MYTHS ABOUT PINOY SEAMAN

 

 

We have seen this posters numerous times already , so many times that it's no longer making any sense at all. This poster I saw on the internet is really interesting however this barely scratches the surface of the reality on being a Filipino sailor, It does provide a general detail but not the specifics and leaves a broader room for interpretation. Some of these facts reflect positive and others negatively and some doesn’t provide the reality.

 

LOADS OF MONEY - true on a financial basis that if you compare it via Philippine standards , Philippine money is way less than that of a U.S. Dollar (or even a Euro). Believe it or not purchasing power in the Philippines is bigger than western countries , and salaries for sailors are based in foreign pay (in U.S. dollars). In the Philippines a 900 U.S. Dollar for Salary for a sailor is a very big money but if you compare that salary in the united states - it is just only equal to a salary of a local fast food worker. If the Philippine peso had an equivalent to 1 : 1 to a U.S. dollar (currently its 45 : 1 dollar exchange) , You definitely don’t want to be a sailor anymore , chances are the 900 U.S. dollars would only just be an equivalent of 900 Philippine Peso , and you absolutely know how limited a 900 pesos goes in the Philippines .In other words LOADS OF MONEY because of the fundamental law of dollar exchange rate against the peso, it's how weak the Philippine economy is.

 

Sailors have loads of money not because they are paid high , but by because of the exchange rate from Philippines versus foreign money. The salary of a sailor actually is equivalent to that of a construction worker overseas.

 

By the way salary is based to the rank of a sailor , Deck cadets are paid only dirt cheap !! (or none at all)

 

ALCOHOL 24 x 7 - liquor is absolute cheap in some cases , even way cheaper than a can of coca cola soft drink and not even the tough restriction of anti-alcohol policy is not enough to deter a sailor from drinking. Alcohol ban is implemented on board a ship but not a practice , more like a "necessary evil" in this community. For short - yes it’s a 24 / 7 drinking galore !

 

GIRLFRIEND IN EVERY PORT. - not exactly a girlfriend, but counts as a relationship in some extent, like sexual relationship that money is involved in the middle. This phrase is somewhat misprounced , the actual term for this should be "every prostitute in every port". This is typically true especially if a sailor is stationed near south America, where sex trade seems to be very common (and suspect even legal). Thing here is this, ITS ALL ABOUT HUMAN NATURE - AND THIS INCLUDES SEX. All of them have been exposed to months not seeing any female at which includes their wives and real girlfriends in the Philippines, which results to them resorting to "paid" sex. Now a days this just happens only to sailors who get stationed in south America or in Asia .

 

Seamanloloko ?????  Being direct -  YES THAT IS ACTUALLY 150 PERCENT TRUE !!

 

ALWAYS SEASICK - This has two meanings , one is biological and other is psychological. Biological in the sense that there is no apparent cure for seasickness. A persons only best bet to alleviate this is that to hope a person's body gets adjusted (or adapted) real quick on the environment. This may takes weeks or a month especially to new sailors, for the veterans - only takes a couple of hours  to adjust and not that severe. Psychological part is that it means that sailors are lazy and use "Seasickness" as an excuse to get away from work, even though they're already been sailors for decades.

 

DEALING WITH PIRATES EVERYDAY - The fact here is this , not all sailors nor even a majority of them get to be stationed on pirate infested areas. Only a small population of Filipino sailors get to deal with this and in only a short amount of time, not every day. In reality this is overly exaggerated accounts. The only thing you have to deal with here is the rude and lack of proper manners of fellow sailors - in particular our own kind .

 

There's a saying : "the fiercest and most cold blooded maltreatment comes from one's own kind" . That's how Filipino seaman's are in the actual work

 

GET TO SEE THE WORLD FOR FREE - this is the most common (and oldest) propaganda you see when you study the course Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation. Most kids who study being sailor get confused with this 90 percent of the time, plus add more to the confusion is the quasi false "militaristic" kind of education propaganda and voila you got tons of enrolees per sem. Little do they know that after that a lot of injustice and maltreatment awaits them after they finished schooling such as NO GUARANTEED JOB ASSURANCE AND SECURITY (YOU WONT GET EMPLOYED UNLESS YOU HAVE A  SPONSOR - backer for short) , UNDERPAID, OVER WORK AND EXPLOITED, AND WORST NO ACCESS TO A LAWYER OR LABOUR UNIONS.  See the world free is just only half right since a ship goes around on all sorts of places, technically a sailor is basically imprisoned and trapped inside for the whole duration of the contract with little or no chance of going to shore and most of the time you're not even allowed to go out . If there is - its only less than 5 hours overall. In reality it’s a slow painful death like prison.

 

Being a sailor in the Philippines isn't exactly the most secured job around, its CONTRACTUAL WORKER.

 

GLAMOUROUS LIFE. - There is another misconception about being a sailor , true indeed that most of the sailors can afford stuff that most people can't in the Philippines. They can afford that not because Filipino sailors salaries are paid high from the start but because of the Philippines PESO versus U.S. Dollar Difference (as what I mentioned earlier) . In the Philippines that U.S. dollar (or european euro) salary converted may mean a lot and can go a long way, In the U.S. and Europe that salary received by a sailor is nothing more than the standard pay for construction manual job which is not even enough to buy a thermal underwear for winter on the local store there.

