1
01:00:32,797 --> 01:00:50,580
[music playing]

2
01:00:50,715 --> 01:00:55,319
Midstream, a muddy
estuary near a port,

3
01:00:55,454 --> 01:01:00,090
forgotten space, out
of sight, out of mind.

4
01:01:00,225 --> 01:01:04,562
Upstream, the hinterland,
a greedy continent.

5
01:01:04,696 --> 01:01:10,134
Downstream, other ports,
great harbor cities, oceans,

6
01:01:10,268 --> 01:01:14,238
100,000 invisible
ships, 1 and 1/2 million

7
01:01:14,372 --> 01:01:19,276
invisible seafarers, finding the
world together through trade.

8
01:01:19,410 --> 01:01:42,733
[gulls crying]

9
01:01:42,867 --> 01:01:45,602
Below the dike wall, a village.

10
01:01:45,736 --> 01:01:48,972
The dike protects the
village from the sea.

11
01:01:49,107 --> 01:02:07,557
But what protects the
village from the sea economy?

12
01:02:07,692 --> 01:02:09,927
The unlikely story
of a steel box

13
01:02:10,061 --> 01:02:13,097
that changed the
world trading system.

14
01:02:13,231 --> 01:02:15,599
Ships now resemble
floating warehouses,

15
01:02:15,734 --> 01:02:18,736
plying fixed routes
between producing countries

16
01:02:18,870 --> 01:02:20,838
and consuming countries.

17
01:02:20,972 --> 01:02:23,040
While factories
become ship-like,

18
01:02:23,174 --> 01:02:25,242
stealing away in
the dead of night,

19
01:02:25,377 --> 01:02:32,783
in search of cheaper labor.

20
01:02:32,917 --> 01:02:35,753
Does the anonymity of
the box turn the sea

21
01:02:35,888 --> 01:02:40,591
of exploit and adventure into
a lake of invisible drudgery?

22
01:02:40,726 --> 01:02:44,461
Does this box, the acme
of order, efficiency,

23
01:02:44,596 --> 01:02:48,865
and global progress, create
disorder and destruction

24
01:02:49,000 --> 01:02:56,206
and throw the world
out of balance?

25
01:02:56,341 --> 01:02:58,775
Until recently, it was easy
to believe that the world

26
01:02:58,910 --> 01:03:02,512
economy was running on
automatic, regulating itself

27
01:03:02,646 --> 01:03:05,982
with an invisible hand.

28
01:03:06,117 --> 01:03:08,819
Now we know that the global
trading system floats

29
01:03:08,954 --> 01:03:12,323
on a sea of credit and that
bankers can as comfortably bet

30
01:03:12,457 --> 01:03:24,568
on failure, as they
can on success.

31
01:03:24,702 --> 01:03:27,971
[rumbling aircraft]

32
01:03:28,106 --> 01:03:30,441
Once we've built the first
of these cargo ships,

33
01:03:30,575 --> 01:03:32,309
the ship owners will be
around us like flies.

34
01:03:32,444 --> 01:03:34,144
Well, what's the next step?

35
01:03:34,279 --> 01:03:35,779
We start building, of course.

36
01:03:35,913 --> 01:03:36,713
How many?

37
01:03:36,847 --> 01:03:37,380
I don't know.

38
01:03:37,514 --> 01:03:38,382
I think about five.

39
01:03:38,515 --> 01:03:39,350
Five.

40
01:03:39,484 --> 01:03:41,452
That make a difference
to the yard.

41
01:03:41,586 --> 01:03:43,387
Three dry martinis
please, steward.

42
01:03:43,521 --> 01:03:45,189
Who's giving us the contracts?

43
01:03:45,323 --> 01:03:46,990
We don't need any contracts.

44
01:03:47,125 --> 01:03:48,492
These ships will sail all right.

45
01:03:48,627 --> 01:03:50,427
And let someone else take
the risk of building them.

46
01:03:50,562 --> 01:03:52,263
My dear fellow, your
scheme is absolute madness.

47
01:03:52,397 --> 01:03:52,763
Look, there's a flotilla.

48
01:03:52,897 --> 01:03:58,402
[murmuring]

49
01:03:58,536 --> 01:04:01,138
Those is your answer,
thousands of tons

50
01:04:01,272 --> 01:04:03,707
of shipping laying idle.

51
01:04:03,842 --> 01:04:06,576
Those ships are idle
because they're uneconomic.

52
01:04:06,710 --> 01:04:07,611
They ought to be scraped.

53
01:04:07,746 --> 01:04:09,580
My dear fellow, you're
talking nonsense.

54
01:04:09,714 --> 01:04:11,582
Most of those ships are
less last five years old

55
01:04:11,716 --> 01:04:13,250
and yet they're rotting
at their ankles.

56
01:04:13,384 --> 01:04:14,551
Age has nothing to do with it.

57
01:04:14,685 --> 01:04:17,421
It's a question of design.

58
01:04:17,555 --> 01:04:20,357
Michael Powell shows us
a go-it-alone shipbuilder

59
01:04:20,492 --> 01:04:23,994
trying to save jobs in the
depths of the Great Depression.

60
01:04:24,128 --> 01:04:28,465
75 years later, we enter yet
another financial crisis.

61
01:04:28,600 --> 01:04:35,839
But who would think of
making such a film today?

