International media disregard hundreds of fatal shark attacks in the U.S and Australia focusing on one attack in Sharm El-Sheikh
الثلاثاء، 21 ديسمبر 2010 - 00:17
By Ahmed Baraa and Amal Saleh
Translated By Reem Abdelhamid
لماذا ننشر هذا الموضوع بالإنجليزية؟
لأن وسائل الإعلام فى عديد من الدول المنافسة سياحيا لمصر تشن هجمات منظمة لتضخيم حادث هجوم القرش على السائحة الألمانية بشرم الشيخ، حتى وصل الأمر إلى مخالفة كل التقارير المتخصصة التى توضح المناطق الأكثر خطورة وتعرضا لهجمات القرش، وبالطبع الشواطئ المصرية ليست من بينها.
التقرير التالى وثيقة مدعمة بالبيانات ننشره بالعربية وبالإنجليزية أيضا، خلافا لتوجهنا السائد، حتى تتعرف وسائل الإعلام غير الموجهة المعلومات الحقيقية بشأن هجمات القرش، وهجمات وسائل الإعلام الموجهة على شرم الشيخ..
*Organizations and agencies fund the Sharm El-Sheikh Shark Attack media campaign to strike one of the top 20 resorts in the world
The international press and news agencies created a big campaign framing the one shark attack in Sharm El-Sheikhas a disaster While ignoring almost weekly shark attacks in other countries like the United States, which has the highest number of shark, attacks every year.
The media attacks are a conspiracy against Egypt even though some may think otherwise, there are reports and documents that would support this theory on the international Environment and Marine Science websites.
A Report published by Global Shark Attack File, a scientific archive that documents shark attacks worldwide, shows that the United States is on top of the list of the shark attacks incidents in the world between 1999 and 2009 where 455 people were either dead or injured during that period of time. However, even though the United States leads the list of the shark attacks incidents, it has not been bombard by the international media as with the Sharm El-Sheikh German tourist shark attack incident.
The report also reveals that Australia comes second after the United states with 99 shark attack incidents, the ranking goes down to south Africa which comes number four, Brazil number seven, Mexico number eight, Rionion Island on the African east coast on the Indian Ocean comes in number 9, New Zealand number 10. This ranking shows that shark attacks in Egypt are rare incidents.
Despite the fact that this is a rare incident and Egypt is not mentioned as one of the leading countries on the international shark attack list, Sharm El-Sheikh which is one of the most beautiful 20 resorts in the World witnessed an overwhelming international media criticism after a shark attacked a German tourist.
"Attacking Egyptian tourism is the main objective of some countries," Hassan AL Tayeb, a former diving expert and chairman of the Maritime Rescue and Environment Protection institute (MREPI), said. He added that countries with similar touristic activities are targeting tourism in Egypt, However, he denies the involvement of any Arab country in the conspiracy in Egypt claiming that "there is an honest competition between Egypt and other Arab countries in contrast with the Israeli intentions."
Al Tayeb also suggest that the weather in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada attacks tourists all year who are looking for water activities like diving and snorkeling in the sunny weather of the red sea. Egypt has some of the most beautiful diving sites in the world.
Even though experts ruled out the fact that Israel might be involved in the Sharm El-Sheikh shark attack one way or another, Israel still benefits from hitting tourism in Sharm El-Sheikh, which raises a lot of questions marks on the Israeli involvement in this plot. Mohamed Abdullah Shosha, South Sinai Governor, denied any direct involvement of Israel and described alleged reports about Israel responsibility as unreasonable.
Israeli tourism has always been facing problems because of western warning about the war in Israel. In addition, the Israeli tourists did not respond to the security warning by Israel about spending holydays in Sinai and Sharm El-Sheikh turning their back to Elate. So this shark attack was a good excuse for Israel to intensity an internal propaganda campaign against Shark El Shiekh.
Top Ten worldwide locations with the highest shark attack activity, including fatal ones. Egypt is the lowest
This propaganda was strengthened by the international media exaggerated coverage of the Sharm El-Sheikh attack.
The timing of the shark attack conspiracy plot is very crucial for the Egyptian tourism since the New Year and Christmas are considered one of the highest seasons in Sharm El-Sheikh wher the occupancy rate reaches almost 100%.
The fiercest sharks are to be found in the United states, Australia and south Africa and are not found in Egypt, Major attacks are happening in these countries and still ignored by the media while one incident happens in Egypt and the international media turns it into a disaster
Mohamed Habib, Board member of the MREPI, blames the Egyptian local media of mishandling the shark attack issue casing terror among Egyptians, which will affect tourism badly. He suggest that there was exaggeration in the information presented by the Egyptian media.
