Lately there's been a spate of shark attacks (likely due to a lot of rain up north flushing water out around estuaries, increasing food and decreasing visibility = more sharks) here, including one 12 year old who died, and a young man who lost the lower part of his leg. Both stories were horrific, but I was struck by the young man's story. He was thrashing around yelling shark, and people thought he was joking until he said 'no joke, he's killing me!' and two blokes rushed in to save him.
Confronted by this story, I asked in 
It didn't occur to me that one of the reasons they wouldn't be the hero was becuase they couldn't swim.
What??? I can't imagine not swimming.
I just hadn't thought about that problem because I come from a nation of swimmers, and I'm part of a priveleged majority in this country that can swim to save themselves. I"m bloody lucky. I can't imagine my life without it - it helps my mental
Even this young lad, who'd failed his swim safety lessons, swam four kilometres to shore to raise the alarm when his Mum and siblings got swept out to sea on paddleboards and kayaks.
This got me thinking about other nations and disparity between those that swim and those that can't. According to this Gallup poll
- The majority of people people worldwide can't swim, and most of them are women
- Low and middle income families account for most drowning deaths, with most of the deaths in the Pacific and Southeast Asia
- Only 1 in 3 women globally can swim
Even in Australia - where 90 percent of people can swim, it's lower for women - only 85 percent.
For the most part though, we're a nation of swimmers. It's central to our culture - nearly 1 in 5 of us swim for exercise, whether at a pool or at the beach, and lots of us swim for fun, to escape the heat, or because we're surfing or boating. Because we spend so much time in the water, kids are taken to swimming lessons really early in life (though every year kids drown in pools, having got through a fence when the parents weren't looking).
There's usually swimming lessons as part of school curriculum, swim sports, nippers (Life Saving), and water safety programs - though COVID disrupted this a little, so this is a worry.
Every year there's drownings in January, and when you look closely at the stories, it's usually refugees or migrants. To my shame, I just didn't consider that multicultural communities, those in lower socioeconomic populations, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and people with disabilities are less likely to attend water safety programs.
And of course, this extrapolates out - just being able to do things like swimming for your health can be dependent on your demographic.
Checking my privelege is a full time job.
With Love,
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