62
01:04:35,973 --> 01:04:38,775
Of all the forgotten
spaces, the sea

63
01:04:38,909 --> 01:04:41,344
and its ancient
terribleness is the most

64
01:04:41,479 --> 01:04:45,649
forgotten, even though more than
9/10 of the world's commerce

65
01:04:45,783 --> 01:04:48,018
travels in this way.

66
01:04:48,152 --> 01:04:49,586
The sea is really
remembered only

67
01:04:49,721 --> 01:04:55,525
when maritime disaster strikes,
when the black tide rolls in.

68
01:04:55,660 --> 01:05:01,198
Some of the oil is recovered and
burned, polluting twice over.

69
01:05:01,332 --> 01:05:11,408
And then we forget again.

70
01:05:11,542 --> 01:05:17,314
[planes rumbling]

71
01:05:17,447 --> 01:05:41,471
[explosions]

72
01:05:41,606 --> 01:05:44,608
The sculptor Ossip Xadkine
installed his monument

73
01:05:44,743 --> 01:05:49,079
to the bombed city
of Rotterdam in 1951.

74
01:05:49,213 --> 01:05:51,915
The war had ended the
Great Depression, at a cost

75
01:05:52,050 --> 01:05:57,287
too horrific to be spoken of
in the language of accounting.

76
01:05:57,422 --> 01:05:59,490
Rising from the
ashes and rubble,

77
01:05:59,624 --> 01:06:02,526
the city became dynamic again.

78
01:06:02,660 --> 01:06:06,029
The art critic John Berger
walked around the sculpture.

79
01:06:06,163 --> 01:06:07,831
He wrote of its
agonized dialogue

80
01:06:07,965 --> 01:06:10,901
with the sky, that had
brought destruction,

81
01:06:11,035 --> 01:06:12,502
and the port, that promised.

82
01:06:12,636 --> 01:06:14,171
Reconstruction.

83
01:06:14,305 --> 01:06:17,140
Today, as if trapped
in a bell jar,

84
01:06:17,275 --> 01:06:26,650
the war lament bounces off
the walls of investment banks.

85
01:06:26,785 --> 01:06:29,053
Cargo containers were
an American invention

86
01:06:29,187 --> 01:06:33,623
of the mid-1950s, modeled on the
automatic and continuous flow

87
01:06:33,757 --> 01:06:36,126
of oil into tank ships.

88
01:06:36,260 --> 01:06:39,896
The box became a fundamental
physical unit of trade.

89
01:06:40,030 --> 01:06:44,167
In 2008, Rotterdam
handled almost 11 million,

90
01:06:44,302 --> 01:06:48,672
the busiest port in Europe,
but well behind those of Asia.

91
01:06:48,807 --> 01:06:50,874
The center of gravity
of the maritime world

92
01:06:51,008 --> 01:06:54,277
has shifted east.

93
01:06:54,412 --> 01:07:00,984
The boxes made cargo anonymous,
odorless, secretive, abstract.

94
01:07:01,118 --> 01:07:03,153
These elderly
Rotterdamers came of age

95
01:07:03,287 --> 01:07:07,024
in a world of
slings and pallets.

96
01:07:07,159 --> 01:07:09,893
The old warehouses are now
either demolished and replaced

97
01:07:10,028 --> 01:07:14,898
by high rises or converted into
expensive waterfront lofts.

98
01:07:15,032 --> 01:07:16,500
The working port
comes to resemble

99
01:07:16,634 --> 01:07:20,837
a child's game of blocks
or a gangster's suitcase

100
01:07:20,971 --> 01:07:29,346
full of dollars.

101
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:32,683
As the old harbors are abandoned
to real estate speculators

102
01:07:32,817 --> 01:07:35,852
and tourists, the
Rotterdam port pushes ever

103
01:07:35,987 --> 01:07:39,956
outward into the North Sea,
sucking up the sandy seafloor

104
01:07:40,090 --> 01:07:43,059
and disgorging it into
hectares of new land,

105
01:07:43,194 --> 01:07:47,330
dedicated to the
moving of boxes.

106
01:07:47,465 --> 01:07:51,401
Despite being a metropolis in a
cooperative and unified Europe,

107
01:07:51,536 --> 01:07:53,637
Rotterdam struggles
to hold its advantage

108
01:07:53,771 --> 01:08:05,616
over the rival ports
of Hamburg and Antwerp.

109
01:08:05,750 --> 01:08:09,954
Containers did not come
to Rotterdam until 1966.

110
01:08:10,088 --> 01:08:11,956
They'd been accepted by
dockworkers on the North

111
01:08:12,090 --> 01:08:15,492
American West Coast a
good six years earlier.

112
01:08:15,626 --> 01:08:18,896
A powerful, but isolated
left-wing union,

113
01:08:19,030 --> 01:08:22,098
born in the bloody
confrontations of the 1930s,

114
01:08:22,233 --> 01:08:24,601
agreed reluctantly
to give control

115
01:08:24,736 --> 01:08:28,538
over technological
innovation to management.

116
01:08:28,673 --> 01:08:33,176
From that point on, management
held the keys to job control.

117
01:08:33,310 --> 01:08:36,680
By the late 1970s, containers
were the standard way

118
01:08:36,814 --> 01:08:39,149
of moving manufactured
goods between

119
01:08:39,283 --> 01:08:43,821
the capitalist economies.

