Why 22 Filipinos were plucked out of the English Channel

Got your attention with that headline? All I have to say is that when that Norwegian ship named the Tricolor keeled over and sank early last Saturday after it collided with a Bahamas-registered container vessel in the English Channel the Norwegian vessel’s entire crew was saved owing to the speedy arrival of the French rescue services.

Why is this significant to us? Because, outside of the Norwegian ship’s master (captain) and a Swede, the Tricolor’s entire crew was composed of 22 Filipinos.

The 525-foot Kariba, the Bahamas-flagged container ship which figured in the collision was badly damaged but still able to limp over to the Belgian port of Antwerp. The French rescuers brought the Norwegian vessel's officers and Pinoy crewmen back to their port in Dunkirk.

This just goes to reaffirm that whenever any ship sinks anywhere in the world, there’s bound to be a Filipino, or more, sinking with it. Our seamen crew roams all over the world. Thank God, this time all of our boys were plucked from the sea.

Not rescued, however, were the 2,862 brand-new luxury cars bound for England aboard the overturned Williamsen Lines ship – $30 million worth of BMWs, Volvos and Saabs. This is going to be a bleak Christmas for many a British swinger and playboy. How about an Aston-Martin? Suits James Bond, even if shaken, not stirred.

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Although he made some babies cry – imagine being swept up into the arms of a strange man with a white beard, in a red suit – Finland’s visiting Santa Claus went on from Manila to Tokyo, then onwards on his tour of bringing cheer from "Christmas Village" in Rovaniemi (Finnish Lapland) to Asia.

Also bringing cheer of another sort, Russia’s Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov came and went yesterday – also bound for Tokyo – and exchanged compliments and promises with President GMA and Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople. The appropriate noises were made about comradeship in the fight against "terrorism". (Moscow has its own Islamic problem.) The Russian official promised to sell us oil, if our Middle Eastern suppliers fail to deli-ver should a war erupt over there.

What about our procuring Russian aircraft, military equipment et cetera? Why not? Moscow is the world’s biggest supplier of weaponry, literally neck and neck with the other Friendly Merchant of Death, the United States of America. Business is business. But will the US let us buy Russian stuff – with its aid money? No way.

The offer of Ivanov to send a delegation here soon to discuss oil sales to the Philippines is an interesting development. Russia, when you add on the other former states of the Soviet Union, owns or has direct access to 65.4 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. This still does not compare with the oil reserves of our main Middle East supplier, Saudi Arabia, which has 261.8 billion barrels. But in a pinch, Russian oil will do.

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As for warplanes, the Russians have been beefing up the air forces of China and Malaysia – yep, the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). Kuala Lumpur earlier acquired 18MiG29s as interceptors, along with eight US F/A18Ds (No. 18 Lipan) for interdition and maritime duties. These are frontline combat aircraft. Not bad for an air force which was formed only on June 2, 1958 – which had started out with only a few Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer transports and de Havilland Chipmunk trainers. If you want to know, the Malaysian name of the RMAF is Tentara Udara Diraja Malaysia.

The Pentagon, moreover, has just approved the sale to Malaysia of at least 12 F/A18E/F Super Hornets, manufactured by Boeing, at the price of US$1.5 billion, excluding engines and missiles.

What about us? Our once-proud Philippine Air Force has become such a junkyard that last Thursday (December 12) we lost another Italian-made plane, an SF-260 trainer, which crashed in Batangas, killing two of our pilots, 1Lt. Delfin Francisco, who had been scheduled to leave the following Sunday to be married in the US, and 1Lt. Ramos Vincent Ong. It’s a crime to send off our finest young men to die because they’re forced to fly in decrepit aircraft by a parsimonious government.

Instead of endless "inquiries", "investigations", finger-pointing , and pointless debate, our senators and congressmen would do well to concentrate on first things first: Putting our money where it should go; attending to our defense and economic needs. This is a society in which time and emotions are squandered trying to prove each other "no good" or "corrupt" (all for political advantage) while our soldiers die, and our people cower in fear from rebellion and crime.

Coming back to the subject of our junk PAF, did you know that last October 10, US Congress approved a loan that will allow Warsaw (Poland) to buy 48 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 50/52+ fighter aircraft and associated items? (I got this item from Jane’s Defence Weekly, http:/jdw.janes.com – 26 October 2002). This is truly Poland’s year. It was just admitted into the European Union with hefty subsidies to boot. Why can’t we get a loan from the US like that one? Aren’t GMA and "Made in Texas" President George W. Bush phone pals, or are they?

