I'm from the city (Bhavnagar) Alang is located in. My neighbors operate in this very business of scrapping and selling. Great research done, I'll add some more context. - Apart from the steel and parts, EVERYTHING is retrieved and sold. Maps, Gym equipment, Glassware, Furniture - all of it. - A lot of local industry (particularly small manufacturing units) revolves around this inflow, not just shipping. If something works, and is cheap, someone WILL buy it. - Also the ships themselves are used for smuggling things into the country, so there's a black market too.
और शायद गुजरात मोंडल का दावा करते सरकार ने एसा धंधा तब शुरू किया था जब ताइवान चीन और जापान कोरिया अमेरिका जैसे देश सेमीकंडक्टर जैसे उद्योग शुरू कर रहे थे 😮
Safety goggles aren’t that expensive, why don’t they just buy some? Maybe there’s a valid reason, but the number one person responsible for your safety is you.
@@mynameisben123In India everything is expensive and cheap at the same time lol. For me a Burger @ ₹50 or $.5 is very cheap, but a poor labourer can buy 1kg of rice and wheat together in that burger cost.
I was first introduced to ship breaking in Paulo Bacigalupi's sci-fi novel "Shipbreaker" which is set in a not-too-distant future shipyard on the North American Gulf Coast. The early chapters are heavily inspired by the real-world breaking yards like this. OK, I'm commenting mostly to feed the algorithm, but Bacigalupi's books are worth checking out too.
I read that book as a kid and loved it! I saw your comment and I had to go look at my bookshelf and double check the authors name, glad I found a kindred spirit!
@@spikefurious5416 I came across it a few years ago, I'd read some of his other work and decided to check out his YA books out of curiosity. Like all the best young adult fiction, it was well worth a read even for us alleged grown-ups
I have been to Alang, it's a little off track from Bhavnagar (Gujarat) as I have an ex-army friend living there. The moment you enter into outskirts of alang, you'll see markets upon markets of various ship parts, furniture and everything that can be salvaged. But with that, you'll also notice musty air and pollution that you can feel in ur bones. Provided that it's much better than ship breaking at Bangladesh but still not a job for a human being. I remember entering into a one story building where the manager of a lot was staying, which was built from scratch using ship parts even had a central AC salvaged from ships itself. Surprisingly, there were no restrictions on filming or taking pictures, but all this was back in 2019. No idea what it would be now.
From Canada, tried to get into the alang ship breaking yard, the guards where not happy to see me and showed me the way out, never seen Indians move so fast.
Passed through Bhavnagar bussing my way from Diu to Bombay many years ago. The closest thing to ship breaking I saw was a passing truck. It was filled to the brim with massive ship chain. An axle breaking load of it.
@@JohnHiggins-f4h loved Diu. It probably " developed" by now which would be an awful shame.Went there a couple of times. Would not have been up to the stress of navigating a visit into Alang. This was 20 years ago. I talked to a couple of people who went to visit the place despite the restrictions. Not for me . Provincial India can be hard enough work at times. .
This is just regular 3rd world worker exploitation. Fun fact: Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani is worth $120B. That's a lot for any billionaire, but that wealth compared to an Indian is way more than someone like Musk compared to an American.
"It's still more than they can make in their home villages ... most workers send money back home to buy basic market essentials ... things that would radically improve living standards for a family living off the land in a rural community" Yup, sounds totally like an "anti-human" business to me!
No country should support India with any money or business as long as their goverment allow workers these conditions. India afterall is a space nation that choose to look the other way. Just like Russia and North Korea they dont value human life. They will never become a developed country without presure
@@Axobattler I did watch the video. People like you have no perspective on the poverty the face. They need work. They do the job willingly. It sucks but it’s better than the alternative.
Stuff like this is tough because the locals are absolutely being taken advantage of, but the reason they do it is because it's still the best job they can find. Shutting it all down due to public and government scrutiny probably hurts more families than helps them in the long run. Darn shame.
There’s so much that goes on in the world that’s not even within shouting distance of being on my radar…it never occurred to me that the end of a boat’s life is this much of a marketable commodity. Fascinating. Good job on the video…you just got another subscriber👍🏼
@@Micro-Econ-YT "It's still more than they can make in their home villages ... most workers send money back home to buy basic market essentials ... things that would radically improve living standards for a family living off the land in a rural community" Yup, sounds totally like an "anti-human" business to me!
Yeah, after watching the first minute of the video I expected the story to be that they change the ship's flag to some country that doesn't care, maneuver the ship into the territory of that country, and just leave it there to decompose and spill all its chemicals into the ocean.
I'm sure there are degrees to how bad developing nations jobs are, but pretty much every job in a poor country has working conditions and health risks that could be unacceptable by the claimed moral standards of western consumers. The loss of recycling exports is a huge blow to global sustainability, as instead of poor working conditions turning trash into treasure, workers will be doing more environmental damage to extract natural resources while still suffering terrible work hazards.
It’s probably worth noting that cargo ship owners aren’t selling to breakers in Alang out of some inane greed. Profit and cargo shipping do not normally appear in the same sentence these days. Chronic overcapacity has essentially made international shipping a largely money-losing business, and scrapping tonnage is essentially the only way to recover any meaningful value from a lot of older, smaller ships. Cruise companies can afford to responsibly scrap ships because they have massive profit margins and cash to spare. A lot of small cargo shipping companies simply don’t.
