A lesson for the Elites: The OceanGate Titan submarine disaster

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past month, you might have heard of the disaster that befell the Titan submarine which was taking a bunch of elites to see the Titanic wreckage. But perhaps you may have not heard of an even greater disaster which happened 4 days before this submarine disaster in which close to 600 refugees drowned when their overcrowded fishing boat capsized near Greece’s coast. So the question is that why did the drowning of these refugees get so little media coverage whereas the Titan sub disaster is still in the news? It is because the friends of the occupants of the sub own the media and they want to make sure every one on Earth remembers and feels sorry for their friends. Yet, as we shall see this disaster is a lesson for unbelieving elites that they may take heed: that like their drowned pals they too have no place of refuge from God.

But before we continue, I wanted to take a look at the profile of the occupants of the sub to show you that these men were truly of the elites. It is not within a common man’s means to pay a $250,000 ticket to go explore the Titanic wreckage 12,500 feet underwater.

We first start with Shahzada Dawood – my fellow country man – who was the vice-chairman of the Engro Corporation – a conglomerate headquartered in Karachi, Pakistan. From his Wikipedia page it seems he had fingers in a lot of pies through his philanthropic endeavors:

From 1996 to 2023, Dawood had been a trustee of the family-foundation, The Dawood Foundation (TDF), which focused on education. TDF had been coordinating the Hussain Dawood Pledge, a private donation to fight COVID-19 in Pakistan. He had been focused in efforts to provide mental health support to people hit by COVID-19 in Pakistan.

Dawood was also a trustee of The Engro Foundation, a member of the Global Advisory Board for Prince’s Trust International, a charity founded by Charles III, and a board member of the SETI Institute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahzada_Dawood

His son aged 19 was also on-board. Moving on to the next occupant of the sub: Hamish Harding. This explorer seemed to have an insatiable appetite for thrill-seeking and apparently a lot of money to burn.

In the 1990s, Harding worked in the information technology industry. He served as the managing director of Logica India until he founded the private investment company Action Group in 1999. In 2002, he founded Action Aviation.

Harding worked with an Antarctic VIP tourism company, White Desert, using a Gulfstream G550 to introduce the first regular business jet service to the Antarctic. Harding also visited the South Pole several times; he accompanied Buzz Aldrin in 2016 when he became the oldest person to reach the South Pole (age 86) and his son when he became the youngest (12).

Between 9 and 11 July 2019, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Harding, along with Terry Virts, led a team of aviators that took the Guinness World Record for a circumnavigation of the Earth via the North and South Poles in a Gulfstream G650ER in 46 hours and 40 minutes. The One More Orbit mission launched and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (Space Florida) at NASA Kennedy Space Center in the United States.

On 5 March 2021, Harding and Victor Vescovo dived to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Deep, at a depth of approximately 11,000 m (36,000 feet), in a two-person submarine, setting the Guinness World Records for greatest distance covered at full ocean depth and greatest time spent at full ocean depth. His 13-year-old son accompanied the mission on the surface support ship DSSV Pressure Drop.

Harding flew to space as part of the suborbital Blue Origin NS-21 mission, on 4 June 2022, on the fifth manned spaceflight of the New Shepard rocket. After travelling to space, he advocated for space tourists (paid recreational spaceflight passengers) to be called astronauts. He also advocated for the United Arab Emirates to expand its space program.

In September 2022, Harding’s aviation company Action Aviation supplied a customised Boeing 747-400 aircraft to transport eight wild cheetahs from Namibia to India to launch the reintroduction of the cheetah to India project of the Indian Government and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia (CCF). Cheetahs were declared extinct in India in 1952. This conservation project was designated a “flagged expedition” by the Explorers Club with club members Harding and Laurie Marker, founder of the CCF, carrying the flag on the flight to India.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamish_Harding

Finally, we have Paul-Henri Nargeolet (aged 77 years) who seems to have been the poorest of the lot spending most of his life in service to the French Navy and retiring at the rank of frigate captain. Nevertheless, he did have enough money to fork over a quarter million dollars to pay for a seat on the OceanGate Titan sub.

If this still does not convince you that these men were the elites then consider the fact that the search-and-rescue operation for this sub has already cost the American tax-payer $1.2 million. The elites have no problem spending the peasants’ money to help their own kind but when it comes to the us common folks, apparently, they have no money left. Case in point: there are no cost estimates of a search-and-rescue operation of the Greek refugee boat disaster. The only ship to help was a private vessel: Alberto Baillères superyatch “The Mayan Queen” which rescued all of the 100 or so survivors. The Greek coast guard only activated a search and rescue operation when the boat was already sinking despite keeping the fishing boat under surveillance for more than 24 hours before it capsized. Read the article here. The question of what caused the boat to capsize also remains unanswered. Interviews of the survivors states that it was the Greek coast guard that capsized the boat by attaching a tow-line to it and pulling too aggressively. You can read the article on CNN here.

Now, that we have established that the occupants of the doomed submersible were truly the elites, let’s look at the Qur’an and see why this disaster should serve as a lesson for their friends on dry land.

And you cannot escape in the earth; and you have, besides God, neither ally nor helper.

And among His proofs are the ships in the sea like banners;

If He wills, He calms the wind, and they remain motionless on its back — in that are proofs for everyone patient and grateful —

Or He wrecks them for what they have earned — but He pardons much —

And that those who dispute concerning Our proofs might know they have no place of refuge.

The Qur’an: A Complete Revelation (42:31-35)

Whether we be on land or sea, we are continuously at the mercy of God and besides Him there is no ally or helper. It is by God’s grace that ships and submarines travel in the sea and if He wills He can still them. And if He wills, He can destroy them for what they have earned. The occupants of the submarine found out the hard way that they had no protection from God. It remains to be seen whether their friends on dry land take heed and also realize – before it is too late – that they too have no place of refuge from God, the One, the Omnipotent.