OVERWHELMING PESSIMISM OF A OFW

Guess vacation time is almost over, After two month I am now headed back again in Europe. The Company I'm employed with just called and gave me the details, They said I'd be reassigned again back to CONTI N.S.B. ships and to specific it will be CONTI Guinea.

It was a good vacation but i had to face the reality of heading back again.

Sometimes i wonder and ask myself is a Filipino OFW really the modern day hero's or just another faceless modern day slave worker ? I have a lot of skepticism about this. about the part why are we called that , are we truly a hero ?.

As far as i know , Heroes selflessly die for patriotic cause , OFW's didn't die for their country - THEY ARE SOLD BY OUR COUNTRY TO SLAVERY AND EXPLOITED to patch up the mistakes of our society and our leaders, and be the "milking cow".

I don't think OFW's will be phased out not for the next century or two given with these situation. Not until we learned the mistakes and understand it why we are here.  I could say on my blog and at my time that the OFW way of life is still at its peak.

HERALD OF FORCE MAJEURE

actual closure order of PMI way back in 2011 

For sailors up to now, it is still a big puzzle on how we are going to end up later on our career. I haven't thought of it exactly on how will I end up after this "Sailing" and haven't laid out exact plans on what to do on my retirement, Honestly it's still  30 plus years early for me to think of such a thing but who knows ? Maybe retirement for me might come sooner than expected.

Although I don’t publicly speak about it nor admit it directly to my relatives,  I might plan to take another college course and most likely it will be in the medical field - YES believe it or not it - I will be in the medical field. I'm not setting my eyes to be at least a specialist medical doctor. I'm not exactly sure on how long it will take me to reach that goal but maybe I do have enough life span to reach that kind of objective. At the back of my mind I somehow think that being a sailor is not exactly worth it nor even enough to sacrifice the rest of my life doing that job, it's just that I still wanted to be the same person and enjoying every freedom I have in the Philippines. I wanted to be at least broke free from the cycled of an pinoy OFW seaman and live a normal life the way it should be.

Anyway for the time being I don’t really have that options and will still be stuck being a sailor in years to come.

On the following days that I had been in silence, I had been busy on a couple of non-essential stuff and even juggling on my remaining financial money left. It's not easy having no income in the Philippines but somehow I'm comfortable and relieved that I had my freedom here - at least even for a short amount of time .

A couple of days went by and I was busy just reading and surfing the internet. One of the post in a Face book group caught my attention about the still open debate (and issue) of whether or not my alumni school is still open for business. Well technically they still are, but rumours keep spreading about the government recognition has been withdrawn and people associated with them (including me) are left wondering if they are still legit.

One such Face book group I had visit tells that indeed PMI Manila and PMI Qc are missing on the "Accredited" list and even showed to me a document. Confused I did a few background search and looked on the website of M.A.R.I.N.A. to verify such claims , one document I came out showed that the 2013 recent evaluation never showed anything about PMI Manila and PMI Qc being accredited at all except on the last part of the page that tells "FOR PHASE OUT ORDER" . I was horrified seeing the last page and to clarify what I saw I posted out as an inquiry on the social media in every Filipino sailor themed face book group on my profile about what they think about this document and that’s when all hell broke loose in social media.

A day passed and when I logged back , I saw Engineer Nelson Ramirez having a heated discussion with some PMI zealot. I'm not exactly sure on how Mr Ramirez got drag in all of this on the simple inquiry I made days ago but it was evident that the topic was threading and enough to get the attention of the PMI Management (I visited the official PMI face book page ).

On the PMI's side , posted that there is nothing to worry about and that this is just an "old wives tale" and that the topic has already been settled with on the court.  When I browsed back I saw Mr Ramirez posted the latest list of Accredited list of qualified schools in the Philippines (which directly came from MARINA itself as of February 23 2015) on the face book group and what I saw on the papers was a crushing blow to anyone associated with PMI and perhaps even the PMI management.  MARINA has made it official that only PMI Bohol is accredited , The new document never mentioned anything at all about PMI Manila and PMI Qc but it is implied that if it's not included in the list the school is not legit anymore  (in PMI's case - well not anymore).

PMI Management hasn't made any comment so far in this, on the fact that this material was released near midnight. I bet that PMI Management will not let this issue slid by once word of this reaches them and I assume that it will zero in on Mr. Nelson Ramirez.

