Satya Kamal SST - and the Nielsen / NDTV spat

David vs Goliath, way to go, show them the spurs.

NDTV takes on Nielsen and WPP.

Warm the cockles of your shippie heart if you ever crossed the Pacific. Or wanted to.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Diary-of-a-Divorced-Delhi-Male/entry/of-forked-tongues-and-twisted-data

Monte Cristo yet another hijack in the Gulf of Aden area

http://www.somaliareport.com/index.php/post/1737/MV_Montecristo_Hijacked_by_Somali_Pirates

Another hijack, with Indians and others onboard, of a brand new bulk carrier this time.

More details follow soon.

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Update 13oct'11:- All seafarers onboard were rescued by the NATO led forces, Royal British Navy and US Navy, and all pirates held.

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-D9C32FCD-5C79A24A/natolive/news_79242.htm

The future of seafaring . . .

There is no cogent number on how many seafarers there are in the world, simply because there is a vast range - mainstream ocean going ships, armed forces, research vessels, coastal fleets, inshore transport, pleasure craft, support services, port auxiliaries, and the rest of it. Then, add to this, the vast number of "ir-regulars", from pirates in the Indian Ocean to people forced to work on fishing boats, and on to pure and simple "unknown ventures". The last known figure for seafarers on mainstream ships alone was about 1.2 million, by BIMCO - but way back in 2005. The ballpark figure for seafarers of all sorts, worldwide,  qualified in some form or the other, is around 4-6 million - and may well be more if one takes into account the number of people who are at sea variously and absolutely unqualified.

 

Add to this the number of people from other trades who, for one reason or the other, also work on ships - as inspectors, security personnel, repair workers, hospitality workers on cruise ships and similar - and can be said to have acquired reasonable seafaring skillsets - and you have an even bigger pool of people who can, in some way or the other, work on ships. And who will, obviously, impact the supply-demand economics. Ideally, much of this group of people should have been organised, in one way or the other. Truth is, the number of seafarers who are part of any ITF affiliated agreements, is said to be around 600,000 (ITF, 2010). So, at a modest estimate, almost 90% of the people who are "at sea" are really that - disorganised groups of people without direction or collective strengths.

 

Organised or otherwise - and it is important to remember that the global bastion of worker rights, People's Republic of China, does not permit its seafarers to be part of unions - all seafarers share one thing in common, though - being party to the tendency and economic requirement on the part of the owner and operator to always keep cutting costs. Sure, suitable noises are made about "quality", but if you compare quality of life ashore in other professions with the way quality of life onboard has evolved for the seafarer over the last few decades, then one thing is clear - the shipowners of the world are absolutely aware of how the largely "open register" system of ship-owning works towards making the seafarer a commodity which can be exploited almost at will.

 

There is yet another deeper issue at play - if salaries at sea are increased, and quality of life improved, then more people from the costlier developed countries will want to come to sea. These people will then certainly be well organised, as well as lobby with good success rates with governance in their own countries, to ensure reservations and jobs for themselves. However, at the same time, higher salaries will also lead to more qualified people from these countries coming to sea - and then leaving seafaring early. Because (i) they would have saved up enough in a short time and (b) their qualifications would find a ready market ashore.

 

This, if you are a shipowner looking at a bottomline before anything else, is disaster. First you spend a lot of money training up a lot of expensive people which will also make your ships uncompetitive. Next, these very people will move on rapidly, leading the shipowner into a fresh spiral of high training costs. So, basic truth Number One if you want to be a succesful shipowner is to ensure that the system works to keep seafaring as an inferior career choice, depending more on people coming in from poorer countries, where some minimum levels of competency can be obtained. After that, they have to ensure that their ships are able to employ such people, which is where the conflict between "better than just technically seaworthy" and "open reigster" comes in.

 

Are we, then, likely to see an improvement in quality of life at sea and for seafarers in the near future? Or will it always be a situation where salary is driven by supply/demand as well as cyclical surplus/deficit scenarios, tweaked around a tipping point, where 2% makes all the difference between good times and bad?

 

The answer, as always, is not as simple as pure numbers would lead many of us to believe. Here are some possibilities that may impact things:-

 

# The "Black Swan" effect - where a logical but unseen effect may suddenly cause a huge change in seafarer dynamics. Increasing prices of oil, shut-down of a major trade route, unpredictable weather, and more. The lessons of Suez Canal being shut down in the '70s are not all that far behind us, nor the effects of the various defaults and failures in the financial markets, or simply the possible effects of more regulations impacting shipping.

