HEADING OUT TO THE VOID (AGAIN)

September 01, 2019 Sunday HEADING OUT TO THE VOID (AGAIN)

For months I had been figuring out, on how my training certificates got lost and how could I replace them in a short time. On my recent report on the shipping office, I found out that my Training certificates were not lost but just misplaced and was just sitting there in my Filofax file record for months. In other words , it was just there all along at the office and I didn’t bother to look harder on were my certificates were. Basically since I discovered it was there , my plans on replacing "LOST" certificates are now irrelevant in a good way and saves me the cost and effort.

On my recent visit to the shipping office, it was obvious that I was again yet to be assigned to another TCC ship., unfortunately I didn’t like the TCC ship assignment because the ship assigned to me was infamous for being a shitty "regime" type of working environment. Even oiler "Gilbert" said to me at the café office that ship was avoided by Crew like the plague. Obviously I'm not going that to let it happen, and I'm still wary about the "Shell" campaigns that happened to me last 2017-2018., As much as possible im trying to avoid being entangled on a repressive regime working type of environment.

After lunch break ., I told my crewing manager that I wish to transfer to another principal. The crewing manager told me that the change of principal would meant that a possibility of reducing of salary because different principal offer different salaries. I agreed on the terms said by the crewing manager thinking that the risk of salary reduction is much better compared to living on repressive regime., I think this was the best choice for me and I would get to work better without having any worries and besides I never liked TCC principal anyway.

So I'm reassigned and works for me

Going forward now., Upon my reassignment , I was put on  a medical screening for the new "principal" . And since this will be a different one , the medical clinic as well will be different. The Medical Clinic assigned to me now is Nordic Medical Clinic ., Located near my employers office , just two blocks away.

SOME SIDE NEWS

September 14, 2019 Saturday SOME SIDE NEWS

While I was awaiting for any call coming from my employer , for the moment to be sent to the assigned ship and for the plane ticket to arrive. I went to take care of some of a  few side agenda's while I was in wait.

One of this is to make a financial loan from a lending company, to make up for some bad debts - not on my side but on my sisters. I was never in agreement with my sisters plans and only accepted it reluctantly to make a loan in the condition that I could ask for some of the funds borrowed , for me to use to purchase videogames. My sisters debts in the first place has nothing to do with at all and I was only asked to help out. Unfortunately my loan request was turned down by the lending company, they did not disclose the reasons why but it was evident that if I wanted some financial help - it will not be on their lending company.

Another side agenda that happened recently is that , an infamously known figure in the maritime community here in the Philippines is making again trouble to a small pro-workers group on Facebook social media. The trouble began when Nelson Ramirez Groups (UFS) claims victory over an issue on which a Government Maritime Agency policy was repealed, They claim it was their efforts that made it possible when in reality it wasn’t. It turns out another group was responsible on that effort and Nelson Ramirez was just riding along , and did nothing but take pictures to make it look like they had something to do with it. Nelson Ramirez made no hesitation in attacking the said group by posting negative statements via Facebook

Although it is none of my business to intervene in their quarrel , I did have a vendetta over Nelson Ramirez (the infamously known figure) over the incident that nearly had me blacklisted from being a seafarer four years ago. Thus in that reason I intervene and sided  with the leftist pro-workers group "SMP" (Samahan ng Marinong Pilipino)., I leaked to that group, mug shot pictures of Nelson Ramirez when he was arrested and put to jail over charges of "Cyber Libel" , so that the group could use it as a counter propaganda in Facebook on their part against Nelson Ramirez. 

Immediately as soon as I gave the pictures, the leftist group issued a statement countering Nelson Ramirez black propaganda against them., and stated that "Nelson Ramirez has been jailed before over this matter and was only released via  posting bailed over charges of cyber libel" . I also posted comments on their Facebook page, Ridiculing and Insulting Nelson Ramirez and also made accusations on Nelson Ramirez Anti-Filipino/ Anti-worker activities . I was one of the harshest critics against Nelson Ramirez on that Facebook page and was determined to let everyone know on how crooked he is , that he puts up an act being a labor union leader when in fact he was a company man. 