120
01:08:43,955 --> 01:08:45,856
In the outer terminals
in Rotterdam,

121
01:08:45,990 --> 01:08:47,958
the physical human
labor that remains

122
01:08:48,093 --> 01:08:54,464
has become a literal
appendage to the machine.

123
01:08:54,598 --> 01:09:31,567
[music playing]

124
01:09:31,701 --> 01:09:50,720
[speaking dutch]

125
01:09:50,855 --> 01:09:54,057
Starting in the late 1980s,
Dutch terminal operators

126
01:09:54,192 --> 01:09:58,127
took container handling to
a new level of automation.

127
01:09:58,262 --> 01:10:01,798
Some of the new land
became intelligent.

128
01:10:01,933 --> 01:10:04,568
Robot vehicles are
guided by transponders

129
01:10:04,702 --> 01:10:14,277
embedded in the pavement.

130
01:10:14,411 --> 01:10:17,113
We speak of
labor-saving machines.

131
01:10:17,247 --> 01:10:20,817
And yet what is really
saved by automation?

132
01:10:20,952 --> 01:10:23,587
Automation does not guarantee
freedom from drudgery.

133
01:10:23,721 --> 01:10:32,429
It merely raises drudgery
to a higher power.

134
01:10:32,563 --> 01:10:34,330
The skilled workers
who remain work

135
01:10:34,465 --> 01:10:38,668
in isolation, lonely
aristocrats of labor.

136
01:10:38,802 --> 01:12:14,730
[speaking dutch]

137
01:12:14,864 --> 01:12:17,166
[children yelling]

138
01:12:17,301 --> 01:12:20,037
Youngsters from a
Montessori school,

139
01:12:20,171 --> 01:12:26,643
the free play of the
mind and the muscles,

140
01:12:26,777 --> 01:12:42,758
a spirited rehearsal for
the automatic future?

141
01:12:42,892 --> 01:12:59,642
[speaking dutch]

142
01:12:59,777 --> 01:13:03,246
There are three ways of
moving inland, by truck,

143
01:13:03,380 --> 01:13:08,919
by train, and the oldest
way, by river barge.

144
01:13:09,053 --> 01:13:11,187
Barges are the most
efficient and the least

145
01:13:11,321 --> 01:13:13,189
destructive of the environment.

146
01:13:13,323 --> 01:15:04,768
[speaking dutch]

147
01:15:04,902 --> 01:15:24,087
[music playing]

148
01:15:24,221 --> 01:15:32,628
The heart of Holland, the
garden of Eden, autumn.

149
01:15:32,763 --> 01:15:35,464
In prehistoric times,
it was most likely women

150
01:15:35,599 --> 01:15:38,668
who invented the first
baskets and slings,

151
01:15:38,802 --> 01:15:41,271
the first containers.

152
01:15:41,405 --> 01:15:43,607
Burdened with helpless
newborn infants,

153
01:15:43,741 --> 01:15:46,576
they sought to free their
hands to gather edible plants

154
01:15:46,710 --> 01:15:48,010
and seeds.

155
01:15:48,144 --> 01:15:59,823
[music playing]

156
01:15:59,957 --> 01:16:19,542
[train rumbling]

157
01:16:19,676 --> 01:16:24,547
[speaking polish]

158
01:16:24,682 --> 01:16:28,385
These Polish women cross half
a continent in search of work.

159
01:16:28,519 --> 01:16:30,987
They work for farmers who have
resisted the railroad that

160
01:16:31,121 --> 01:16:32,655
now cuts through
their land, and who

161
01:16:32,789 --> 01:16:38,127
rely on trucks to carry
their fruit to market.

162
01:16:38,261 --> 01:16:43,099
[train rumbling]

163
01:16:43,233 --> 01:17:00,082
[speaking polish]

164
01:17:00,216 --> 01:17:13,095
[cows mooing]

165
01:17:13,229 --> 01:17:32,515
[horn honking]

166
01:17:32,649 --> 01:20:41,103
[speaking dutch]

167
01:20:41,237 --> 01:21:54,543
[barking]

168
01:21:54,677 --> 01:22:23,606
[barking]

169
01:22:23,740 --> 01:22:53,803
[baaing]

170
01:22:53,937 --> 01:23:57,533
[music playing]

171
01:23:57,668 --> 01:24:01,037
Perhaps a local farmer's joke.

172
01:24:01,172 --> 01:24:04,373
Plagued by mammoth cost
overruns and now running at well

173
01:24:04,508 --> 01:24:07,176
below its mammoth
capacity, is the rail line

174
01:24:07,310 --> 01:24:13,515
extinct before its time?

175
01:24:13,649 --> 01:25:49,778
[speaking dutch]

176
01:25:49,912 --> 01:26:49,005
[horn]

177
01:26:49,139 --> 01:26:52,975
Between 1950 and 2010,
global shipping tonnage

178
01:26:53,110 --> 01:26:56,045
has increased at a rate nearly
three times that of world

179
01:26:56,179 --> 01:26:58,313
population growth.

180
01:26:58,448 --> 01:27:03,485
More and more stuff
travels the high seas.

181
01:27:03,620 --> 01:27:05,821
The crew knows
nothing of the cargo,

182
01:27:05,956 --> 01:27:10,059
but for refrigerated goods
which must be checked daily.

183
01:27:10,194 --> 01:27:13,095
Frozen cod returns to the
familiar waters of the North

184
01:27:13,230 --> 01:27:21,871
Atlantic, after a detour to
China for low-wage filleting.

