http://entersection.blogspot.com/ Mitesh discussed the issue of Ship Breaking at Chittagong, Bangladesh. Today we had a chance to visit the Ship Breaking yards in Chittagong, and even managed a somewhat harrowing boat ride amidst the ships being savaged. Harrowing because, without warning, the ship section in the photo dropped unceremoniously to the sandy shore. The process was much like the calving of a glacier in Alaska - both in scale and in sound. Yet it was somehow a grotesque display of a painful end of life to a once proud piece of modern technology. You can see more photos of this yard (courtesy of Mitesh) at http://picasaweb.google.com/Rick.Turley/ShipBreakkingChittagongMiteshGala.
The video below, also courtesy of Mitesh, shows the aftermath of a substantial portion of a ship falling into the sea after being cut free.
Scale is an extremely interesting phenomenon. That which we consider big, is big only relative to those things around it. The ships beached at Chittagong are big only if we view them relative to some known object of a known size. When first coming upon these ships, what you see is more of an apparition - a shape floating on cloud of water. Only later do you realize that ships are supposed to be in water - not on it. Instead these floating carcases are more like beached whales. The surrounding sea provides little in the way of scale comparison. It is only when you see the men on board the ship that you get a sense for the overall immensity of what you see. While size is absolute, scale is relative. The interpretation is based on context. Is it big? Is it small? It depends. The ships, for me, become a metaphor for being poor in Bangladesh. If you live in a 10' x 12' corrugated steel building with a dirt floor, are you poor? If your neighbor lives in a 4' x 6' tarp covered makeshift structure, perhaps not.
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