 

# Higher unemployment ashore in many countries, including the traditional seafaring countries in Europe which saw seafaring going on the back-burner, which could see more people come "back to sea". This, incidentally, is already being observed in England and Scandinavia. Shipowners will always prefer people from their own countries, choosing to save on the foreigners they end up hiring - sanctified by ITF, by the way.

 

# The faint chance that life at sea may well become better soon - with better communications, lesser working hours, bigger complements on board and most of all - introduction of suitable relevant HR practices pertaining to seafarers more than "crewing department" kind of treatment most seafarers are subjected to. Another simple truth and influencing factor - the freshest air is still what you get at sea.

 

In all this and more, morality and ethics have hardly any role to play, especially as far as shipowners and operators are concerned. The drivers are always, but always, purely economic. Due sounds are made, of course, towards flags and nations - but if true beneficial ownerships are analysed, then these seldom, if ever, stand any test of truth.

 

The seafarer, on the other hand, is expected to perform at sea as per a variety of unwritten traditions, the most important one being "ship before self". Never mind double book-keeping on wages, substandard food, tremendous over-work. The psychological demand on seafarers is simply unrelated to the reality of numbers whether onboard or ashore.

 

What, then, is the solution for seafarers? Or are they destined to keep on sailing, generation after generation, with working conditions aimed at keeping them in what is known as "inferior goods" conditions? Truth be told, again, seafaring jobs do tend to fall into the category of "inferior goods", witness the drastic decline in basic courtesies and respect (not) being extended to seafarers by "authorities" worldwide. Be it restrictions on shore leave, criminalisation, or simply the way the juniormost of Customs or Immigration or Health or other categories of people who visit ships officially treat them, it is very clear that the seafarer commands less respect in some case now than, say, a State Transport bus driver. Sad, hard words - but true.

Here's an RTI on l'affaire RAK AFRIKANA that I filed . . .

To:-

 

Shri S.G. Bhandare, PIO, or incumbent PIO, under RTI Act of India 2005,

Public Authority the Dy. Director General of Shipping,

Jahaz Bhavan,Walchand H. Marg, Mumbai - 400 001 ( India)

 

dtd: 10th May 2011

 

Greetings & Jai Hind!!  Most humbly request information under the RTI Act of India, 2005,  please provide me with the following information. THIS INFORMATION IS SOUGHT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, AND THERE IS OVER-RIDING PARAMOUNT LARGER PUBLIC INTEREST TO BE GIVEN THE INFORMATION I HAVE ASKED FOR.

 

+++

 

INFORMATION REQUIRED:-

1) Please provide me a certified copy of following documents held by or available to your public authority. I would also like to inspect all concerned files online personally at New Delhi.

a) Please provide me with full style and address of the RPS agencies involved in recruiting and sending Indian seafarers on board the following vessels which have been hijacked/pirated for the period from 01 January 2010 onwards:- mv RAK AFRIKANA, mv ASPHALT VENTURE and mv SININ.

 

b) Please provide me with full style and address of the entities who are registered owners, beneficiary owners, desponent owners, tax-haven owners, secret owners, any other owners, as well as any entities holding lien on vessel and cargo of the above ships with Indian seafarers onboard:- mv RAK AFRIKANA, mv ASPHALT VENTURE and mv SININ.

 

c) Kindly provide me with information on whether contact has been established by DG Shipping with the entities mentioned in 'a" and "b" above, and if so, details thereof.

 

d) If any of the above said statutory records is not available, the complete details of how it was destroyed / weeded out in each case..

 

e) Electronic access to the catalogue (or catalogues) of all records of your public authority duly indexed in a manner and the form to facilitate right to information, either over the computer networks or in the form of a diskette or other electronic media at the prescribed fees.

 

Sent by eMail and signed hard copy, (signed) and humbly submitted,

 

 

Veeresh Malik,  D-61, Defence Colony, New Delhi - 11oo24   (mobile: 00-91-99118-25500)

 

Note 1:-Application fee of Rs. 10/- in cash shall be submitted within 30 days as per procedure laid down by DoP&T at PIO, DG Shipping, Mumbai, or at any one of the nominated APIOs located at the specified Post Offices in India, and a copy of this application along with receipt shall be sent to you co-terminus. Interim, you are requested to commence processing this RTI Application as per the RTI Act-2005 with effect from date of submission of this electronic copy, also as per the RTI Act-2005.