185
01:27:22,005 --> 01:27:23,906
Second-hand
container cranes pass

186
01:27:24,041 --> 01:27:28,277
on the horizon, destined to
unload American military cargo

187
01:27:28,411 --> 01:27:37,987
in the Middle East.

188
01:27:38,121 --> 01:27:39,789
The first engineer
compares the ship

189
01:27:39,923 --> 01:27:42,291
to a powerful and
voracious bear,

190
01:27:42,425 --> 01:27:49,631
guzzling 5,000 gallons
of bunker fuel per day.

191
01:27:49,766 --> 01:27:53,803
Bunker oil is sulphurous,
tar-like in its viscosity,

192
01:27:53,937 --> 01:27:56,405
the cheapest and
dirtiest available.

193
01:27:56,540 --> 01:28:00,542
The very dregs of the refinery,
leaving a smokey, yellow smear

194
01:28:00,677 --> 01:28:07,182
on the horizon and
turning the ocean acidic.

195
01:28:07,316 --> 01:28:16,492
[speaking chinese]

196
01:28:16,626 --> 01:28:20,429
A pause in mid-ocean for
repairs, sometimes even

197
01:28:20,563 --> 01:28:31,340
a new ship breaks down.

198
01:28:31,474 --> 01:28:40,349
[beeping]

199
01:28:40,484 --> 01:28:46,655
Endless monitoring, checking,
looking for signs of trouble.

200
01:28:46,790 --> 01:28:53,162
The war against rust, washing,
chipping, painting, washing,

201
01:28:53,296 --> 01:29:06,775
chipping, painting.

202
01:29:06,910 --> 01:29:10,746
California has two great natural
harbors, the sheltered bays

203
01:29:10,880 --> 01:29:14,250
of San Francisco and San Diego.

204
01:29:14,384 --> 01:29:17,186
Los Angeles was a windswept
and barren outpost

205
01:29:17,321 --> 01:29:19,488
for the trade and leather
from the Spanish ranchos

206
01:29:19,622 --> 01:29:22,158
of the coastal plain.

207
01:29:22,292 --> 01:29:26,528
It was said in those days that
California shod the world.

208
01:29:26,663 --> 01:29:28,496
More of an anchorage
than a port,

209
01:29:28,631 --> 01:29:33,035
Los Angeles was despised by
seafarers for its remoteness.

210
01:29:33,170 --> 01:29:35,938
And yet it was Los Angeles,
and the adjoining port

211
01:29:36,072 --> 01:29:38,340
of Long Beach, that
became the biggest port

212
01:29:38,474 --> 01:29:41,076
complex in the Americas.

213
01:29:41,211 --> 01:29:44,747
Now 40% of the cargo
entering the United States

214
01:29:44,881 --> 01:29:47,850
passes through these harbors.

215
01:29:47,984 --> 01:29:50,018
In its distance from
the city center,

216
01:29:50,153 --> 01:29:53,555
this was the model for what
the port of Rotterdam became,

217
01:29:53,690 --> 01:29:58,127
for what most ports became
in the age of containers.

218
01:29:58,261 --> 01:30:02,031
Many Angelenos, accustomed to
taking the beach for granted,

219
01:30:02,165 --> 01:30:05,634
are unaware that the city even
has a port, even though it

220
01:30:05,768 --> 01:30:18,413
appears anonymously in
countless Hollywood films.

221
01:30:18,548 --> 01:30:21,016
In the maritime world,
people are often amused

222
01:30:21,151 --> 01:30:25,621
by the American obsession with
counter-terrorist security.

223
01:30:25,755 --> 01:30:28,757
Only 2% of containers
are inspected.

224
01:30:28,892 --> 01:30:33,228
More than that and the
system would grind to a halt.

225
01:30:33,362 --> 01:30:35,697
In congressional
hearings, politicians

226
01:30:35,832 --> 01:30:39,267
worry about the container
as a Trojan horse

227
01:30:39,402 --> 01:30:42,571
or perhaps a Pandora's box.

228
01:30:42,705 --> 01:30:53,482
[music playing]

229
01:30:53,616 --> 01:30:56,952
[screams]

230
01:30:57,086 --> 01:31:15,304
[explosions]

231
01:31:15,438 --> 01:31:21,810
[whirring]

232
01:31:21,945 --> 01:31:25,747
An engraved history of the
California working class,

233
01:31:25,882 --> 01:31:34,556
fishermen, dock workers,
cannery hands, migrants all.

234
01:31:34,690 --> 01:31:37,159
More recent graves
of young men, who

235
01:31:37,294 --> 01:31:39,595
fall out of a
shrinking working class

236
01:31:39,729 --> 01:31:45,400
and into a world
of guns and gangs.

237
01:31:45,534 --> 01:31:50,539
Graves tended by Samoans
from across the Pacific.

238
01:31:50,673 --> 01:32:14,530
[music playing]

239
01:32:14,664 --> 01:32:59,441
[bird calls]

240
01:32:59,575 --> 01:33:02,911
The first film of
Josef von Sternberg,

241
01:33:03,046 --> 01:33:07,249
shot on Terminal Island,
across from San Pedro.

242
01:33:07,384 --> 01:33:09,818
The best of the
countless films made here

243
01:33:09,952 --> 01:33:11,453
because it took the
making of the port

244
01:33:11,588 --> 01:33:15,157
seriously, and not as
something given, mere salty

245
01:33:15,291 --> 01:33:19,395
atmosphere for dramatic deeds.