On my end aside from having a personal vendetta over Nelson Ramirez , the reasons why I made an intervention was that I figured that he may be a good "buffet" over leftist communist labor groups , and that I wanted to see on what will be the results of the confrontation of if ever Nelson Ramirez and UFS would have a full blown clash to a group that is loosely associated with leftist antigovernment communist groups. I'd like to see (if ever that happens) on how destructive their skirmishes will be (both in social media and actual live confrontation)

RESHEDULED AGENDA

Things are not going well on my plans. It was supposedly that office hours on PNTI (training center that issues some of my certificates) should be open on Saturdays., but apparently it turns out that they had no office hours on weekends and my effort dragging my ass all the way from Marikina to Intramurous Manila was a waste. To make it worst weather was awful and it was raining for the whole day ., and with no effective equipment I have at the moment to use on rainy weather. I ended up being soaked wet even before I arriving in PNTI. To add more on being splashed with rain water , The Public transport overshot the bus stop and I had to walk my way toward PNTI Area. 

Upon arriving , like I said earlier. I found that the PNTI doesn’t have offices in weekends , So I took the time asking information on how much does it cost to have a training certificate reprinted. From what the info I learned on the security guard , each certificate cost about 500 PHP.

Since my Polo shirt was soaking , I tried to use the nearby electric fan to dry it off  but the guard there was an asshole and said I couldn't use it and was rude enough to even switch it off. Anyway it was not surprising that security guards act like a total Rude unhelpful A hole in the Philippines., In fact it's pretty common that you'd be surprised how they even get hired on their rudeness levels

In any case i just stayed the a few more minutes then headed back home. On the way I wasn't that conscious if my clothes were soaking wet or not ., nor even cared. By the time I got home., my clothes was horrible from the rain . I changed my clothes and immediately got myself dried.

For the rest of the day , I went back again in planning my moves and edownloading Anime for my hard drive. Eventually I have to restart things again and do the same thing on Monday. I'm expecting that I won't encounter any more setbacks like what happened today.

Current objective for me as of the moment is to replace (Reprint) these six training certificates., and these are.

"Ratings Performing In Navigational Watch"  issued by PNTI

"Basic Training in OIL and Chemical Tanker" Issued by PNTI

"Ship Security Training and Seafarers with Designated Security Duties" issued by PNTI

"Marpol Consolidated" Issued by ZRC training Center

"Basic Training in Liquefied Gas Tanker" issued by ZRC Training Center

the reprinting of BTOCT certificate is the most urgent, because I'm under time pressure to show this from my Marina MISMO Schedule on Tuesday,.

REAL MEANING AND PURPOSE

Honestly I'm in a dilemma right now , perhaps in doubt on whether I should be continuing this Seafarer campaigns any further. As a matter of fact this job has already dragged itself longer than it was originally intended. And that its already pointless at this point.

Basically for me the whole idea of being a "seafarer" has already lost its meaning for me and now basically I'm having doubts whether I should go back again at sea., In fact the only reason why I'm still doing this is not because of the money but because I have nothing else to do besides seafaring. thus I'm stuck on a loop or a cycle as one might put it, until I find something worth continuing. 

I'm doing something that already has lost its meaning.  

HEALTHCARE BEAUROCRACY

Given that my vacation days will come to an end very soon and I'd be starting to go find work again as early as august. My downloading of anime's have shifted now to full gear, and aim that I'd have as many anime's as I can possibly before I'd be sent off to work overseas.

On my situation right now , I think I'm very much ready and prepared now and the only thing that’s missing is my confirmation from my current employer on which ship I'd be assigned with. Of course I had to report back to my company and see what they have for me.