Note 2:- The public authority, Office of DG Shipping, Mumbai, has not yet published their arrangements to accept / accompany electronic payments for e-filings as per section 6 of the Information Technology Act 2000, is requested to do same, - and hence I am constrained to go to extra expense / trouble to file a routine email request by Postal Department also.

+++

Capt. Prem Kumar, RAK AFRIKANA, and the Indian consul in Dubai . . .

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/newdelhi/Tale-of-fortitude-ends-in-tragedy/Article1-699628.aspx


Their strikes and demands are getting audacious but what Somali pirates, who continue to infest the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, do to the hostages is terrifying. Sanjay Verma, India's consul general in Dubai, would know. For 11 months, he worked for the release of Seychelles-flagged RAK Afrikana, without telling anyone that his brother-in-law was the captain of the 23-member crew, 11 of who were Indians, held hostage by the pirates. He didn't think it was professional.


+++


Read the rest of the article at the link provided.

Jugal Purohit's blog on DG Shipping and the State of Affairs there . . .

This one by Jugal Purohit (of Times Now) is eminently readable . . .


http://thoughtso.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/piracy-dgs-reacts-leaves-none-impressed/

On May 11, 2011, the Mumbai-based Director General (DG) Shipping, under fire for being unable to react effectively to the scourge of piracy affecting Indian men and waters, finally reacted as the agency issued an ’Order’ (available on the website: www.dgshipping.com). For an organisation, long seen as being on sedatives even by its own community of seafarers, this was a sizeable step. However, on closer analysis with various stakeholders, the verdict seems to echo the timeless phrase, ‘too little, too late’.


(Here;s the actual DGS order . . . 


http://www.dgshipping.com/dgship/final/notices/dgsorder4_2011.htm

Prateek Rishi's story - a tribute to Capt. Prem Kumar of the RAK AFRIKANA

We all have a story. It is not only about where we came from, who or what our parents were, and what we or our families have become today.

But it often gets stuck there. That's OK, that's not our fault, but it is the fault of the day and age we live in.

Never mind. So, over the last few days, I've been digging deeper and deeper into the stories of people who were on the RAK AFRIKANA as well as the ASPHALT VENTURE. And I've received a fair number of telephone calls from people who I did not know before.

One, ofcourse, was a series of calls and eMails from the Big People at the Big House in Ballard Estate where it began for many of us, Directorate General of Shipping, DGS, Jahaz Bhavan. A few days after the demise of Captain Prem Kumar, and a few weeks after the big media circus on his return from the RAK AFRIKANA for which everybody from the Foreign Secretary to assorted politicians and union leaders and others took credit - they wanted to know where Prem's family lived so that they could condole.

Make what you want of this - but it just goes to show, there is no time or room for post episode debrief.  A seafarer dead and gone is a statistic. A seafarer who returns is an embarrassment. And one who returns and then dies is extra work.

I got quite a few other calls around the same time, in connection with the ASPHALT VENTURE, and what do I say - as one put it, if we had announced a cocktail party, hundreds of seafarers in and around Delhi would have made it, but to visit and offer simple moral support to the families of the ASPHALT VENTURE detainees - see DGS above, an embarrassment and extra work.

Private and quiet salutes to the few who did reach across, especially the wives, thank you SC, TC, RK, PM, RR, and RR . . . and others.

But the call that really brought me back to my story was one from Prateek Rishi, from far away New York, and I shall reproduce one of his eMails below. It says it all, and it gives me the strength to place my next post in a few hours from now, even at the risk of curdling my own future story.

See, I have reached a point where my memories of being at sea have become bigger than the dreams I have of my future. That's kind of dangerous, the next step would be senility. So,  spent over a year getting my old ticket re-validated, and getting ready to go backl to sea - and now, by taking DGS head-on, am risking all that again.

Fair and square, if Indian seafarers have gone on ships through RPS companies, then the responsibility is with the DG Shipping to ensure their safety. If, on the other hand, the DG Shipping made conditions so lax and unethical that RPS companies could send Indian seafarers onboard ships which were registered behind the usual "care-of" kind of tax-haven FOC addresses, then that was and is certainly DG Shipping's fault.

And that's where this is heading for next - even if I risk my return to sea, as people tell me I am doing. But then, I would not be doing justice to my story, on why I chucked up sailing decades ago, right?