 

6 MONTHS LAND AND 6 MONTHS AT SEA - Typically seafarers contracts ranges from 6 months to 10 months working in a ship, though there are some reports that Greek employers hold their crew even longer that lasted for years (and from what I heard the longest was 2 years) . Now if a person pictures himself being into prison on the that duration then you'd definitely know how ugly working of a sailor is., And after spending almost the whole year being imprison on a ship , you get only a relief of two months before again going back into prison er.. I mean working back on a ship and repeating the horror again - it's like being in an environment with no TV, No letters, No internet - nothing to keep yourself occupied beyond work . That is the usual cycle of life of a sailor - rinse and repeat , you will miss and skip a lot of important things in life during that time like your marriage anniversary, you kids first birthday , etc. and as a result of being an absent and never there , a sailor's life is nothing but a dysfunctional one.
 

UNEDUCATED FOOLS -  This is somewhat half right.  In some extent almost all Filipino sailors did have a formal education on the college level, But if you ask what kind of studies did he / she received in college or what kind of teaching methods are used and in practice there , then I could say it's very limited and totally unrelated on the actual job practice. One such sample is that most sailors often tell as an excuse is that they study celestial navigation, marine engineers etc. - those lectures in reality doesn’t even come close compared to what doctors , lawyers, teachers or even engineers study on the course of his / her college time, as a matter of fact you can finish the this so called "college course within less than a year" (if your brain intelligence is equivalent to that of a "doctor" or even a lawyer) . It's even debated that the college course of a sailor (bachelor of science in marine transportation) is not "bachelor of science" at all , in fact European countries consider education on sailors to be technical and vocational type - (doesn't even pass for a four year college course) 

 

As a sailor , a functioning brain is highly unnecessary on the job practice. If a sailor has a brain , it's definitely not used for logical and analytic thinking like some other professional jobs do or even used for work at all. - Its only used for keeping him alive (like breathing and heartbeat pulse, similar to a zombie or a mindless insect drone). And if in a special case a sailor has some brains, chances are he / she should hid his talents otherwise some other co-worker sailors will get jealous because of this (see their primitive prehistoric brains ;) )

 

FIGHTING WARS - This problem is not directly related and more of an indirectly problem. Earlier so called pioneers in maritime education in the Philippines came from fundamentalist militaristic schools (sort of like during the 1950's era were seafaring job wasn’t even heard of back then). Despite this job being entirely civilian , it is often and always get confused with the branch of the military (navy).Being a pinoy seaman in reality has nothing to do with the military. We're not soldiers, were not a foreign legion , or even come close to an armed militia . Seaman is nothing more and is always a construction / maintenance worker , of if you put it it’s a non-military and purely civilian work .If you look closely the closest classification of a  "seaman" are more related to construction workers based in the middle east (and cousin based on my observation) , the only difference is that instead of dry desert , a "seaman" is on wet water surroundings and inside a huge machine (known as a ship). Both of these class of workers have the same type of equipment and even job hierarchy , and yes seaman also has a foreman and is just called in a different term called "bosun".

 

The reason why pinoy seaman (or Marino) get confused often to the military is because of simple common terminologies shared in work,  (I admit these technical terminologies is used in the military as well) . Beyond that there is nothing similar in anyway at all in being a seaman to a navy,

 

If we get to sign up on a contract, were given a set of working clothes and some protective industrial equipment - nothing more nothing less , Definitely not firearms , NO BDU's (battle dress uniforms), Not anything that blows up stuff or hurt people. 

 

GREAT SWIMMERS - Not all sailors are actually swimmers or even good in the water to begin with. Some sailors (such as myself) cannot swim at all , probably because we knew that once were in the water , that will be the end of us . So as much as possible we stay out of it. Working as a sailor you don’t get to actually get to work submerged on the water , you get to work on a ship which is basically floating on a water called sea - point here is that swimming skills are not necessary.

 

NOTHING TO DO AT SEA - being a sailor, a lot of people are basically wondering on what are we actually doing inside the ship and are lead to believe that were are just doing nothing there but sit out our fat asses during the whole duration of the whole contract, and to make it more misleading is that pictures on sailors fed back in the Philippines are mostly stuff related to barbecue grills and food, making people think that were just there to eat , sleep and waste time.

 

Of course the ship is a 24 / 7 workplace and a lot of times you get to work on the weary hours of the night, and since it’s a 24/ 7 workplace it means that most of the time there's no holidays and the work sailors do are maintenance construction work. Expect that there will be situations that a sailor will be dragged out in the middle of the night (as in 2am) just to do work and force him / her on the working thread mill for more than 24 hours. Fine with some as long as they're getting paid, but The biggest insult to that is that when the first mate sees you're work time card (yes , we do have that in the ship) registers beyond the normal 8 to 12 hours of work , he'd force you to cheat your whole time card by reducing the extra working hours, making the other excess working hours beyond 12 to be absolutely non-existent and totally unpaid ,

 

Imagine a situation that you're working on one of the worst workplaces on earth and you're not even getting paid for it, (or even being paid right) 

 

Finally I'm writing this not because of prejudice, but because of reality and transparency on what is actually happening and in practice, this more fact than the first law of thermodynamics. Fact that almost all of my own kind, refuse to acknowledge or even believe that this is happening in the Philippine maritime community. I am aware that my writing will always be the subject of skepticism and criticism to my fellow brethren , but as writer and person who witnessed it firsthand that is what I have to tell and I'm sticking to it.

