Good cause for divers who care about other divers...

There has been a lot of commentary lately about the dolphins of Taiji, the whale hunt in the Faroe islands, and the ongoing battle against shark finning. Here's something that divers with an activist streak might be interested in - the article linked below was in the latest issue of Alert Diver (the DAN magazine), but this concern has been around for a while.

How does 16 dives a day to 130 feet on air with no SPG, no depth gauge and a rope instead of a BC sound to you? And when you inevitably get bent, if you are lucky enough to make it to the chamber, it’s five days later, because no one is going to cut a fishing trip short just to treat an injured diver.


So if people buy dolphin-friendly tuna because they care about dolphins, maybe we can figure out a way to put market pressure on the people who treat their divers as disposable equipment. Until then, there are some good resources and ways to help in the link at the end of this article.


Alert Diver | Treating DCS in the Miskito Coast

So the choice we can make is to not eat spiny lobster? I don't get it. They choose to fish in a way that is hazardous to their health, and I'm supposed to give a crap? We commercially fish spiny lobster here.....with traps...and by hand.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for anyone getting hurt by their own free will and stupidity. And before I get slammed by the folks claiming that they are being sacrificed by their bosses for the money, I recon it would be cheaper to not pay a wage to traps vice pay these divers to do what they do.
Pure Idiocracy.

tomfcrist:

They choose to fish in a way that is hazardous to their health, and I'm supposed to give a crap?

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Feel free not to give a crap!

tomfcrist -

"They choose..."

I don't think so.

It appears you're assuming your life experience is also theirs - the divers'. It couldn't be more different. A careful reading of the article shows a culture that has no understanding of dive physiology or even the most rudimentary understanding of DCS. Medical care that is primitive by any standard. Life expectancy in a wheelchair is two years, while in the U.S. people with such disabilities are encouraged and accommodated. No O2 available on site. A society that believes if a diver encounters the Paga Pega fish, his wife has been unfaithful. Where the meat of that fish is an aphrdisiac. Where the dead are treated with higher regard than the injured - almost certainly because of religious or superstitious fears - as evidenced by cutting a fishing trip short for a dead diver, for whom nothing can be done, but not for an injured diver, who can be helped.

Without knowledge, these divers are not making a choice to assume the risk of DCS. To be sure, the concept of "assumption of risk" is alien in the world of the Miskito Indians. They are simply acting out of a notion of doing right by their family, albeit an unrefined one. Their bosses are products of this same culture - they have no better understanding of DCS. Into this mix is added Dr. Helena Horak and the others mentioned in the article, whose mission is to inject some science into a world of random beliefs that are false far more often than correct. While they choose to dedicate their lives to such evolution of society, you choose not to give a crap. Those are the only choices being made here.

P.S. BTW - your tag line quote by Louis Berman fascinated me. While the quote rails against simplism, you have engaged in precisely that: Simplism is defined by Merriam Webster as "the reduction of a problem to a false simplicity by ignoring complicating factors".

Joe S.:

tomfcrist -

"They choose..."

I don't think so.

It appears you're assuming your life experience is also theirs - the divers'. It couldn't be more different. A careful reading of the article shows a culture that has no understanding of dive physiology or even the most rudimentary understanding of DCS. Medical care that is primitive by any standard. Life expectancy in a wheelchair is two years, while in the U.S. people with such disabilities are encouraged and accommodated. No O2 available on site. A society that believes if a diver encounters the Paga Pega fish, his wife has been unfaithful. Where the meat of that fish is an aphrdisiac. Where the dead are treated with higher regard than the injured - almost certainly because of religious or superstitious fears - as evidenced by cutting a fishing trip short for a dead diver, for whom nothing can be done, but not for an injured diver, who can be helped.

Without knowledge, these divers are not making a choice to assume the risk of DCS. To be sure, the concept of "assumption of risk" is alien in the world of the Miskito Indians. They are simply acting out of a notion of doing right by their family, albeit an unrefined one. Their bosses are products of this same culture - they have no better understanding of DCS. Into this mix is added Dr. Helena Horak and the others mentioned in the article, whose mission is to inject some science into a world of random beliefs that are false far more often than correct. While they choose to dedicate their lives to such evolution of society, you choose not to give a crap. Those are the only choices being made here.

P.S. BTW - your tag line quote by Louis Berman fascinated me. While the quote rails against simplism, you have engaged in precisely that: Simplism is defined by Merriam Webster as "the reduction of a problem to a false simplicity by ignoring complicating factors".

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Hi Joe,

So what is the answer? Do we as instructors fly out there to conduct por bono training for these folks? Quite frankly i think you underestimate the cognitive ability of these people. if they see that thier friends/relatives are dying in masses doing this type of work, and they continue to do it, THAT is a choice. They obviously know enough to know that hyperbaric treatment can help alleviate the sypmtoms that they feel, but they cant figure out how to read a dive table? They are advanced enough to embrace technology and utilize Scuba equipment, but not smart enough to adhere to worldwide available no-deco or even deco tables....BS. They choose to do what they do for the money.....not to feed thier families(they also farm). Dont assume that they are dumb....they arent. It is estimated that 5% of the adult male population of Miskito Indians are suffering from some form of diving disability. They know the risks, and they continue the lifestyle.