+++

If I were to sign on a contract of a foreign ship, I'd ask to see the anti-piracy measures the Company is taking, and how they are equipping their vessels that are going anyway near the South of Suez and the African East-Coast. The Shipowner/Charterer/Managers HAVE TO convince me with documentation, as to what measures would be taken when the vessel is hijacked and I am taken hostage and become a bait to torture. I'd simply like to see BAGS AND BAGS of money being handed over to my family for each form of torture I undergo, right from when that damn skiff comes within boarding distance of my ship and psychological torture begins. With each slapping, spitting, choking, pressure-point pushing, crushing, skin scalding, skin burning, burning of the balls, strangling, flogging, shoving, pushing, beatings, the money bags have to be flowing. The amount of money flowing to my family needs to be MUCH MORE than what the pirates are asking for. (By the way, all of the above torture methods were REPEATEDLY used on Capt. Prem Kumar.)

 

If this can not be done, then, weld some Automatic Weapons on the Port and Starboard Poop Deck and front of the accommodation bulkheads, under life-boats, and on the Focsle.

 

My 'Serang' will sew canvas covers for them and Cadets can stencil them. Put a freaking grease-nipple on it and my Mate will put it in his maintenance schedule. The guns should be on a separate electric circuit and firing should be controlled by the Ship's Authorized Users only. The guns should be Top four or 6 folks should be given the codes to open interlocks, load and fire the guns. The guns should be able to be panned and tilted and fired from the Bridge or Radio Room. CCTV should be able to show personnel around the guns and deck PA system to warn them of "Gunning Stations"!! Gun-sights should be interlocked with additional CCTV, remotely available to the Bridge, for targeting, aiming and firing.

I am asking for fixtures on the vessel that can not be carried around to settle a drunken brawl.

There should also be a couple of handguns in the Master's Safe.

These are active measures.

 

Passive measures would be having something like removable barbed, bladed, wire, installed along the ship's rail while at sea, or any other measures like high-voltage pulsating current, or whatever the design allows to afford active prevention of persons boarding the vessel.

Only then, would I sign on, onto a vessel!

It is EASY to fire a gun. Especially easy once you paint a picture of how you can be tortured when caught. Training for all this is easily available. Send a polite email to Somalia with a photo of the vessel. And then, "Bring 'em on!!"

 

I DON'T CARE, at this point, FOR THE CARGO, THE SHIP, THE CHARTERERS, THE SHIPOWNER, THE BANK, THE FLAG STATE, CLASS, LLOYDS, UNDERWRITERS, whatever. Any skiff coming within 50 yards of me and not declaring their intention, will be warned, my Owners/Charterers/Underwriters/Class etc. will be "informed", and threat will be awaited. I will be the first to fire - after reasons have been obtained and logged, and it has been determined (I determine, not the authorities sitting behind in front of a computer-screen!!) that firing was in the best interest of the Ship's crew and the vessel/cargo.

 

I'll die fighting, if need be. Not getting tortured. 

And remember those BIG payments to my wife ...

(It may all, then, be worth it!!)

Authorities don't have a consensus on the issue of piracy. The Bank, Shipowner and Charterers have their individual interests. Then there is somebody waiting for that crap that was made in China and is in that container, and somebody is waiting for his car to be offloaded so that he can drive it from the dealer and park it in his driveway. 

"Honey, I don't care for which car we drive or how much Chinese crap we have in our home! All I care for is seeing that you will be paid well enough in case I am not to come back, and that you'll be able to bring up our kids the way we had imagined. I know you'll need more than emails and phone-calls of condolences when I am gone. Flowers are not going to be enough to feed the family!!"

Aaah! Felt nice to write all the above!

 

For those who may worry about how I put bread on my table, rest assured, it has not been coming from Sea, since a long while now! Yeah! With an attitude like above, who'd offer me a contract, right?!!! However, I do have strong sentiments to the fraternity and really wish to see a sea-change in the Industry.

The community, as a whole, needs to do something together.

Really thinking, does it cost much to put 7 automatic guns on the vessel, and linking them to remotely aim and fire from the Bridge? At the going rate of approx. 3 Million dollars of ransom, plus the off-hire times, this retrofit, I can do for the Shipowner - for under 3 Million. Shipowners, are only playing the lotto by going in that area and hoping that their vessel will not get caught. Freight rates for that area have already been up by almost a couple of dollars per tonne. That covers CARGO - dumb, useless Coal, Iron Ore, Crude, etc. Nobody is talking of the Master - the one who'd get tortured, or his Crew!

Have a nice day, folks. Thanks for reading it through!

Prateek

 

 

+++

 

Thank you, Prateek, you put it better than I have been able to do in decades. And now, bring them on DGS . . . as we head towards something that will make the IOA, CWG and DGCA scams look like so much spray on deck. . .