THE DARK SIDE OF UNITED FILIPINO SEAFARERS

Entry on Journal : September 25, 2016

Location : Sembawang Shipyard, Singapore

 

 

"United Filipino Seafares is no longer a self proclaimed workers union but is now a commercial enterprise that harasses critics and brutally exploits its member sailors , and acts as an unofficial police force on its member shipping companies on any of their employees who would go rogue. They cannot protect Filipino sailors rights nor even its interest "  

 

                                                                                           - Unknown Filipino Sailor -

 

Lots of things have went by in a couple of days, most the time I spent was exploration of the whole Singapore island. Trying to see things , afterall I think there's not going to be another opportunity to see this place in years or maybe not at all in the future - so I'm seizing the moment.

 

Lately since communications are now better , I decided to post something on the social media - actually in facebook groups. I posted the topic about the discriminatory and racist bond store treatment here on this ship, I posted a picture telling that Filipino's are the only ones that should pay for their bond in cash, Of course it caught the attention of one of the members of UFS (United Filipino Sailors) and turns out they said a reply saying that I shouldn't post anything damaging to a company and its principal as it jeopardizes Filipino jobs. If I post any more negative remarks on the social media , there is a possibility that the principal will pull out and leave some Filipino's job less. If I have a complaint about discrimination on why Filipino's are the only ones that have to pay for the bond store in cash. I should directly file a complaint on CF Sharp (the manning agency responsible) and tell them my grievances, even threaten that they will report me (indirectly implied "black list" me and will never find work again as a sailor) that I'm posting a "black propaganda" and will feel the full fury of CF Sharp and Norstar principal on my "irresponsible" social media posting. In simple terms they are siding with the company and its principal, and have sold me out - plain and simple. Bastards even threatened me and gave example of people in the past who questioned the wrong doings of the companies ended up being blacklisted

 

WHAT THE FUCK ??!! JESUS. H. CHRIST !!! , Well never saw it coming, Anyway Haven't they thought that the reason why I'm posting this was because it jeopardizes Filipino's jobs because of unfair treatment , This so called seafaring industry should not be based on numbers alone but on what quality of working conditions there is. Filipino's may have the highest numbers of sailors out there but that doesn't mean that we are treated fairly and equally. The problem with them is that they base the quality of Filipino work in number's on a paper and not on the standard working conditions.

 

For the record the thing I posted in Facebook group "Tinig ng Marino" , is not a complaint but an inquiry. Meaning I'm not complaining but asking, whether the answer is positive or negative - it doesn’t matter and let the readers in public decide for themselves. 

 

It's a shame and ironic that they call themselves "The workers union" and yet they are powerless to protect people and even favour huge companies and principal (and as matter of fact even help the companies). Its true that they do most of the time, they do fight for workers' rights , but when it comes to questioning the authority and company principals - the wind shifts and all of a sudden, "the worker's Union" become foe than an ally and they "sell-out" people. Their main reason to them is "that if we question the principal and its policies, chances are that principals will pull out their business and there will be no more jobs left for Filipino sailors" . To simply put any negative inquiry to them , of any wrong doing is considered taboo and should not be discussed. To simply say , the United Filipino Sailors is either afraid of the companies (or principals) or protecting them.

 

Nelson Ramirez reply on my posting made even emphasis that some of the Filipinos sailors who filed a million dollar medical claim for industrial accidents like the 2nd engineer he specifically mentioned that got his hand chopped off. He said that the engineers claim was malicious and was plainly money driven, and that he jeopardized Filipino jobs because of this. Now the point here is this, would Mr. Nelson Ramirez think that it's easy for the 2nd engineer to get his hand chopped off in the accident ? What would Mr. Nelson Ramirez feel if it was his hand that get severed ? . The labour court have already decided that the 2nd engineer should be awarded on his accident claims and it is only his right to do so after what happened to him, the court in the Philippines are not that stupid and analyze thoroughly the case of the claimant and found the engineer to be valid. Of course as a retaliation from the principal, they axed a few jobs. To him the bad guy on his story was the 2nd engineer, not the principal who unethically launched a retaliation which axed a few jobs.

 

So to them my understanding is that , its ok to be discriminated, treated poorly and unfairly like a dog as long as we get to keep those jobs. If that is they're way of life according to "UFS" and Mr. Nelson Ramirez. - THEN ITS SURVIVING, BUT NOT LIVING. They reason out that compared to Myanmar and Indian's, Filipino's have more benefits. Yes it's true that Filipino's might have some edge over those nationalities but those benefits are just only paper when you can't use them because of discrimination and racism. Basically to them the meaning of being number 1 in the maritime industry is by numbers on the paper, that do not reflect the actual good working conditions and that the principal is the absolute authority of this business, and of course their so called "Workers Union" who acts more of like its own private police force, to protect not the people but their business. The reason why their organization became a lapdog was because the UFS itself benefits on the sponsorship money (advertisements on their propaganda material "TINIG NG MARINO") given by the companies thus in exchange give them protection in return to any would be threats and complaints from any of their former crews , either valid or not.

