I have made up my mind to stop writing about seafarers’ rights and allied issues after my post of 25th October. This was no spur-of-the-moment decision. It was the result of an epiphany.
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Marine Café Blog is sailing again!
Becalmed for weeks, Marine Café Blog is sailing again. I had to leave the old ship temporarily to focus on book writing?something I had always wanted to do but kept putting off. While blogging gives one the pleasure of expressing oneself spontaneously, it is ephemeral by nature. Blogs come and go, but books stay.
A serving of art to celebrate U.S. Thanksgiving Day
Marine Café Blog is happy to greet its American readers a cordial Thanksgiving Day. In celebration of this event, which is observed every fourth Thursday of November in the United States, I’d like to share the following works of art from the 19th century. I hope that this limited selection will open for all the blog’s readers a window to American history and culture.
‘Day of the Seafarer’: A vital question no one is raising
The COVID-19 pandemic may have put a damper on the ‘Day of the Seafarer’ celebration (25th of June). Still, the well-worn expressions of love and concern for the men and women who work at sea have kept flowing. It is an annual act the International Maritime Organization wants everyone to get into — and many are complying. Amid the brouhaha, has anyone asked why the event is spearheaded by the IMO and not by the International Labour Organization (ILO)?
10 maritime New Year wishes that were never fulfilled
It has been my custom to publish a list of maritime wishes for the New Year. The following are 10 such wishes I had made in previous years. All remain unfulfilled. They lie like dead seashells on the shore, which hardly surprises me. Old habits die hard, as the saying goes, and many in the maritime world are creatures of habit. Be that as it may, I still believe in dreams and wishes. A happy and peaceful 2021 to all of Marine Café Blog’s readers and supporters.
The Doña Paz ferry tragedy: The art of forgetting
Yesterday, the 20th of December, was the 33rd anniversary of the Doña Paz ferry tragedy. As usual, the event whizzed past most Filipinos like a fart in the wind. There was hardly any mention of it on social and news media. As I wrote more than 10 years ago, “Filipinos have such short memories and Philippine ship operators have amnesia.”
Fourth of July salute to freedom in art and poetry
These are not the best times for America. The nation has been ravaged by the coronavirus and rent by racial divisions. For all this, Americans have good reason to celebrate the 4th of July in a big way. As John Adams, the second president of the United States, wrote:
‘It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.’ (Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776)
Lovely tribute to a mother by a gifted Chilean poet
One of the most beautiful tributes to mothers I have come across is a poem by Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1889—1957). It is entitled ‘Caricia’ (meaning “Caress” in English). The short poem has a power of emotion that shines through Mistral’s simple, down-to-earth language. The last line makes a reference to the sea, which makes this a wonderful Mother’s Day read for those who miss the sand and salt water.
Labour Day tribute to child workers in lieu of seafarers
With so much din and clamour over seafarers’ rights, many people could be forgetting that the exploitation of child is a far greater problem. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 152 million are victims of child labour worldwide (see the ILO facts and figures here). The following 19th-century paintings should serve as a Labour Day reminder of this ugly ever-present reality.
3 best ways to celebrate the ‘Day of the Seafarer’
To be honest, I have never celebrated the ‘Day of the Seafarer’ as the whole shipping world does every 25th of June. I have always felt that the event is fraudulent, an anomaly. I explained why in June 2018 in my blog post, A refusal to observe ‘Day of the Seafarer’:...
RMS Titanic obsession: not all sea tragedies are equal
The Notre Dame Cathedral fire on 15th April 2019 overshadowed another huge event that occurred on the same day 107 years ago: the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Still, the world remembered the tragedy that befell the British passenger liner (pictured above prior to its...
A return to seafarers’ rights and other themes
I have been contemplating the future of Marine Café Blog like the solitary figure in the early 1860s painting, Meditation by the Sea (pictured above). Should I write again about seamen's rights and other nitty-gritty maritime issues? Or should I just focus merrily on...