"some countries in the Middle East and the world suffer from shark attacks incidents, however they have the ability to manage the crisis and sustain the consequences. Crisis management is skill that we lack in Egypt. The government holds information from the public, which creates confusion and escalation in the problem, Habib said commenting on the international news coverage of the shark attack in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Statistic shows increasing in shark victims around the world in the last 10 years compared with rarity in Egypt
Habib claims that this issue is the responsibility of the government, Experts accuses the government used foreign experts on shark attacks, still they could figure out the real reasons behind these attacks especially that the types of sharks that lives in the
Red Sea do not attack humans. Also the presence of the corals and rives do not allow big fish and sharks to come to the shore.
The western media especially the ones funded by competitors ignored all these facts.
The western media focused all attack on tourism in Egypt bringing Hurghada along
with Sharm El-Sheikh even though the attack happened in Sharm.
We cannot ignore the confused official response of the Ministries of Environment and Tourism in Egypt. Instead of finding the real reasons behind the shark attacks and getting the right people to handle the problem, they counted on unspecialized fishermen to handle the matter. The government was also reluctant in building metal nets to forbid any future shark attacks despite the claims of shosha that they are working in association with the Suez Canal to make a study on building the nets to forbid the sharks from coming to the shores. However, these nets will only be possible in some areas.
Habib claims that the government lacks crisis management and scientific research" Egyptian scientific research lacks the knowledge of dealing with a marine crisis. The boat Salsabil that was sent by the Marine Research Institute could not sail." "We are at a dead end, the government is ignoring us and the hotels refuses to deal with us," he adds.
On the other hand, Mohamed Fouda, Minister of Environment Counselor described the stainless steel nets as inapplicable because of the wide area that needs to be covered reassuring that there are other solutions that can be used with all the technology available in the field.
He adds these type of nets might increase the risks in loosing more lives because if a person gets stuck in it, it will be hard to let him out again. He also claims that some of these nets attract more sharks and it can also damage the coral life.
Fouda claims the Ministry of Environment will supply ten beaches with the required equipment to handle the crisis without affecting the corals. These will be used only on the beaches away from the corals. The ministry plans to increase the researches done the area of shark behavior studies.
Translated By Reem Abdelhamid
لماذا ننشر هذا الموضوع بالإنجليزية؟
لأن وسائل الإعلام فى عديد من الدول المنافسة سياحيا لمصر تشن هجمات منظمة لتضخيم حادث هجوم القرش على السائحة الألمانية بشرم الشيخ، حتى وصل الأمر إلى مخالفة كل التقارير المتخصصة التى توضح المناطق الأكثر خطورة وتعرضا لهجمات القرش، وبالطبع الشواطئ المصرية ليست من بينها.
التقرير التالى وثيقة مدعمة بالبيانات ننشره بالعربية وبالإنجليزية أيضا، خلافا لتوجهنا السائد، حتى تتعرف وسائل الإعلام غير الموجهة المعلومات الحقيقية بشأن هجمات القرش، وهجمات وسائل الإعلام الموجهة على شرم الشيخ..
*Organizations and agencies fund the Sharm El-Sheikh Shark Attack media campaign to strike one of the top 20 resorts in the world
The international press and news agencies created a big campaign framing the one shark attack in Sharm El-Sheikhas a disaster While ignoring almost weekly shark attacks in other countries like the United States, which has the highest number of shark, attacks every year.
The media attacks are a conspiracy against Egypt even though some may think otherwise, there are reports and documents that would support this theory on the international Environment and Marine Science websites.
A Report published by Global Shark Attack File, a scientific archive that documents shark attacks worldwide, shows that the United States is on top of the list of the shark attacks incidents in the world between 1999 and 2009 where 455 people were either dead or injured during that period of time. However, even though the United States leads the list of the shark attacks incidents, it has not been bombard by the international media as with the Sharm El-Sheikh German tourist shark attack incident.
The report also reveals that Australia comes second after the United states with 99 shark attack incidents, the ranking goes down to south Africa which comes number four, Brazil number seven, Mexico number eight, Rionion Island on the African east coast on the Indian Ocean comes in number 9, New Zealand number 10. This ranking shows that shark attacks in Egypt are rare incidents.