 

The reality is this, any company (and principal) who is not a member of their UFS union can be criticize but any company (and principal) who is a member get protection. ( Hmpf sounds more like an organized "legal" mafia rather than a real workers union who fights for labour rights )       

 

It’s a shame that once I had high regards to Mr. Ramirez the leader of the so called self-proclaim workers union called "United Filipino Sailors", but now seeing this makes me turn my head in dismay and disgust probably because I didn’t knew better that his ideals had a price. He always waves about his awards accumulated , even brags he's the "Champion" of the Filipino Seafarers workers Union and yet his words and actions tell the opposite. Those awards he won are just basically wood made out of the blood of his fellow Filipino sailors which he sold out to the principal and companies. His lectures and propaganda in Facebook groups if examined closely tell more of being a "PRO-Company" than pro workers, one such example is his lecture about "AGE LIMITATION" - then after the lecture he advertises his so called "financial" seminar for sailors , which apparently I think has a fee and profits out of the misery of other rather instead of giving solutions to old over aged sailors . If you read it closely , the principals words to him are law - and from my understanding even above the Philippine law. He even scorns sailors who have medical claim disputes to principals. 

 

Even his so called help to "cadets" are basically not help at all - it might look as he was helping but if you look closely those "Volunteer" cadets are just making a tradeoff to work on the manual labour of his office in exchange for sweet words and recommendations and influence over shipping companies. In other words his exploiting them and taking advantage of the cadets desperation on the lack of jobs in this "Maritime Field", as like any other shipping company out there. If he is  really sincere and want to help those cadets (like other workers union in europe), then help them without asking anything in return or a tradeoff - plain and simple. For me it’s a form of enslavement as what Benvenido Lorque accused them when he defected from UFS. Basically he's letting those exploited and poor cadets work for free (unpaid) and without any proof of a "contract" that these cadets work , by the end of the day if the cadet is in bad terms with him (or any staff )  - he can just simply deny the fact that the cadet (or staff) didn't even worked at all or never even existed if he wants to .   

 

Despite my disgust over the "union" , I am powerless to tackle the "union" itself probably because they are backed by Collective union of the abusive shipping companies and principals. Anybody who would go against them or gets in their way (along with their so called "workers union" which is now private police force "United Filipino Sailors") will probably be crushed and incarcerated or in my situation "black listed" . I remember one of my favorite scientist , his name was "Galileo Galilei" who said that the earth was not in the center of the universe and incurred the wrath of the roman catholic church (a major authority and force to reckon with during that time). His inquires had him being condemned and put under house arrest for the rest of his life,,. Few hundred years later after his death , people found out he was telling the truth, and it was only in the 80's that a public apology from the church was made. His ideas stands as a symbol of a lifelong struggle to free inquiry over authority and the dogmas of theology

 

To begin with my ideas are unpopular and if there is any evidence that will be used against me , there is no safest place but inside my head. Keep it all up there nothing more and anyone who goes toe to toe against the "Union" (Called United Filipino Sailors) will get crushed or suffer a worst fate like harassment, threats and filing of numerous law suits against its critics , . They have the machinery and money to make things go their way plus a horde of overzealous fanatics,

 

United Filipino Sailors is no longer a workers union but now it's a commercial enterprise that harasses critics and brutally exploits its member sailors , and acts as an unofficial police force on its member shipping companies on any of their employees who would go rogue. They cannot and refuse to protect Filipino sailors rights nor even its interest   

 

I knew the risk of telling the truth would be a very high price, be as it may as this is the rule in the Philippine Maritime Community - I'm not telling people to believe me nor telling them not to believe, What I'm telling is that they should make their choice what I am saying is my story. 

 

 

EXTRA FACTS …..

 

Here is some clips I had accumulated on some research , it's up to the people reading this to balance the facts. This is a month long personal investigation on this person and some facts here are based on what he's former right hand , and former associate C/E Bienvinido Lorque, leaked in public. 

 

*Mr. Nelson Ramirez is not a Chief Engineer, as what he initially states in public, instead the truth was he was a Second Engineer instead and that he was only a high school graduate. He didn’t even went to a college course at all like Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering. Compared to Filipino Sailors nowadays that are actual graduates of BSMT or BSME course. He fabricated the lie to brainwash the public thinking that he was a respectable person , but deep inside the mask is that he is no more than an extortionist thug

 

*He claims to be a graduate of Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) , but in reality he was only "adopted" by the said school. He didn’t even attended classes there at all (since he's only a high school graduate)

 

*according to lorque, United Filipino Seafarers and its Media Arm "Tinig ng Marino" is a dummy organization and practically doesn’t exist at all and that only Nelson Ramirez is the person who is pulling the string to make it look like the organization really exists. In reality the workers union was actually just a front for his numerous personal business

 

*According to Lorque, United Filipino Seafarers is engaged in widespread extortion activities in the Philippine Maritime Community.

 

*C/E Lorque stated and confirmed that Ramirez is involve in a conspiracy money scam , involving training centers and shipping companies. Using UFS organization as a front, claims that his "Dummy" board members were actually owners of shipping companies and Training Centers.

