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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Cost Guard By Antonio C. Abaya Written August 07, 2006 For the Standard Today, August 08 issue Whatever the truth or half-truth or untruth about those �missing OWWA funds,� the Arroyo Government � specifically Ambassador Roy Cimatu, the OWWA and the Dept. of Foreign Affairs � deserves congratulations for having engineered the return home of some 2,600-plus Filipino overseas contract workers from war-torn Lebanon, with another 2,000-plus on standby in several staging centers in Beirut. They are preparing for the overland trip to Syria, from where they will board planes to intermediary stops in the region, preparatory to the long flight home In the confusion and chaos of war � let alone daily dangers to life and limb � saving 5,000-plus Filipino lives from the jaws of death counts as a major achievement, and all those who have taken part in this mammoth rescue operation deserve the nation�s thanks. But what about the estimated 27,000 others, mostly domestic helpers, who are still cowering in the cellars and shelters of their employers or are among the estimated 900,000 Lebanese refugees who have been displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon by the merciless bombardment by Israeli aircraft, tanks and artillery? How does the Arroyo government plan to pluck them out of the war zone? I hope not by sending two 56-meter patrol craft of the Philippine Coast Guard all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, as is being pompously proposed. This is a hare-brained idea and those who take part in it will be on a fool�s errand, unless they plan to jump ship and go TNT as soon as they reach the Mediterranean. . Crossing the broad expanse of the Indian Ocean on a 56-meter sea-craft, at the height of the monsoon and typhoon (or cyclone, as they are called in the Indian Ocean) season, went out of style with the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama and the Chinese admiral Zheng He in the 15th century. These days, those feats of seamanship are attempted only by foolhardy participants in the Southampton-to-Sydney ocean race. Or by eccentric and solitary Englishmen (and women) searching for some meaning in their lonely lives. Consider this. These 56-meter long vessels were not built for long ocean voyages; they would be tossed about like flotsam and jetsam in any squall or storm situation. For safety�s sake, they will have to hug the coast, from Singapore to Aden. That means the Manila-to-Beirut trip will take, not 15 days as claimed, but closer to 25 to 30. That also means that each round-trip will take 50 to 60 days. And all for what? To rescue 27,000 stranded Filipino contract workers from the war zone? Each of these 56-meter craft can safely and comfortably accommodate not more than 30-40 passengers per trip, or 60-80 passengers for the two boats for every 50-60 day cycle. This would not even be a drop in the bucket, even if other and bigger vessels were also used for the rescue. It is not cost-effective at all. Of course, the boats can be sent to Beirut to ferry the Filipinos to other and nearby Mediterranean ports, not all the way to Manila. This would make more sense. But why think small, tingi-tingi, as seems to be our wont, like buying cigarettes one stick or two sticks at a time? We do not have a Dunkirk situation in Beirut. Assuming those two boats � they are too small to be called ships � leave tomorrow, by the time they reach Sri Lanka or Aden, the war will have ended, or it will have exploded into a much wider conflagration.. It is more sensible to take up the offer of that Greek millionaire-shipping magnate, felicitously named Antoniou Antonious, to use one of his ships to transport Filipinos - 2,000 at a time - from Beirut to either Larnaca (Cyprus) or Latakia (Syria), from where they then board planes for the flight home. Mr. Antonious seems to have a soft heart for Filipinos. He has been married twice, in both cases to Filipinas, and his eldest son is also married to a Filipina. Some 60% of his staff � 300 out of 500 � are Filipinos. He himself says he has good chemistry with Filipinos. And he wisely cautions that we should not think of bringing home all 32,000 contract worlkers, only those who are in immediate personal difficulties and are totally penniless. This war is going to end soon, or so everyone hopes. And when it does, and the reconstruction of Lebanon begins, funded by bottomless sources of petrodollars, there would be need for more than 32,000 Filipino contract workers. Perhaps this is how Antonious hopes to cash in on his Filipino connections, by being the biggest on-site supplier of Filipino labor. This would be cost-effective, for him, for the Philippine government, for the OCWs. In the meantime, before it ends, the war is undergoing the explosive death throes of a super-nova, as each side attempts to exaggerate its prowess before sitting down at the negotiating table, to gain maximum bargaining chips for itself. The Hezbollah know they do not have an endless supply of rockets and missiles at their disposal. Of the estimated 13,000 in their arsenal, some 3,000 have been fired at Israel in the past 26 days, averaging more than 200 a day in the last six days, despite the frantic efforts of the Israelis to locate and destroy their launchers. Many of those 13,000 must have been destroyed by Israeli bombs and shells, but the ominous question remains: do the Hezbollah have more destructive missiles in their arsenal that they intend to fire at Tel Aviv in a last desperate gamble? The Israelis know that they cannot afford to prolong this war either, because it has been a public relations disaster for them with the rest of the world, except the Americans. They can argue that it is a war for their own survival. But the TV images and the daily statistics tell a different story. Almost a thousand Lebanese have been killed in the last 26 days, almost all of them civilians, and almost all of them as a direct result of Israeli bombardment. It is the Lebanese civilians whose survival is being threatened. By contrast, less than a hundred Israelis have been killed, some 60 of them soldiers killed in battle with the Hezbollah. Considering the lopsided disparity in organization, equipment and firepower, it can be said of this war what Henry Kissinger once said of the Vietnamese and the Americans in an earlier war, that for the Hezbollah not to lose is equivalent to winning; for the Israelis not to win is equivalent to losing.***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles since 2001 in www.tapatt.org. Current articles also in tonyabaya.multiply.com and tapatt.yahoogrous.com. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |