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Reader question: Please explain “in the same boat” in this passage: The Eastern Cape village of Qunu hosted one of the most important events in South Africa's history on Sunday, yet many of the thousands of journalists who were there watched from a distance, cordoned off and directed to a media centre by police, viewing the same footage beamed around the world. Most of the locals, many who had met former President Nelson Mandela long before we came for his funeral, were in the same boat. My comments: Many journalists who’d come to cover the funeral of Nelson Mandela, the great man, had to watch the event from a distance. Many locals faced the same situation, having to watch the event on TV. The journalists couldn’t attend the event in person. Neither can most of the locals. In other words, not much to quibble on the part of journalists. Not that any of them did that sort of occasion but anyways, to say they and the locals are “in the same boat” points to the fact that they share the a similar fate: “to be cordoned off and directed to a media center by police, viewing the same footage beamed around the world.” “In the same boat” is such a simple and commonplace idiom that I never expect myself to answer a question on it but here I am, happily writing about it. This is because I am getting old. I mean, as one gets older, one begins to prefer things that are simple. Besides, “in the same boat” is an idiom everybody is more likely to use, much more than other phrases such as “hue and cry” or “Lilliputian proportions”, just mentioning two phrases I may write about in future. | 