 

*He also added that the profits made by UFS , are being diverted to his assets (and farm / ranch) and personal bank accounts. In other words , he is pocketing the money from the workers union to himself. Making it his personal money making business and savings account

 

*Another information that Chief Engineer Lorque leaked was that the UFS and nelson ramirez was also engaged in "Ambulance Chasing" , Contrary to their propaganda against labour lawyers and law firms and accuse them of unethical  practice. He mentioned that UFS takes some cut on labour money court claims by sailors who sought their help and mentioned something like CBA 60 / 70 word, this involves a huge amount of money (as in millions of pesos) and always ends up Nelson Ramirez getting a huge portion of the claim, pocketing it to himself instead of the victim.  

 

*Nelson P. Ramirez, has been on the Philippines for almost 22 years and despite the fact that he's unofficially unemployed , He has amassed a huge wealth and brags about his farm and office even has its own quasi media arm news paper called "Tinig ng Marino"     

TOURING SINGAPORE

September 16, 2016

Singapore

 

 

Given that working schedules in Sembawang Area Ship yard are conflicting / constricting for me to fully roam the place unrestricted. For now most of my free time in exploring the whole island is limited only during night time hours, Here in Sembawang and Yishu area - there are only two malls , ( one which I even hesitate to even call a mall at all ) . Sun plaza Mall and the other Northern Point Mall.

 

Shops in these malls are very small compared to shops in the Philippines, even the electronic stores and book stores here is lacking of selections. If I were to compare a typical "National bookstore" shop and "CDR-king" shop in the Philippines is at least four times larger than the ones here in Singapore. Even schools here like I saw in the primary school and probably grade school is smaller and compressed.

 

Anyway Sembawang and Yishu area in Singapore is a province,  but for a province it is well develop and urbanized compared to the one's in the Philippines. The whole area looked more like "The Fort" or Makati area in the Philippines , full of tall buildings and condominium type of housing, and shops that don’t actually looked like shops at first look. 

 

In their metropolis area , comes the fun part. Their malls are bigger , such example is the Vivo city mall which I explored , based on its size - it about as close as the size of SM Mega Mall perhaps even bigger. There is also even an underground mall on subways here due to the lack of space and in one instance I found myself litterary lost in the labyrinth  



Singaporean dollar, local currency used in singapore



my co-workers



the well known and iconic singaporean merlion, saw it by my own eyes



local water fountain set up, took the opportunity to refill water stock pile i have

 

GOING TO THE SHIPYARD

journal entry has been put on hold until further notice due to sensitive topics

JOB AVOIDANCE

BLOG ENTRY: September 06, 2016 Tuesday

Location: Singapore anchorage

 

On the past couple of days without the "repair crew" around , things here have been quieter and peaceful, and more time for me to pitch in and do work unhindered. Somehow I had no worries leaving my equipment behind, and it doesn’t go missing suddenly.

 

It has been busy and a lot of work is still yet to be made with the lack of man power around, but I think it’s the best rather than had a lot of trouble with the "repair crew" . Before I'm not confident leaving my stuff behind even on the locker room, sooner or later some guy from the repair crew would grab it without my knowledge and by the time I know something is missing, - it all too gone and too late.

 

In the recent days that they were gone, working on deck has turned to shit lately, and both the Indian chief mate and Myanmar Captain has been increasingly annoying on work that even the DNV - GL surveyors find them mistreating. One such example is that they don’t give people here a proper rest and break time, and only allowed people here only 15 minutes rest for the whole day. Even the meal breaks were being violated and coffee or water break time is cancelled, people here are being overworked for petty meaningless reasons, that don’t even qualify as urgent or important. Even the DNV - GL surveyors are complaining about this. 

 

Seriously these pathetic ship officers, being so "company dogs" that they intentionally neglect MLC rights and violate seafarers contract terms (such as I mentioned earlier about meal breaks etc.). If they keep this maltreatment up to their crew and the DNV - GL surveyors, sooner or later it will back fire with them - and when it does, I'm going to be there and laugh at them. They deserve the worst punishment ever , and their lower than scum, their very lucky and fortunate that this ship is travelling in the far east international labour laws like MLC and ITF doesn’t have a firm reach and no visible enforcement. This is one of the harsh realities of being a sailor , Chances are most people you encounter as sailors are bad people. There are a few good people but a majority of them are scum (both filipino and non- filipino's). I hope kids or people who read this blog understood the dangers and get the idea , that being a sailor is one of the worst jobs on the planet.

 

Going back to what I was discussing over, The Indian Chief mate and the Myanmar Captain kept dumping us with work orders that its getting impossible to complete a task for five minutes without being interrupted and being dumped again with a new one. This treatment is getting worse as the day passes and eventually I'd be fed up and be changing tactics as a result and apply some forbidden one's like "Job avoidance" . Ethically job avoidance is not a right thing to do (as like any other jobs out there as I know), but if I weight my situation right now and justify it - probably it's the best thing action I had to make as of the moment. They treat their subordinates like crap and keeps pushing and stepping on them , then it's only a matter of reason and logic that I should do the same. As like Captain Betts told me once "you sow, what you reap" .

