Honoring the Maersk Alabama

[Jon6436]

The following message was e-mailed to Maersk HR Dept., to be forwared to the PR Dept.:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As an American and particularly as a follower of the sea, the outcome of the Maersk Alabama incident gives great pride.
I'm certain that many others share this same feeling -- especially those in the professional and general maritime communities.

To honor the Captain and the Crew, how about offering for sale, either 'baseball' caps or T-shirts emblazoned with "Maersk Alabama."
Profits from the sales could go toward a scholarship, or similar, fund for the Captain's and Crew's families.

Demand for the caps or shirts should be great!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End of E-Mail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you feel the same about this, and would like to get on the bandwagon, here's the link to the Maersk HR Department.


http://www.maersk.com/EN/Pages/Headquarter.aspx


You're at liberty to plagiarize, and/or enhance my message with your ideas, in your e-mails. Be sure include a request to have your e-mail forwarded to the PR Dept.

 

[John]

I would be happy to buy five of each, with the money to go to a very worthwhile (and related) cause: To clean up the toxic (including nuclear) waste illegally dumped off the coast of Somalia, and which, along with the factory-size fishing trawlers, which illegally plied the Somali waters, destroying the fishing grounds of traditional Somali fishermen, created the conditions which helped lead to this piracy in the first place.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The "Best" way to honor these guys &

the ship is to write your congress-critter and get them and the military lto put a few good men & women on board each ship who can shoot the idiots in their boats before they get on board.

Didn't they learn anything from the "Cole" disaster?

Other countries should do so as well.

When it becomes too difficult and/or costly for the pirates to succeed, they'll stop.

I seem to remember [from my readings, not personally ] that that's how they took care of the Barbary Pirates in the early 1800's.

I'd buy a hat, gotta be the right color(s).

 

[John]

the ship is to write your congress-critter and get them and the military lto put a few good men & women on board each ship who can shoot the idiots in their boats before they get on board.

Would they also shoot those who illegally dumped toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coast?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Would they also shoot those who illegally dumped toxic waste, including nuclear waste, off the Somali coast?

John, as we say "over in the War Room," got some links to backup the story?

 

[Bogdan]

Poor John
stop making silly things up to further your (be kinder agenda) look there are bad guys in the world who will hurt others and blame it on someone or something to save face, if things are not good at home make changes, start at home 1st.
Iwas very poor growing up not 1 of the 7 in my family took something or someone to get anything, its called hard work and trust.......

 

[John]

links

John, as we say "over in the War Room," got some links to backup the story?

It takes about five seconds to do a google search with the words: Somalia toxic dumping. You will find dozens of stories. Even the UN representative has admitted this has happened. Here's one link: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinio...-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html

It was not only the toxic dumping, but also the entry of factory fish trawlers that destroyed the marine life (fish, lobsters, crab, etc.) in Somali waters.

We are sailors. Regardless of whether we care about other people or not, we should care about the health of the oceans. These are being destroyed by exactly this sort of activity. As far as the "bad guys" that bogdang refers to - sure there are all sorts of "bad guys" in the world, and those toxic dumpers, whose waste killed hundreds and sickened many thousands more, and who dumped that waste in order to save money -- what are they? Santa Claus?

 

[Phil Herring]

Easy there, guys

Please, let's keep this thread here and out of the War Room.

 

[Eddie7045]

This is a War Room topic.

.

 

[Ctskip]

pollution is a international topic

Saving our playground is pretty important. Not to mention I like to eat fish too. It really has more to do with saving the environment (our playground) than anything else.
This ship's crew is to be congratulated for standing up to pirates. They did the best they could with what they had. Which is what, I believe as Americans, we would all do. I would say it's all going by the same way of the Americas Cup series. International crews and international ships. This particular ship happened to be full of Americans, flying the American flag. Big mistake on the pirates part. I bet they'll learn a lesson here. They might change the rules and hijack more ships, but I feel it'll be sometime before they look at a ship flying the stars and stripes again.
Granted there have been atrocities performed all over the world by various countries. I don't like the floating debris island. Nor do I like the stains on my hull or the garbage along the shoreline, not to mention medical waste floating and the six pack plastic holders killing the fish. Pollution is a serious problem we all face everyday in our oceans. It still doesn't give anyone the right to pirate a ship. The fish are gone because of two major countries fishing habits, Russia and Japan. They can thank Europe for the waste dumping. Still, two wrongs don't make a right. There are avenues the people of Somalia ,or the world for that matter, can and should take to correct the situation. Do it the right way and not the wrong. Fight the polluting of our playground in a international court of law. Not boat by boat. More people than just the Somalis are being hurt here. Lets make'em clean it up. They would, if it were us.
I tried really hard to be non political, how'd I do? Did I mention sailing in the ocean?

Keep it up,
Ctskip

 

[John]

I guess everything is "political" in one way or another.

