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...
All manning agents in Manila wear two hats: crew supplier and money changer. The second function is an incidental adjunct to the first. It is not wrongful or illicit per se, but it has given rise to a silent scam that has gone on for decades. Under government rules,...
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...
It would be ideal if every maritime training institution had a philosophy of education — a formulation of the whys and wherefores and the ultimate aim of preparing young people for a sea career and upgrading ship officers. But why bother creating some new doctrine?...
I find it strange that Filipinos take excessive pride in being the no.1 crew supplier for the world merchant fleet. If quantity alone matters, ordinary Indians should brag that India overtook Thailand in 2016 to become the biggest exporter of rice. But they don't —...
It has been several months since Marine Café Blog last had a chat with Frankie the Philosopher Cat. Although he didn't have his favourite smoked oysters for lunch today, he was not, thankfully, more grumpy than usual. He was lounging about in the garden, looking a bit...
You can perish the thought of the European Commission withdrawing recognition of Philippine ship officers' certificates. No, it is not because the Filipino seaman factory is now in tip-top shape. The 28 European Union member states represented by the Commission have...
The press release issued by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) last 13th of March was understandably jubilant: 17 crew members of the Panama-flagged Sea Honest had all finally returned home. The Indian and Turkish seamen were abandoned in Algeria,...
I find it interesting that instructional videos are rarely, if ever, used in maritime schools and training centres in the Philippines, the world's top crew-supplying nation. When I first explored the world of coffee, I learned plenty by watching films about how coffee...
Many Filipinos engaged in manning and training still harbour in their heads some fallacies about the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) and the inspections it conducts on behalf of the European Commission, which represents the 28 European Union member states. In...
I can't blame inspectors from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) for being rather bookish in their audit of Philippine maritime academies. By necessity, they have to go by the specific regulations of the International Convention on Standards of Training,...
Philippine maritime schools are on alert. A team from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) will visit the country in mid-March for their fifth inspection since 2006 (the 2012 visit did not entail inspection, only consultation with maritime administration...