 

In other matters

 

Lately I had been discolouration of my eye area, apparently this might be the result of too much sun exposure lately. The rest of my face is ok given that I wear a balaclava mask (facemask) when I go to work , except for the eyes of course because it's the part where its open

 

To smoothen out the discolouration , I had to experiment on wearing a coloured safety glasses for now to at least remove the dark spot on my eye area. The area is so dark that when I remove my mask I looked more like a raccoon.

 

 

 

REPAIR CREW EXITING

Journal Entry: September 04, 2016 Sunday

Location: OPL Anchorage area, Singapore

 

 

While in the middle of the whole De-mucking ops here on deck, There has been a quick news that the "repair crew" will disembark this ship on September 05. The news was really sudden and big surprise but not totally unexpected - after all their contracts have already been finish a couple of weeks ago and its long overdue that they should return home. While the Repair crew is rejoicing that they will go home soon, most of the people wonder here on what will happen on  the work they will leave vacant. For short there is a huge vacuum on some of the task here and we're wondering who will fill in on those. Actually it's not that big loss that they will disembark, as long as they can solve the problem about the work on pilot ladder and gangway - not to mention the mooring operations issue, I think everything will be fine despite the downsize of the crew.

 

Personally, Im relieved that I'd be getting rid of A.B. Paulito Cordova for good. I had already had enough on his berating and rebuking attitude, that he's mere presence on the work place is annoying enough. Basically he's just another one of those typical asshole's sailors in the maritime community,.  I disliked people who think themselves to be high and mighty, and lectures me about things about work, on top of that, conversation with him lasting for more than three minutes is highly impossible without him insulting and scorning me. I'm really glad that he's going home and good riddance !! This ship will be a little bit better place for me without him around.,

 

(Scorn means open disrespect accompanied by intense dislike)

 

Aside from that , another news I heard was that O.S. Marden Luib received a negative feedback from his evaluation report to the office (also known as "appraisal" report in seaman terms) written by Chief Mate Dsouza. In response and protest as well O.S. Marden Luib didn't sign the paper, and left it to our local company to figure it for themselves - after all it is his right to question under MLC law any negative comment reflected to his in a bias way.

 

As for A.B. Edgar tiu and O.S. Rosendo Molina, they're apparently don’t want to leave yet but just got dragged along on O.S. Marden's request to leave. It's obvious that O.S. Rosendo won't be coming back due to the poor job offer CF sharp (and norstar principal) gives , However in the case of A.B. Edgar Tiu - there's a rumour, I heard from BOSUN Rodrigo that there's a possibility that he might return, in the special circumstance that there's at least a need for two new additional crew members to work on the deck.  It's up to Edgar if he take the offer despite poor working conditions and environment here and salary problems this company and principal offers - if the rumours are true.

 

In other news.

 

It has only been hours since the "repair crew" left this ship and , total disarray has come in due to the lack of manpower. Our Indian bosses seemed to not know properly on how to handle people and basically even suggesting that we should be on another 6 to 6 hour watch. It's a good thing that it was changed and my work schedule was back again to "day work"

 

In relation to this, 6 people came and from what I saw they're some sort of DNV-GL surveyors, conducting a some sort of survey. Some of these folk were actually from the shipyard making estimation and close up look on the overall status of the vessel. On first glance one of the personnel from the shipyard made a comment that the deck area is in very bad shape and estimated that this ship will have only at least 2 years of life span left before it gets scrapped, the accommodation area along with pipes and such are in very deteriorating condition - no surprise because this ship is 20 years old now. For now while writing this, they're still evaluating on what will be status for ship repairs.

 

In other matters,

 

Most of the "de-mucking" crew that have cleaned this ship have been gone now and only a few are left to finish just to finish off the remaining fuel oil tank left. Unmistakably our Myanmar Captain here, supposedly received a message from the Norstar office informing that there's another crew that will arrive to continue the work and to clean up the ballast tanks. Based on our Captain understanding  it’s the 100 plus "De-mucking" crew and kept continued persistent demands to extend the work not only on the cargo tanks but to the ballast tanks as well. The foreman of the "De-mucking" crew said that he received no such order from their company and will not continue the work. He said clearly that our principal (Norstar) should talk first on his company to order them to continue the work , otherwise he cannot authorize such work order to his crew.

 

Despite the annoyance and insistence of my shitty Myanmar captain, The foreman of the de-mucking crew had his way and it was only right of him not to authorize any further work without any official statement coming from his local agent . For now any word put up by the captain should be considered just a "rumor" and they can't dictate or pressure the foreman - he doesn’t have any power to do so.

DE-MUCIING CREW

Journal Entry: August 31, 2016 Wednesday

Location: OPL Anchorage area, Singapore

 

 

There's an old saying by psychologist that if you can't talk something about it, then at least write something about it. I live on that saying given that sailors even up to nowadays still don’t have the freedom to talk freely, if one does - he / she will be subjected to an onslaught of retaliation either from the persons, foes, co-workers, organization, affiliation or any other group that was mentioned negatively. Opting also on the Social Media to discuss something is as dangerous as well, Basically there's no more secure place on the planet to talk about something other than inside a person head, On my case of course I cannot depend my safety on the having a journal on my computer and blog on cyber space. If I do wish to write something openly , I have to consider writing within a minimum safe distance from what I'm discussing to avoid the "social fallout" that will come after ., And there we go ,I am writing about something.

