Born under the wrong stars

I had the opportunity to board one of the container vessels today as part of my training programme. It was certainly an enlightening experience, to experience how it was like to be "near the dirt". I saw for myself how lashing (the securing of containers to the ship) was done by the lashing workers and even had the opportunity to do some hands-on.

The lashing bar itself is definitely not light. Even when using both hands I only barely managed to latch the 2 layer's length lashing bar onto the upper layer's corner casting hole. With the 3 layer's length lashing bar I fail to even lift it up beyond my chest height. There's definitely at least 15kg (2-layer type) to more than 20kg (3-layer) of solid iron in these bars. Sounds tough? Now consider that today's container vessels can carry up to 10000 of these containers each. Now it sounds like a daunting task isn't it? Now here's the icing - these guys are on 12 hour shifts but paid less than your average white-collar worker.

Given a choice, many of us would choose not to work. Our fellow humans doing the lashing job probably did not even have the luxury of harbouring that thought. It's not their choice either to have to choose to do this lashing job under an environment whereby not only are you exposed to the elements, having to work both rain or shine, they are also under constant danger as constantly there's always some 20tonnes of material being hoisted somewhere above your head.

Now that you have taken the patience to read this entry till this far, are you finding your own job looking a little more acceptable already? That serving nasty customers isn't that bad, that the long hours spent in the office isn't that bad, and that being at the bottom rung of the corporate ladder isn't that bad? Let us just give a pat to ourselves, and promise ourselves that the next time wher we see the lashing worker who works in the port, the brick and mortar labourer from the construction site or the elderly cleaner who maintains the toilet, that we will not imagine that they had drunk invisibility potion but to instead, give them a little acknowledgement, a little respect and a little smile that costs nothing but can mean so much to them.

Shall we?