If companies rely on practices with such human and environmental costs to be viable, it should not exist in the first place. The market will find a way, but if we keep damaging our planet and our people like this, we're screwed
In Canada, Nassau used to be where commercial ships were often registered. When two of our ships were slated for destruction, the crews were aware of India as a ship demolition area, thanks to a show called “Where Ships Go To Die”. We kicked up a stink, and were promised those two ships would be responsibly deconstructed. They were sold to a Montreal businessman. We were reassured, but in a very short time, they were sold to an American company, and the next we knew, there were pictures of them being manually ripped apart in India by workers in sandals and shorts. No safety gear for the workers. It was awful to see those young men destroying their health by exposing themselves to all of those toxic chemicals.
this is how global capitalism has always operated, not just India. It's simply more visible because the direct health danger of exploitation is higher.
@@benjaminbrewer2569 You're acting like a complete 🤡 for blaming the passengers. By your logic then you're also an evil person for using a phone built with near slave labor in Asia, and stuff with batteries mined in Congo with slave child labor where the workers in the mines get cancer The companies are the ones responsible
I think there once was another grusomme clip of some on alive Indians. That got flagged and the video removed, OP then passed in some family friendly clip over it instead of cutting the dialogue.
Please note that this is not slave labour. People DO want to work there, simiarly to sweatshops in Bangladesh. These kinds of jobs look horrific, but it is still an upgrade from other jobs these people would have available (drug/human trafficking, prostitution). So making it illegal will worsen the situation of these people.
You westerner complain about not having enough money for vacations and play time , while not wanting to even go to work in person , and say people in the east want to work like this . Ridiculous logic
Who said to make them illegal? They should just provide water and safety equipment ffs. Pretty sure all actors can defintely adapt to the cost induced. I can guarantee you that someone somewhere is currently making more profit than they should from this business. I can't stand that toxic reasoning of "but the poor, they neeeed the awful working conditions 😢"
@@ci6516 The only ridiculous logic is racists like you watching something on the internet and then saying stuff about people you don't even remotely know. Also weird how you live in the US even though you hate us. You're free to leave, nobody's forcing you to stay.
I remember seeing a documentary about Chittagong. The US puts ships on dry dock before disassembly, places like Gadani, Alang, and Chittagong just run them aground
@@Akren905 No it isn't. There are far worse industries and far worse jobs. Do they have a suicide squad here? Some industries have a suicide squad, it is your job to go fix a thing before it kills thousands of people and your chances of survival are less than 0.001%.
@@jepulis6674 Companies change when they can't find workers willing to work for them. They only get so unethical because the employees stop caring, and continue to work for them.
Phew. Going into the video I was afraid to hear about how bad our scrapyards in Turkey were but its nice to hear theyre actually trying to modernize and are a better alternative.... Its really a sad situation all around
Excellent video, very insightful and informative. I had absolutely no idea of this industry and the awful pay and working conditions for people & children locked within this dodgy system 😮
6:45 Britain is hilarious with their names for things. I've never heard an oxyacetylene torch called a "gas axe." What a silly, but perfectly descriptive name lol
Thank you so much for exposing and showing the mistreatment of Indian government. They get their votes by tugging at heartstrings of Hindu Extremists & vanish when it comes to actual investment and improving lifestyles of the average Indian worker.
The statement that they do this to get their hands on steel is a fantasy. India has one of the largest coastlines. They have long been courted by investors only for them to be spurned by the Indian government. Should this not happen? Obviously. Who's to blame? The Indian government, almost exclusively.
The labour is unionised and it ain’t cheap, the cost of breaking it down will make the steel more expensive. It’s easier and cheaper for UK to buy the salvaged steel from India, after it has been broken down, re-molten and converted into ingots or bars, which they do to some extent. One of the largest steel producers of UK is Tata, which is based out of India.
Max Brooks set a chapter of the original book World War Z in Alang and Bhavnagar. It is one of the most moving and informative stories of the opening panic of the Zombie War.
How Money Works was always an excellent channel, so it's no wonder that his former employee has made something just as good. The voice sounds like the same guy from How History Works.
Would be interesting to see a approximation of the increase in economic value and if this transfers to an increase in living standards which increase life expectancy, infant mortality etc.
It’s a joke, buddy. Your carbon tax money makes zero difference towards changing conditions in countries like India and Bangladesh where they “do the deed”.
The problem is Devil runs the world. He is liar and murderer. This is the reason why liars and murderers feel good while righteous persons are persecuted. This is the reason why Hitler got the power, but Christ was executed as "blasphemer" and "rioter" by denunciation of clergy. That's why we've got the Gospel about the God's Kingdom. Jehovah would put everything in order. He's anointed Jesus Christ. The dead will be resurected and we'll see our loved ones again! :-)
@@holstatt6896 I walked on the yard only once, I always stayed in my office and did not had the need to visit. If they break russian ships, you will get asbestos and they collect those using no protective measures and pollute the air. I am a heavy smoker already, I dont want any asbestos.
This just feels like a behind the scenes of a GTA 6 Online business DLC. The majority of the world is aware of this dirty, corrupt enterprise. But what the world's just been made aware of is the scale of the corruption, human rights violations, deaths and greed. Thank you for putting this together for everyone to see.