On the past few days I was badly ill from sore throat ( from drinking too much soda)., It was so bad that I had trouble swallow food every time I eat. The infection was bad that I decided to buy anti-biotic., Amoxicillin 500 mg to be specific. Unfortunately for me , I had trouble getting one on the local drug store and they require buyer's to have prescriptions first before actually buying one.

furious that i could not get antibiotics., I made a tweet that drug stores here in the Philippines are pure Bull Shit and assholes for letting people suffer first on a  simple disease that can be cured by anti-biotic. Not even my inflamed throat nor my high fever from it, can stop me from twitting it on twitter. I was really badly ill and feverish ., practically just laying on my bed for the whole day., to add worse on that feeling was my disappointment that no drug store around in my area would let me buy antibiotics - They were total dicks to sick people. Despite being ill i came on another idea , that if I could not buy antibiotics thru simple means , then I have to resort to other methods in buying one. Besides I'm not buying this for reasons like those junkies , but I'm buying this because I'm badly sick.

Honestly I don’t see the logical reasons why Pharmacies here had to restrict antibiotics. Years back I could buy a whole box of it , and it was only categories as "Over the counter medicines" ., People don’t have to worry about getting badly ill of infection back then. Now it's kind of like world war 2 era were antibiotics are getting rare because of restrictions and people have to worry about infections because they can't get meds without a prescription.

Having a prescriptions before getting medicines would be ideal if the Philippines was an industrialized first world country., However it is not , and like any third world country the healthcare here is set in the medieval ways and doctors here along with medical facilities (both public and private) are more interested in profits rather than curing sick people. And in the case of getting first a prescription in the Philippines , Its going to be more complicated because the cost of healthcare (doctors fee, hospital fee plus medical test) cost more than the actual medicines needed and aside from that, it takes them a while to make  an accurate diagnosis  - And by the time that happens a patients disease have already progress to the point that he's already ridden.

I know so based on experience, health care in the Philippines is too overly beaurocratic and profit driven than actual healthcare. Especially government hospital

Anyway going back on my case , I had to resort to the option to contacting my younger  sister  (who happens to work on a pharmacy) to go get me some anti biotics. It really helps having a relative working in a pharmacy were they have access to medicines , and can buy them without the hassle. I asked my sister to buy me one and brought it to me. By the time she came to the house , I was already laying on my bed sick with fever. I took the medicines immediately and in the span of 3 days my health had improved. 

MESSAGE FROM A FELLOW MIGRANT WORKER

Wasn't feeling well on this past couple of weeks , from my ever recurring allergies.  Somehow this allergies I had been having are being more a bother rather than an annoyance. In  any case I didn’t write on this not to discuss my health problems but talk about a message I got from fellow migrant worker. 

When I opened my face book to read the usual threading post , I was surprise to have a message from someone I don’t even knew. At first I was wary, doubtful that I would be getting such mail. I even had thoughts that this would be a "hate" mail coming from my fellow Filipino sailors in the social media, who were simply either jealous to other peoples efforts (crabby mentality) or too blindly "loyal" to their faction companies (a.k.a. "butt kissers", sipsip ) and I already received hate mails from the past .

After a couple of days ignoring the mail , I finally decided to read it and when the first letters came out on the screen it was not as what I expected. It turns out that this was a message from fellow migrant worker and honestly i don't really know what to say or what to write about his message,. It's really uncommon that people do appreciate my blog and work, even more uncommon is receiving praise from a fellow migrant worker telling me to keep up on my work and appreciate my writing

I haven't thanked him fully on his message., and if I did, I don’t really know where to start since I don’t really know his exact name and there is no words to express that someone out there really does understand the life of not only a seafarer but an OFW as well. It's the least I can do to at least thank him here on this blog entry I make.

Whoever you are, you have my respects not only as a fellow OFW but as a fellow Filipino., We are paying the price working overseas because of the mistakes of our fore fathers, who instead of fixing our country , left it in more broken state than it was before.

Here is his message untranslated from our local national language in Filipino.