246
01:33:19,529 --> 01:33:21,931
An unusual and prescient
film for the boom

247
01:33:22,065 --> 01:33:24,633
years in the 1920s.

248
01:33:24,767 --> 01:33:30,038
Poor people decide to
fight their oppressors.

249
01:33:30,172 --> 01:33:51,827
[music playing]

250
01:33:51,961 --> 01:34:14,116
[radio - singing]

251
01:34:14,250 --> 01:34:16,084
People that love to drive.

252
01:34:16,219 --> 01:34:18,420
And they are people, they
don't know how to drive.

253
01:34:18,555 --> 01:34:20,722
Especially their drivers,
they don't work mostly.

254
01:34:20,856 --> 01:34:23,559
And they never
worked out of state.

255
01:34:23,693 --> 01:34:26,995
If they never like-- if
they don't like to drive,

256
01:34:27,130 --> 01:34:28,730
they're not going to like it.

257
01:34:28,864 --> 01:34:30,732
Driving is something
that is-- I think

258
01:34:30,866 --> 01:34:33,535
it's something in
yourself already.

259
01:34:33,669 --> 01:34:35,871
It's something that
you want to really do.

260
01:34:36,005 --> 01:34:38,540
Something that you enjoy doing.

261
01:34:38,674 --> 01:34:40,876
Because for me,
driving is enjoying.

262
01:34:41,010 --> 01:34:42,043
I enjoy driving.

263
01:34:42,177 --> 01:34:43,712
I love driving.

264
01:34:43,847 --> 01:34:48,250
But usually a lot of drivers,
they drive a lot of hours.

265
01:34:48,384 --> 01:34:51,853
See, it depends how many
hours you drive a day.

266
01:34:51,988 --> 01:34:55,724
That's how you feel,
if you love to drive.

267
01:34:55,858 --> 01:35:01,730
But a good 10
hours, it's not bad.

268
01:35:01,864 --> 01:35:03,999
What about the waiting?

269
01:35:04,133 --> 01:35:07,135
When you wait, you
get a lot of stress.

270
01:35:07,269 --> 01:35:08,670
Waiting is bad.

271
01:35:08,804 --> 01:35:11,907
Especially, if you want
to make a living, you're

272
01:35:12,041 --> 01:35:15,944
trying to make some
money, when you wait,

273
01:35:16,078 --> 01:35:18,113
you're not making any money.

274
01:35:18,247 --> 01:35:19,548
Drivers, they want to move.

275
01:35:19,683 --> 01:35:23,384
They want to go back and
forth, bringing the containers

276
01:35:23,519 --> 01:35:25,087
from one side to another one.

277
01:35:25,221 --> 01:35:26,821
That way they can
make some money.

278
01:35:26,956 --> 01:35:30,625
But the harbors takes
so long that you

279
01:35:30,759 --> 01:35:33,295
can be able to take only
one container or two.

280
01:35:33,429 --> 01:35:35,463
By the end the day,
you're very tired.

281
01:35:35,597 --> 01:35:38,266
It's stressful.

282
01:35:38,401 --> 01:35:40,469
You know somewhere I can
park that thing for tonight?

283
01:35:40,603 --> 01:35:43,371
I got to wait until tomorrow
to get that load off.

284
01:35:43,505 --> 01:35:44,573
Yeah.

285
01:35:44,708 --> 01:35:46,875
There's a place over here
by Anaheim, in San Jose.

286
01:35:47,009 --> 01:35:47,776
OK.

287
01:35:47,910 --> 01:35:49,878
It's a diner and a hotel.

288
01:35:50,012 --> 01:35:50,712
OK.

289
01:35:50,846 --> 01:35:51,947
You can park your car behind it.

290
01:35:52,081 --> 01:35:53,115
Do you own-- what do you do?

291
01:35:53,249 --> 01:35:54,516
Are you owner/operator?

292
01:35:54,650 --> 01:35:55,650
I'm owner/operator, yes.

293
01:35:55,784 --> 01:35:57,619
Do they pay you guys by
the load or something?

294
01:35:57,753 --> 01:35:59,821
They pay us by the
load right now.

295
01:35:59,955 --> 01:36:02,057
But how much do
you guys get paid?

296
01:36:02,191 --> 01:36:04,392
I get paid $20.50 an hour.

297
01:36:04,526 --> 01:36:05,494
That's really good.

298
01:36:05,628 --> 01:36:07,896
But I've been there--
I've been 13 years.

299
01:36:08,030 --> 01:36:10,165
But what he's doing is
they're hiring people

300
01:36:10,299 --> 01:36:13,902
to make $10, $11 an
hour, with no experience.

301
01:36:14,036 --> 01:36:16,238
But you get what you pay for.

302
01:36:16,372 --> 01:36:19,574
They don't know how to get
in and out of rail yards

303
01:36:19,708 --> 01:36:22,577
or what they're doing.

304
01:36:22,711 --> 01:36:24,679
But-- I don't know.

305
01:36:24,813 --> 01:36:26,715
He's trying to go away
from paying by the hour

306
01:36:26,849 --> 01:36:30,085
too, trying to pay by the load

307
01:36:30,219 --> 01:36:32,988
Not everything can be automated.

308
01:36:33,122 --> 01:36:34,723
As the truckers
wait for work, we

309
01:36:34,858 --> 01:36:39,460
discover old-fashioned
exploitation with a new twist.