After careful thought, I decided to tear down any post i had made to any face books groups i had made, I admit this is very damaging to my alumni school, its enough for me that i had made my point, that's justice enough - and figured that its up to the people and the general public to know this knowledge themselves and let them decided what is best. Filipino sailors will refuse to acknowledge the facts until they saw it on their very own eyes, its up to them to know better. I'd keep my mouth shut and let M.A.R.I.N.A. speak for it and EMSA

I'm not saying people should believe me or even listen to me, Or even tell them to listen to my Alumni school . All i ask is for them is to listen for themselves and let them decided - nobody can tell the best judgement but only themselves.

PIPE DREAM

this is a repost on an article I've read from Face book groups

Para sa mga nagreklamo na hindi sila makasakay dahil kinakailangan ng backer.. Basahin ninyo ang katotohanan.

FAKE PROMISES AND BROKEN DREAMS

Earn dollars, see the world for free and have a girl in every port.”

This is the phrase that maritime schools often use as come-on, either as a blatant offer or as a subtle hint, particularly on collecting girlfriends, to lure unsuspecting students.

Little do they know that this catching phase has wrecked a thousand dreams.

(1) ON THE SUPPLY and DEMAND IMBALANCE: The Philippines is producing 20 thousand maritime graduates a year and the industry can absorb only three to five thousand.

(2) INABILITY OF THE GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY TO TAKE CONCRETE STEPS: There are almost 100 schools offering maritime courses. Most of these schools cannot pass the international standards and had been committing moral ‘estafa’ for years in the pretext of giving education. The sad news, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which is in charge of monitoring these schools, has been sleeping on its job. The CHED itself has NO EFFECTIVE MONITORING SYSTEM and this is the very reason why schools offering maritime courses sprouted all over the country. These schools do not have EFFECTIVE MONITORING SYSTEM and QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION as well as what the EMSA assessors found out when they conducted an assessment here.

(3) SHIPPING COMPANIES SHOWING NO RESPECT FOR FRESH GRADUATES: There is an exception to the rule. If you are a graduate of the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA), Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP), NYK-TDG Maritime Academy, DMMA, and the University of Cebu; and if you are scholars of John B. Lacson and of Southwestern University in Cebu

and the likes, you are well respected. You are even given free education and even allowances. But if you came from a sub-standard school and could even hardly read and speak English, expect no respect from the employers. The Visayan Maritime Academy, the Mariners Polytechnic and the Malayan College of Laguna have their own manning agency where they will send their cadets for apprenticeship. 

(4) UNWILLINGNESS/INABILITY TO ENTER A DIFFERENT MARKET: Not very true One of the reasons why most of our young boys took this course is that they would like to imitate their neighbors or relatives who were once idiots in the barrio but have become successful seamen and now own a very nice house and car. They believed that any idiot in the barrio can become a seaman and earn dollars. They were told by their parents to take this course because there is no chance for them to become lawyers or doctors since they are stupid. They best thing for them to do is to take BSMT nor BSMarE and earn dollars. 

(5) IMPROPER/INADEQUATE TRAINING: It is a fact that there has been a huge lapse in the quality of deck and engine cadets and that poor quality cadets come from sub-standard schools. This is expected. Most of the graduates from sub-standard schools rely on their relatives and friends who will bargain for their employment like a “buy one, take one” merchandise. Officers know that the seafaring industry has a shortage of qualified officers. They will bargain for their relative if the manning agency wants to hire their services. On the other hand, sub-standards schools don’t care where their students will go after spending three years in school. They have paid for their tuition, anyway. However, if the student is successful in looking for a shipping company that will take him for his apprenticeship, his school will charge him for a ONE-YEAR tuition and matriculation fees; otherwise he will not get his diploma. This is what we call highway robbery in broad daylight. MARINA is now the SINGLE MARITIME ADMINISTRATION that can make a drastic change in the rotten education and training system. TINIG NG MARINO is waiting in this corner for the outcome of the EMSA audit this coming October.

12 Main Reasons Seafarers Quit Sea Jobs

Every year, maritime institutes around the world churn out thousands of fresh deck cadets and marine engineers. Each of these young graduate has high hopes of making it big in the maritime field by becoming a first-rate seafarer some day.

With their newly attained knowledge and training, these officers embark on-board ships with reputed shipping companies, work for few years, and attempt to upgrade their ranks. However, in spite of highly lucrative job offers, adventurous working environment, and a “globetrotting” lifestyle, most of these seafarers suddenly decide to quit their ship jobs by accepting opportunities onshore. This trend is on the rise and is now being seen in several countries around the world.

