| This effort to call attention to the plight of these workers is being done by friends and family members because it is way too easy for the world to forget about human beings held for ransom by pirates (unless they are Americans).
The MV Irene was captured by pirates on April 14, just two days after the U.S. Navy shot dead three Somali pirates and rescued captain Richard Phillips, an American cargo ship captain who had been held hostage. While a US flagged ship was captured by Pirates the world paid attention and we learned stories about the crew and their troubles. We (and the world) would not rest until these American seafarers were set free.
Unfortunately for the crew of the MV Irene they are not Americans. These workers come from the Philippines. They are part of a massive wave of Filipino citizens leaving their homes to work as foreign contract workers in far-a-way lands to improve the lives of their families. Some went to the sweatshops of Saipan, others to Iraq and some, like the crew of the MV Irene went to sea.
In fact many Filipinos have gone to sea to do the dangerous work of moving cargo around the globe-more than 270,000 of them-about a third of world's workers on the ships that move the raw materials, oil, products and food from point A to point B across the seas are Filipinos. It is dangerous work especially for crews sailing unprotected through Pirate invested waters.
And so the 23 Filipinos who made up the crew of the MV Irene became the expendable workers of just another floating vessel of commerce owned by just another multi-National Corporation (in this case, the Greek shipping firm, Bright Maritime Corp.) moving stuff for profit. The wheels of globalization and global trade turn on the labor of these workers who make these ships move from point to point. In our modern system of globalization these seamen are most often foreign contract workers. When ransoms are paid to the Somali Pirates it is usually first and foremost for the ship and the cargo. The crews when made up of foreign contract workers are expendable. Just as they are in sweatshops, brothels and harvest fields across the globe. The exploitation of workers crossing borders is a dirty secret about the cheap stuff we all have. From toys to clothes to food to well almost anything you can imagine. It is an injustice that is way too easy for Americans to overlook, to rationalize and ignore.
My Diaries about the Abramoff scandal, the culture of corruption and the labor abuses on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas have been an effort to shine a light on some of these workers being crushed by a global economic system that treats them as expendable as paper towels.
In my research about the Marianas Island I often came across the reporting of Gemma Casa a journalist at the Marianas Variety. It turns out that her brother, Jovan, is one of the crew members held hostage on the MV Irene. Last month she wrote about her brother in an editorial titled, Thoughts: Somalia and Africa :
I last saw my only brother-the oldest among us five children-in January when I went home for vacation in the Philippines.
I saw him a few hours after I arrived in Manila and he was to leave for Singapore where MV Irene EM, a Greek-owned bulk carrier, was waiting for its Filipino crew members.
My brother Joven or Kuya Bob to us is a master electrician at the 35,000-ton ship which was delivering oil and cargo to China, Pakistan and Kenya.
He took a leave from his government job in hopes of starting a new career in the overseas maritime sector before making his early retirement. The current Philippine administration wanted their office abolished anyways.
Shipping companies pay well skilled personnel like my brother. His monthly salary would have been the equivalent of his half-a year wages from the Philippine government.
It was exactly what he needed to send off his oldest daughter, a biology major, to a good medical school and to support his youngest son who is considering to enter the seminary.
She goes on to tell how the ship was captured and how the family learned about it. They learned that as of May about 81 Filipinos seamen had been captured and released by Somali Pirates, but they also learned that the case of the MV Irene was odd. For three months there had been no news about the crew or a ransom demand even though the same shipping company had paid the pirates $1.5 million in the past for another ship held hostage.
They had great concern for the crew as they only had supplies on the ship to last through mid-August and Jovan-who suffers from hypertension-only had enough medication with him to get him through August as well.
As of July the Somali Pirates were holding 14 vessels and four barges for ransom along with 214 seafarers-many of them, like the crew of the MV Irene, foreign contract workers. In many cases with ships owned by multi-National corporations flying under the flag of the most convenient place of registration and a crew made up of foreign contract workers it is unclear who is responsible to negotiate with the Pirates and who is responsible for the safety of the crew, just as it is unclear who should be dealing with the Pirates of Somalia. It seems that there are a lot of entities that can pass the buck and the responsibility for resolving the issue. Meanwhile, the lives of these workers are at risk every minute of every day.
They need our help.