310
01:36:39,595 --> 01:36:41,129
Force workers to
own and maintain

311
01:36:41,264 --> 01:36:45,100
their own means of
production, pay by the piece,

312
01:36:45,234 --> 01:36:49,004
and pretend that they are
independent businessmen.

313
01:36:49,138 --> 01:36:51,339
There's all kinds of
trucking companies.

314
01:36:51,474 --> 01:36:54,075
Sometimes all you need is a
fax machine and the ability

315
01:36:54,210 --> 01:36:57,779
to speak English and ta-dah,
you're a trucking company.

316
01:36:57,913 --> 01:37:00,015
That means you can't give
your workers anything

317
01:37:00,149 --> 01:37:03,085
that a true business and
a responsible business

318
01:37:03,219 --> 01:37:05,053
should be giving their workers.

319
01:37:05,187 --> 01:37:07,322
Essentially what you're
doing is you hire these guys,

320
01:37:07,457 --> 01:37:09,490
you contract these
guys to run loads,

321
01:37:09,625 --> 01:37:11,493
and you make money off of them.

322
01:37:11,628 --> 01:37:13,428
Oftentimes, Latino--
the Latino labor force

323
01:37:13,563 --> 01:37:17,833
is seen in this country as
just a pair of arms and nothing

324
01:37:17,967 --> 01:37:18,967
attached to that.

325
01:37:19,101 --> 01:37:21,536
Those pair of arms were
just part of that labor.

326
01:37:21,670 --> 01:37:22,805
They're exploited.

327
01:37:22,939 --> 01:37:25,039
They're very vulnerable to
exploitation, specifically

328
01:37:25,174 --> 01:37:27,408
because they don't have access
to the English language,

329
01:37:27,542 --> 01:38:14,789
[speaking spanish]

330
01:38:14,923 --> 01:38:16,925
What are you guys
planning to do?

331
01:38:17,059 --> 01:38:20,228
Well, right now we're
talking with the union.

332
01:38:20,363 --> 01:38:22,230
And the union is trying
to organize the drivers

333
01:38:22,365 --> 01:38:25,166
because two months
ago, three months ago,

334
01:38:25,301 --> 01:38:28,303
we have two big
accidents in the port,

335
01:38:28,437 --> 01:38:30,905
which is not something rare.

336
01:38:31,040 --> 01:38:35,577
There's a lot of risk that
we take inside the port.

337
01:38:35,712 --> 01:38:39,514
One of the unloading guys
dropped one of the containers

338
01:38:39,648 --> 01:38:40,549
on top of the truck.

339
01:38:40,683 --> 01:38:44,085
And the driver
was badly damaged.

340
01:38:44,220 --> 01:38:46,354
He's actually totally, totally--

341
01:38:46,488 --> 01:38:47,322
He was killed, huh?

342
01:38:47,455 --> 01:38:48,423
[spanish]

343
01:38:48,558 --> 01:38:50,926
One of the guys can
move, not even his head.

344
01:38:51,060 --> 01:38:52,193
That's one of the guys.

345
01:38:52,328 --> 01:38:56,798
The other guy got crushed
between two-- two of the--

346
01:38:56,932 --> 01:38:57,465
Two chassis.

347
01:38:57,599 --> 01:38:58,133
Two of the chassis.

348
01:38:58,267 --> 01:38:59,334
That's what I heard.

349
01:38:59,468 --> 01:39:01,803
He got crushed and he got
killed right in there.

350
01:39:01,937 --> 01:39:04,839
So what the drivers
are trying to look for

351
01:39:04,973 --> 01:39:07,108
is some secureness
inside the port.

352
01:39:07,243 --> 01:39:09,278
Actually, one of the
drivers, the one got killed,

353
01:39:09,412 --> 01:39:10,879
he was unionized.

354
01:39:11,013 --> 01:39:12,013
He was on the union.

355
01:39:12,147 --> 01:39:17,485
And he got, I believe,
$250,000 for his family.

356
01:39:17,620 --> 01:39:21,322
And the other guy, who was
not in the union, got nothing.

357
01:39:21,456 --> 01:39:22,157
Got nothing.

358
01:39:22,291 --> 01:39:23,558
And he is still in the hospital.

359
01:39:23,692 --> 01:39:24,259
He can't work.

360
01:39:24,393 --> 01:39:24,926
He can't do anything.

361
01:39:25,060 --> 01:39:26,327
He can barely talk.

362
01:39:26,462 --> 01:39:28,563
Oh, but that's because he's
an independent contractor.

363
01:39:28,697 --> 01:39:29,697
He is an independent contractor.

364
01:39:29,831 --> 01:39:30,899
He is an independent contractor.

365
01:39:31,033 --> 01:39:32,066
Right.

366
01:39:32,201 --> 01:39:33,768
The other driver was
already in a [inaudible].

367
01:39:33,902 --> 01:39:34,302
Right.

368
01:39:34,436 --> 01:39:35,070
The other--

369
01:39:35,204 --> 01:39:35,670
The guy's a union already.

370
01:39:35,804 --> 01:39:36,538
Right.

371
01:39:36,672 --> 01:39:37,839
The other driver
was an employee.

372
01:39:37,973 --> 01:39:38,706
He was an employee.

373
01:39:38,840 --> 01:39:40,108
And he was in the union.