This is the best use for the old ships, and the best way to disassemble them affordably. If there were better jobs in India for people, this kind of work would just go away. That is the solution, economic development. Tisk tisking isn't going to change anything.
So glad we have paper straws and electric cars to combat global warming the west. Like anything we do makes an impact when events like this are happening
Whilst its a terrible business, im genuinely surprised that breaking on this scale even happens, with how wasteful this world is, i half expect massive ships to be sunk because its 'easier'
@stylinsandwich well it appears it's not profitable, not viably anyway, the people doing it get paid fuck all and margins are tiny, there will be one greedy fuck in charge taking a packet but no one else is
Some nut case was ship breaking somewhere around Courtenay bc. The locals fought lazy government. Eventually, the ship breaker got a court date. They shut his ass down. Not one permit in hand. Asbestos is deadly!
This is yet another example of why we wouldn't have exported our industrial capacity. Americans could be doing this. We could break ships safer, cleaner and more efficiently. Break 'em off the Great Lakes, get the Foundry working again. Or maybe the West coast, there are very troublesome Sand Bars near Astoria. Build some platforms there, and break the ships at the platforms, send the scrap to any metal recycling facility on the West Coast.
The interests of capital require labour markets that can be exploited for maximum shareholder profit. I’m not disputing that retaining domestic labour would be a good thing, but this is the expected outcome under global capitalism.
@@acheybones588 You could also view this equally accurately (simplistically) as global capitalism sending the labor to the people who are currently the most underpaid and would most benefit from a rise in wages.
@@max7971 they cannot make it to be normal profitable like usual businesses. I mean to say they can't get it to a point where they can spend money on safety. Even cheating laws doesn't make much more
Not in India. They don’t have a choice. It’s a Caste society. If your ancestors were poor farmers you are a poor farmer. If they ran business management then you are in management. Their last names often are their position in the societal hierarchy. Patel (a common last name) literally means businessman
@@RichardBolger-c5b caste system has been mostly abolished except rural cities. Nowadays caste only decides who you can marry (you can only marry within your caste) but that will also be abolished in the next generation. Castes by itself has very little to do with wealth in india now. Castes by themselves aren't discriminated against. The only thing that's stopping most people from moving upwards is whats stopping everyone everywhere from moving upwards. "It takes money to make money"
How many ships are turned over per year? It seems odd that even with the entire world's supply of ships, surely the several hundred they tear through a day would outpace what is being decomissioned by companies
Either cough up the funds for refits instead of scrapping - which doesn't break even at all, btw - or build them to last even longer. The capability is there. It's *only* a matter of laziness or corner-cutting.
I believe the US Navy sells its hulks to a yard in Brownsville, Texas, often for one dollar. Others are sunk for reefs. Shipbreaking to North American/European safety and environmental standards is not really profitable.
True, but militaries can’t afford sending decommissioned ships to another country’s scrapyard, because navy ships are considered sensitive military technologies, thus they have to be processed domestically for “national security” reasons. That being said, there are exceptions though, sometimes old navy ships are sold to another country’s navy after a thorough refurbishment. E.g. USS Trenton : Sold to Indian Navy in ‘08, still running to this day.
One of the things this video touches on is the economic benifit for everyone. These underpaid (by developed standards) make much more than they could doing something else. While some may consider this a form of slavery, these workers make the conscious decision to work in these places. No one is forcing them to join, in fact I believe the line is out the door for an opportunity to work. This supply of labour decreases wages. It's simple economics. If there were no workers to dismantle these ships, then there would be no business. Look at the history of ship breaking, when it was done on the banks of the Clyde or in Virginia, when the cost of labour at the start of the industrial revolution was low enough to sustain it. Environmental and labour regulations established to protect these workers would eventually close these places and leave thousands out of work and shutdown a number of corelating businesses. 100 years later the developed world has moved on, but back then there was mass criticism of government for interjecting. While it is easy in this landscape to paint a negative picture of the industry, the truth is the world needs a cheap place to recycle tonnage. These margins are super thin for scrapers, so if there is no profit there is no scrap, then we have a bunch of ship owners abandoning ships at anchor, which is arguably worse. The best we as society can do, instead of trying to get these place to shut down is help provide basic PPE and oil booms to minimise (not eradicate) risk. This is an essential part of a ships life cycle, so someone has to do it.
The ship manufacturers should be responsible for the decommissioning, as simple as that. Otherwise the "recycling" - which is actually just using useful parts while leaving all the pollution in the sand, water and air - is just pollution export to some poor countries.
@arthurdefreitaseprecht2648 as much as you're right, what is more likely to happen is ships would be dumped, tonnage would not be replaced, then supply drops then cost of transport becomes too high. There is a false narrative that these shipping companies are making billions, but operating profit can be razor thin, with most ship owners be more like investors. Once the profit drys up they will abandon the venture. strong regulations would not only remove ships from the ocean but also cripple coastal communities in developing nations, who rely on the work. Making the ship owner adhere to regulations would mean ships are scraped in the west. The environment wins, but everyone else stands to lose. It's the constant trade off we live in. Economy vs Environment
It is still slavery. Economic slavery is slavery. They are making more money at the cost of their health. It's not like they are getting richer or they are gonna take the money to the grave. They are sacrificing their lives to provide for their families and they have no other choice because there's too many people in the country so in simple terms one has to die so the other one could live. There's nothing moral or humane about that.
