deadly risks by transporting them by sea in insecure boats. This is very sad. It's just another example of the atmosphere of greed, deceit and despair in which we live. (Editor's note).

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

What the world needs for true happiness is a shift; from exploitation to service, arrogance to humility, selfish cruelty to compassion and hatred to love. ... In a person who understands the self, there can be no ego, there can be no hatred towards anyone. There can only be love, and there is compassion for those who are unfortunate. That is knowledge of the truth. ... Do everything you have to do, but not with greed, not with ego, not with lust, not with envy;but with love, compassion, humility and devotion. This is the teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita. ... Be whoever you want to be, but don’t be motivated by greed, egoism, lust, envy, anger and pride; rather, be motivated by your own inherent nature, as an instrument of God’s compassion. ... The real disease is selfishness and the real cure is selfless service.

Śrīla Radhanath Swami Mahārāja : 
“Radhanath Swami - Quotes”
http://www.radhanathswamiquotes.com/
http://www.radhanath-swami.net/
http://radhanathswami.info/archives

 

Published by dasavatara das - “Vedic Views on World News”
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/