374
01:39:40,242 --> 01:39:41,643
And the other guy
is not an employee.

375
01:39:41,778 --> 01:39:44,379
The owner/operators
can be union.

376
01:39:44,513 --> 01:39:47,883
We have one of the
most polluted areas.

377
01:39:48,016 --> 01:39:48,816
We breathe.

378
01:39:48,951 --> 01:39:50,418
If you go outside
of this office,

379
01:39:50,553 --> 01:39:52,420
and you're there for
at least half an hour,

380
01:39:52,555 --> 01:39:55,823
you'll be sneezing later on
this afternoon, coughing.

381
01:39:55,958 --> 01:39:58,226
You can smell the
pollution in the air.

382
01:39:58,360 --> 01:39:59,060
You can see it.

383
01:39:59,194 --> 01:40:01,730
You can see it on your cars.

384
01:40:01,864 --> 01:40:05,266
One in eight children
in this area has asthma.

385
01:40:05,401 --> 01:40:08,936
Los Angeles adopted
the sustainable version

386
01:40:09,071 --> 01:40:10,905
of the Clean Trucks
program, the LA port,

387
01:40:11,039 --> 01:40:12,507
where you would
use clean trucks.

388
01:40:12,642 --> 01:40:16,544
And companies would have
to hire the guys directly,

389
01:40:16,679 --> 01:40:20,181
so that the companies would also
own and maintain the trucks.

390
01:40:20,316 --> 01:40:22,150
That's the only
way we can ensure

391
01:40:22,285 --> 01:40:25,453
that today's clean trucks are
also tomorrow's clean trucks.

392
01:40:25,588 --> 01:40:28,456
We have a temporary injunction
on that Clean Trucks program

393
01:40:28,591 --> 01:40:31,926
because companies, the industry,
is fighting tooth and nail.

394
01:40:32,060 --> 01:40:33,395
There's no way they
want to give up

395
01:40:33,529 --> 01:40:35,263
that profit that
they've been making.

396
01:40:35,397 --> 01:40:37,332
They've been making an
exorbitant amount of profit

397
01:40:37,466 --> 01:40:40,168
on the workers' backs, on
the backs of our communities.

398
01:40:40,302 --> 01:40:43,471
And they're not giving
it up easily at all.

399
01:40:43,605 --> 01:41:05,093
[music - singing]

400
01:41:05,227 --> 01:41:07,328
The old waterfronts
of other ports

401
01:41:07,463 --> 01:41:09,464
are taken over by
middle-class tourism

402
01:41:09,598 --> 01:41:12,133
and upper-class housing.

403
01:41:12,267 --> 01:41:14,135
But the ports of
Southern California

404
01:41:14,269 --> 01:41:17,939
are ruled by the
sheer volume of cargo.

405
01:41:18,073 --> 01:41:20,408
The Walt Disney Company
planned, but failed

406
01:41:20,543 --> 01:41:22,076
to build, a
harbor-front amusement

407
01:41:22,211 --> 01:41:25,346
park in the adjoining
port of Long Beach.

408
01:41:25,481 --> 01:41:27,716
The steamship companies
had no interest

409
01:41:27,850 --> 01:41:30,285
in tourist traffic getting
in the way of the trucks

410
01:41:30,419 --> 01:41:32,086
carrying containers.

411
01:41:32,221 --> 01:41:34,522
So there are still
some small havens

412
01:41:34,657 --> 01:41:49,804
for immigrant
families on Sunday.

413
01:41:49,938 --> 01:41:53,508
[bird cries]

414
01:41:53,642 --> 01:41:56,478
I believe that as we sit
here today, right behind us

415
01:41:56,612 --> 01:41:58,914
is the Silk Road of
the Third Millennium

416
01:41:59,048 --> 01:42:01,916
because California is the
gateway to the Pacific Rim

417
01:42:02,050 --> 01:42:03,785
and Latin America.

418
01:42:03,920 --> 01:42:06,454
And our being here today also
is a further demonstration

419
01:42:06,589 --> 01:42:10,291
that we're standing up to what
took place on September 11.

420
01:42:10,426 --> 01:42:12,560
We're not looking inward,
we're looking outward.

421
01:42:12,695 --> 01:42:16,664
And it's a very, very
important thing for us to do.

422
01:42:16,799 --> 01:42:18,667
And our presence here
demonstrates that we are--

423
01:42:18,801 --> 01:42:21,269
Like all mega-projects,
this one was

424
01:42:21,404 --> 01:42:27,375
sold with the false promise of
jobs, 700,000 for the region.

425
01:42:27,509 --> 01:42:29,143
[train whistle]

426
01:42:29,278 --> 01:42:30,946
The boosters of the
Alameda Corridor

427
01:42:31,080 --> 01:42:34,049
also promised to remove
trucks from the highway,

428
01:42:34,183 --> 01:42:37,185
deliberately neglecting to
mention that most trucks move

429
01:42:37,320 --> 01:42:41,856
local freight and trains move
things over long distance.

430
01:42:41,990 --> 01:42:46,862
[train whistle]

431
01:42:46,996 --> 01:42:49,898
The opening ceremony
had a funereal quality,

432
01:42:50,032 --> 01:42:56,504
as if parading the coffins
in the war to come.