@@LTSmash519 The only solution is make trade more expensive and cleaner, but that would also hamper trade. Its a tough issue. The only "real" solution is to gradually but slowly bring everyone out of poverty. Any short term and sure fire solutions would cause more issues. We must slowly make progress which is the only way progress has really been made.
I thank my lucky stars that I was born in a first world country 😔 I need to be more grateful, work and life is hard, but it could always be so much worse
And large % of the purchases we make every day are indirectly contributing to more shipping and therefore adds to the misery in such ship graveyards and other horrible places as well. That’s a disturbing thought and I wish there was more to be done about it than just trying not to consume something excessive or raising awareness. Thank you for this informative sobering video!
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm from the city (Bhavnagar) Alang is located in. My neighbors operate in this very business of scrapping and selling. Great research done, I'll add some more context.
- Apart from the steel and parts, EVERYTHING is retrieved and sold. Maps, Gym equipment, Glassware, Furniture - all of it.
- A lot of local industry (particularly small manufacturing units) revolves around this inflow, not just shipping. If something works, and is cheap, someone WILL buy it.
- Also the ships themselves are used for smuggling things into the country, so there's a black market too.
Fascinating especially that last part! Thanks for sharing 🙏
Sachu bhai ..... Kya revanu ? 😊
Saras information bc gujarat ma atla drugs ahia thi ave che😮
और शायद गुजरात मोंडल का दावा करते सरकार ने एसा धंधा तब शुरू किया था जब ताइवान चीन और जापान कोरिया अमेरिका जैसे देश सेमीकंडक्टर जैसे उद्योग शुरू कर रहे थे 😮
SO WHAT? people get work that need it. seriously most people in the west are spoiled brats compared to working people everywhere else.
Many of these ship breakers work without eye protection so they're slowly going blind on top of all the other dangers.
Great video--TY!
Yikes
Safety goggles aren’t that expensive, why don’t they just buy some? Maybe there’s a valid reason, but the number one person responsible for your safety is you.
@@mynameisben123In India everything is expensive and cheap at the same time lol. For me a Burger @ ₹50 or $.5 is very cheap, but a poor labourer can buy 1kg of rice and wheat together in that burger cost.
Nothing like IR retina damage
@@mynameisben123 Safety is not much of a consideration in Indian cultures.
All the foam, wires and carpets alone from cruise ships must be monumental
You missed the message.
@@AlexanderSomm yeah and i didn"t get yours either smart as
@@kennethflaming8606 LMAO
@ I didn't have one, the video did. You struck out.
@@AlexanderSommit's a comment, does their comment somehow negate the videos point in anyway?
I was first introduced to ship breaking in Paulo Bacigalupi's sci-fi novel "Shipbreaker" which is set in a not-too-distant future shipyard on the North American Gulf Coast. The early chapters are heavily inspired by the real-world breaking yards like this.
OK, I'm commenting mostly to feed the algorithm, but Bacigalupi's books are worth checking out too.
Met the author. He spoke at my highschool over a decade ago
I read that book as a kid and loved it! I saw your comment and I had to go look at my bookshelf and double check the authors name, glad I found a kindred spirit!
@@spikefurious5416 I came across it a few years ago, I'd read some of his other work and decided to check out his YA books out of curiosity. Like all the best young adult fiction, it was well worth a read even for us alleged grown-ups
Read his other book “The Water Knife” if you want a hefty dose of climate anxiety
Great Book
I have been to Alang, it's a little off track from Bhavnagar (Gujarat) as I have an ex-army friend living there. The moment you enter into outskirts of alang, you'll see markets upon markets of various ship parts, furniture and everything that can be salvaged. But with that, you'll also notice musty air and pollution that you can feel in ur bones. Provided that it's much better than ship breaking at Bangladesh but still not a job for a human being. I remember entering into a one story building where the manager of a lot was staying, which was built from scratch using ship parts even had a central AC salvaged from ships itself. Surprisingly, there were no restrictions on filming or taking pictures, but all this was back in 2019. No idea what it would be now.
You can feel the pollution in your bones? Ouch
do you have photos or videos of the shop? would be very interesting to see what that building looks like
Did you see lifeboats for sale? The ones like from the Tom Hanks movie where he is kidnapped by Somali pirates?
Very common in india @@rrai1999
If you ever want a cool vintage brass nautical light there's plenty on eBay. Most are sold from India. Not a coincidence.
youre not kidding 😂😂
I have seen many on Ebay but missed the connection. Great point
From Canada, tried to get into the alang ship breaking yard, the guards where not happy to see me and showed me the way out, never seen Indians move so fast.
Passed through Bhavnagar bussing my way from Diu to Bombay many years ago. The closest thing to ship breaking I saw was a passing truck. It was filled to the brim with massive ship chain. An axle breaking load of it.
@ was Due not a nice place, stayed a week, worth the bus ride.
@@JohnHiggins-f4h loved Diu. It probably " developed" by now which would be an awful shame.Went there a couple of times. Would not have been up to the stress of navigating a visit into Alang. This was 20 years ago. I talked to a couple of people who went to visit the place despite the restrictions. Not for me . Provincial India can be hard enough work at times.
.
This is just regular 3rd world worker exploitation.