Incidentally, an F-16C/D Bock 50/52 should cost roughly 20 to 25 million dollars apiece.

Sige na. It’s time we got ourselves a credible Air Force.

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Does GMA think she's got image problems? Is she downcast at sinking so low in the surveys? If misery loves company, she should check out the front page of yesterday's Financial Times of London – published simultaneously worldwide. A three-column head asserts: "German Business Chiefs Warn of Worst Crisis Since the War."

In a dispatch datelined Berlin, FT Correspondent Haig Simonian kicks off with "the leaders of some of Germany's biggest companies believe their country faces its worst crisis since the war amid deep skepticism about the ability of the government to solve Germany's problems. Their anger comes as the government of Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder this week prepares to unveil a unitary 25 percent savings tax and an amnesty to encourage the repatriation of undeclared savings abroad."

Sus. So the honest Germans have been salting away mo-ney abroad – as previous articles used to say, "by the billions."

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

As for new taxes, wasn’t the pledge of no new taxes part of Schroeder’s SPD (Socialist) platform, when he squeaked through to re-election by the tiniest of margins, thanks to a last-minute Bush-bashing campaign and a loud "no" to an attack on Iraq?

The report goes on to point out that "business leaders, surveyed by the Financial Times and its sister paper, FT Deutschland, fear that rises in taxation and non-wage labor costs imposed by Mr. Schroeder since his re-election in September will stifle already weak growth."

"Along with the majority of German citizens, I am shocked by the present conceptionless government," declared Herbert Hainer, chairman of the Adidas sportswear group. ". . . Nobody has a clue in this overall chaos."

"Not since the end of the war have conditions been as bad as today," griped Alexander von Tippelskirch, head of IKB Deutsche Industriebank.

Another heavy-hitter, Ulrich Schaumacher, chief executive of the Munich-based semiconductor group, said his company would consider moving its headquarters out of the country.

The results came from a survey of the leaders of Germany’s 100 biggest groups, including the heads of Bayer and BASF in chemicals, Volkswagen in motors and HVB Group in banking. Gerhard Pegam, chairman of the Epcos electronics Group, groused: "The government’s current economic policy is characterized by an unwillingness to tackle reforms and a lack of courage to tell the truth."

Sanamagan. Don’t they sound like us Pinoys complaining?

Germany, another report by Haig Simonian and Hugh Williamson reveals, is also under pressure from the rating agencies, "which last week voiced their concerns about a deteriorating fiscal position. Standard & Poor’s said Germany was falling behind its AAA rated peers in terms of fiscal and economic indicators and warned that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio could reach 64 percent in 2004, above the Maastricht criterion of 60 percent. Fitch said it would take ‘a long hard look’ at Germany’s rating early next year."

The Germans are fighting back with humor, too – which is surprising given their reputation for being sober-sided, stuffy and burgis. Two weeks ago, there was an e-mail campaign which appealed to them on the web: "Send in your shirts before Gerhard Schroeder rips it off your back." Within a few days, 1,300 shirts had arrived at the Berlin chancellery (Kanzler Schroeder’s offices) by post. The officials there, also good-humoredly enough, passed the shirts on to second-hand shops. The Chancellor himself was not amused. He was quoted as complaining that these moves "damage Germany’s democratic culture."

The German taxpayers’ federation has also handed over to a well-known Schroeder-mimic, Elmar Brandt, a platinum disc as an award for the runaway success of his chart-topping Steuer Song (Tax Song), which has already sold 500,000 copies.

This does not mean, of course, that Germans are going to oust Mr. Schroeder – just as we’re not about to oust GMA or anything close to that. If his coalition with the Greens holds, he will remain in power for the next three and a half years. He is being roundly denounced for having painted, during the campaign, too rosy a picture of the country – but what politician doesn’t try to do that? Germans are being told that Germany has slipped so badly it is now "at the rear of the European train". But the average German, it’s said, for all the doom and gloom seeping into their lives, still feels rich – just as the Japanese do.

Anyway, GMA: Hindi ka nag-iisa. The leading financial daily of Europe in an editorial yesterday, entitled "Germany’s Malaise", asserted that "the FT Deutschland survey is a wake-up call for Berlin."

GMA has received several wake-up calls lately. How will she respond?