As the number of seafarer quitting the industry increases every year, we ponder, what is it that propels them to quit such a respectable and lucrative career after sailing for few years? Though some of the reasons we found out are common and obvious, there are a few new and surprising ones as well.

After doing a survey which involved a number of sea-going professionals who have already quit sea jobs or are planning to, we enumerated the following main reasons which bother seafarers today.

Main Reasons Seafarers Quit Sea Jobs

1. Unsettled Lifestyle

This is the most common and obvious reason as these days more seafarers want “settled” jobs on shore. At the start of the career, a seafarer would not mind having a “nomadic” kind of lifestyle, but after certain years, especially post marriage, he longs for a more stable lifestyle, especially with his family. This is definitely not a new reason behind seafarers quitting sea jobs, but it is still one of the prime reasons for professional dissatisfaction.

2. Hectic Life

One cannot deny the fact that life on board ships has become extremely hectic. With more stringent maritime regulations coming up each year, life as a seafarer has become increasingly hectic, laborious, and monotonous. Increase in paperwork, advanced training guidelines, new codes, and rigorous safety and environmental laws have made the lives of seafarers extremely hectic on board ships. Moreover, many seafarers have also stated poor management of manpower on board ships as a reason for increase in work load. Needless to say, the already hectic life on ships is becoming even more hectic every year.

3. Onboard politics

No matter how hard you try to stay away from professional or personal politics on board ships, it will get to you sooner or later. Politics and conflicts on ships not only make it difficult to work but also to socialize within the already small group of people on board. Moreover, there is a very thin line between professional and personal life on ships. This makes it even more difficult to avoid as well as deal with politics or conflicts arising as a result of differences in opinions. One needs great determination, patience, and skills to deal with difficult people on board ships, especially after having professional/personal arguments.

4. Lack of Social Life

Almost everyone who joins ships is brought up in a social environment since birth. When such people are suddenly exposed to confined spaces of ships with almost negligible social life, negative effects such as frustration, loneliness, and homesickness start taking a toll on them. Initially the life on ship might not seem bad, but as time passes, a sense of emptiness starts creeping in. Lack of interaction with people and limitations on physical movement make life more miserable on board. It takes a lot of courage and mental steadiness to keep a calm and focused mind on ship. Many seafarers eventually quit because of this reason.

5. Away from the Family

Though most of the seafarers can digest the fact of staying away from friends for few months when sailing, parting away from the family for months together is what tear their hearts apart. Some might have just started their married life while others would have recently experienced parenthood, missing those precious moments with their loved ones for whom they care the most, is what hurts seafarers to the core. No seafarer wants to miss spending time with his wife or see his son or daughter grow old without him being around. It is then that seafarers realize the importance of “family life” and “loved ones”. The pain of staying away for months is also one of the main reasons seafarers quit sea jobs.

6. Personal/ Family Problems

One cannot stay focused at work when bothered by family or personal issues. Seafarers often face this problem when they leave their family problems at shore. However, not able to attend to the personal problem and its impeding negative effects on the family, induces a constant state of worry which reduces the ability to focus on one’s duties. It’s extremely difficult to work when you are physically on the ship but mentally back at home. Moreover, what hurts more to seafarers is the inability to attend to any emergency situation or incident in their family back home. Such situations lead to extreme frustration, anxiety, sleeplessness, and stress among seafarers. Many seafarers have quit sailing because of this reason.

7. Rise in Maritime Piracy

Though several steps have been taken lately to fight piracy at sea, incidents involving pirate attacks and high-jacking of ship’s crew occur almost every month. The threat of piracy attacks is ever increasing and seafarers are obviously scared in spite of availability of weapons to fight them. No one wants to risk their lives or put themselves in danger by sailing on ships which ply in piracy affected areas. The fear of pirates is also stated as one of the many reasons by seafarers for leaving ship jobs.

8. Health Issues

Sailing on ships requires meeting stringent medical and health requirements. As strict as the rules to be meet before joining the ship are, it’s an irony that life on board ship is not even close to healthy. Erratic sleeping schedule, excessive working stress, unfriendly environment, unavailability of fresh food, and inadequate medical facilities drastically affect seafarers’ health. Moreover several seafarers also have to quit sailing once they are diagnosed with conditions which might require immediate attention in times of medical emergency. Many also complain about the increasing difference between work and rest hours, in spite of laws demanding proper distribution of them.