Fun fact: Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani is worth $120B. That's a lot for any billionaire, but that wealth compared to an Indian is way more than someone like Musk compared to an American.
Theres also a big difference whether it's on paper or actual assets.
Besides his stake in his companies Elon is quite poor.
Suddenly a day in the office don't sound so bad
I should get into ship mafia
@@matijaerde Good luck not getting buried under 6 feet of ship muck.
The last 300,000 years have been pretty anti-human.. still going strong.
Feeding the algorithm with a pointless comment to help your channel get the exposure I think it deserves!
"It's still more than they can make in their home villages ... most workers send money back home to buy basic market essentials ... things that would radically improve living standards for a family living off the land in a rural community"
Yup, sounds totally like an "anti-human" business to me!
I love how you are revisiting this horrible problem
No country should support India with any money or business as long as their goverment allow workers these conditions. India afterall is a space nation that choose to look the other way. Just like Russia and North Korea they dont value human life. They will never become a developed country without presure
Your problem is a blessing to the poor people who voluntarily live there and need work. Ships gotta go somewhere. Everything in perspective.
@ez4039 seriously
Maybe watch the video before commenting
@@Axobattlerwhat's wrong, you don't agree when some sheltered english speaker tells you "the children yearn for the mines"?
@@Axobattler I did watch the video. People like you have no perspective on the poverty the face. They need work. They do the job willingly. It sucks but it’s better than the alternative.
Stuff like this is tough because the locals are absolutely being taken advantage of, but the reason they do it is because it's still the best job they can find. Shutting it all down due to public and government scrutiny probably hurts more families than helps them in the long run.
Darn shame.
They could have basic safety and still function.
@@mikepalmer1971 But....muh profits
this is bangladesh they've many reasons to live like that most important one "Islam"
@@andycric wow genious what does islam has to do with Ship breaking industry
@theredcrewmate6638 not ship breaking industry its the country & those hoods clown
There’s so much that goes on in the world that’s not even within shouting distance of being on my radar…it never occurred to me that the end of a boat’s life is this much of a marketable commodity. Fascinating. Good job on the video…you just got another subscriber👍🏼
I don't have anything to add but wanted to say something supportive, so: Hope to see your channel grow!
Haha I appreciate the kind yet uncreative comment
In echo of the above, here's a comment for the algorithm.
@@Micro-Econ-YT
"It's still more than they can make in their home villages ... most workers send money back home to buy basic market essentials ... things that would radically improve living standards for a family living off the land in a rural community"
Yup, sounds totally like an "anti-human" business to me!
Interesting topic. If one looks away from the human and environmental toll, it is actually positive. Thorough recycling!
Yeah, after watching the first minute of the video I expected the story to be that they change the ship's flag to some country that doesn't care, maneuver the ship into the territory of that country, and just leave it there to decompose and spill all its chemicals into the ocean.
I'm sure there are degrees to how bad developing nations jobs are, but pretty much every job in a poor country has working conditions and health risks that could be unacceptable by the claimed moral standards of western consumers. The loss of recycling exports is a huge blow to global sustainability, as instead of poor working conditions turning trash into treasure, workers will be doing more environmental damage to extract natural resources while still suffering terrible work hazards.
It’s probably worth noting that cargo ship owners aren’t selling to breakers in Alang out of some inane greed. Profit and cargo shipping do not normally appear in the same sentence these days. Chronic overcapacity has essentially made international shipping a largely money-losing business, and scrapping tonnage is essentially the only way to recover any meaningful value from a lot of older, smaller ships. Cruise companies can afford to responsibly scrap ships because they have massive profit margins and cash to spare. A lot of small cargo shipping companies simply don’t.
If companies rely on practices with such human and environmental costs to be viable, it should not exist in the first place. The market will find a way, but if we keep damaging our planet and our people like this, we're screwed
If a business needs the exploitation of people to exist, it shouldnt exist at all
Monopoly’s
So once the smaller ships lose profitability they are broken? Looks bad on paper.
It depends on the cruise ship company. Disney has no excuses though, but we all know they are probably the worst.
Glad I found this channel, your videos have been excellent. Detailed coverage without the fluff
Glad you like them!
In Canada, Nassau used to be where commercial ships were often registered. When two of our ships were slated for destruction, the crews were aware of India as a ship demolition area, thanks to a show called “Where Ships Go To Die”. We kicked up a stink, and were promised those two ships would be responsibly deconstructed. They were sold to a Montreal businessman. We were reassured, but in a very short time, they were sold to an American company, and the next we knew, there were pictures of them being manually ripped apart in India by workers in sandals and shorts. No safety gear for the workers. It was awful to see those young men destroying their health by exposing themselves to all of those toxic chemicals.
The video trays to make out that this is out of the ordinary. But this is what India is like not just the scrap yards
this is how global capitalism has always operated, not just India. It's simply more visible because the direct health danger of exploitation is higher.
*tries
7:34 Did AI insert that clip there? Seems out of place and unrelated to the topic
Yeah, WTF?
I think it's talking about the cruise ship industry, who send their ships to these yards.
It does look like stock footage but it does make sense. These happy cruise passengers never think about the poverty at the end of a ships life.
@@benjaminbrewer2569 You're acting like a complete 🤡 for blaming the passengers. By your logic then you're also an evil person for using a phone built with near slave labor in Asia, and stuff with batteries mined in Congo with slave child labor where the workers in the mines get cancer
The companies are the ones responsible
I think there once was another grusomme clip of some on alive Indians. That got flagged and the video removed, OP then passed in some family friendly clip over it instead of cutting the dialogue.