 

I'm glad that my blog is not that popular in cyber space , so there's at least some sort of privacy maintained and that the overall risk of back firing what I discussed or posted is lessen. I take full responsibility on what I post on my blog whether it will reflect me in a positive or negative way., either of both no one can order me around or make me retract what I post here. They can coerce, harass or blackmail me all they want, they can even fire me from work or outcast me socially , but it won't make me stop telling my story and the truth, and like I said on my introduction "I'd do it my way, and I'm old enough to get it my way" . Of course I know and fully aware that this publishing blog may lead me to "blacklisting" from the POEA or Manning agency , but that’s not the end of the world for me - the end of my seafaring career but not my life.  

 

For the moment, this whole epic tank cleaning operation is getting near now on its end, probably it is only a few days till the whole enchilada will be finished. Frankly it's about damn time they did finish this whole thing, it's already about two weeks and still ongoing. I wonder most of the time of on what goes on in the head of these people that it took them this long to clean up a few cargo tanks , I remember a few years back when I was in the chemical tanker, "tank cleaning" operations only lasted a few days to a few hours. Anyway it's their style and I'm just riding along on what they’re doing.

 

Recently on work …

 

Some water on the cargo tank are being pumped out and directly thrown at sea,. If I thought a couple of days ago pumping oily water out of the pump room was bad enough, then wait till I get a load on what happened on the following day. They are seriously pumping out above the deck and into the sea The water riddled with oil inside the cargo hold, and for some reason maybe out of stupidity , they think that the water inside those cargo tanks is clean and clear. Jeez what a total set of imbeciles !!! , I sometimes wonder how did they get their chief mate license in India and ship captain license on Myanmar. I mean with that kind of thinking ???, I'm seriously thinking that these retards will get the whole crew and ship in trouble with the authorities one day. (and when that day comes, I'm going to be as far to them as possible and renounce any association with these Mongoloid's)

 

Midway along the work , I even got an ugly insult from his lordship Chief mate Dsouza when I was unable to immediately understand on what he was pointing at on how to cleaning the floating smidge of oil in the water, The whole insults goes saying that "Do not have any oil tanker working experience - something like that" even implying that he's lordship is "superior" . On my saying Inside my head, I don’t give a fuck on this insult and berating , Funny on the fact he insults me by telling that "I don’t have any oil tanker experience" and yet when I look at his decisions in work tactics , it looks like he's was just a new comer Chief Mate, most of his decisions were impractical and a majority are pointless, and I don’t have to need a license just to tell how stupid his work tactics are. To make is short , he doesn’t have any idea on how to manage people, let alone on how to properly done and finish work. Now I'm starting to wonder why the Europeans (and generally the "whites") hate Indian workers, even my late dad said the same thing, that they are a lower class of people with lower class mentality and manners - very crude even for Asian standards.

 

Be as it may - that he's his Indian lordship thinks he's superior, as far as I'm concern I'm no company dog nor a company whore like him and the captain. They can shove Norstar company up on their ass, and for the record on his primitive brain - THIS IS MY THIRD SHIP , THAT I WORKED IN AN OIL TANKER !!!

 

In the afternoon , Pumpman Obina asked if I could tag along with him down below in the pump room ., Blindly I said yes and was relieved that he asked, Seriously I'm glad that I could get some time off from the "toxic" berating environment on the deck and a little change of working scenery would do the trick, a breather from all the annoyance from the Indian chief mate.

 

As usual the Pump room is flooded again with water mixed with black sticky oil, and it's no surprise that we had to pump it out a thousand times by now. It's basically the same old routine work, and for now the water below the pump room is more colored black than the usual., as in coffee creamer black.

 

The following morning …..

 

I was awoken on the vibrations from my cabin, and felt that the ship is actually moving. Immediately I looked outside and saw that indeed the ship was moving , but at a very slow pace. The ship must have heaved anchor and moved when I was asleep, and was not informed. Anyway I'm glad they didn’t , because if they did - it will only result that I don’t have any decent rest and they're ruthless enough to let me suffer from over-exhaustion. 

 

At about noon time , this ship dropped anchor still somewhere in the anchorage area of Singapore to wait for the De-mucking crew that will arrive to clean up the remaining sludge inside the cargo tanks. By the time I ended my working shift , I heard from O.S. "mark" that they have already arrived and is now setting up shop on the deck area. When I got back on my midnight shift, these de mucking crew were resting for the big day of work for them by tomorrow.

 

On noon, Chief mate Dsouza made a deck crew meeting on the ships office to inform us on what to do. It was discussed that the working shift will retain to be a four to four hour work shift , instead of being originally intended by chief mate to be a 6 to 6 hour shift. Pump man Obina and BOSUN Rodrigo will remain to do day work , Despite Chief mate insisting that Pump Man will go on watch work (good thing Pump man talked his way out). 

 

On the first day , things were doing well. Regardless that I had to wear the lame orange norstar uniform because the superintendents were around and have to tag along with them on their inspection with those cargo tanks. The De-mucking crew were doing their usual business in removing oil and muck on the cargo tanks and such, as a matter of fact they were so busy that they looked more like built a makeshift town above the deck area.

