Shits Fucked - Tumblr Posts

Hello friends!

I don't have any art updates to post this time, I just wanted to let you know that you are absolutely wonderful, and that I appreciate every single one of you!! You're amazing, if you're reading this (and if you aren't, let's be real bahahaha), and I hope you're having a wonderful day ^-^ <3

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲🧡

The Suez Canal situation seems like an excellent time to bring up the problem of flags of convenience and the working conditions of seafarers!

As the International Transport Federation describes it, “A flag of convenience ship is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of ownership.” Coupled with the characteristically murky nature of ownership in the shipping industry, it is incredibly easy for companies to exploit their workers and skirt pollution regulations to a degree rarely seen on land.

Let’s look at the Ever Given. She’s registered in Panama (the most common choice for a FOC), yet operated by a Taiwanese firm, managed by a company in Hamburg, and owned by a Japanese company. And the 25 crew are Indian nationals. This is not at all out of the ordinary for international shipping, if anything, it’s the norm. If that crew number seems low to you, that is also standard for vessels of this size, in part because FOCs allow for skeleton crews operating with little downtime.

I can’t claim anything about the Ever Given, but time and again it’s been shown that working conditions aboard such vessels is nightmarish. By registering under FOCs, shipping companies hand over regulatory authority to nations that are not hugely interested in setting or enforcing standards, allowing them to operate in ways that would be illegal in any nation actually connected to the vessel. Gruelling long hours for shockingly low pay is the industry standard, and inadequate food and drinking water are commonplace. Seafarers who raise complaints will often find themselves bullied and blacklisted by shipping companies, leading to widespread acceptance of such abuses.

Another issue facing seafarers is that of vessel abandonment, one that is only getting worse with the pandemic. A particularly egregious case is that of the MT Iba. Since anchoring off the coast of Dubai in 2017 after financial issues halted operations, the ship and her crew have been all but forgotten by the owner. The crew did not set foot on land again until last month. Leaving the ship would have essentially meant forfeiting their owed wages, leaving them to rely entirely upon a seafarers charity for food and drinking water. The Iba was owned and operated by a company in the UAE and sailed under a Panamanian flag.

In another case, a crewman aboard the MV Aman has been made legally responsible for the vessel by the Egyptian authorities, leaving him stranded alone and forced to swim to shore for supplies since 2017. Mohammed Aisha is suffering deteriorating health as a result of this extended solitary confinement aboard a ship without power and has almost drowned several times during his swims ashore for food, but leaving the vessel would likely result in his prosecution by Egyptian maritime authorities.

The maritime shipping industry is a behemoth, and it’s one that we all rely on. There is very little in your life that has not been aboard a ship or relied upon international shipping for its existence. And seafarers are some of the most isolated and abused workers in the world. Abuse is built into the industry and made practically legal through FOCs and the esoteric nature of vessel ownership. I won’t put a link because tumblr will hide the post from the tags if I do, but please Google “IFT Seafarers”. They’re the main organisation fighting on behalf of seafarers, from the large fight against FOCs to individual campaigns on behalf of abandoned crew.

for like, idk maybe for like four months i’ve been pissed off at my friend, FOR GOOD REASON BRO I SWEAR! so when i was still doing uni (studying in film for whoever wanted to know, and somehow graduated idea bro that was the big man upstairs doing me a solid for once), me and my friend went on break and walked around the city doing fuck knows what, cause that’s what uni students do ig. she was bored, and i was bored, so i was like “hey! wanna go see my favourite store? sells cool shit” (by cool shit, i mean cool clothing and jewellery and other neat lil nick nacks) and she said “sure id love to!”.

now a thing about my friend is that she likes to steal. actively steal. both because she thinks it’s fun and because she can’t afford what she wants sometimes cause she spends most her money on vapes and weed and a bunch of other psychedelics. before we entered the store, i made her promise not to steal, cause i love and respect the fuck out of this store and i’ve wanted to work there since i was fifteen (and i’m now twenty). she said she promised and swore she wouldn’t take anything, and me being a fucking hopeful and trusting dumb fuck, believed her. now i saw this really sick hoodie, where it was basically a cropped hoodie (STAY WITH ME ON THIS) but it was made to look like a rib cage, so it was fucking cool. the owner sold it to me for 45 bucks, but the hoodie originally costed 55 bucks, so she took ten bucks off cause i fell in love with this hoodie, so i got real fucking hyped and thanked her profusely. now, this is a key thing to remember, cause the tags they used were airtags. the type of tags where it needed to be unlocked with a type of pin at the front desk. otherwise you can’t take that shit off, unless you got scissors (this is also important).