Bangladeshi viewer here. Thanks for the shout-out about our ship breaking yard.
I looked on google earth, and spotted 75 ships and oil rigs of various sizes just in Alang. Absolutely insane how many ships there are there
“The wire nest” is a wonderful story about the breaking yards in Mumbai. Also, this is the first time I’ve heard the phrase “gas axe”
Most of the visuals are taken from the Gadani ship breaking yard, NOT Alang
Please note that this is not slave labour. People DO want to work there, simiarly to sweatshops in Bangladesh. These kinds of jobs look horrific, but it is still an upgrade from other jobs these people would have available (drug/human trafficking, prostitution). So making it illegal will worsen the situation of these people.
I'm sure it's far more complex than that
You westerner complain about not having enough money for vacations and play time , while not wanting to even go to work in person , and say people in the east want to work like this .
Ridiculous logic
Lol yes it is slave labour, it wouldn't be economically viable to do say in Australia as example
Who said to make them illegal? They should just provide water and safety equipment ffs.
Pretty sure all actors can defintely adapt to the cost induced. I can guarantee you that someone somewhere is currently making more profit than they should from this business. I can't stand that toxic reasoning of "but the poor, they neeeed the awful working conditions 😢"
@@ci6516
The only ridiculous logic is racists like you watching something on the internet and then saying stuff about people you don't even remotely know.
Also weird how you live in the US even though you hate us. You're free to leave, nobody's forcing you to stay.
I remember seeing a documentary about Chittagong. The US puts ships on dry dock before disassembly, places like Gadani, Alang, and Chittagong just run them aground
The rich get richer and the poor just die.
This is every single industry. World needs to get off ford's idea train.
Don't work for those companies then. They aren't forcing you to work for them.
@@Akren905 No it isn't. There are far worse industries and far worse jobs. Do they have a suicide squad here? Some industries have a suicide squad, it is your job to go fix a thing before it kills thousands of people and your chances of survival are less than 0.001%.
@@MegaLokopo You have to work somewhere and there are less and less ethical companies left as working unethically gives you a huge advantage.
@@jepulis6674 Companies change when they can't find workers willing to work for them. They only get so unethical because the employees stop caring, and continue to work for them.
It's where you have two fictional characters that fans want to see together form relationships with… wait, no, that's something else.
I still can't avoid thinking of literal ships when I hear my niece complanimg how some fans ship her.favorite Resident Evil 4 character.
Shoutout to how money works for recommending this channel. Have watched some videos multiple times, new topics and new insights to be had for me
I once saw a short clip about ship breaking and was quite shocked, im glad that you guys chose to make a video about that.
This channel has been a great find. Always interesting takes on far reaching issues. Just checking in to show some love and support
Phew. Going into the video I was afraid to hear about how bad our scrapyards in Turkey were but its nice to hear theyre actually trying to modernize and are a better alternative.... Its really a sad situation all around
Excellent video, very insightful and informative. I had absolutely no idea of this industry and the awful pay and working conditions for people & children locked within this dodgy system 😮
This is a fantastic documentary. Every detail is explained and every question you might ask is answered
6:45 Britain is hilarious with their names for things. I've never heard an oxyacetylene torch called a "gas axe." What a silly, but perfectly descriptive name lol
Fascinating details. Well written and well researched.
I wonder if sci fi fully captures the brutality of starship recycling planets
The music is either completely right or completely inappropriate. I can't decide witch it is.
Fascinating topic. Well done Micro
Thank you so much for exposing and showing the mistreatment of Indian government.
They get their votes by tugging at heartstrings of Hindu Extremists & vanish when it comes to actual investment and improving lifestyles of the average Indian worker.
They sound like Democrats
Happy to see a new channel with great content pop up ❤
Keep it up!
Thanks for the kind words!
The statement that they do this to get their hands on steel is a fantasy. India has one of the largest coastlines. They have long been courted by investors only for them to be spurned by the Indian government.
Should this not happen? Obviously.
Who's to blame? The Indian government, almost exclusively.
Incredible visuals and analysis.
Wish they could do this in the UK as we could do with some cheap steel.
The labour is unionised and it ain’t cheap, the cost of breaking it down will make the steel more expensive. It’s easier and cheaper for UK to buy the salvaged steel from India, after it has been broken down, re-molten and converted into ingots or bars, which they do to some extent. One of the largest steel producers of UK is Tata, which is based out of India.
Max Brooks set a chapter of the original book World War Z in Alang and Bhavnagar. It is one of the most moving and informative stories of the opening panic of the Zombie War.
How Money Works was always an excellent channel, so it's no wonder that his former employee has made something just as good. The voice sounds like the same guy from How History Works.
There are shipbreaking yards in the US. They pay well and are safe.
How many man hours to break a ship in the US ? I wonder how many in Indian and Turkey.
Would be interesting to see a approximation of the increase in economic value and if this transfers to an increase in living standards which increase life expectancy, infant mortality etc.
Thank you for exposing all this. Very informative too
Is this why I have to pay a "carbon tax" in Canada? So this can keep on poisoning the environment ?
