After writing about seafarers’ rights for almost a decade, I felt drained and defeated. The abuses against seamen were continuing. It was as if ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (the so-called “bill of rights” of seafarers) had never existed… I began to realise that writers who speak candidly on seafarer issues would never receive popular support.
In June of 2018 Marine Café Blog exposed the rampant practice in Manila of shortchanging seafarers in the conversion of their dollar remittances to pesos. Uncrupulous manning agents are still at it in 2020. All told, they rake in millions annually without getting even a slap on the wrist for their financial mischief. Why this deplorable state of affairs continues is not hard to understand: the system facilitates the stealing.
In 2019 the shipping industry almost went crazy over wellness training and the issue of seafarer mental health. The noise from the charities was so loud that it seemed like depression at sea was some kind of an epidemic worse than the Ebola plague. It did not help that the conformist maritime press amplified their frantic messages and slogans. Marine Café Blog refused to be suck in by all that frenzy.
Manning agents in Manila may not be living in palaces. But they have servants at their beck and call just like Tsar Nicholas II and his family. And the servants are all young, too — maritime cadets who work as unpaid flunkeys (aka “utility”) and domestic servants in the offices and homes of the agents.
Depression amongst seafarers is a serious matter. However, I am amused by the way maritime do-gooders have been approaching the problem. For instance, I hear a renewed call for greater access to the internet for seafarers. Undoubtedly, connecting with family and...
In the rough and tumble of ship crewing, a completely honest and professional manning agency with real empathy for seafarers can be as hard to find as diamonds in the sand. Seafarers, however, are not looking for diamonds. They simply want to be employed. Their...
The exploitation of seafarers in the 21st century is so systematic and so efficient that it can be compared to a state-of-the-art engine. In spite of ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, and incessant talk of mariners' rights, the engine will not stall anytime soon....
Some things are not taught in maritime schools but should be. No, it's not the fact that seafaring is a dangerous profession. That much is known to anyone who has watched the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. What young people are not told are the difficulties...
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. ~from the Tao-te Ching (translation by Stephen Mitchell) The shipping industry is trying hard to reduce emissions from ships. Well and good. Global warming is bad enough...
With so much talk about seafarers' rights, one might miss the bigger picture and overlook other cases of human exploitation. Not the least is child labour, which French painter Fernand Pelez (1843–1913) poignantly depicted in A Martyr – The Violet Vendor, 1885...
Academic papers usually make for dull reading. The Mental Health of Seafarers, written by one Robert T.B. Iversen and published in 2012, is no exception. It starts with the typical abstract and ends with a list of references (57 in all). Even the title is fittingly...
The international maritime community has strong vocal chords. It can create quite a noise when it wants to, as evidenced by the current blabber and bluster about wellness training for seafarers. Ironically, the folks who are voluble on such faddish issues are silent...