The UK-based International Committee on Seafarers Welfare (ICSW) is organising a “Party in the Park” on 26th June at Manila’s Rizal Park, better known by its old name, Luneta. The event is supported by the IMO, ILO, maritime labour unions and local crewing agencies. It comes a day after the close of the IMO Diplomatic Conference on STCW amendments in the Philippine capital.
Activities include include a display by maritime cadets, cultural performances by seafarers’ wives and games for children – all meant, in the words of ICSW executive director Roger Harris, to “help to raise the profile of seafarers’ welfare locally and internationally.” We have nothing against such jollification. We might even swing by the Park and join the fun, carrying with us a list of things we’d like to see happen in the Year of the Seafarer.
Amidst the worldwide celebration and tributes to the seafarer, we wish:
1. that major crew supplying countries, including the Philippines, would immediately ratify the ILO Maritime Labour Convention 2006
2. that seafarers would be regarded as human individuals, not as “warm bodies” or merchandise to be exported
3. that the STCW Convention and Code would be used as a means to raise crew competence, not as a tool to exploit seafarers
4. that IMO would conduct a thoroughgoing review of its “White List’ and remove any country that does not give full force and effect to the STCW Convention regardless of the possible consequences
5. that national authorities would weed out substandard maritime training centres and nautical schools that only make money out of seafarers and would-be seafarers
6. that bureaucratic red tape in the national certification and processing of seafarers would be completely eliminated
7. that the international travel of properly documented seafarers would be facilitated and eased without compromising security
8. that ship officers and crew from developing countries would have more self-confidence and drop their subservient attitude toward foreign senior officers
9. that simulation and other advanced technologies would be more widely used in the training and assessment of seafarers
10. that every seafarer would be aware of environmental issues and international regulations aimed at protecting the environment, ~Barista Uno