so my friend went into the change room with a BUNCH of clothes, and i waited near the front and had small talk with the store owner, asking if it’s been busy, slow, shit like that. i noticed that my friend is taking a long fucking time, so i go to check on her and ask if she’s good, and she said yes, paused then asked “hey coyote? do you have any scissors in your bag? i need it for my nails”

now this is where a lot of my guilt comes in, cause i genuinely didn’t realise my mistake until it was too late. i said yeah in my bag (which was in the change room with her) and she said thanks. i always carry scissors on me cause i like to scrap book, and if i see anything interesting i cut it out and sample it to put into my sketch book so i get inspired for any future projects.

after like another ten minutes she finally comes out, but i notice two things. the first was that there were significantly less clothes than when she walked into the change rooms with, and the second thing was noticing something sticking out of her pocket.

SHE CUT THE FUCKING TAGS OFF WHEN I TOLD HER NOT TO FUCKING STEAL. SHE EVEN PROMISED ME MULTIPLE TIMES TOO!!!!

like????

now i’m freaking out, cause i don’t want to get roped into this. and she kept on trying to reassure me and said it’s fine she’s a ‘pro’ at this. bro idgaf you promised me and BROKE that promise. the lady asked where the clothes were, and my friend said in the free clothes box. so i go and check, literally emptying the box while thinking “she’s fucked, i’m fucked, we’re BOTH fucked, god PLEASE no” just planning out my fucking funeral atp, and the woman goes to the BOTH OF US “empty your bags, now.”

i watched her empty her bag, fucking cringing and mortified, just watching the store owner tear into her, saying she has to pay for all of it. i started apologising profusely, telling her i didn’t know she was going to do this, just kept on saying i’m sorry over and over again, cause i’m livid, mortified, just fucking humiliated at my friend. BRO, THE STOREOWNER DEADASS LOOKED ME IN THE EYE, AND SAYS THAT I WAS IN ON IT?? HUH??? KEEP IN MIND THERES LIKE FOUR OTHER PEOPLE IN THE STORE WATCHING THIS HAPPENING AND WERE JUST JUDGING US. (which i don’t blame them, cause it was a fucking shitshow and a half). the storeowner asked her how did she even do this, and she said “i used my nails to cut the fabric”…bro come ON LIKE-

you could tell she used scissors, CAUSE SHE DID. MY DAMN SCISSORS THAT WERE IN MY BAG. CAUSE IM A STUPID FUCKING DUMB FUCK WHO REALISED WHAT SHE WAS DOING WAY TOO FUCKING LATE.

i genuinely wanted to fucking cry AND die man, right then and there. i was so unbelievably humiliated and embarrassed cause my fucking friend couldn’t keep her damn hands to herself and couldn’t keep her promise. the storeowner said that she did the same thing at our age, and said she wouldn’t call the cops on us, i tried saying sorry again and that i never meant for my friend to do this, and pretty much got shut down again and that the storeowner didn’t want to hear my excuses. i ended up dragging my friend out from there and tearing her a new one, saying how i can never show my face there or even step foot into that store again, and she kept saying sorry, but also tried to joke about it?? which only made me more fucking angry, cause any chance i had of working there was just fucking trampled, chewed and spat onto the fucking dirt because of her.

i feel guilty cause i was unknowingly involved until it was too late, but i’m angry and hurt because she promised me that she wouldn’t steal from there, but did it anyways and didn’t give two shits, and that i got pulled into it and blamed because if she was stealing, then that meant i was stealing too. idk man, cause it’s been four months and it’s STILL bugging me, cause it was literally MY DREAM to work there. it sucks man. it really fucking sucks.