If you're interested in shipping I highly recommend the YouTube channel of Chief Engineer Makoi https://www.youtube.com/c/ChiefMAKOi. He has been talking about Mr. Aisha's situation for some time now. Really awesome to see that he's been relieved.
Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
131–140 of 426 posts
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#132His ship has been sitting still for so long that you can see it on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/%D8%B3%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%86%D... Edit: a few more story details here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/19/ever-giv... When he rows to shore to get supplies he can only stay for two hours at most as the area is a restricted military zone. Other crew members were repatriated in September 2019,…
And Google Maps lists it as a "Shopping Mall"
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#133His ship has been sitting still for so long that you can see it on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/%D8%B3%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%86%D... Edit: a few more story details here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/19/ever-giv... When he rows to shore to get supplies he can only stay for two hours at most as the area is a restricted military zone. Other crew members were repatriated in September 2019,…
And Google Maps lists it as a "Shopping Mall"
it's where i go to buy despair.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#134The Egyptian legal system is not known for its fairness... the World Justice Project ranks it 125 of 128 surveyed countries, in last place out of 8 countries in the Middle East[1] Similarly (and tragically) the Syrian government is not known for its compassion towards its distressed citizens. [1] https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/country/Eg...
Of course, many third world nations have little regard for their multitude of poor citizens. But I think it's important to high light the way that in situations like this, these nations are forced to accept that the "laws of the sea" trump their own laws and then wind-up unable/unwilling to intervene when a ship, a load of goods or a person winds-up in international legal limbo - the true, horrific poster-child for this was the disastrous Beirut explosion. Enough explosives to level half the city sat in legal limbo for years ... until they did that, yeah. And as we see here, there are many terrible but more mundane examples.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#135Folks - this is what we are outsourcing and externalizing. When foreign entities are able to bid for a lot less, and pay a lot less, a lot of it has to do with the fact that they will not bother with 'end of life' for ships, or getting insurance, or worrying about the lives of people who are 'expendable'. Those very nice buildings in Dubai come from some nasty labour practices. If every piece of this puzzle from end-…
Nasty labour practices... It's just slavery. This poor gentleman was forced into slavery.
You're right that this is what we're outsourcing. All of the corporate trade agreements - American manufacturing was shipped overseas, and American labor forced to compete with what is often a modern form of slave labor.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same. I help put deals together with some experience in SE Asia. The ability to enforce contract and property rights in the US, with ready access to the courts and relatively clear rules, sets the US apart in terms of business efficiency and predictability. In my assessment, it's a large part of what's made the US so prosperous. In contrast, dealing with corrupt officials in smaller countries in SE Asia is just wild.
Not once, but multiple times I've had police simply steal cash from me in the states. Not civil forfeiture, but the cash in a wallet disappears on it's way to where it's held temporarily, no crimes involved. And from rich areas like Boulder, CO. I have not seen the lack of low level corruption in the states compared to other countries. Like in other countries they simply confine their corruption to those powerless to…
What are you doing in your life that you've had your wallet confiscated by the police multiple times?
Not judging, just curious.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#137Is there something that could be done by people otherwise uninvolved - like myself, or my fellow HN readers - to help the other ~250 people who are currently stuck in similar situations? I don’t even know how to go about enumerating who those people are, their ships, or where they are anchored. With that information a well-organized and/or funded group could at least get someone out to these people to check on them,…
From reading the article, they just for some legal reason need a person on board the ship.
So maybe people could volunteer to replace them on a rolling schedule.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#138A friend of mine who's working on installing multimedia systems on luxury yacht told me a recent story today: a woman came from Florida to work on a yacht that was called by his owner to some place. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to her she had COVID. all of the 12 crew members went sick; the boat stopped at Malta, and 2 stewards died. As the ship was late and stranded, the owner simply fired all of the remaining people onboard, sick as they were, because he wanted his boat back. Then, the lady, stranded without resources in La Valette and probably under crushing guilt committed suicide.
My friend knew several members of the crew.
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#139Not to compare bad vs worse, but when I get bored for ten minutes I tend to remember that at least I'm not in Otokichi's crew: > The ship, without a mast or a rudder, was carried across the northern Pacific Ocean by currents. It drifted for 14 months, during which the crew lived on desalinated seawater and on the rice of their cargo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otokichi (from a recent-ish HN thread).
Omnibus podcast episode: https://www.omnibusproject.com/324
Re: Stranded sailor allowed to leave abandoned ship after four years
#140Is there something that could be done by people otherwise uninvolved - like myself, or my fellow HN readers - to help the other ~250 people who are currently stuck in similar situations? I don’t even know how to go about enumerating who those people are, their ships, or where they are anchored. With that information a well-organized and/or funded group could at least get someone out to these people to check on them,…
From reading the article, they just for some legal reason need a person on board the ship. So maybe people could volunteer to replace them on a rolling schedule.
In this particular instance, that seems to be the case. I imagine there are probably legal hurdles that needed to be overcome to even make that happen, but I’m glad it did.
I just sent an email to the International Maritime Organization, who manages the database I linked in the GP, to ask if there are any extant organizations dedicated to providing relief to people in similar situations. I’ll update here when and if I hear back from them, or as I make progress toward figuring out the scope of this issue in other ways.