===================================

Bro! Una sa lahat, Maraming Salamat sa Inspiration na nabibigay mo sa akin araw araw, binabasa ko from the start of your journey sa work mo from being a call center agent to your life as a seaman. Pinahanga mo ako sa laban mo sa buhay after all the struggles sa life mo, you kept your honor and dignity as a man, maski madami ang di nakakaunawa sa principyo mo. Astig ka brod! Isa kang bayani sa akin kasi ako man ramdam ko tulad mo yung araw araw na struggles in life, sa work, mga ka trabaho na mga kupal haha, at hilig pareho tayo, video games! Magkaiba lng tayo ng lakbay, ako landbased ofw ikaw sa gitna ng dagat mas mahirap yung saiyo wala sa kalingkingan kaya kung ako nahihirapan sa work dito sa abroad (saudi as i.t) mas mahirap naman saiyo. Kaya bilib ako dre sa iyo! Tuwing hapon pag napasok ako at nasaharap ng computer ko, iniisa isa kong basahin ang entries mo, nakaka inspire, similar kasi tayo sa ugali, ma pinsepyo at talagang minsan hindi nag papaawat or hindi nag pipigil ng nasaisipan natin at talagang pagnakita atin ang mali, talagang nag rereact na. Madami talagang butt kisser sa company, crabmental na pinoy at sila talaga ang iingatan mo, kasi pwede ka talikuran anytime at pahirapan pa dahil sa inggit. Anyways mahaba na ito, at napadaan lng ako at hinanap ang fb mo para masabi ko sa iyo na nasa 2015 year na ako sa blog mo at patuloy na nagbabasa ng lakbay mo sa buhay. Ingat ka dyan palagi kapatid. Hangga ako saiyo tol. wag ka magbabago sa principyo mo, ikaw ay ikaw at yan ang respeto ko sa iyo. Totoo kang tao sa mundong puno ng kasinungalingan. God bless sa iyo at family mo. Always bro!

===================================================

SMALL STEPS

Only a couple of days left before my vacation should officially end, and somehow I'm not really that optimistic of going back to work and in general be trapped again on a ship full of coconut worshipping people. Frankly I'm really not that eager to go back soon on seafaring, and wish that my vacation would be a little more longer.  In addition , My previous employer TCC is not that comfortable to work with ,to say the least and I'm not looking forward to work with them soon if the need is not that desperate.

To be fair with my current employer , they're no angels but compare to the everyday horror that tormented me on UPL - Shell. I'd definitely rather choose hanging out with TCC than with them.  But in general and given with free will and choice, I would opt for neither of them.

In any case ,I estimate going back again for work wouldn’t take that much effort this time and only left for me to finish are a few simple task like finishing "MISMO" and replacing paper certificates that I lost during my disembarkation on my last ship. In fact I could have already finished the task right about now if I wasn’t hampered with a few mistakes ( like lending people money )and it will serve a lesson for me on my next vacation that I should not lend money to people even if I knew them personally.  People's hearts tend to be fickle especially when it comes to money , and I don’t want to repeat those mistakes that people won't even bother to pay their debts

Anything else besides that is only minor and can be resolve even if I didn’t totally finished it. Speaking of which I haven't finished yet in completing all the anime  downloads that I have to. Starting from the list letter "A" all the way to letter "Z" , I have only made my way in to the letter "G" criteria, so basically there is still a ton for me to work with and download before I get to finish my anime collection. I do hope that before I go back to work , I have already significantly downloaded at least half of the anime catalog on the website.

A lot of people might be wondering on why I'm so much obsessed in collecting media like movies, anime, TV series etc., while I'm still in here in the Philippines. The main primary reason on why I have to do this is because is the fact that since my job requires to be isolated for a majority of time , if not all of the duration of my working contract., I have to have some form of entertainment to reduce the feeling of my work from being in a prison like situation, and at the same time it provides me security to stay inside my cabin all that time and that I don’t have to socialize to toxic people. I'm personally lucky that I became a seafarer in the digital age , and that such huge storage devices for media like hard drives are already common compared to sailors atv least 20 years back.

On my point of view being isolated and shut in is not totally that bad, as what other sailors might perceived, In fact it's totally the opposite in reality and that a Filipino sailor would be better off alone remaining to be Isolated and disconnected from fellow sailors onboard (specifically fellow Filipino sailors). From my personal experience in this work for nearly a decade, socializing with fellow sailors is the worst possible idea a person can think of. There is no assurance that the he or she won't have a toxic obnoxious attitude and will not be a threat latter on., Shunning and practicing isolationism is the right thing to do rather than socialize with toxic people.     