9. Reducing shore leaves

One of the main reasons people join merchant navy is the lure to see the world. However, in the past few years there have been a sudden reduction in shore leaves that are being granted to the seafarers. With faster turnaround time of ships at ports and scheduled maintenance procedures, seafarers are not allowed to go out on ports. Also, many VLCCs and large capacity ships don’t even come to the port for discharging or loading, giving no chance to seafarers to refresh themselves away from the ship’s environment. Such consistent sailing with less or negligible opportunities for shore leaves have frustrated several seafarers who have eventually quit sailing.

10. Lack of Shore Jobs

This cause might sound a bit contradictory, but this is also one of the main reasons why seafarers quit the field early in their career. Though most maritime institutes and experts promise adequate on-shore opportunities for seafarers, those wanting to shift to shore find it difficult to get a worthy job. Most of the companies ask for good amount of experience at sea, in order to get a job in their on shore office. Moreover for a good managerial position on shore, either one has to do an MBA or take up some equivalent courses. Seafarers find it difficult to get back to studies after certain point of time, especially when they are bound by family responsibilities. Many seafarers are now able to foresee this and thus change their course very early in their career. However, compromising on the salary is one thing they have to accept sooner or later.

11. Reducing crew members

With the financial crisis looming over the industry, shipping companies are utilizing every technique possible to cut back expenses and overhead costs. In an attempt to do so, the number of crew members on ships is being reduced to compensate the necessary expenses. As a result, mariners are experiencing substantial increase in work load, without any increase in remuneration. This trend has been seen almost across all shipping companies around the world. The higher demand of work load with same or negligible increase in payment is also making several seafarers quit sea jobs.

12. Stringent Maritime Laws

Stringent maritime laws have made lives of maritime professionals difficult, especially for those at the management level. Many seafarers in the past have been imprisoned, heavily fined, and suspended as a result of such laws. Officers at the management level are the ones who often bear the brunt of these laws and are therefore constantly at stress while sailing. This has been one of the main reasons for the acute dearth of maritime professionals at the managerial level.

Apart from the above mentioned reasons, seafarers have stated several other factors which force them to quit sailing. However, the above mentioned ones are the most commonly stated ones by professionals across all ranks.

ATRACA GALORE

This footage was taken during my final day onboard, Conti Greenland dated december 22, 2014. I thank 2nd officer  Emery Kris C. Cacatian, for having an open mind in taking footage on the actual work of berthing (also known in tagalog as "Atraca" ) this will serve as an education information to people.

BTOCT VIDEOS DECLASSIFIED

This were the videos i personally took using a digital camera ... Hope that the reader of this blog one day will find what do trainee's do on BTOCT Seminar (formerly GTF seminar)

TRAINING DAY

My enrollment kit , basically a polo shirt, a piece of enrollment paper and a book (or manual) 

STCW 2010 implementation is really making things worse, for Filipino sailors. Much worse is that for a typical sailor , all of his / her expensive training seminars will be totally nullified by the year 2016 and he / she will start from scratch again . This will be my situation a year after now. In the meantime , things are starting to get dire for me on the money. As predicted my reserve are near depletion and will be borrowing money soon.

Since I'm already low on the money, I went ahead in enrolling a BTOC course in PNTC and used up my remain 10k to enrol on the important short course, when I got there I found out that PNTC now offers package prices for their short course on ship tankers.

Taking GTF (now BTOCT) short course maybe exciting to take for new sailors, and college students , but for veteran sailors such as myself, this is only a waste of time, money and effort. In the first place I shouldn’t be taking this course anymore, In the old days before STCW 2010 Manila conventions - sailors only get to take this seminars once only in his / her lifetime career provided that he / she sails once every 5 years. Now a days new regulations implemented is counterproductive in a sailors career and M.A.R.I.N.A is making it worst each time they make a new rule, such for example on this training seminars. New rules now say that each sailor must take these seminar once in every 5 years ( a big disadvantage financially if a sailor has taken tons of these seminars) , and these seminar certificates are now expendable - having only a validity of 5 years each whether or not it was used for work.

Going back BTOCT seminar is a big joke , and I can't imagine spending again another 5k plus after 5 years taking this seminar nor even taking this now even if I shouldn't. Anyway I was back in the same old class room lecture starting on the 28th of January and was out in Tanza Cavite for the practical test on February 3rd.

