Shipbreakers

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:07:23 -0500, Lee Lindquist wrote:

I noticed this listing for this evening:

http://times.discovery.com/schedule/...i=108528&gid=0

"An aging tanker rushes toward a sandy shore at full steam. There it joins
other beached behemoths of steel to be taken apart by barefoot men with
blowtorches. Welcome to the shipyards of Alang, India, where the world's
oceangoing ships come to die."

LOL

Wax on, wax off.

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:07:23 -0500, Lee Lindquist wrote:


I noticed this listing for this evening:

http://times.discovery.com/schedule/...i=108528&gid=0

Hi Lee, (private)

I tried to find this here in CA yesterday when you posted and it was
not listed as being on the Discovery Channel. :+(
I did a search of the discovery.com site and it does not pop up
either. Is Discovery Times a different channel from the Discovery
Channel?

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com

Hi Ray, (not private)

Yes, Discovery Times is a different channel. If you have DirecTV it is
channel 285.

On 8 Feb 2005 07:49:21 -0800, "
wrote:

Hi Ray, (not private)

Yes, Discovery Times is a different channel. If you have DirecTV it is
channel 285.

Hi Dave, (not private either ;+)

Thanks, unfortunately no DirecTV.

Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com

I finally found it too after going to Directv's website to see if indeed we
even got Discovery Times. I didn't even know I got that channel.
It was very sad watching that show. The working conditions were horrible and
they said on minimum 300 workers died per year.
Bill
--
visit my Caribbean Princess website
www.cruisingthecaribbeanprincess.com

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi Ray, (not private)

Yes, Discovery Times is a different channel. If you have DirecTV it is
channel 285.

The show was primarily about the working conditions and environmental
issues. They only showed old tankers getting cut up, no cruise ships
or ocean liners. I'm still trying to reconcile the logic of the
workers wearing hard hats, yet being barefoot. The owners of these
yards ought to be arrested, but I doubt they are doing anything illegal
within India. It was quite depressing to see how these poor people
live and work.

Thus spake " :

The show was primarily about the working conditions and environmental
issues. They only showed old tankers getting cut up, no cruise ships
or ocean liners. I'm still trying to reconcile the logic of the
workers wearing hard hats, yet being barefoot. The owners of these
yards ought to be arrested, but I doubt they are doing anything illegal
within India. It was quite depressing to see how these poor people
live and work.

Welcome to the third world. Where a EE trained in the US gets $12,000
a year. Except that some Indian companies are now outsourcing some of
their work to the Philipines and Viet Nam, as Indian workers have
become too expensive. What comes around ...

--
dillon

"When the French are against it, you know we can't
be far wrong." - Adm. Bobbie Ray Inman

Having lived in the Philippines, I am quite familiar with the third
world. I also have daily contact with Indian engineers at work. They
are contractors for Bechtel and Stone & Webster that cost a fraction of
what our in-house engineers are paid. I haven't seen any contract
engineers from Vietnam yet, but I'll keep an eye out for them. I
imagine they will be along shortly.

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:07:23 -0500, Lee Lindquist wrote:


I noticed this listing for this evening:

http://times.discovery.com/schedule/...i=108528&gid=0


I watched the show, and also think that the working conditions were
terrible. However, I do not think it is correct to place all of the
blame the yard owners. If the economy in India as a whole was not so
depressed, these workers would not be there. If there were no
workers, there would be no owners. I think the conditions reflect the
society as a whole. I don't just mean the Indian society, but our
global society. It is those people that have much more political and
corporate power than the yard owner that need to shoulder some of the
responsibility also. It appeared to me that the almighty dollar (and
corporations being unwilling to spend it on anything that doesn't turn
a profit) and lack of international laws and regulations contributes
to the problem. The workers and yard owners are just trying to
survive (literally) in a very difficult market.

I suspect that it is a lot less hazardous to a worker's health from
walking barefoot in that yard than walking barefoot in a field in India
where there can be as many as 20,000 deaths a year from snakebite
according to National Geographic
(http://www.nationalgeographic.co.in/...aries_day5.asp).

Without the yard, many of those workers might very well have no
recourse other than to work in a field.

John