Please, take a moment and sign this petition, become a fan of theLiberate Pirate Hostages Facebook page and encourage others to do the same.
You can follow development of this story and get more details at Unheard No More a forum for social justice-especially for the workers of the CNMI and foreign contract workers everywhere. Recent posts include:
Photo of Pirates with Crew of the MV Irene
Free the crew of the MV Irene
Sign Petition to Free Crew of MV Irene
Free Hostages From MV Irene EM
Responsibility missing in human export equation
The last one is particularly good and I'll quote my friend Wendy Doromal as she explains the plight of foreign contract workers:
Foreign labor is a profitable business for the labor-exporting countries and the host countries. Because of the billions of dollars exchanged world-wide, there has been an established pattern for the developing countries to constantly send more and more of their human exports to keep remittances flowing in to sustain their economies. Host countries greedily accept the workers as replaceable commodities knowing that they willingly offer their highly valued skilled services while accepting cheap wages. They can easily be replaced if they complain about being cheated or abused as many of them are.
Recruitment and manpower agencies serving as middlemen reap in huge profits from the transactions and are yet another link in the chain of abuse and exploitation.
Missing in the exchange is responsibility. All nations involved in the exchange of foreign labor must take the responsibility to protect the workers. "Workers out, money in" has become the mantra for labor-exporting countries who show little regard for the safety and well-being of their citizens. Every labor-exporting nation should have binding agreements with the host countries to demand the respectful and just treatment of every single citizen sent overseas or across a border to work. In this global economy international laws and treaties regarding the treatment of foreign contract workers must be established and enforced. We must not allow people to be regarded as disposable commodities.
Labor and immigration systems across the world are one step below slavery, and in some cases allow slavery and human trafficking to flourish.
We often hear of the most hideous cases of exploitation and abuses - the beheadings, false imprisonment, forced prostitution, trafficking of minors and young women, suicide to escape from abusive employers, hangings, or the case of a worker who despondently set himself on fire because he could not collect an unpaid judgment of money owed to him. What we seldom hear are the cries of outrage from the labor-exporting countries or the remorseful apologies from the host countries. Excuses, misplaced blame on the workers and coverups too often substitute for responsibility to demand respectful treatment and protection. Workers out, money in.
And when workers are captured by pirates who demand ransom suddenly nobody profiting from this global system that based on the exploitation of their labor is responsible to do a damn thing about it. The Somali Pirates are amateurs compared to the market worshipers running this organized system of labor abuse.
In many places around the world workers need help having their voices heard, their innate dignity respected. This is especially true when it comes to the urgent case of these Filipino seamen held hostage. They need to have their story told and some of the world's attention turned to their immediate plight. Somebody must be shamed into taking action. Please add your voice and do what you can do. If you can please contact your favorite media outlet and ask them to cover these workers held hostage. If you can please write a letter to any of the following urging action:
President Gloria Macapacal Arroyo
Republic of the Philippines
(Direct email contact
Alberto Rolumu
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Foreign Affairs
2330 Roxas Boulevard
Pasay City, Philippines
Tel. No. (632) 834-4000
President Barack Obama (email contact)
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 22 917 90 00
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor
New York, NY 10118-3299
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700
Amnesty International
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 0DW, UK
Telephone: +44-20-74135500 Fax number: +44-20-79561157
Email to Amnesty International Secretariat
Email to NATO
Embassy of the Philippines in Greece
26 Antheon Street
Paleo Psychico
Athens, Greece 15452
Tel. Nos.: (210) 6721883 / (210) 6721837 / (210) 6721869
Fax. No.: (210) 6721872
E-mail: athenspe@otenet.gr / info@athensmanila.com
Far too often, the workers who make, grow, and move the things we use are invisible. When we worship markets we loose our connection to our shared humanity and the real labor that makes things happen. It is important to remember that everything we touch has been touched by a worker-many workers. It is time to re-establish a little respect for labor and to join across borders to protect workers everywhere.
It is time to give workers a little support especially when they are between a rock and a hard place like the crew of the MV Irene floating to an uncertain future off the coast of Somalia.
Time is running out. It is unknown who will be an advocate for these workers. Who will fight for them? Who will care?
Please, if you can, take a moment and act.
Thanks and Cheers
reposted from Daily Kos |
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