Trying to understand Somalian Law

To a large extent, it appears as though we can relate more to Somalian Law, than if we expect the Western World to do so. Here's a brilliant article on the subject:-

http://www.idaratmaritime.com/wordpress/?p=334

""Somali society, that is the clan-based system, relies on a combination of Islamic shari’a law and customary law, known as xeer. Xeer law is not the same as shari’a law, it is an oral system which has not been formally codified and is controlled by male clan elders, known as the xeer begti or isimadda. Xeer law is pre-Islamic in origin, and is not a version of shari’a law. According to Andre Le Sage the general principles of xeer law include:
1        collective payment of diya (or blood money, usually paid with camels and other livestock) for death, physical harm, theft, rape and defamation.
2        maintenance of inter-clan harmony.
3        family obligations.
4        resource-utilisation rules."

+++

Read more on the idarat website . . .

Asphalt Venture - bad news

Terrible, keeping the Indian seafarers back.

Here's the report from EcoTerra on the episode:-

BOTCHED PIRATE SHIP RELEASE SEES INDIAN HOSTAGES LEFT BEHIND IN SOMALIA (ecop-marine)
Emirati-owned MSV ASPHALT VENTURE steams off with only half the crewWhat serious analysts predicted since long in the Somali piracy circus are cases where the amateur negotiators and deliverers, who are often friends of friends in the insurance industry, create more difficulties than they solve with ill-conceived ransom drops and not at all planned, insecure release operations.
After a drop of a compared to other recent releases much smaller amount of a ransom today to the pirate gang on the vessel, the sea-shifta left but took with them seven hostages of Indian nationality.
Immediately followed by the usual news-hounds from the often in these very sensitive situations too fast media, different versions concerning the why the Somalis hold the seven Indians were circulated:

"The ship has just sailed away but we have taken some of its Indian crew back because the Indian government is currently holding our men. We need the Indian government to free our men so that we can release their citizens." a wire service reported an alleged pirate calling himself Ahmed as saying. And another wire spread: "We decided to keep the Indian because India is holding our colleagues," the [alleged] pirate, Hassan Farah, said. "We released the other crew members who sailed away from our coast. We will keep these Indians until the Indians release our colleagues."

These news-clips were widely reprinted, though they might hold little substance. But as a matter of fact there are over 120 Somalis nabbed during Indian anti-piracy campaigns in Indian jails and the Somalis have been angry since many weeks and also mistreated especially Indian seamen on other hostage ships due to this situation.
However, we want in the moment therefore only report that - according to our own monitors - the seven seamen are alive and are held around 30km outside of Harardheere and that in our opinion still all options are possible. The traditional Xeer system of legal understanding, widely accepted by the traditional population of Somalia, allows for different solutions to achieve justice in their understanding - some options, however, can be drastic.
Immediately when the pirate gang made for the land, the captain of MV ASPHALT VENTURE started the engines and steamed together with his remaining seven Indian crew off the Central Somali coast near Ceel Gaan, leaving the other seven seafarers to their unsecure fate at the hands of the Somalis.
But meanwhile also the vessel run into trouble, though no more pirates are on board, because the ship reportedly encountered problems and could not proceed in her voyage. Fuel or mechanical problems could be the cause.
If ransom couriers get arrested and briefly jailed like recently in Djibouti, where they then first had to buy themselves free with a hefty handshake and part of their own loot in the exercise, such is just a story for the round-tables of the security and risk-management companies but if a release operation is so shoddily planned and executed like it is obvious in this case, the families are advised to also seek legal redress from those responsible for such blunder.
BACKGROUND: (ecoterra)
MT ASPHALT VENTURE : Seized September 28, 2010. The Panama-flagged asphalt tanker MT ASPHALT VENTURE (IMO 8875798) was captured on her way from Mombasa - where the vessel left at noon on 27. September, southbound to Durban, at 20h06 UTC = 23h06 local time in position 07 09 S 40 59 E. The vessel was sailing in ballast and a second alarm was received at 00h58 UTC = 03h58 LT. The ship with its 15 all Indian crew was then observed to have turned around and is at present commandeered northwards to Somalia. EU NAVFOR confirmed the case only in the late afternoon of 29. September. Information from the ground says a pirate group from Brawa had captured the vessel and at first it was reported that the vessel was heading towards Harardheere at the Central Somali Indian Ocean coast, while the tanker had first contact at the Somali coast near Hobyo and was then commandeered further north. The vessel is managed by ISM manager OMCI SHIPMANAGEMENT PVT LTD from Mumbai and owned by BITUMEN INVEST AS from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, who uses INTER GLOBAL SHIPPING LTD from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates as ship-handler. The Government of India and other authorities are informed. Concerning the condition of the crew so far no casualties or injuries are reported, but the vessel seems to have had an engine problem. Negotiations had commenced but have so far not been reaching anywhere. Vessel and crew were held off Kulub at the North-Eastern Indian Ocean coast of Somalia, then had been transferred southwards to Ceel Gaan in the Harardheere area at the Central Somali Indian Ocean coast with negotiations more stuck than smooth; and when the crew reportedly had no more food, clean water and diesel a hasty and ill-planned release against a ransom drop was enacted on 15. April 2011. While the vessel got away at least for some distance until it developed problems and couldn't continue, seven Indian crew were left behind on the beach, who continue to be held as hostages.

