EDITORIAL
The nationality of continuing
ship disasters
GLOBALIZATION is said to draw ire and resentment from
peoples at the margins of the dizzying pace of growth spurred by technological
leaps and bounds and mobility and fluidity of anything that can be rammed
through the digital super highway, especially as the poor people’s identities
and cultures are obliterated by a much vaunted need (or is consequence
of?) to make everyone look and behave alike (like the American icon, at
least). Therewith, the loss of national identity is justified by gain of
the global vision for a single market.
But in the case of the ill-fated tanker Prestige in mid-November
last year, it could not be helped that the nationality of most of the crewmen
(22 or 24, whichever account seems more credible, of the total 27 aboard)
has been highlighted. Filipino seafarers, as the report have it, counting
the majority of the Bahamas-registered ship that became an ecological nightmare
for the Spanish coastal areas, are quietly being blamed. (Incidentally,
Ian Willmore of the Friends of Australia traces the more revealing story
behind the Prestige story in a recent article.)
Dr. Caroline Lucas, in her article entitled “The Laissez-Faire
Misadventure,” said: “The roll call of nationalities involved in the Prestige
disaster reads like a Who’s Who of economic globalization’s biggest bullies
and victims. The ship was crewed by Filipinos, captained by a Greek, owned
by a Liberian firm controlled by a Greek shipping cartel, and registered
under a Bahamian flag by a British broker. The oil, which was being ferried
from Latvia to Singapore, was owned by a Gibraltar-based firm with a Swiss
HQ and a Russian parent company.”
It does matter that Dr. Lucas mentioned Filipinos first
and that she failed to categorize if our seafarers were the victims indeed
in the Prestige tragedy. Elsewhere, of course, the cause of Third World
seafarers is taken up in a manner that the location of the Filipino seafarers
in the globalized shipping industry is both dubious and unclear. In the
Philippines, only left-wing forces are known to have a consistent critique
of globalization, but much less a wholly sound and patriotic view of how
overseas migration is contextualized in a borderless world.
Filipino seafarers, more than any particular workers’
category, serve at the behest of globalization. ITF’s David Cockroft puts
it succinctly that the FOC phenomenon relates directly with the loss of
ships and seafarers’ lives. Relevant to the Prestige, Cockroft said that
what ensures the continuity of such tragedies is a “system that prizes
cost-cutting and commercial secrecy over accountability.” Here it becomes
clear first and foremost that Filipinos would be present every time a ship
breaks, sinks, catches fire, etc. because they are part of the cost-reduction
measures of the irresponsible world of shipping.
At a time when the Filipinos are again reaching fever
pitch over things political or criminal or sexual or all of the above,
the location of our national identification within the general parameters
of a dangerously – and capriciously – globalizing environment needs to
be taken seriously. Of course, it is not one we address to government because
it is deeply enmeshed in its problems, but we ask our patriotic and sensible
sectors to undertake a full accounting of globalization’s impact on our
lives.
Our Filipino seafarers need to take the cudgels for their
own interests for the seafarers’ interests are the Filipino people’s interests.
We should not forget this on a new year. |
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OPINION
EDITORIAL
The
nationality of continuing ship disasters
SOUNDING LEAD
Of
germs and termites
Capt. Reynold M. Sabay
UGONG NG MAKINA AT IKOT NG ELISI
Saan
mo makikita ang kaligayahan?
Engr. Nelson P. Ramirez
SPIRITUAL VOYAGE
Building
the foundation for a family
Apostleship of the Sea - CEBU
THE LAW OF SEAFARERS
The
seafarer’s right to vote
Atty. LeonardoVinz O. Ignacio
VAST HORIZON
The
relevance of World Family Day to seafarers
C/Engr. Rodolfo B. Virtudazo
BEYOND THE HORIZON
Punishing
the victims, only at PRC!
Capt. Brando Lodriga
HEART OF THE MATTER
Filipino
seafarers, center of attention
Apostleship of the Sea - Davao
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Tel. No.: 4290702 |
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