 

Originally we were not supposedly to enter nor meddle with the affairs with the De-Mucking crew. We were just there to basically watch and see them work and of course guard the accommodation space so that those guys don’t steal anything inside, Unfortunately recent update told us by Chief Mate Dsouza said that we should now check the progress of the De-mucking crew and enter the Cargo tanks frequently every now and then, even added that if we have any complaints about this then we can kindly ask the superintendents about this. The details why we have to meddle is that apparently one of the superintendents that came in complained that the "De-mucking" crew were working very slowly and that nobody in the deck even bothers to make rounds and check to see what are they doing. Of course that is "according" to the superintendents, or am I mistaken and thinking personally that this is just a personal excuse made by our "company dog" Myanmar Ship Captain (perhaps even the Indian Chief Mate) just to make our working routine more difficult. When asked by Bosun Hector Rodrigo if entering of these tanks and meddling with the affairs of the De-mucking are "paid" , Chief mate Dsouza replied "he will still consult the captain about this".

 

"STILL CONSULT ?!!!!" What the fuck does that mean ???!!! Excuse me do I come from their country and order people around to work for free ?! This just simply meant that they want us to do more task on our work FOR FREE, - what a pathetic excuse !!! I think they're just telling this to us because they want to impress the superintendents and having their presence around gives them a big hard on. Damn Company dogs !!!      

 

Anyway despite all the negative, it does come an opportunity for me to gather data on how inside the cargo hold tank looks like. It would be great for me to take pictures or even a video inside one of these cargo tanks. Since the public is already familiar on how a deck area looks like but got only a few glimpse on what is inside in the cargo tanks.

 

In other news

 

Looks like that O.S. "mark" will be moving in again on my cabin temporarily., as usual the reason is the lack of available cabins for the visiting Superintendents for the dry dock. From what I heard this ship will be expecting six superintendents (and this includes the annoying superintendent "Si thu Thwin" ), Well there's a vacant room being left behind by Fitter Lorzano when he returns home but it looks like that BOSUN Rodrigo has already got his greedy eyes on that space - So it leaves "Mark" no other choice but to tag along until Ship repairs on the ship yard will be over (which is for a month). Anyway I don’t mind having a roommate around and got used to the idea here that I'm sharing a room,. Besides Mark is a easy to get along with and I have no problems with him.

PREP FOR DRY DOCK 3

Journal Entry: August 29, 2016 Monday

Location: OPL Anchorage area, Singapore

 

 

 

The four to four hour working shift now has been implemented and as usual, most of the crew here are wondering why the sudden change. Basically this four to four shift was unnecessary at all in the first place and most people here are just standing around doing nothing on those four hours, including myself. 

 

For me, I never cared about this and the only thing that mattered is that I finished this working contract as soon as possible. It's not my call on that, and probably the reason why the management here decided that a four to four hour shift would be implemented was on the fact that they wanted to retain the number of people working but wanted to pay less on the overtime., Smart but not that clever.

 

When my work shift started, were now "entering the cargo tank" phase, which mean that chief mate is looking inside the cargo tanks and seeing if the tank cleaning methods were effective, but before entering those cargo tanks we had to use a chain block to open those cargo hatches as it got stuck because of heavy corrosion. Its hinges have apparently had fused badly on the rust and it was a tedious work getting them moving again.

 

Late on my watch , there has been another change on the schedule. This time the four to four schedule still remains but there a "retention" on my afternoon shift which I had to start two hours earlier.  For short I'd start work after coffee break which is 10:30 and work all the way up to 4pm. Tsk, honestly I couldn't figure out what's going on in the managements head here, and the new work schedules is no different from the 6 to 6 hour shift previously, and the worst part on this so called "retention" is not being paid at all., as in free slave work for the all mighty. His lordship - the "company dog" Myanmar ship captain .

 

In other news on work.

 

I would like to include on this journal entry that our lovely captain has been making questionable decisions lately , such us making us dump oily water coming from the pump room. Although he is saying it "indirectly" such as we have to take a look if the water is oily enough then we should dump the water  to the slop port side cargo tank , and if the water is clear enough it should be dumped to the deck directly to the sea. The captain wasn't exactly bright , and doesn't figured out that the water in the pump room is mixed with black oil as like being put in a blender , separating oil and water is absolutely impossible.

 

As a result, they came with an idea that we should "filter" out the most obvious part of the oily water - The black oily blobs, the black thing that floats, based on the perception that oil is light than water . So he used cotton and a lot of rags to filter and scoop floating oil particles. Anyway despite all this talk it doesn’t change the fact that technically this ship is still dumping oil at, and that they're lucky that Far East region (Asia pacific area) doesn’t have an effective enforcement of maritime laws, like in this case MARPOL. As a perception of an expendable rating like myself, doing a lot of prohibited stuff is much easier in a third world country ( and region) is way a lot easier to do than in European or in the America's (atlantic region) , in my case and what I'm experiencing Captain Wai Phyo Aung (myanmar national)  and Chief Mate Sydney Santano D'souza (indian national) know fully the consequences of dumping oil at sea especially in anchorage area and yet they made a willfully disobeyed on the MARPOL law. Why ???? Because these company dogs wanted to impress the company by saving money on the "cleaning crew service" that will de-muck this ship. They care more of pleasing the company than obeying international law or even crew welfare.