Families and friends of seafarers who are stuck due to piracy in Somalia or elsewhere.

Dear family members and friends of seafarers who are currently stuck onboard ships hijacked or pirated. Our hearts go out to you. And we understand your problems like only other seafarers can.

Kindly contact the undersigned at any time by email in case you need any help or information or simply wish to seek advice or propagate your case with other seafarer groups.

Thank you.

Veeresh Malik

Radio programme on Somali & Indonesian Pirates . . . BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01095mf/The_Sea_Gangsters/

Absolutely chilling. Please listen and pass this on to your seafarer friends. We have been quiet too long.

Anti-Piracy - what do YOU want??

Ok, so one has been attending a few seminars and conferences on the issue of piracy, mainly one-way gab-fests which don't merit even a passing mention - since they seem to be monopolised by people who are not necessarily old but are certainly behind times in their approaches to reality. For example, the BIGGEST flaw in these seminars and conferenes is that the actual seafarer on the frontline of piracy does not have a simple voice.

In addition, there are these meetings and discussions held at various levels in governance, the notes and reports on which come out partially in the media a few days later and on the RTI boards after some time - when they aren't "leaked" by assorted interested parties. As of now, barring some rapid steps taken by the Indian Navy when they were finally given the brief, the rest is of not much real good. Oh yes, the Foreign Ministry diplomats are doing a good job too, somewhere, but that's always under wraps, till wikileaks brings those out.

In a way, that's good - the anti-piracy movement ashore could do with some more discretion too. But that's as long as there IS an anti-piracy movement. Which, even if it is, does not seem to be filtering down to the seafarers on the ships.

As a result, courtesy the rapid evolution of social media onboard, natural progression to the way it has moved ashore - some of us who have been more than vocal on the subject are receiving inputs from seafarers who would otherwise not have a voice. Even this, cloaked behind earnest requests for anonymity, is rare. But it seems to be growing.

Here are some examples;-

1) Facebook seems to have a few groups on the subject already, some are open to all, some are closed and some are by invitation. Once in, the discussions are fairly controlled, but the message gets across - there seems to be no shortage of people who will not go into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean piracy impacted areas in a hurry. However, poverty worldwide being what it is, reality and truth is that there are others willing to go in too.

2) On Indian seafarers, I have seen a rise in the statistics on my blog and articles pertaining to piracy, on this blog and elsewhere. Even older articles are being read, and re-read - and then distributed further or linked ahead. That feels good, too.

3) Most importantly, I have to word this carefully, assume a scenario (like in orals . . .) where I have also had access to a few email messages to the effect that - we or my spouse/son are on such-and-such ship which is heading into the piracy area, we have not got any anti-piracy measures on board other than fire hose and some barbed wire, we do not want to sail but the owners/managers are telling us they will give us a DR and play around with our wages. On top of that, the ship is in terrible shape and there are rumours that the owner has sold it, taken huge insurance and is now purposely moving into an insurance game.

And so, I have sent such and such photos and such and such scanned documents to such and such person, and if something happens to me then please make sure they are published but only if something bad really happens to me.

What would you do in my place, dear reader?

+++

The power of social media can not and should not be under estimated by the regulators, owners, operators, classification societies, flag states, port states and everybody else involved.

Views invited.

if we DO NOT want to see shipping become a pigsty like civil aviation in India . . .