Don’t get me wrong socializing and interacting with people are good , but how can we tell they are trust worthy especially to our own kind (Filipino Sailors). Socializing and trust are two different things , if a person is not confident or trust his surroundings , it would be better off going solo.

During the course of a Filipino sailors career based on my experience. He can only find very few friends on work, only enemies and more obnoxious bosses and co-workers  

M.I.S.M.O.

        (MISMO VIDEO GUIDE I SAW IN YOUTUBE)

Just a few more days for me to wait before I get off on my ass again. Hopefully this should be interesting enough for me in the coming of days ahead.

Speaking of , there have been some changes on MARINA . Apparently from what I have been hearing lately , Marina has apparently shifted in going "Digital" when it comes to processing employment papers for sailors in the Philippines and they named their digital systems of documentation "MISMO" (in English translation from Tagalog local language here, it means "Instant").

In a technological innovation perspective, "MISMO" is a very good idea - that is if the Philippines is a first world country to begin with. In theory "MISMO" system would have been a very effective and efficient way on how to deal the logistical problems of processing working papers for filipino sailors - But like I said, its IN THEORY…..,

Unfortunately it's not and from the looks of it the systems is adding (or feeding) more of the problem in processing documents than solving it. "MISMO" is basically a good invention with a poor implementation scenario.  Apparently instead of processing the documents in a much faster rate , it turns out in reality that the systems is handling the processing of papers on a 450 percent slower than the usual rate. It takes roughly about a month to finish a single set of documents and probably even longer if the seafarer here has to deal with multiple sets of documents.

In any case on my part , I haven't personally gone on that part yet and more likely in had to deal with it later on since I have at least two sets of paper documents for MARINA to register. For now , my only agenda is to recover my brand new passport since I just renewed this last month. After that , it’s the part where I have to deal with this MISMO thing. And then after that I have to report back and show my face around  to my employer for my next ship assignment. On that part , I'm not looking forward in meeting TCC principal again and it would be better if they assigned me to a different ship owner, TCC for me has some issues - serious issues on their working policies.

Changing discussion topic here …

So how prepared am I in case I get reassigned again and be "deployed" on the next ship???

Basically I'm pretty much well prepared and ready. I have already prepared in advance the tools and equipment I'd be needing for the journey and plus keeping my luggage in check within the 20 kilogram limit per luggage (only two luggage are allowed , and one hand carried). The only thing missing on my luggage load out is the medicines and my electronic gear (which there's nothing missing or left out on my electronic equipment , I just simply haven't pack it up yet on my backpack)

For the meds I need , theres no rush rush need for it and most likely it will be completed later on. The meds I will be carrying will depend on what kind of environment the ship will be station with , like for example on what happened on my last ship assignment were the ship is mostly station on tropical weather . In that situation my meds are mostly composed of anti-dehydration and anti-heat medicines to keep me on my feet. If by bad luck I get assigned again on TCC, then I'd just simply reorder the types of medicines I used last time.

One thing I forgot to mention , One minor change will be put on my arrangement in my luggage equipment. On my earlier years most of my electronic gear is stored on my hand carried bag (back pack) . It was fine like that but unfortunately there's no assurance that hand carried luggage will always be "no weight" limit at the airport and given on that kind of situation, I don’t want to end up throwing some brand new flashy media player or computer on the trash bin just because I had to cut weight on what I'm carrying.  So for now most of my electronic will be swapped and put on my second luggage bag (personal items) and in turn some stuff on my second luggage will now be put on my hand carried bag.

It will give me comfort that if ever my hand carried luggage will suddenly be scaled for weight at the airport , The only stuff that I'd just be throwing out will be just some clothes and unessential stuff , not the expensive high end flash stuff.

