What's it like to be a marine technician?
This isn't a question you'd expect to be relevant to being in lockdown in Melbourne during the global covid pandemic.
Or is it?
Bear with me.
Colleen Peters is a Marine Technician on the RV Ocean Explorer. She recently spoke with *Amelia, not only about pathways to become a Marine Technician but also about the role of the captain, morale of crew & passengers, the importance of collaboration, working together, skills, dealing with people's needs and wants, as well as many fascinating aspects of her varied role.
She also spoke about the vital role the captain of a ship plays, where the crew rely on their skills as far more than a navigator to bring everyone home safely.
You can listen to Avid Research STEM interviews here & on Apple & Spotify
Listening to this episode made me realise there are similarities between being at sea during a massive storm, and Melbourne Lockdown during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
"the responsibility that the captain has in not just to get the job done, but it's to bring everybody home safe, it's a much different responsibility and it's to be very well respected"
Being in lockdown feels a bit like it sounds like after being too long at sea. You tend to go a bit stir crazy. We're confined to a limited radius from home, and while we can definitely venture further than our 'cabin' - we can walk, shop, post letters and go out for coffee and order take-away foods - many of us are missing family and friends who live further away. Others are antsy, frustrated and bored.
Our captain (Victoria's Premier, Daniel Andrews) is in some ways similar to the captain of a ship in a violently raging sea, and along with other countries around the globe, our ship has been blown off course.
Waaaaay off course.
There are no charts for this expedition and we rely on the skill of the captain, navigator, and crew to find the safest course to a new and different harbour to what was anticipated in 2019. This takes resolve and courage in the face of dissenting voices far away.
There are rocks ahead.
We see other ships, far larger than ours foundering on jagged rocks during this frightening storm.
Bodies pile up on a rocky island, while others swirl in the maelstrom, decomposing as we watch, helpless to assist. Desperate crew and passengers struggle to keep ships afloat while some captains shout indistinct or conflicting commands.
One captain & crew are carousing in his goldleaf cabin, denying there's anything amis while we watch in horror at the imminent wreckage. Will some of it create hazards for others at sea?
Meanwhile the violent storm rages on.
Focused on the job at hand, our captain commands "Heave to" to reduce the potential to join the devastation he sees around.
To weather a storm of such global magnitude takes nerves of steel, a calm demeanour, clear directions and responsible crew and passengers. It's incumbent on all to pull together in our response to this global covid crisis.
"We don't see the complexity of what's going on out of our sight."
Finding a relatively safe course through this uncharted territory is like deciphering a massive puzzle that's written in a different language, where unknowns are slowly revealed over MONTHS. Mistakes are made before new, more accurate information comes to hand.
The storm rages on with increased violence.
Over many weeks of Melbourne Lockdown, the encouraging result of the decision to heave to become clear. We appear to be safe!
However, while the captain has been focused on our collective safety, and found a relatively safe place to drop anchor while the storm increases with violence overhead, a dangerous plot has been hatched.
A mutiny is planned.
Poisonous letters are distributed to tired & vulnerable passengers. The easily led, the confused, the overly trusting, are encouraged to defy the captain's orders.
Far from making these saboteurs walk the plank, the captain treats them with civility and patience. Questions: repetitive, distracting questions which are unhelpful to fellow passengers, and increase their fear and distress, are fired at the captain daily & for MONTHS.
Draining questions. Pointless questions. Gotcha Questions. Questions that distract, deflect, obstruct, undermine & confuse the messages of safety which bring security & the sense of "We're in this together, We can do it!"
The storm rages on.
Thousands upon thousands of deaths. Untold numbers of young and previously healthy young people with life changing health problems due to #LongCovid . Overwhelmed medical facilities. Bodies piled on decks waiting for burial. Families, watching, waiting, grief-struck.
Passengers on other ships look to our captain & the difficult decisions he's made with envy. Other captains look here for direction.
The storm increases with ferocity.
Far from making sure everyone is doing their bit to ensure survival & encouraging passengers to doing do their part for everyone's benefit, the mutineers continue to undermine with destructive glee.
They DEMAND that the captain resigns.
Our mutineers have no chart. No idea how to read the language of the storm. No experience with GLOBAL storms of this magnitude, which come with terrifying gusts, then appear to abate. (No experience either with landlubber Australian bushfires which this captain prepared for and steered us through, saving countless lives, stock & property) These hints of abating are presented with supreme confidence as "The threat is over! Heaving to and dropping anchor were an overreaction by an incompetent, wimpy captain."
'Weigh anchor NOW' the mutineers command. 'We've had enough. We want our old life back. Take us back to the past!' little realising, or not prepared to acknowledge, that the whole world has changed. The dusty old charts, preserving the structure & order of their privileged past are redundant.
Missives are printed, funded by a foreign media mogul who's been involved with the foundering of other notable ships & resulting in the installation of his preferred captain.
Yet reputable people are expressing increased concern about the impact such power & influence has on our countries, our communities, families and environment; about what we're encouraged to believe & what's ignored or dismissed:
Here, here and here and an excellent article from Independent Australia as well as James Murdoch speaking out against News Corp which former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd discusses in this 2 minute video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4E6Ssvrocw&t=61s&ab_channel=KevinRudd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BPLBIgKjN8&ab_channel=KevinRudd
Murdoch Royal Commission link: https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_sign?id=EN1938
Remember to look at the list of Independent Media and perhaps choose a couple to subscribe to and become familiar with Media Manipulation Tactics to cut through the bs.
The storm rages on, and our safety looks promising ...
.....
(*disclaimer - Amelia is my daughter. I spent 10 years as a secondary school Career Counsellor and much of the rest of my working life in tertiary education and as a private career counsellor. I'm incredibly proud of her interviews & podcasts, not only from the professional aspect, but for the wealth of valuable career & life information they contain.)
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