One way of looking at the recent controvery on fake and fraudulent licences in the aviation industry in India and also in some other countries is to say, oh hey, it doesn't impact us in the Merchant Navy. We have this wonderful system of flag state, port state and every other state possible which will protect our reputations as well as ensure we are competent. In addition, the paperwork is so long and cumbersome, that it automatically sifts out the chances of any problems. Plus, because of security and customs regulations, nobody will come near our ships anyways.

The other way of looking at things is to realise that, hey yes, there are deficiencies in the whole system, not just in India, but all over the world. And that the sooner we take some pragmatic steps to fix things, the better for us as individuals and for the industry as a whole and most importantly - for the Nation as a larger National Interest. And even if they don't come near our ships, those who want to find out will stand outside the Ministry and DG Shipping and find out what they want - after they've hired boats to take photos of ships outside ports and visited family members.

So, without pointing any fingers, what can be done rapidly to clean up things in the whole certification programme and training in India - so that we are not caught with our pants down if somebody does the equivalent of a nose landing on an aeroplane, at sea? What, for example, could be amongst the most stupid things a seafarer could do?

Here are two simple examples of two of the biggest news-making marine accidents in recent past. They made news because of possible pollution issues as well as passengers in danger. But hardly any news on the real cause of the incident. Mainly because the shipping lines along with their flag state, port state and classification societies were able to keep the noise level down. Very simple - keep the media away, and keep the people onboard silent.

# Go aground on an island, thinking it was a dense cloud, sighted only on the radar, making coffee instead on the bridge taking precedence to looking out.

# An uncontained crank-case explosion leading to leakage of a thin film of diesel causing a total engine room fire, because the duty engineers had no experience of how to react.

Luckily for us, the mainstream media does not have the faintest clue of what happens on board ships, and almost all of us from the old school of thought believe that the media is a terrible animal to be kept at bay. When was the last time any shipping company invited media onboard their ships, for example, other than for a fancy party during launching or taking over, and even that ashore at a hotel? Like a response to the various questions put by a Superintendent ashore - please let me know this, this, and this - and also please let me know if you understand the effect if media comes to know, and provide a response by 0800 hours tomorow morning Singapore time.

At the same time, for piracy and criminalisation and other increasingly relevant problems, the industry wants to use the media, by one means or the other - and that is a simple truth too. The media, the mainstream meida, is a double edged sword, and once an industry rides the tiger, there is no getting off.

So, before the s___ really hits the fan - and the way social media is growing, especially with seafarers at sea increasingly having access to the internet as well as other mediums to propagate their views - it is a question of time before people onboard ships start coming out with their truths. instead of keeping quiet. Already younger people are writing in direct to this magazine, as well as to some of the writers here, and if not allowed to maintain blogs on board - then saving up material, photographs, evidence, to publish at a later date. A few photographs of oil being pumped out, dirty food, unsanitary conditions on board, safety irregularities, rusty conditions, or anything like that - and by chance any of them go viral - that's it. Owners of the MSC CHITRA will know what one is writng about, and the KHALIJA III even more so.

So here are a few suggestions to the powers that be, and SAILOR TODAY invites comments as well as further responses on the subject.

1) To start with, face it, the best thing in the Indian Merchant Navy's certification system is that the main Competency Certification is still done by the regulatory authoirty - the MMD and DG Shipping. You can not be a certified deck or engine officer unless you have cleared your "tickets", issued by the Government, wonderful. Luckily for us, unlike in the aviation sector, this has not been left to the training schools. Except for the entry level. Still, there is ample room for manipulation even there, and it is about time that the examinations for aspirants leaving training institutions need to be carried out by a government body before the youngsters are allowed to even step onboard a ship. Even as cadets.

This may certainly place a heavy load on the already overloaded and creaking system - well, so be it. There are ways of using infotech to do this, online exams under supervision are only one way, but  atleast there will be some standardisation on who steps on board a ship and who doesn't. Currently all sorts of lack of capabilities along with well trained people manage to get documents enabling them to get onboard - that has to be fixed.

2) Next, for the Certificate of Competencies, the courses need to be reviewed, rejuvenated and renewed with urgency. The British in their wisdom left us an examination system in the Merchant Navy that still works on learning by rote, memorising vast amounts of often useless and defunct information, and then spilling it out in large volumes on paper. The whole method is geared towards memorising solutions of questions, so that books published decades ago can continue to be sold, in a mutual backscratch venture that would put cats and monkeys to shame. This has been said umpteen times before, then people get their tickets, and forget about the whole thing - meanwhile, the system goes on. Same holes are there on the same charts for ROC, right?

