Vulnerable To Tragedy

Killing nineteen foreign tourists, the crash of balloon in Luxor, Egypt, shocked the world. Most sightseeing agents which deal with balloon tour began double-checking of safety of their own devices. In Japan, the death of two old couple has been reported as a tragedy of senior age. Although Luxor must have been what they wanted to see before they die, it became the last thing they saw before they died.

According to the reports, the pilot found a fire on the pipeline which connected gas tank to the burner, when the balloon was descending at the point of ten feet high from the ground. After the pilot, for some reason, jumped off, the balloon suddenly ascended to the sky losing control. Then it was blown up and fell down to the ground. He is alive heavily injured. Some accuse the pilot as irresponsible for protecting passengers.

This is the typical risk of foreign tourism. For Japanese, it is unbelievable that the pilot abandons his balloon, leaving a number of people in it. Even the agents who planned the schedule of the tour could not suppose it. They feel this tragedy was unpredictable.

Luxor has been one of the most popular places to visit in northern African tour. In the history class in Japanese school, students learn about the four major ancient civilizations; Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus and the Yellow River. Among those four, Egypt is the most developed destination for tourism. In Luxor, however, sixty-three tourists including ten Japanese were killed by an assault of Islam extremist group in 1997.

In spite of risks, why do they go there? Japanese senior age in sixties are baby boomer. They lived their lives in clouded circumstances. When they entered a school, the entrance was narrow, because there was not enough capacity of schools for growing number of students in post war era. They have lived in a highly competitive society. On the other hand, the government of Japan established a broad pension system. The baby boomers are now in time of redemption. No one can condemn them for exploring where they could not visit while working hard for their survival in the competitive world.

But, from the perspectives of the balance of society, is it good for us to let them keep on redeeming? While senior age is consuming a great amount of pension money, young people suffer from low wage and job loss, and are vested huge amount of national debt. Tragedy in Luxor reflected, as well as growing number of people lost in mountains in Japan, the fact that old age are more vulnerable to the accident in the travel to retrieve time they had lost.