Harmony in blue and silver: Trouville — oil on canvas, 1865, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) Nine years after its launch, Marine Café Blog is undergoing a sea change. I have decided to shift its focus to marine art, photography...
Category Page
A refusal to observe ‘Day of the Seafarer’
I should be joining the rest of the world and making whoopee on the 'Day of the Seafarer', 25th June. But I won't. I will spend the day quietly and alone like the monk in Caspar David Friedrich's circa-1809 painting 'Der Moench am Meer / The Monk by the Sea' (pictured...
A cat’s opinion of the ‘Day of the Seafarer’
This Sunday, the 25th of June, is the 'Day of the Seafarer'. I thought I would chat with Frankie the Philosopher Cat and see if he's in a mood to celebrate. Frankie is not much into festivities, but you never know. The slogans and tributes to mariners have been so...
Plunge into maritime book writing
Yesterday I took the plunge and released my first e–book, Maritime Double Shots. It's a collection of aphorisms and reflections gathered from hundreds of articles posted in Marine Café Blog over the past several years. This little project was not motivated by any...
Labour Day tribute to housewives, not mariners
Today, the 1st of May, is Labour Day in many countries. I thought I would pay tribute to housewives instead of seamen and seawomen. Housewives are not considered part of the working class since they do not receive wages. The tools of their...
Artistic tribute to Mother Earth
Unlike the ancients, modern man does not see Mother Earth as some kind of goddess like Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life in Greek mythology. He has de-mythicized her, reduced her to an object, a specimen, to be studied by scientists and exploited by corporations...
Blog writing: flavour versus frequency
Marine Café Blog is now being updated twice a week at most. This is to give myself more time for certain projects I had put on hold for too long, including two upcoming books. Nonetheless, I hope readers will enjoy the flavour of what is served and maybe talk about it...
Lessons from 7 years of blogging
Marine Café Blog silently marked its seventh anniversary last 25th of August whilst I was on extended leave from my normal activities. Seven years is not a long span, but it has taught me a few lessons. The first is that some maritime institutions are considered...
The anomaly of the Day of the Seafarer
Call me a grinch, a spoilsport. But I have never felt the urge to observe the Day of the Seafarer (25th of June). It's not just the empty slogans and tributes from the very people who have commodified seamen that dampen my mood. I am dismayed by the mere fact that the...
The return of Marine Café Blog
After a long absence due to personal matters, Marine Café Blog is back with a couple of changes. Not the least important: the blog is completely dropping the use of the term “seafarer”. Henceforth, those who sail and work on board merchant ships will be referred to by...
6 far-out maritime wishes for 2016
"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive," wrote 19th-century English novelist George Eliot. "There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them." And hunger we will — even if it means...
Doña Paz disaster: a deficit of memory
It is five days before Christmas. In the collective delirium of holiday shopping, few Filipinos will remember that today, the 20th of December, is the 28th anniversary of the Doña Paz ferry tragedy. And yet, the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster will forever...