Sharks in Africa localize particulary in South Africa and Mozambique coasts
Despite the fact that this is a rare incident and Egypt is not mentioned as one of the leading countries on the international shark attack list, Sharm El-Sheikh which is one of the most beautiful 20 resorts in the World witnessed an overwhelming international media criticism after a shark attacked a German tourist.
"Attacking Egyptian tourism is the main objective of some countries," Hassan AL Tayeb, a former diving expert and chairman of the Maritime Rescue and Environment Protection institute (MREPI), said. He added that countries with similar touristic activities are targeting tourism in Egypt, However, he denies the involvement of any Arab country in the conspiracy in Egypt claiming that "there is an honest competition between Egypt and other Arab countries in contrast with the Israeli intentions."
Al Tayeb also suggest that the weather in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada attacks tourists all year who are looking for water activities like diving and snorkeling in the sunny weather of the red sea. Egypt has some of the most beautiful diving sites in the world.
Even though experts ruled out the fact that Israel might be involved in the Sharm El-Sheikh shark attack one way or another, Israel still benefits from hitting tourism in Sharm El-Sheikh, which raises a lot of questions marks on the Israeli involvement in this plot. Mohamed Abdullah Shosha, South Sinai Governor, denied any direct involvement of Israel and described alleged reports about Israel responsibility as unreasonable.
Israeli tourism has always been facing problems because of western warning about the war in Israel. In addition, the Israeli tourists did not respond to the security warning by Israel about spending holydays in Sinai and Sharm El-Sheikh turning their back to Elate. So this shark attack was a good excuse for Israel to intensity an internal propaganda campaign against Shark El Shiekh.
Top Ten worldwide locations with the highest shark attack activity, including fatal ones. Egypt is the lowest
This propaganda was strengthened by the international media exaggerated coverage of the Sharm El-Sheikh attack.
The timing of the shark attack conspiracy plot is very crucial for the Egyptian tourism since the New Year and Christmas are considered one of the highest seasons in Sharm El-Sheikh wher the occupancy rate reaches almost 100%.
The fiercest sharks are to be found in the United states, Australia and south Africa and are not found in Egypt, Major attacks are happening in these countries and still ignored by the media while one incident happens in Egypt and the international media turns it into a disaster
Mohamed Habib, Board member of the MREPI, blames the Egyptian local media of mishandling the shark attack issue casing terror among Egyptians, which will affect tourism badly. He suggest that there was exaggeration in the information presented by the Egyptian media.
"some countries in the Middle East and the world suffer from shark attacks incidents, however they have the ability to manage the crisis and sustain the consequences. Crisis management is skill that we lack in Egypt. The government holds information from the public, which creates confusion and escalation in the problem, Habib said commenting on the international news coverage of the shark attack in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Statistic shows increasing in shark victims around the world in the last 10 years compared with rarity in Egypt
Habib claims that this issue is the responsibility of the government, Experts accuses the government used foreign experts on shark attacks, still they could figure out the real reasons behind these attacks especially that the types of sharks that lives in the
Red Sea do not attack humans. Also the presence of the corals and rives do not allow big fish and sharks to come to the shore.
The western media especially the ones funded by competitors ignored all these facts.
The western media focused all attack on tourism in Egypt bringing Hurghada along
with Sharm El-Sheikh even though the attack happened in Sharm.
We cannot ignore the confused official response of the Ministries of Environment and Tourism in Egypt. Instead of finding the real reasons behind the shark attacks and getting the right people to handle the problem, they counted on unspecialized fishermen to handle the matter. The government was also reluctant in building metal nets to forbid any future shark attacks despite the claims of shosha that they are working in association with the Suez Canal to make a study on building the nets to forbid the sharks from coming to the shores. However, these nets will only be possible in some areas.
Habib claims that the government lacks crisis management and scientific research" Egyptian scientific research lacks the knowledge of dealing with a marine crisis. The boat Salsabil that was sent by the Marine Research Institute could not sail." "We are at a dead end, the government is ignoring us and the hotels refuses to deal with us," he adds.
On the other hand, Mohamed Fouda, Minister of Environment Counselor described the stainless steel nets as inapplicable because of the wide area that needs to be covered reassuring that there are other solutions that can be used with all the technology available in the field.
He adds these type of nets might increase the risks in loosing more lives because if a person gets stuck in it, it will be hard to let him out again. He also claims that some of these nets attract more sharks and it can also damage the coral life.
Fouda claims the Ministry of Environment will supply ten beaches with the required equipment to handle the crisis without affecting the corals. These will be used only on the beaches away from the corals. The ministry plans to increase the researches done the area of shark behavior studies.
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