4 ms·

Renewing our respect for invisible essential workers of the seas

68 points by jonbaer 5y ago

bkor 5y ago
> [..] In March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the world, travel restrictions left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stuck onboard their ships, working way past their contracted dates as they were unable to return to shore for repatriation. > At the time, few states acknowledged seafarers as key workers, making travel extremely difficult, if not impossible. Since then a number of countries have acknowledged their status and more recently, certain states have rolled out vaccination programmes. Imagine being at the at of a very long working period, months on sea. Then at the end you're asked to work for several more months. This as your relief cannot travel to you. Many additional months later you finally can be relieved. Except now there's still the issue of leaving the vessel, many countries ban you from leaving the vessel (often cannot even go to shore). Meanwhile the big shipping companies have been reaching out to their governments to try and fix this. Just to be ignored, basically. Only a month ago or so I noticed The Netherlands vaccinating everyone on a Dutch flagged vessel. This instead of only vaccinating the Dutch people on a Dutch vessel. It's quite shameful how these seafarers were treated by pretty much every country in the world.
- okl 5y ago
  There's a 101 East episode on Al Jazeera on that topic: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2021/7/1/forgotten-at-sea https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2021/7/1/forgotte...
  - eutectic 5y ago
    Also a good episode of the podcast '99% Invisible' on the topic (although not specifically in the context of COVID-19).
- fennecfoxen 5y ago
  Egypt (home of the Suez Canal) has done some pretty ugly things to the people who had been staffing abandoned vessels. Take this guy, who was essentially imprisoned aboard for four years without power, communications, or the like: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56842506.amp https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56842506.amp
drukenemo 5y ago
Who except for very prominent professionals are not invisible to the world at large? It’s a nice article and it’s good to remind us of the amount of individuals dedicated to activities in the ocean.
- fennecfoxen 5y ago
  "Firefighters". "Doctors". "Police". Heck, even garbagemen are more visible to the world at large.
dugmartin 5y ago
It has been that way for a while. Fun fact: during WWII merchant marines got the short shift. The died at a much higher rate than soldiers and sailors and when they got back they were denied veterans benefits including the GI Bill.
dominotw 5y ago
Forget about respect, how about basic human rights. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/world/outlaw-ocean-thailand-fishing-sea-slaves-pets.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/world/outlaw-ocean-thaila...
poopsmithe 5y ago
"essential workers" has been my least favorite invention in recent memory. If a person is providing value to their community, they are essential.
- Hayarotle 5y ago
  There are degrees of essentiality, though. A MLM salespeople strike would have a much smaller impact in our standard of living than a corn growers strike, for example.
throwawaysea 5y ago
I don’t mean to diminish marine workers specifically, but isn’t every job essential? I see this label used pretty much all the time now and my feeling is that in the end, it comes down to supply and demand. To their customer, any worker is essential to some extent, since they demand their labor to fulfill some need. But the worker is not infinitely essential since for high enough compensation, others would step in to do the job as well. So why have the label? It feels like it is used as a marketing device for change (like pushing for wage increases) more than anything.
- CamTin 5y ago
  My job is definitely not essential (I work in ops for a category of app where nobody dies even if it is unavailable for years at a time). "Essential workers" are the flipside of "bullshit jobs". If grocery stores aren't stocked, if docks aren't open, if crops aren't planted and harvested, people die. It actually matters. Nobody dies if the marketing department for a craft brewery can't work for a year, or if the design team for free-to-play RPG #20,345 fails to release a new kind of in-game currency.

68 points by jonbaer 5y ago

bkor 5y ago

> [..] In March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the world, travel restrictions left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stuck onboard their ships, working way past their contracted dates as they were unable to return to shore for repatriation. > At the time, few states acknowledged seafarers as key workers, making travel extremely difficult, if not impossible. Since then a number of countries have acknowledged their status and more recently, certain states have rolled out vaccination programmes. Imagine being at the at of a very long working period, months on sea. Then at the end you're asked to work for several more months. This as your relief cannot travel to you. Many additional months later you finally can be relieved. Except now there's still the issue of leaving the vessel, many countries ban you from leaving the vessel (often cannot even go to shore). Meanwhile the big shipping companies have been reaching out to their governments to try and fix this. Just to be ignored, basically. Only a month ago or so I noticed The Netherlands vaccinating everyone on a Dutch flagged vessel. This instead of only vaccinating the Dutch people on a Dutch vessel. It's quite shameful how these seafarers were treated by pretty much every country in the world.

okl 5y ago
There's a 101 East episode on Al Jazeera on that topic: https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2021/7/1/forgotten-at-sea https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2021/7/1/forgotte...
- eutectic 5y ago
  Also a good episode of the podcast '99% Invisible' on the topic (although not specifically in the context of COVID-19).
fennecfoxen 5y ago
Egypt (home of the Suez Canal) has done some pretty ugly things to the people who had been staffing abandoned vessels. Take this guy, who was essentially imprisoned aboard for four years without power, communications, or the like: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56842506.amp https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56842506.amp

drukenemo 5y ago

Who except for very prominent professionals are not invisible to the world at large? It’s a nice article and it’s good to remind us of the amount of individuals dedicated to activities in the ocean.

fennecfoxen 5y ago
"Firefighters". "Doctors". "Police". Heck, even garbagemen are more visible to the world at large.

dugmartin 5y ago

It has been that way for a while. Fun fact: during WWII merchant marines got the short shift. The died at a much higher rate than soldiers and sailors and when they got back they were denied veterans benefits including the GI Bill.

dominotw 5y ago

Forget about respect, how about basic human rights. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/world/outlaw-ocean-thailand-fishing-sea-slaves-pets.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/27/world/outlaw-ocean-thaila...

poopsmithe 5y ago

"essential workers" has been my least favorite invention in recent memory. If a person is providing value to their community, they are essential.

Hayarotle 5y ago
There are degrees of essentiality, though. A MLM salespeople strike would have a much smaller impact in our standard of living than a corn growers strike, for example.

throwawaysea 5y ago

I don’t mean to diminish marine workers specifically, but isn’t every job essential? I see this label used pretty much all the time now and my feeling is that in the end, it comes down to supply and demand. To their customer, any worker is essential to some extent, since they demand their labor to fulfill some need. But the worker is not infinitely essential since for high enough compensation, others would step in to do the job as well. So why have the label? It feels like it is used as a marketing device for change (like pushing for wage increases) more than anything.

CamTin 5y ago
My job is definitely not essential (I work in ops for a category of app where nobody dies even if it is unavailable for years at a time). "Essential workers" are the flipside of "bullshit jobs". If grocery stores aren't stocked, if docks aren't open, if crops aren't planted and harvested, people die. It actually matters. Nobody dies if the marketing department for a craft brewery can't work for a year, or if the design team for free-to-play RPG #20,345 fails to release a new kind of in-game currency.