Friends,
Vinod
and I reached the Roma Termini station well in time and bought tickets by a
local train to Formia-Gaeta, the station that served the port town. We were
headed there for the last task before heading home, that of inspecting a ship.
After the tickets were bought through a vending machine we were told by the
information centre that the ticket had to be validated before travel, for the
tickets were valid for two months. The 7.49 am local to Naples was crowded, but
we managed to get seats, which were not comfortable. It felt as if the tyres of
the coach wheels were due attention. The train attained speeds of about 200
kmph and we got to Gaeta ahead of schedule at 9.10 am – a distance of 130
kilometers covered in 80 minutes with many stoppages; it was a slow train! The
Agent of the ship to be inspected had arranged a pick up – the entire
facilitation was charged an atrocious fee of Euro 200. It was raining slightly
and temperature hovered around 7 degrees with icy winds. The city of Gaeta is
clearly demarcated from Formia. Once again there was hardly any Security or
Customs to clear vehicles and people into the port area. After the initial
examination of the ship’s hull we boarded the ship. We received a warm welcome
from the Syrian Captain and his Greek Superintendent – the 12 crew members
consisted of 7 Syrians and 5 Pakistanis. During the stay on the ship we were
treated like long lost friends, particularly the Pakistanis. The Captain was a
voluble gentleman who served us huge cups of coffee and tasty almond Baklavas. He
had poignant tales of the ongoing Syrian conflicts to share and his views of
Jewish and American machinations were so seriously recounted that they merited
belief. His own village in Banyas was affected little, but the family has got
separated between Lebanon and Syria. He wants to go home, but does not know
which place he can call that now. A deck hand who belonged to Allepo, in Syria,
mentioned that the fighting at times gets so severe that thousands die every
night! The saving grace, according to him, is that the huge city is still
intact; the villages have been reduced to ashes and dust. The Captain invited
us to lunch. The Chef, a happy and well-rounded Syrian, served us a delectable
soup followed by chicken and potatoes and a preparation of eggplant and mustard
seeds, which was had with Syrian pitta bread. Though the chef suggested a
helping of rice there wasn’t enough place to oblige the offer. Instead I had a
banana to end the meal on a sweet note. The cuisine on the ship mostly consisted
of Syrian fare; Pakistani cuisine was only to break the routine. The Syrians
found the Pakistani masala a bit hot to handle (pun unintended).
Gaeta
is a small Italian port town on the Mediterranean Sea. The population of the
town is less than 25,000. This city was a popular resort during the Roman
times. It was, till a decade ago, also popular among Italians who wanted to
spend a few days out in the sun on the beach. However, the Euro changed all
that. The place became pricey and tourists moved to Spain, it is said. The
average salary of Euro 1600 in the private sector is at a discount of 25%
vis-à-vis the public sector. Italians pay a high percentage of salary as tax,
of various kinds. It goes as high as 55%. The high taxes have affected
corporate jobs too – factories are closing and moving elsewhere. The fun loving
Italians who spent their time in leisure and pleasure had that taken away from
them. Many do not have enough to spend and those who do, spend less saving for
the rainy day. All this have affected the economy. The dominant role of Germany
and France is blamed most of the time for financial problems in the rest of the
EU. The woes in Greece are another classic example. The Superintendent of MV
OSTRIA, the ship we inspected in Gaeta Port said that his daughter who was
employed in a travel agency had her salary downsized by over 50% in two
tranches. Children who used to share their incomes with older parents no longer
did. The retired government employees suddenly saw their pensions slashed by
over 50%. All these were done for the stated objective to contain deficits. In
this context it is very interesting to see the contrasts in Ukraine and Turkey.
Kiev was under siege from the public protesting against a Government unwilling
to commit itself to the Euro. Turkey, on the other hand turned away from its
original plan to join the Euro zone. Many restructuring proposals were placed
before it by the Central Bank of EU and the country thought it better to
reverse the original direction. It benefited in hindsight, for the economy is
flourishing now as a result of transplantation of factories and booming
tourism. The decision of Tony Blair not to adopt the Euro, while still being
within the Union, now seems like the right decision made against popular advice
of the time.
The
ship was at port to load 5000 tonnes of cement to Benghazi, Libya. Rain played
spoilsport for a while. But, when the loading operations started it was a joy
to see the productivity. There were just three people hooking a lot of 6x2
tonne bags for the Gottwald to swing into the hold of the ship. Two forklifts
offloaded the cement bags from trucks on the ground. 30 tonnes was unloaded
from a truck in less than 5 minutes. The driver of the truck dismantled the
side panels of the trucks for the forklifts to work and put them back in
sections as soon as the work was completed. A forklift, a hold hand and his
supervisor completed the team inside the hold. The speed with which work was
done, and without any fuss, was enviable, to say the least.
We
had to walk to the port gate as per instructions given. Near the gate Customs
officials demanded to examine our bags. They were upset that we had walked past
ignoring them. Of course they spoke Italian and we could only smile. No harm
done, we boarded the car sent by the Agent and got to the station. We were in
time to catch a fast local back to Rome. This time the seats were better and
the travel was more comfortable. We reached Roma Termini by 3.30 pm and decided
to go directly to the Coliseum. By the time we got to the gigantic monument it
was already closed for inside entry. We did spend a lot of time circling it and
marveling at the magnificence of the grand stadium. Scenes of the movie,
Gladiator, returned vividly to add to the thrill. As light faded in the horizon
we made the walk back to the hotel.
The
journey back home to Cochin would begin the next day morning – the tasks of
inspection had been done and the schedule afforded sightseeing too, albeit
hurried. Over dinner we decided to take a taxi at 6 am to the Fumicino airport
to head for Madrid, from where we would emplane to India. The necessary
instructions were given at the hotel reception before repairing for the last
night in Europe during this trip. All had gone well; the ships inspected were
the right ones for our purpose and the interludes had offered opportunities to
visit heritage and tourist sites. Thank Him for that.
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