Exactly. India and China the ones ruining the planet. China pretends it went green but opened up more coal plants then ever
@@danny208YTchina is the king of pretending
It’s not about the planet, it’s about the money ;)
Nope, you have to pay that tax because your government has been taken over by corruption and Marxism.
It’s a joke, buddy. Your carbon tax money makes zero difference towards changing conditions in countries like India and Bangladesh where they “do the deed”.
More videos like this! Good job
The human cost of the prosperity we enjoy in the developed world is staggering. Humanity should do better.
Very interesting Jedi Outcast ahh job. It's an Indian problem and not anyone else's.
This is a visible horror. Imagine the invisible horrors.
The problem is Devil runs the world. He is liar and murderer. This is the reason why liars and murderers feel good while righteous persons are persecuted. This is the reason why Hitler got the power, but Christ was executed as "blasphemer" and "rioter" by denunciation of clergy.
That's why we've got the Gospel about the God's Kingdom. Jehovah would put everything in order. He's anointed Jesus Christ. The dead will be resurected and we'll see our loved ones again! :-)
I used to work in this industry. Ask me anything.
What can be done to at least get these brutal employers to provide basic security for their workers, such as a PPE kit?
@@manswind3417 threat of sanctions
What health effects do you have from your time in the budiness, if any?
@@holstatt6896 I used to work in the IT.
People, the actual workers can not work more than 2-3 years and they die within 15 years.
@@holstatt6896 I walked on the yard only once, I always stayed in my office and did not had the need to visit.
If they break russian ships, you will get asbestos and they collect those using no protective measures and pollute the air. I am a heavy smoker already, I dont want any asbestos.
Crisp and informative video. Thank you for your research and effort.
Great journalistic video. You can clearly see that you did a lot of good research for this, also massive respect for giving your sources!
This just feels like a behind the scenes of a GTA 6 Online business DLC. The majority of the world is aware of this dirty, corrupt enterprise. But what the world's just been made aware of is the scale of the corruption, human rights violations, deaths and greed. Thank you for putting this together for everyone to see.
In Australia the cost of oxy acetylene and rent on bottles would cost millions too cut up a ship
I just stumbled upon your channel, and I just wanted to say these are really high quality videos. Keep up the good work!!
This is the best use for the old ships, and the best way to disassemble them affordably. If there were better jobs in India for people, this kind of work would just go away. That is the solution, economic development. Tisk tisking isn't going to change anything.
So glad we have paper straws and electric cars to combat global warming the west. Like anything we do makes an impact when events like this are happening
Very informative! Thank you for making this video
Great video. While I have seen other videos talking about it, you’re right the more it’s talked about the more attention the problem gets.
Huh? I thought I watched this video before. Nice to see it again!
great video
Thank you indian guys for doing this great work.
Whilst its a terrible business, im genuinely surprised that breaking on this scale even happens, with how wasteful this world is, i half expect massive ships to be sunk because its 'easier'
The world is incredibly wasteful, just not where there’s profit to be made
Because it's profitable, if it wasn't they would definitely be just sunk somewhere
@stylinsandwich well it appears it's not profitable, not viably anyway, the people doing it get paid fuck all and margins are tiny, there will be one greedy fuck in charge taking a packet but no one else is
Interesting video.
Clean drinking water and sanitation is just as rare at the scrapyard as it is in the whole of India 😅
Some nut case was ship breaking somewhere around Courtenay bc. The locals fought lazy government. Eventually, the ship breaker got a court date. They shut his ass down. Not one permit in hand. Asbestos is deadly!
this is india, here rules and regulations just on paper not around people.
Fascinating content. I wonder how better or worse are the shipbreaking yards in bangladesh that was the only one I've heard of before this video.
Huh, I had no idea. Thanks for making such an informative video!
This is yet another example of why we wouldn't have exported our industrial capacity.
Americans could be doing this. We could break ships safer, cleaner and more efficiently.
Break 'em off the Great Lakes, get the Foundry working again.
Or maybe the West coast, there are very troublesome Sand Bars near Astoria. Build some platforms there, and break the ships at the platforms, send the scrap to any metal recycling facility on the West Coast.
The interests of capital require labour markets that can be exploited for maximum shareholder profit. I’m not disputing that retaining domestic labour would be a good thing, but this is the expected outcome under global capitalism.
@@acheybones588 You could also view this equally accurately (simplistically) as global capitalism sending the labor to the people who are currently the most underpaid and would most benefit from a rise in wages.
Like my dad always says. “Someone has to do it”
Crazy that they can do this without using a dry dock or something. So much polluton
India is backward like 80 years behind Western countries, China, Japan and South Korea.
I'm very sad for the workers, and that the whole industry is not very profitable, where they could make good money and care for the workers safety.
How? How can you make it profitable, when no one else figured it out?
@@max7971 they cannot make it to be normal profitable like usual businesses. I mean to say they can't get it to a point where they can spend money on safety. Even cheating laws doesn't make much more
Not in India. They don’t have a choice. It’s a Caste society. If your ancestors were poor farmers you are a poor farmer. If they ran business management then you are in management. Their last names often are their position in the societal hierarchy. Patel (a common last name) literally means businessman
@@RichardBolger-c5bthis is the 21st century not the 20th century
The nation has the reservation system and shipbreaking isn't a caste
@@RichardBolger-c5b caste system has been mostly abolished except rural cities. Nowadays caste only decides who you can marry (you can only marry within your caste) but that will also be abolished in the next generation.