That is simplification by the way...not simplism. You sir are the one ignoring the fact that every human being on this planet is capable of basic comprehension.

Cheers

tomfcrist:

Hi Joe,

So what is the answer? Do we as instructors fly out there to conduct por bono training for these folks? Quite frankly i think you underestimate the cognitive ability of these people. if they see that thier friends/relatives are dying in masses doing this type of work, and they continue to do it, THAT is a choice. They obviously know enough to know that hyperbaric treatment can help alleviate the sypmtoms that they feel, but they cant figure out how to read a dive table? They are advanced enough to embrace technology and utilize Scuba equipment, but not smart enough to adhere to worldwide available no-deco or even deco tables....BS. They choose to do what they do for the money.....not to feed thier families(they also farm). Dont assume that they are dumb....they arent.

Click to expand...

They aren't "dumb" in the sense of lacking innate intelligence. However, the very idea that you think that their problem is that they are lacking training or choosing to dive overly aggressive profiles means to me that you have missed the point of the article (or maybe didn't read it). These are people who are being exploited because they are living in a third world region where you can pay someone $50 for a week's work and a good chance of death or permanent disability because there simply aren't other good options for them. They don't read tables. They don't read (most are illiterate, actually). They don't even have SPGs, depth gauges or BCs. It's not a diving problem, I just posted it here because I thought that scuba divers might have more empathy for these guys than for people who work in South African diamond mines....

Let me ask you - if you were working on a liveaboard, and got bent to the point of paralysis, and were told that you had to wait until the ship got back to port in five days for a chamber ride because the captain wasn't going to make the paying customers miss their dives, what would you say?

tomfcrist:

So what is the answer?

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An excellent question. The answer is that with better information we can make informed decisions about the industries we choose to support. Knowing that the lobster on your plate was caught by someone risking their life for it might make a person think twice before ordering it. A person with more time and money on their hands might actually involve themselves more personally with the community and yes, try to educate the people killing themselves to make a living for their families. They choose this because despite the risks, this is a lucrative business.

Obviously that applies to a LOT of jobs; many poor people take the dangerous, unpleasant jobs the rest of us never even think about so we can enjoy luxuries like meat, fish, diamonds, etc. And how do we fix that? Well, that is much more complicated than avoiding eating lobster. But being informed is a start.

doctormike:

tomfcrist:

Hi Joe,

So what is the answer? Do we as instructors fly out there to conduct por bono training for these folks? Quite frankly i think you underestimate the cognitive ability of these people. if they see that thier friends/relatives are dying in masses doing this type of work, and they continue to do it, THAT is a choice. They obviously know enough to know that hyperbaric treatment can help alleviate the sypmtoms that they feel, but they cant figure out how to read a dive table? They are advanced enough to embrace technology and utilize Scuba equipment, but not smart enough to adhere to worldwide available no-deco or even deco tables....BS. They choose to do what they do for the money.....not to feed thier families(they also farm). Dont assume that they are dumb....they arent.

Click to expand...

They aren't "dumb" in the sense of lacking innate intelligence. However, the very idea that you think that their problem is that they are lacking training or choosing to dive overly aggressive profiles means to me that you have missed the point of the article (or maybe didn't read it). These are people who are being exploited because they are living in a third world region where you can pay someone $50 for a week's work and a good chance of death or permanent disability because there simply aren't other good options for them. They don't read tables. They don't read (most are illiterate, actually). They don't even have SPGs, depth gauges or BCs. It's not a diving problem, I just posted it here because I thought that scuba divers might have more empathy for these guys than for people who work in South African diamond mines....

Let me ask you - if you were working on a liveaboard, and got bent to the point of paralysis, and were told that you had to wait until the ship got back to port in five days for a chamber ride because the captain wasn't going to make the paying customers miss their dives, what would you say?

Click to expand...

What would I say? If I knew that was the policy...a. I wouldn't work there, and B. If I did decide to continue working there, I would make sure there was sufficient equipment on the boat to perform in water recompression. Not the answer you were looking for?

tomfcrist:

What would I say? If I knew that was the policy...a. I wouldn't work there, and B. If I did decide to continue working there, I would make sure there was sufficient equipment on the boat to perform in water recompression. Not the answer you were looking for?

Click to expand...

Good to have options, huh?

It is a complicated question, but I believe the point is empathy and doing what we can. The marketplace adjusts to what we as consumers choose and to what we vocalize as being important to us. A reduction in sales sparks alternative options as well as different business practices. Choosing to avoid spiny lobster is not going to change anything today, but could ensure that these diver's kids don't have to choose between a more livable wage and DCS.

+Just putting food on the table isn't a high quality of life. When I went to Honduras, I lived next to a family for two weeks who hunted for their food and had no running water. I spoke with the parents in depth and they were doing anything they could to make life even a little better for their child. In this case, a "little better" was defined as shoes and medicine. They worked long hours on little sleep doing odd jobs including ones that were dangerous. They felt privileged to be able to provide more for their child. I felt sick.

Think about what our grandparents and great grandparents went through to give their children a better life. I know my family had multiple deaths in coal mining accidents. It's not necessarily a "choice" when there aren't easy alternatives for work in some of these countries. In America in this day and age, we have options. In some of these countries, they don't.