As far as the pollution, in this particular case, from what I read it was a Swiss company and an Italian company in particular that did the dumping. They saved themselves something like a thousand dollars per ton of toxic waste (radioactive waste, lead, cadmium, mercury, etc.) After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2005, tons of this washed up on the beaches of Somalia, sickening many thousands (nosebleeds, vomiting, rashes) and some 300 were reported to have died. As far as appealing to an international court of law - I read that they did appeal to the UN, which did nothing. I don't know how some probably illiterate and totally broke fisherman would take such a case to a court of law in Geneva, though.

Life is almost always more complicated than it seems on the surface. If somebody asked you what is the best way to sail from California to Tahiti, I don't think you would simply answer: "Head on a course of ___ degrees," or at least I hope not. I think you would first want to know all the background information: What sort of sailor are you and your crew? What time of year and what weather conditions? What sort of boat with what sort of equipment?

Why don't we bring this same approach to world situations?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Pollution is not a war room topic

John's points are valid, all I asked is where, and thanks for the pointers to find out, just thought we could get a quick link here, I'm searching all day for other stuff!

Politicians are notorious for closing the barn door after the horse is gone. This is true for simply arming ships to avoid piracy as well as pollution.

"Regardless of whether we care about other people or not, we should care about the health of the oceans." I'd worry about the people first, then they can start taking care of their surroundings. Of course we should be concerned about the health of all of our surroundings.

"The fish are gone because of two major countries fishing habits, Russia and Japan. They can thank Europe for the waste dumping. Still, two wrongs don't make a right." Agreed on the second sentence, but please also note that there is a complete ban on salmon fishing right here on our west coast, and that ain't only the Russian's or Japanese's fault, we contribute a lot ourselves, too.

Some planning could go a long way to help, but I sure dont' see that happening. Planning to avoid piracy: change the ships' routes or get the good guys to patrol where the bad guys are. Remember, the anti-piracy forces were way up near the Gulf of Aden a few months ago, but the pirates moved south, the good guys didn't move to cover. Hmm, great planning there.

When I heard about this piracy surge, the first thing I thought was "Get someone on board, would only take two or three armed folks to keep the pirates off the ships." Then when the skipper was taken, I thought: "Aha, what a great opportunity to use our trained Navy SEALS." OK, one outta two ain't bad. They did a great job. So did the crew and the captain.

But now this is big news only because it was an American ship. What about all the other acts of piracy that have been going on for years that was a small blip on our mainstream media's notice?

I was originally surprised at John's link between piracy and toxic waste, but it does make a lot of sense. If the "civilized world" is dumping crap all over someone elses' country and makes them poorer for it, we should have a responsibility to stop it and clean it up, and help them get out of their hole and make things better for everyone. I don't dump my garbage in my neighbor's back yard, and neither do any of you guys.

 

[ITMaster]

It is very fortunate that the Crew and Captain of the ship Alabama had the outcome they did. I doubt that this situation would have had the results it did without the use of the force that was utilized.

China and other influential countries in our global community are guilty of being a major contributors of air and water and ground pollution.

We as a nation have determined that we need to have a quality of life with clean air, and clean water ways and grounds and have accordingly enacted laws and ordinances to ensure that they are adhered to.

HOWEVER, we do not take it upon ourselves as a nation to be a police agency to ensure that China practices the same air quality standards that we do and go out and commit similar acts of disrespect for international law.

Accordingly, just because toxic wastes have been dumped, and over fishing of waters near Somalia have occurred; none of these activities warrant or justify these acts of piracy or what ever tag we would like to place on these acts. A proper place exists to bring attention to this subject matter. As evident now based upon the conclusion of the event, piracy is not the proper nor accepted means to discuss the grievances that Somalia may have.

I would say that perhaps it may be time to extend the boundary limitations that are imposed on US Naval Vessels to these other maritime service providers and their vessels. If you approach them and fail to change course or direction when hailed and instructed to alter course, expect the use of lethal force to get you stopped. With this approach, it should not take long for the word to get out and for someone considering piracy to take a second thought about it .

BTW John, I appreciate the link, although the article was from an editorial page and was subject to the author's interpretation and obviously the tone of the article was postured to his position on the subject matter. We all need to be careful about our interpretations of what we read and be sure to distinguish between fact and opinion and the sources.

 

[John]

If you go to a doctor and he or she prescribes medicine without trying to figure out what is causing your symptoms in the first place, I don't think you would have a lot of confidence in that doctor. (Actually, that's what a lot of them do!) If we want to stop a particular behavior, then we should consider the causes. Also, if the US navy (or anybody else's) is going to be used to stop lawlessness on the high seas, then let's not just stop the Somali pirates; let's deal with the bigger picture. That's all I'm saying.

As far as that link (in replay to itmaster: If you're not satisfied with that one link, just do a google search as I suggested before. It's amazing how much stuff there is on this issue, yet the media covers none of it. Is that any surprise?