So I just listened to John’s contribution to that discussion from Tuesday and simply cannot comprehend any points he was trying to make? Mark Zuckerberg sailing into storms with little newbs wondering if they will die? Shipping companies revolutionizing diversity with containers? The only part I could agree with was that the US flag merchant fleet is as small as it has been in decades (actually, I believe in the entire nation’s 246years) but he stopped dead in his tracks! Not a peep about whether that decline is harming the economic and military strength of the nation. Nothing about how lack of opportunities for new US citizen mariners is suffocating them as they start their careers and certainly a deafening silence about how this proposal MUST include American mariners. Some contradictory and disappointing words about not being guarantee anything for them with the team you are working with there which you happen to have complete confidence in?
John, you and I could not be more opposite from each other. I know we have clashed many times here because of that. I am going to say that on Tuesday you had an opportunity to stand up and be a voice for the US merchant mariner and to tell all assembled how critical they remain and how they cannot be disefranchised in this proposal but you failed utterly and have shown me how any possible positive influence for us by you and gCaptain was been simply wasted and will never be anything beneficial for the American mariner. Do you not realize this at all?
I cannot even begin to say how sad and hopeless this makes me feel this morning…
Is it just me or be is anyone else pleased to see that we have a topic that has coerced c.captain out of his forum retirement?
I agree with your sentiments above. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves that the crafters of this proposal ever had or will have U.S. mariners’ welfare in mind. It is about the money. And too much of the world believes that U.S. sailors are a tax not with paying on a profitable shipping industry.
And last time I checked, the Convention on the High Seas requires all ships to sail under the flag of a single nation state. Since when would a territorial island be able to qualify? So I also agree the this plan is doomed from inception.
But it is nice to see something that at least argues for change of any kind.
How on earth is it “nice” to see a proposal whose “change” is to offer greater profits with fewer regulatory requirements to shipowners. To me, this change is not progressive but regressive and actually would deliver not one single promise it says it would. Just smoke and mirrors to disguise its real intent.
Btw, thanks for your words about my return with this topic which I believe all can see is something I deeply care about. There is nothing I would like to see more than a doubling of the number of US flagged merchant ships trading foreign routes however I know that by having some second flag operating by foreign owners using majority foreign national crews is not a way to accomplish this since it fails to deliver the national security a genuine US flagged fleet provides. Hell, I am not even happy that the MSP has enrolled ships controlled by foreign corporations like Wallenius and Maersk but that is a discussion for another day.
c.captain, Were I privy to this discussion as John was I would probably not bothered asking many questions. For goodness sake look at who promoted this genius idea. Morgan Marketing and Communications. Look at their nonexistent expertise in world wide shipping. Look at Northeast Maritime Institute, a school which was created to supply STCW required training. Many countries have government supported schools that provide STCW required training at little cost to the mariner but the US chose to go down the path of turning this over to private schools which make a living off of the certification of mariners. I doubt Dawicki can find enough people willing to give him enough money to pursue this idiotic idea. Even a cursory look at the obstacles makes the plan laughable. He would have to have millions to bribe enough congress crooks to get this thru.
So one 20000teu ship discharges in St. Croix and then 100 200teu self unloading feeder ships actually bring the cargo into the US proper? And you say these feeder ships won’t end up waiting at anchor for a berth or that the cost to bring in these containers won’t double as a result of being handled twice or carried on ships which don’t enjoy any economy of scale?
And because the majority of the bottleneck is in imports coming from Asia to the US west coast, how does this St. Croix hub help with that? The lowest cost and fastest delivery of all this Chinese crap we import would be with a single west coast modern megaport with dozens of rail connections going to every part of the US. LA/LB is a maze of twisting and turning channels. The rail and highway connections from that port complex are too inadequate for efficient traffic flow and pass through the 2nd largest city in the US with it’s famous nightmare freeway system and no place to put in new traffic avenues. The sad truth is that the existing ports on the west coast are maxed out and were never planned properly so are today an ugly hodge podge of terminals as opposed to what has been built in Asia (but those terminals are all brand new designed and constructed in the last 20years). Frankly, the only idea which makes any sense at all is to build this megaport in Mexico with an express rail corridor to Texas where the world’s largest railroad hub would be build far from any congested cities from which hundreds of trains would arrive and depart daily with their double stacked cars.
Or Americans could just stop buying so much from China and a bit more from US manufacturers instead? Our wanton spending habits and hyper consumerism really needs to be reigned in.
She is quoted as being a “marketing and communications specialist.” She may well be a wonderful person but I see no practical working background as an employee with any shipping company. She is connected, no doubt. Perhaps lobbyist better describes her.
Maybe everyone is missing the point here. I have seen multiple mentions of imports coming from China. Everyone think big picture here now, not going to spell it out for you, no fun in that.
So why did John even show up? If he was at all astute, he would have asked hard questions of them before agreeing to attend and if not given satisfactory answers, he should have then seen what this bunch of self serving conmen was really peddling and steered clear.
He chose to lay down with a bunch of mangy dogs and now he has the fleas on him as a result.
Call me an.obtuse boob but tell me what the big picture really is? Show me the real money trail…where is it coming from and how much do they expect to get in return for the investment? Who are the puppet masters controlling Dawicki’s strings? Or on the other hand, is he just a smalltime grifter who thinks he discovered the mother lode to incredible piles of cash and bilked a few other smalltime players into ponying up enough dough to rent a tiny room in the National Press Club and hire a middling PR firm to pitch this nonsense? That of course means everyone there was paid to shill the product as well including John, but since there was no big name up there on the dias, that couldn’t have amounted to more than a few c-notes.
I am tending for the latter scenario and not the former. if there was really big money behind this, why use a pipsqueak nobody like a Dawicki as your front man?
