The drumbeat of globalization is deafening: stores are awash in Christmas goods, talk of trade deals fills the headlines, debates over the role of foreign investors and workers and production engage our minds.
In the maritime world, we know that at the heart of globalization are the ships that move 90 per cent of the world’s cargo — and the seafarers who form the world’s most marginalized and isolated workforce.
This week, we’re offering you a Saturday morning watch and listen: Freightened, an engaging film that looks at how modern global trade has changed the world. It contemplates the winners, the losers and those who have been left behind. And it asks what role that our communities, as consumers, play in that dance.
(Late note: We have discovered this film is only available for viewing in BC, Canada, via this link, due to rights arrangements. Everyone else can visit the website for the movie for info on when it will be streamed later this year by the film’s producers. You can also buy a copy there, if that interests you.)
We think there’s a final critical point to keep in mind as you watch: we’re all part of this trade system, most of us sit on the winning side, and we all bear responsibility to the men and women who move the ships that make it possible.
Need another reason to watch? The film, produced by Polar Star Films, features an appearance by Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the ITF.
You can watch it here until Nov. 24.
The ITF in Canada 