There was a fantastic article in The Atlantic ON MARCH 25 by Amanda Mull entitled THE BIG STUCK BOAT IS GLORIOUS. I would urge everyone to read it. If you have not yet seen or heard about this story you may have your head in the sand just like this vessel. The Ever Given is a huge container ship currently stuck in the Suez Canal.
What I like about the story is what the nautical mishap brings home to us. How it forces us to look at something that is normally off our radar. International freight shipping, apparently, is BIG business. There are a lot of ships backed up behind the Ever Clean with nowhere to go now, and it is costing people (not sure who but people) lots of money. Merchant shipping fuels the world economy. Commercial ships, over 100,000 of them, carry 90% of international trade. While there is nothing wrong with that, it does make you wonder!
How big ARE these ships? HUGE! The Ever Clean has 20,000 cargo containers on it.
Why do boats that big exist? While prices vary significantly, shipping rates tend to be 1/2 the price of rail rates. And it takes 2500 planes the size of a 747 to carry 1 cargo ship worth of merchandise.
What do they carry? Just about anything, but most importantly large bulk commodities.
How busy is the Suez Canal? Pretty busy – there are already 237 similar size ships backed up behind it.
Who is going to be affected the most? With this logjam, it is Europe, since most of their Asian made goods come through this canal.
BUT THEN, WHAT IF THIS INTERNATIONAL TRADE DID NOT EXIST?
Why is it cheaper to freight that much cargo than it is to make it at home?
Are these ships full of goods made by workers being paid a fair wage?
When we get that really good deal on a pair of jeans at our favorite store, is it because of ships like these? Are we exploiting anyone?
And finally, how egotistical we humans are (after all, look what we can build!)…..…and look how easily we can be put in our place!
Perhaps, if the boat stays stuck long enough, we will all reconsider a few things and even learn a few lessons.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely…………….we will forget.
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