Cruise tragedy: Italian shame
Image source: Roberto Vongher @ wikipedia
Costa Concordia: Italians buy t-shirts with 'Get back on board, for ----’s sake!' logo
Italians show anger at the Costa Concordia cruise ship captain, Francesco Schettino, with t-shirts screaming "Get back on board, for ----’s sake!" and the creation of Facebook pages and Twitter hashtags.
It has come to symbolise the entire disaster – the furious command barked down a phone line by a Coast Guard official to the captain of the Costa Concordia to get back on the ship and take command of the mass evacuation.“Get back on board, for ----’s sake,” screamed the official, Gregorio De Falco – a phrase that has now gone viral among Italians on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.
Source: Daily Telegraph
I don't have access to the full article now so Chat GPT has produced a text using the vocabulary from the article;
The order to return was not merely spoken but seemed almost to scream through the phone line, instantly turning into a hashtag shared across social media. The phrase “for f*’s sake**” captured the raw emotion of the moment, as the official continued to bark instructions at a captain whose ship had begun to run aground.
As the situation unfolded, attention shifted from the disaster itself to the crew, prompting national soul-searching about leadership at sea. Many were quick to label the captain a show-off, accusing him of prioritising ego over responsibility. In contrast, the coast guard officer was widely hailed as a symbol of duty, with many asking, what on earth had gone wrong.
Media coverage played a major role, with every portrayal of the incident helping to tap into public anger. Images circulated of a sun-tanned captain, his tan at odds with the seriousness of a sinking 13-storey ship. Survivors were quick to recall how they were addressed sternly, while others chose to speak up about the chaos and alleged shenanigans on board.
Commentators accused the press of trying to drag his name through the mud, while at the same time praising the straight-talking tone of the coast guard. The debate shifted to issues of carelessness and whether the captain had simply been careless, blinded by his own pomposity. Some argued it took only a nudge of fate — or a poorly handled rudder — for the ship to sink.
Before long, the captain became the laughing stock of the nation, though a few warned against turning him into a scapegoat for the sake of public outrage. Still, many questioned why he had tried to hide instead of to seek to do what was expected of him. Accusations that he was full of himself were repeated vociferously, further tarnishing his reputation.
Online, users began to set up support and protest groups alike, with some branding him a coward who had chosen to gamble with lives. As leaked recordings spread, the narrative hardened: to many, he was a villain, endlessly mocked, even as he continued to deny wrongdoing.
Vocabulary:
to scream / a scream -
a hashtag -
for f***'s sake / for God's sake / for pete's sake -
to bark / a bark -
to run aground -
the crew -
soul-searching -
to label -
a show-off / to show off -
to hail -
what/why/how on earth ...? -
a portrayal / to portray -
to tap into -
sun-tanned / a (sun)tan -
13-storey -
to recall -
sternly (adv) -
to speak up -
shenanigans (n) -
to drag -
mud (n) -
to drag (sb's name) through the mud -
straight-talking (adj) -
carelessness (n) / careless (adj) -
pomposity (n) -
a nudge / to nudge -
a rudder -
to sink (sank, sunk) -
the laughing stock -
a scapegoat -
for the sake of ... -
to hide (hid, hidden) -
to seek to do sth -
to be full of yourself -
vociferously (adv) -
to tarnish -
to set up (a group) -
a coward -
to gamble / a gamble -
leaked (adj) / to leak -
a villain -
to mock sb -
to deny sth -
The words in bold italics are those that I think are more common or are simply worth learning. That doesn't mean to say that the other words are useless.
Vocabulary practice:
Find the words (from those in bold) that have the following definition:
- to "speak" like a dog
- to risk
- the Titanic did this
- you need to do this when someone can't hear you
- the "staff" on an aeroplane or boat
- a person who is very afraid of sth
- a brown colour you can get in summer
- to say that you didn't do sth that a person accuses you of
- the number of "levels" a building has
- to put sth in a place where it can't be seen
- a person who likes to demonstrate to others their abilities or possessions
- to pull sth that is very heavy
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