CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Sept. 2, 2007
The Ship Breakers Of Bangladesh
Ship Breaking Industry Arrived In Bangladesh By Accident, Literally
-
Play CBS Video Video The Ship Breakers
In Full: Working for barely a dollar a day with little but their bare hands, the ship breakers of Bangladesh strip old ships in one of the world's most dangerous jobs. Bob Simon reports.
-
Photo Essay The Ship Breakers See Cape Town-based photographer Mark Lewis' images of the ship breakers at Chittagong, Bangladesh.
-
Fast Facts Bangladesh Learn about the people, economy and history.
"It becomes quite expensive, which we can't afford," Mohsin claims.
"If all the rules and regulations, all the international conventions regarding ship breaking were observed here, would the industry be able to survive?" Simon asks Mohsin,
"No," he replies. "It would be stopped from tomorrow. It'll stop. Has to be stopped."
And that, he says, would put 30,000 men out of work and deprive Bangladesh of its source of steel.
But for now the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh is sailing full steam ahead. Literally. 60 Minutes boarded a Russian fishing trawler, the Bata, in the final hours of its last voyage.
It was eerie walking through the corridors. The lights were on but nobody was home. It was a dead ship sailing.
In a sailor’s cabin, the sheets were on the bed, a radio and a flashlight were on the table. In the kitchen, there were pots filled with borscht and potatoes that were barely cold.
In the dining room there were still Russian books on a table. They too will end up in the market on that dusty road to Chittagong. There was just a skeleton crew on this skeleton ship
Up on the bridge, Captain Edwaard Petenko already seemed dressed up for his coming vacation. He had brought the ship all the way from Vladivostok and didn’t enjoy the trip.
Asked what it feels like taking the ship to the beach, Petenko tells Simon, "No like."
"No like. Sometimes even cry. Because…" Capt. Petenko says.
He wasn’t even in charge any more. The baton had passed to the beaching captain, Enam Chowdrey. He had done this 700 times. They call him the executioner.
Beaching a ship is a very delicate operation. It's not simply aiming for the beach - Chowdrey has to calculate the movement of the tides, the swell, the wind, by the minute. In this instance, he has got to wedge the ship between two other vessels already parked there.
The workers on ships nearby are cheering. The Bata’s arrival means more work, more wages for them. Their backs and their lungs will suffer, but do they have a choice?
The Bata steamed its way into its final resting place. The bow got stuck in the sand. A perfect end to the last voyage. In just a few months, it will disappear.
And Captain Petenko? He’ll head home to Vladivostock. But he’ll be back in Bangladesh soon. His company has three more trawlers heading to these shipyards.
U.S. Naval and Merchant Marine ships no longer wind up in these yards, not since 1998, when President Clinton passed a moratorium on exporting U.S. ships. Instead, they clog up American waterways. U.S. ship breakers can’t keep pace and the Bangladeshis would be only to happy to have their business.
Produced By Michael Gavshon
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Recent Segments
Scroll Left Scroll Right
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 31 Commentshttp://www.globalgayz.com/BDChittagongShipBreakingYard/index.html
But your slant is obviously in the direction of ''look at these poor downtrodden slaves''. These are not ''miserable'' people. Look closely at their faces and you don''t see the tension and anxiety of American corporate workers! They are workers who know nothing else and don''t particularly want anything else. They work 7AM to 11PM with a two hour mid-day break, get paid a low but reliable income; their kids go to school (I saw no child workers in the yard; upper teens yes, children no)--and many somewhat cheerful faces--not necessarily happy, but not miserable. They work with their friends; all feel equal. They have little and little to worry about.
The conditions are daunting but not wholly, the pace is calm and there are numerous periods of waiting during the day as the ship parts are taken apart.
It is not the horror show you portray. It''s dirty and rough but far from hell.
Yes, caring for the welfare of others. How sad.
You could be stripping ships.
Yet again you provide only the side of the story that attacks the greatest philosophy the world will ever know - Capitalism! Shame on you CBS, to propagate the Marxist view point to your American Capitalist audience! We too had child labor. We too had poor working conditions. We too had a low starting point. But it was the Capitalists, the entrepreneurs that saw the potential for the creation of wealth and risked everything to make a better world for themselves and as a byproduct, raise the standard of living for all of us!
It was President Kennedy that said, "...a rising tide lifts all boats". He was right then and now.
Yet again you provide only the side of the story that attacks the greatest philosophy the world will ever know - Capitalism! Shame on you CBS, to propagate the Marxist view point to your American Capitalist audience! We too had child labor. We too had poor working conditions. We too had a low starting point. But it was the Capitalists, the entrepreneurs that saw the potential for the creation of wealth and risked everything to make a better world for themselves and as a byproduct, raise the standard of living for all of us!
It was President Kennedy that said, "...a rising tide lifts all boats". He was right then and now.
Doug From Eagan
Ayn Rand Objectivist/Capitalist/American
ABeckmann
ABeckmann, Raleigh,NC
I wish I could travel there to experience their life first hand.
I'd love to talk to people further on this topic...message me on myspace, www.myspace.com/coreyjohn
I have met many Bangladeshi people and I can tell you that these people work so hard and are so very generous! They are the poorest country in the world and I know that they will give me the shirt off there back when I go there. (Even if it is there only shirt, and they will happily give it to me.) It saddens me so much to know that there are millions of these wonderful people that are put in such danger just to survive.
Wouldn't it be great if we sent all that wasted money spent on campaign adds over to Bangladesh. Do you have any idea what they would do with that money. The joy that money would bring. What a waste!!!! It infuriates me to see how we waste money, food, everything in this country.
These are real people over there! Kind, giving people! Is there nothing we can do to help??
Try to think about what they go through. Educate other Americans. Do not judge immigrants who come here. They just want a better life! They want the American DREAM!
Thank you!
If this were the case in Bangladesh, no one would be working because no entity would stay in business. If you think ship breaking is a tragedy, you should learn how much teachers make there. In some cases, they don't get paid at all. Women working in the garment industry are also underpaid and work in terrible conditions.
But Bangladesh must find reasonable alternatives for employment before they shut these entities down for not meeting minimum wage requirements. You certainly can't shut down an education system all together. And the garment factories have empowered the thousands of women working there. I think by implying that these measures SHOULD be taken--by the way, there are a lot of things the Bangladeshi government SHOULD do--she really meant "should" but "can't," at least not at the current moment.
Craig
You didn't produce any evidence for that claim.
You complain that the West is exploiting them when the West has nothing to do with these operations. You claim that Bangledash gains no advantage--tell that to the workers who otherwise wouldn't have a job.
"cutting torch"/"blow torch"
I think everyone gets the idea of what 60 minutes was talking about...I still occasionally refer to my refrigerator as an ice-box -- no one yet has had to pull out a dictionary to figure out what I'm talking about.
And, as primitive as these operations are - maybe they are using blow-torches.
- 1
- 2
- next
See all 31 Comments