Castes by itself has very little to do with wealth in india now. Castes by themselves aren't discriminated against. The only thing that's stopping most people from moving upwards is whats stopping everyone everywhere from moving upwards. "It takes money to make money"
Learned something new today. Thank you.
Glad to hear it!
Nice video!
It's like these ships have found a way to use Real Life VPN's in order to change their country of origin lol
😂😂😂😂
Wow your nieve
@@FunINtheSON410 *naive
Not origin, it's where the ship is registered
Thank you for sharing this 😊
How many ships are turned over per year? It seems odd that even with the entire world's supply of ships, surely the several hundred they tear through a day would outpace what is being decomissioned by companies
Oh yes.... Subscribed.
Welcome aboard!
India - the land that health and safety forgot.
Thank you for this ship saar
Look down! Look down! Don't look em in the eye!
Either cough up the funds for refits instead of scrapping - which doesn't break even at all, btw - or build them to last even longer. The capability is there. It's *only* a matter of laziness or corner-cutting.
Here's something I didn't know I needed to be horrified about
Jeez. That's an understatement. Your comment came right in as if you heard my thoughts. 🤪
Oh grow up. Life sucks.
I believe the US Navy sells its hulks to a yard in Brownsville, Texas, often for one dollar. Others are sunk for reefs. Shipbreaking to North American/European safety and environmental standards is not really profitable.
True, but militaries can’t afford sending decommissioned ships to another country’s scrapyard, because navy ships are considered sensitive military technologies, thus they have to be processed domestically for “national security” reasons.
That being said, there are exceptions though, sometimes old navy ships are sold to another country’s navy after a thorough refurbishment. E.g. USS Trenton : Sold to Indian Navy in ‘08, still running to this day.
Luckily, life is cheap in India
One of the things this video touches on is the economic benifit for everyone. These underpaid (by developed standards) make much more than they could doing something else. While some may consider this a form of slavery, these workers make the conscious decision to work in these places. No one is forcing them to join, in fact I believe the line is out the door for an opportunity to work. This supply of labour decreases wages. It's simple economics. If there were no workers to dismantle these ships, then there would be no business. Look at the history of ship breaking, when it was done on the banks of the Clyde or in Virginia, when the cost of labour at the start of the industrial revolution was low enough to sustain it. Environmental and labour regulations established to protect these workers would eventually close these places and leave thousands out of work and shutdown a number of corelating businesses. 100 years later the developed world has moved on, but back then there was mass criticism of government for interjecting. While it is easy in this landscape to paint a negative picture of the industry, the truth is the world needs a cheap place to recycle tonnage. These margins are super thin for scrapers, so if there is no profit there is no scrap, then we have a bunch of ship owners abandoning ships at anchor, which is arguably worse. The best we as society can do, instead of trying to get these place to shut down is help provide basic PPE and oil booms to minimise (not eradicate) risk. This is an essential part of a ships life cycle, so someone has to do it.
The ship manufacturers should be responsible for the decommissioning, as simple as that. Otherwise the "recycling" - which is actually just using useful parts while leaving all the pollution in the sand, water and air - is just pollution export to some poor countries.
@arthurdefreitaseprecht2648 as much as you're right, what is more likely to happen is ships would be dumped, tonnage would not be replaced, then supply drops then cost of transport becomes too high. There is a false narrative that these shipping companies are making billions, but operating profit can be razor thin, with most ship owners be more like investors. Once the profit drys up they will abandon the venture. strong regulations would not only remove ships from the ocean but also cripple coastal communities in developing nations, who rely on the work. Making the ship owner adhere to regulations would mean ships are scraped in the west. The environment wins, but everyone else stands to lose. It's the constant trade off we live in. Economy vs Environment
It is still slavery. Economic slavery is slavery. They are making more money at the cost of their health. It's not like they are getting richer or they are gonna take the money to the grave. They are sacrificing their lives to provide for their families and they have no other choice because there's too many people in the country so in simple terms one has to die so the other one could live. There's nothing moral or humane about that.
@@LTSmash519 The only solution is make trade more expensive and cleaner, but that would also hamper trade. Its a tough issue. The only "real" solution is to gradually but slowly bring everyone out of poverty. Any short term and sure fire solutions would cause more issues. We must slowly make progress which is the only way progress has really been made.
Would be so easy to fix. Make it so the company that makes the ship MUST be the one to scrap it.
Well look at what i got here, thx for the info, cna you give any names on which indiand families are related to the businesses?
I thank my lucky stars that I was born in a first world country 😔 I need to be more grateful, work and life is hard, but it could always be so much worse
And large % of the purchases we make every day are indirectly contributing to more shipping and therefore adds to the misery in such ship graveyards and other horrible places as well. That’s a disturbing thought and I wish there was more to be done about it than just trying not to consume something excessive or raising awareness. Thank you for this informative sobering video!
it may be super dangerous, but it is giving life to old machinery and steel. It is a form of recycling.
...Human garbage included.
2:00 why are so many ships initially registered in Greece ?
Greece is one of the biggest sea merchant powers in the world. Their economy heavily lays on that
Awesome video
I don’t think shipbreaking is anti human. You got it completely wrong. Asia is anti human.
I was really confused by the video of a western family on holiday.