November Blog

In November 2006 the Filipino sailor Jesus Sumook saved the life of a man who had been overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning in the cargo hold of a ship docked in the Swedish port of Helsingborg. Hearing about this heroic act, the Swedish Carnegie Foundation wanted to pay tribute to Sumook but it took some time to locate him as he travels around the world on the M/V Saga Tucano.

However when the ship was loading in the port of Vancouver in the beginning of October, I, as the Consul of Sweden, was able to present Jesus Sumook with a Diploma, a gold watch and a sum of money from the Foundation. This was one of the most fun and rewarding consular duties during the last few years. It felt good to give recognition to somebody who thought he was just doing what anybody would have done. I am not so sure about that.

Sumook’s heroic act took place when M/V Saga Spray was unloading wood pellets from British Columbia. A worker collecting the pellets left behind by the scoops down in the hold lay unconscious having been over-come by carbon monoxide. When the emergency alarm sounded, Sumook grabbed a breathing apparatus and descended three floors down into the hold. First he administered CPR on the man and then gave him his mask so that the gasping stevedore would not breathe in the deadly carbon monoxide.

The two men then shared the mask’s oxygen until emergency personnel after some time could help them up from the cargo hold. Several of the people involved in the rescue operation were poisoned by the carbon monoxide and six were admitted to hospital. One dockworker did not make it.

The Swedish Carnegie Hero Fund (carnegiestiftelsen.se) was established in the beginning of 1911 after the American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland, wrote a letter to the King of Sweden with an offer of $230 000 to establish the fund. According to the by-laws of the fund its main purpose is "to give awards to persons who voluntarily or otherwise beyond what may be deemed to be their duty, have, by some gallant action in the peaceful walks of life risked their lives in order to save human lives in the territory of Sweden and on Swedish ships."

Andrew Carnegie’s life philosophy was that the first third of one’s life should be devoted to learning, the second to making money and the third to giving it away "as it was shameful to die wealthy". One of the world's richest men, Carnegie donated almost three thousand libraries in the United States alone.

The world would a better place if we had more people like Jesus Sumook and Andrew Carnegie in it.

Have a nice November

Anders