This has to be changed - more syllabus drawn from actual life on modern ships as well as even more importantly - from future design and technology expected on ships. For reasons of my own I took 27 years between two subsequent levels of competency - and the syllabus was exactly the same as done by my batchmates who cleared well in time. In between, I had moved on, headed a Silicon Valley tech company where skillsets were changing every three months - and saw how the youngsters coming in were keeping up in those industries. Matter of fact, the rise of employment potential in the shipping industry for Indians could have been as exponential as in the IT industry, if only the system had moved on with the times.

Here, the young people doing their "tickets" with me were actually being asked to regress back in time, learn about stuff that had gone out 3 decades ago - and then go on really state of the art modern ships to unlearn everything so that they could work on things they had to learn from scratch on their own using tech manuals provided by the equipment supplier. What was the use of the examination, then?

3) The grand wonder called "orals". Sit with the younger people doing their tickets nowadays and listen to them - it is almost as though we are living in archaic times. Such and such surveyor demands that you must wear a suit. Another one expects you to wait for hours and sometimes days before calling you in. Yet another one expects you to wear a shirt in such and such colour and shoes of a particular sort. Many of them are keen to show what they know rather than extracting from you what you know or don''t know. Some will argue about what you were taught by somebody because they don't like that college or instructor. Yet some more will go out of course. And bar none, it seems that almost all of them treat the candidate like SHIT, because of their own insecurities or because that is how it was always done.

It is about time that all orals were video recorded, and that candidates were given a chance to go in for appeal in case they felt their results were incorrect, and in a manner that prevents those candidates from being harmed in revenge by vindictive surveyors. A certain percentage of failed candidates along with those who have asked for appeals to be given repeat attempts very soon after being failed needs to be introduced, and the process being done in such a way that the candidates have more faith in the system. In addition, minimum and mximum time limits to be set for orals, so that schedules are not disturbed.

4) The reality of non-Competency courses, also known variously as Modular or STCW and similar courses, is well known. With 100% pass percentages, lax attendance criteria and very often dis-interested instructors, this is one reality that is going to come back to bite us one day. Here again, some institutes are very thorough and professional about the seriousness with which they take charge of these courses, and at some other institutes it is simply a pay your fees kind of formality.

It is about time that the exams for the non-Competency courses were also streamlined and held by a central government agency, so that there could be some standardisation, especially since some of these modular courses deal with extremely important topics which can impact life and limb.

5) And last but not the least, the document trail, especially things like the linkage between the INDOS number, the CDC, the CoC and the rest of the documents. This needs to be sharpened up very rapidly, and details available online, as was supposed to have been done years ago.

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The future success of the Maritime certificate of competency system in India, and therefore subsequently and as a result the credibility of the CoC, will depend totally on the open-ness and transparency shown by the authorities. As well as their willingness to change with the times.

Otherwise, we have the example of the DGCA in front of us - and believe me, it is like people are baying for the blood of officials there. Interim, the credibility of pilots of Indian origin has taken a very big beating.

We do not want to see that happening to the Indian Merchant Navy.


Do we??

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The best article so far on the piracy situation in the Indian Ocean

Long read.


http://www.idaratmaritime.com/wordpress/?p=261


http://www.idaratmaritime.com/wordpress/?p=261&cpage=1#comment-10928

About the best I've read on the subject. This is not just Somalia or Puntland - this impacts the complete Indian Ocean now - and beyond. Read it!!

"Some seafarers have been beaten, some have suffered mock executions, and some—fortunately, not many—have been killed.Their plights, and that of their families anxiously awaiting news, are often overlooked when the consequences of piracy are examined.  Since the year 2003, pirates worldwide have kidnapped or taken hostage more than 4,000 seafarers.  Some seafarers who have been captured by pirates are so traumatised by their experience that they are unable to go back to sea after their release[54], while the possibility of a hijacking is one of the factors contributing to a general shortage of merchant sailors."

SAVE OUR SEAFARERS / (SAVE OUR SAILORS) / SOS

Here's a link to an article on the experiences of the South Korean captain of a ship hijacked by the Somali pirates, and used as a "mother ship" to capture other ships.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/02/16/58/0301000000AEN20110216006600315F.HTML

Suffice it to say, the piracy issue gets worse for seafarers by the hour, without much being done in the real sense of the word - especially for those sailing on FOC / Open Register ships.

So what should we do?

Watch this space.

As part of a SAILOR TODAY initiative, we will be launching an initiative, very soon.

SAVE OUR SEAFARERS. Really. SOS.