>Message: 3
>Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:06:54 -0700
>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Subject: [lbo-talk] cruise report
>To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Message-ID: <45B35CA2-F1FD-45EB-A372-FFE4CF3EBD6E at panix.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
>Greetings from the ms Oosterdam, approaching the Hecate Strait. Yeah,
>there's something hilarious about the whole idea of The Nation
>cruise, but it's pretty damn nice. The ship is pretty comfy, like an
>upper middlebrow hotel that floats.
>
>The crew - the visible staff, that is, upstairs, as opposed to the
>invisible folks downstairs - seem heavily drawn from Dutch colonial
>history, esp Indonesia. Apparently many stay on board for months or
>years, sending money home.
>
>Ralph Nader is here. Saw him walking down a hallway in a dark suit
>looking like he missed a career as a funeral director. He introduced
>himself at the briefing session for speakers as "a consultant to GM."
>
In the NOAA corps (the crew, not the officers) there is a similar living situation, where they're out for months. I already feel so news deprived after 2 weeks of work, but a lot of them start to become happy w/o the news or were telling me to stop reading the paper or calling to ask people what's going on. There are a lot originally from Cape verde islands for some reason, like lots of people train as seamen there, and also young ex-navy/merchant marines people from all over, Philadelphia, Philippines. Half are in the mode of sending money home, and some others are competent people who might be alcoholic onshore.
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