BACK AGAIN TO WRITING

After months of suffering from "writers Bloc" ., I am now back again on writing and updating my blog. I guess its inevitable that id be back from writing anyway after months of being away.

On those months that I was missing from writing , I was heavily occupied on playing video games, the war multiplayer type of video games like "call of duty :Modern Warfare" franchise. I was deeply engrossed on playing it with my coworkers that for the past months I was at almost playing with them every night and that the only Breather and relief from playing that game was when the ship would be near Australian territorial waters  because everybody is busy hooking up on the internet in social media.

The game was deeply fun and addicting that , I even went thru the effort of making the sequel game ( Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2) copy I got to be playable on LAN connection. It was very rewarding that I got it to work and be played on the local LAN, however despite my much effort on making it playable to LAN. My coworkers never liked the idea, thus we still got stuck in playing the old version of the game in the end till my final days on that ship.

in my final days onboard that ship , was almost smooth sailing and had no problems that I encountered at - In fact the new Bosun is more lenient than the previous one, to the point that I can now LAX on my day to day work. No more are the days that I have to be careful on what I was doing, basically the whole remaining days were trouble free.

My departure on that ship was sudden but not totally unexpected., It was a good thing that I had a contact on one of the crew relievers and that I was already informed by them that they will be arriving soon. In fact if it weren't for their early tip, I would have pack my luggage in a hurried fashion. It was really helpful that I had those contacts and that the information that our beloved Chinese captain was notoriously inaccurate (that cunt only informed me less than 24 hours that my reliever crew would be arriving and the day before that , he clearly said in the meeting that no crew change will be done while the ship is still in port . )

Before i left , I got a good sum of money around as pocket money for things I wanted to buy at the airport. When I disembarked I was dressed really well that I got attention from people onboard., Maybe I dressed so formally that everybody  thought I was attending some sort of wedding or something.

It never bothered me to dress like that , and I had the confidence of wearing it because of two things. One is that the weather in Australia at that moment was pleasant enough for me to wear a formal coat , (although it would have been better if I disembarked at night time hours since the temperature there would have been much cooler like 9 degree's ). The second reason is that I'm not planning to go back again to TCC principal - EVER !! So I'm not holding up on what dress I have to wear since this will be the last time they will be seeing me before I will move on to the next. I don’t think personally that my stay in TCC principal would be enjoyable and I never wanted to settled down on the far east campaign permanently . I still want to be stationed on work in the Atlantic area of the ocean and roam around Europe and the America's. Its pointless to be just hanging around in the pacific,

 

Mean while

Nearly a month has passed since I arrived here, and I had already almost finished the replacement, repairs and upgrade on the equipment I would be using for my next ship assignment.

I would say that my equipment has a lot of changes and would be almost different from the ones I would be using on my previous journey. Almost all of the equipment that I ordered came from an online store (lazada) , and since I,m ordering this on an online store , I don’t need to go to different places just to search those items and I virtually just stayed on my house to wait for it to come and never went anywhere.  I do hope that the equipment I got online is more durable and that I didn’t not practically wasted 15,000 PHP on online items for improvement.

Speaking of cost , it took me only roughly about 25,000 all in all to upgrade my equipment's which includes also some items that is not work related at all. Comparing the numbers on I used to spend before , I could say that my expenses have been very efficient. In fact it's so efficient that the whole payoff I got on this trip could have me going for about 6 to 9 months' vacation. If my sister didn’t  plunder some of my money and used it for her upcoming wedding, I could have lasted on six months' vacation. To sum it up , she got at least almost roughly close to 40,000 PHP in total now. I remember earlier as soon as I got here , She was asking as  much as 50,000 PHP from me which fortunately I turned it down and reduced it to 25,000 PHP instead, Otherwise the total money that would be lost would exceed far more than 80,000 PHP or simply saying its as far as two thirds of the total money I have earned on this journey. I had to turn down and reduce the money she was asking .

In other News

Its been months again and I can't seemed to write about anything at all. Maybe because I was all too busy in gaming that I didn’t notice time went by just like that and I didn’t even bother paying attention at all in updating my blog. Honestly there's no progress on what I have been doing other than sit around and play "Stellaris" on my gaming PC.