There isn't really anything new about the new BTOCT seminar when it comes on the lecture part , basically it's just a carbon copy of the previous course it replaced ( GTF ) . Even the lectures and so called "modules" are still the same. All the way down even on the fire fighting lectures and practical exam.

Anyway Temporarily I'm forced to wake up early and get my ass out in bed for a couple of days and already readied my alarm clock so I won't skip out class. On the first day was pretty much boring . I saw my former instructor there Mr. John B. Harn from STCT and STOT class (way back 2008) , and glad to see that he was still in business. Unfortunately Mr. Harn couldn't recognize me at all probably because it's been a long time since I got back again for tanker ship classes . During break time on the first day I saw one of my former co-workers back in STOLT strength ship. Engine cadet Bonghanoy (now 3rd engineer) . We discussed a few things , apparently from what I learned he also left sea cap shipping company on the very same reason as I had. He was simply dissatisfied on how he was treated by the people there and now he's resides and has been there ever since in STATUS shipping company after his exile .

Me and "Bonghanoy" share the same sentiments against our former employers who mistreated us. We discussed a lot of things mostly on the ill treatment we received.

The following day.

Same old routine that I had to wake up early, good thing I had prepared the alarm clock as a safety measure in waking up. On the second day was a pretty boring seminar as well. The only thing that changed the pace was that I got caught sleeping in class, good thing that Mr. Harn didn’t yell at me.

The next day was basically much the same as it did the last time , Pretty boring. Though we got to go to the PNTC clinic for a so called "medical" which is basically just a big joke in terms of checking people if they're healthy or not,. Inside the class room . Mr. Harn took the time in selling some of his so called "extra" income which is basically selling some sort of Chinese aphrodisiac drug much like Viagra. Anyway nothing wrong with that, in fact I find Mr. Harn's advertisement entertaining like a home shopping network, however I find it doubting if ever this so called Chinese drug called "Toro" will ever be useful on the sexually dysfunctional guys.

On Saturday believe it or not , there is classes in PNTC and Mr. harn was again our instructor and made up an entertainment by letting us identify a diagram of an IGS system of a ship , Unfortunately for us trainees were just a bunch of grunts to even bother to know every part of the IGS system. So obviously we failed on identifying each part - much to Mr. Harns horror. Anyway Mr. Harn told us that there's a possibility that our classes with him will be just half day by Monday since he has a part time job as an assessor in marina - assuming that he will be our instructor on Monday , in the meantime he dismissed our class early on this day . At around 3:00 pm we trainees were already off class.

By Monday , as expected it was only half day class but before we left early. Mr. harn gave us some piece of paper , a memo to be specific about what equipment we should bring for our practical exam on tomorrow.

Coffee break during training 

On our last written exam was a big joke as well , Since Mr. Harn was in a hurry he gave a 25 correct answers on the paper and said that we could just randomly select the other 25 remaining on the test paper, he didn’t even bothered to give us the questionnaire's , when asked he said "why bother ? 25 correct answers in the exam assures that the trainee has already passed , guessing the other 25 questions is only for the management to think that were not "exactly" cheating and adds randomness "

On our last day in the seminar training , were basically off to tanza cavite area , where a new PNTC college campus and training centre is currently being constructed. Before we got there in the site , all trainees woke up early and got in the training centre in intramuros at around 4am just to catch the free bus ride to the TANZA campus.

So what can I say in TANZA campus ? , well basically it was already operational but still in construction phase and we could still see a lot of construction materials littering the area, probably PNTC will have the campus completed in this years end. On the training ground , we were just basically rehearsing a fire drill all morning and get to wear a fireman's out. I secretly recorded what we were doing via a digital camera since for some reason , there's a no camera policy around the campus. Id post it here

During the practical , i had a hard time looking directly to the instructor as he's mouth is apparently foaming from all the talking as much as possible i literary keep my head down.

TANZA CAVITE site pictures

Here are some pictures taken during our practical test

Life size model of a portable Dry Foam system used in fire fighting 

instructor tells us what we should do in handling the nozzle of a fire extinguisher

Rehearsing the fire drill all morning , before the actual drill . Basically just telling the do's and donts

Instructor basically tells us on how to exactly hold the fire nozzle 

actual show time on the drill complete with actual fire fighting suits