Before some people from “rich countries” went to sea because of the adventure of seeing foreign countries and learning about foreign cultures
Today there are few “adventure” to be had on a ship that sail across oceans, stop at ports far from any city centre for a short while, before continuing to the next port for more of the same.
If the ship also have a crew of all the same nationality, there is not much “learning foreign cultures”
If you want foreign adventures and to meet foreigner in their own countries, you are better off saving money from working in your own country and travel to foreign countries on holidays. (Not packets tours, or on large cruise ships)
BTW; I did NOT say that every seafarer should be paid the same, regardless of whether they sail on US-flag ships, or on FOC ships.
What I have said, repeatedly, is that today “in an ideal world”, everybody should be paid according to their position, not their residency, nationality, race or religion, when they serve on the same ship.
I have experience this first hand. When I worked in Bangladesh in 1972 the three of us (The Port Captain. Port Engineer and myself as Ass. Port Captain) rented a bungalow.
This came with a staff of 7 servants, (incl. the House keeper, Cook, Houseboy, Driver, (for our Fiat 850 2-seater car) Gardener and 2 Watchmen). This was standard for that “upmarket” neighbourhood.
The staff cost all of US$ 120/mth., paid to the Housekeeper, who paid the other their “fair share”
Then a young Norwegian couple hired by an NGO moved into a house near us.
The fanatic (Palestine scarf wearing) wife felt very bad about “exploiting” the local, She had no mandate to pay them more, so her solution was to fire most of them, thus taking the livelihood away from several families.
Our Housekeeper, who was a kind of “Mafi boss” in the neighbourhood, asked if we could explain this to the husband so that he may be able to convince his wife that this was NOT the way to show sympathy or empathy to the locals.
I left shortly after, since I had suffered from dysentery (aka “Chittagong tummy”) for some weeks, but I was told that when they left after 6 months she turned out to be a racist bitch that had nothing good to say about anybody in Bangladesh.
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