Since I have been all hooked up in playing "Stellaris" all this time., I might as well describe it here on my blog entry. First off "Stellaris" is a German made game and its an "RTS" (Real time strategy) kind of game and not a turn based one. Story revolves around on how to build and manage a  stellar empire and conquer an entire galaxy and fight other civilizations out there - galaxy wide, and yes there are space battles here , command and conquer style.  Basically the player here would be building hordes of Fleets and a huge army to maintain a military superiority and at the same time manage civilian structures on a planet.

Story wise , the plot looks more similar to BattleStar Galactica (TV series) or Halo (Video Game francise). The player would be commanding fleets of ships and protecting the settlements, Game is more on civilian management than simply warfare overall.

For me i had been playing this game for at least 3 weeks now and i haven't triggered (or unlocked yet ) the galactic crisis scenario which basically means fighting of some sort of doomsday event with military might. I'm not exactly sure why I haven't triggered that event yet maybe I needed to wait more or maybe I have to unlock some things first. In any case up to this moment, I am still waiting and figuring out on how to unlock it.

THE GRIM REALITY

Most college kids (studying maritime a.k.a "seaman") don't really know this info and few people spoke openly about this system , those who speak and question this working practices are either hunted down and ostracized or worse totally black listed and forever banned to be a seafarer.  .

This is just a repost on the article i had read on a maritime news site , its up to the reader on how he / she will interpret this

https://marine-cafe.com/filipino-maritime-cadets-as-modern-day-slaves/

This illustration is actually half true, In reality its not exactly lasting for months in servitude. In the grim reality its actually years , as in two long years or maybe even longer .

Filipino maritime cadets as modern-day slaves

by Barista Uno | Jul 2, 2019 | Manning and Training, Seafarers' Rights and Welfare | 0 comments

Filipino maritime cadets as modern-day slaves
Most people will find it hard to imagine a maritime cadet being tied to a rope as in the circa-1848 watercolour drawing (pictured above) attributed to Afro-Peruviain painter Francisco (Pancho) Fierro. The indigenous slave depicted is balancing a plate on his head as he follows a Peruvian soldier on horseback. The truth is that the things Filipino cadets do as unpaid office help for the manning agencies and seafarers’ unions in Manila are no less egregious.

What could be more demeaning for a would-be ship officer than to be ordered by a secretary to go out and buy pizza for the company staff? Or to be made to wash dishes and clean the office toilet? Yet, many go through such indignities for the chance to go to sea and complete the 12-month shipboard apprenticeship required for graduation. It could be many months before they finally get the big break.

Anyone with an ounce of moral discernment will see that making cadets work without pay is not only exploitation. It is a form of slavery. Surprisingly, manning agents and even some seafarers find nothing wrong with this shameful practice. They say working for free in a crewing company or a seafarers’ union is voluntary on the part of the cadet. Moreover, the cadet can learn certain office skills he or she can later put to good use as a ship officer. Those who make such stupid arguments overlook or ignore two important points.

First, the cadets who serve as unpaid flunkeys are forced by circumstances to do so. They have very little choice. The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) requires aspiring officers to complete one year of apprenticeship at sea. Alternatively, they can join a vessel as able seaman, wiper or oiler. However, they will have to serve in these capacities for three years versus 12 months for an apprentice officer. That is assuming they can be hired in the first place.

Second, there is a huge difference between servitude and internship. The latter is a legitimate practice accepted around the world and in many professions. It enables the intern, who may or may not get paid, to gain some work experience or satisfy certain requirements for a qualification. Buying pizza for the office staff (some cadets to it whilst wearing their white cadet uniforms) can hardly be called internship.

Interestingly, cadets who are taken in as slave labour by manning companies are referred to as “utility”. The use of the term even by certain academics is very telling. Like the infamous buzzword the human element, it shows how language is used to objectify seafarers and rob them of their humanity. But what else can one expect in maritime Manila with its crass commercialism and decadent culture?

~ Barista Uno