Jan Oskar Hansen Poet Blank verse

Cost Effective

Cost Effective.  

Norway was a poor country her main income came from shipping, those 
who manned ships worked long hours, saw their families every two years.
 A didactic system built around the trade, there was opportunity to go to 
school and become an officer; back then it counted for dependability. 
 Oil was found in the North Sea, shipping, now less important and the flag, 
seamen sailed under, became internationalised, this meant that seafarers 
from abroad were hired to do our job for less pay. Men and officers were 
thrown off their ships, an industry died. Few noticed or wrote about it.
The beginning of globalisation. When the middle classes too were sourced 
out the people woke up, by then it was too late and land based industry too 
collapsed. They said we priced ourselves out of work, not so shipping made 
 money, they wanted to make much more, as the financial thinking shifted, 
wealth counted and not the duty towards an equal society. Maybe occupiers 
of Wall Street have seen a light. Must we wait till Polish seamen are not cost 
effective enough and it will be cheaper to hire us?

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