433
01:42:56,638 --> 01:43:08,683
[train whistle]

434
01:43:08,818 --> 01:43:12,053
After the attacks of
September 11, 2001,

435
01:43:12,188 --> 01:43:15,723
the president urged
Americans to keep shopping,

436
01:43:15,858 --> 01:43:18,826
stoking the engine of the
debt-driven economy, that ships

437
01:43:18,961 --> 01:43:24,432
out only one full container for
everything two that come in.

438
01:43:24,566 --> 01:43:26,701
First among
containerized exports

439
01:43:26,836 --> 01:43:30,138
from the Port of Los
Angeles is waste paper,

440
01:43:30,273 --> 01:43:46,721
headed for recycling factories
in the developing world.

441
01:43:46,855 --> 01:43:49,224
[bird cries]

442
01:43:49,358 --> 01:44:05,106
[train rumbling]

443
01:44:05,240 --> 01:44:09,210
Official unemployment
has passed 12%.

444
01:44:09,344 --> 01:44:12,547
Independent statisticians
argue that the real rate

445
01:44:12,681 --> 01:44:16,017
is nearly double that.

446
01:44:16,152 --> 01:44:19,221
If California were a
country, it would fall easily

447
01:44:19,355 --> 01:44:22,624
within the top seven or
eight economies in the world.

448
01:44:22,758 --> 01:44:29,998
And yet the state itself
is going bankrupt.

449
01:44:30,132 --> 01:44:32,700
Between the tracks of
two competing railroads,

450
01:44:32,835 --> 01:44:36,103
another forgotten space,
a bargain basement,

451
01:44:36,238 --> 01:44:39,574
a 21st century
version of a poorhouse

452
01:44:39,708 --> 01:44:42,643
in a society that
specializes in prisons.

453
01:44:42,778 --> 01:44:46,013
You're not authorized to
come inside the property.

454
01:44:46,147 --> 01:44:48,449
If you come on the property--

455
01:44:48,584 --> 01:44:51,319
The sidewalk is not
private property.

456
01:44:51,453 --> 01:44:51,886
We're OK.

457
01:44:52,020 --> 01:44:52,654
No, it's not.

458
01:44:52,788 --> 01:44:53,688
But he stepped over here--

459
01:44:53,821 --> 01:44:54,355
Right.

460
01:44:54,489 --> 01:44:55,056
Well, now we're on--

461
01:44:55,190 --> 01:44:55,623
It's private property.

462
01:44:55,757 --> 01:44:56,257
We understand.

463
01:44:56,391 --> 01:44:57,224
We're off it now.

464
01:44:57,359 --> 01:44:57,992
You're on the
sidewalk just fine.

465
01:44:58,126 --> 01:44:58,760
OK.

466
01:44:58,894 --> 01:44:59,593
This is private property.

467
01:44:59,727 --> 01:45:01,062
OK.

468
01:45:01,196 --> 01:45:01,862
I drove over there.

469
01:45:01,996 --> 01:45:04,232
You had to go over there.

470
01:45:04,366 --> 01:45:05,232
Yes.

471
01:45:05,367 --> 01:45:06,668
When I left over
there, you guys came--

472
01:45:06,802 --> 01:45:08,035
It's possible the sound
man didn't understand.

473
01:45:08,169 --> 01:45:08,870
Well, they understand now.

474
01:45:09,004 --> 01:45:10,037
Because they're from Austria.

475
01:45:10,171 --> 01:45:11,239
So we're [inaudible].

476
01:45:11,374 --> 01:45:14,041
I have family from Austria,
my husband's family

477
01:45:14,175 --> 01:45:15,377
migrated from Austria.

478
01:45:15,510 --> 01:45:17,579
Very good.

479
01:45:17,713 --> 01:45:18,913
You have a nice day.

480
01:45:19,047 --> 01:45:23,418
Stay off the property please.

481
01:45:23,552 --> 01:45:25,987
And so it goes.

482
01:45:26,122 --> 01:45:29,690
The homeless are watched over
by minimum wage guards, employed

483
01:45:29,825 --> 01:45:33,028
by a Swedish multinational,
guards who may only

484
01:45:33,162 --> 01:45:37,465
be one step away from
homelessness themselves.

485
01:45:37,599 --> 01:45:55,583
[music - singing]

486
01:45:55,717 --> 01:45:59,220
Most of these people, their
lives-- I hate to say it.

487
01:45:59,354 --> 01:46:00,488
Maybe I am too.

488
01:46:00,622 --> 01:46:02,590
They're like lost.

489
01:46:02,724 --> 01:46:04,358
They don't have any direction.

490
01:46:04,493 --> 01:46:07,462
They have no place else
to go but right here.

491
01:46:07,596 --> 01:46:08,696
Well, I do.

492
01:46:08,831 --> 01:46:14,836
I just can't get the-- I
just can't get the-- oh,

493
01:46:14,970 --> 01:46:18,473
what word do I want
to use right now?

494
01:46:18,607 --> 01:46:19,641
God, not motivation.

495
01:46:19,775 --> 01:46:21,543
I got plenty of motivation.

496
01:46:21,677 --> 01:46:23,244
I don't know.

497
01:46:23,379 --> 01:46:26,414
I just can't get out of here
as of yet because of funds.

498
01:46:26,548 --> 01:46:29,250
Funds is what my main
thing is right now.

499
01:46:29,384 --> 01:46:33,588
Yeah.

500
01:46:33,722 --> 01:46:35,256
[laughter]

501
01:46:35,390 --> 01:46:36,891
He's a really good guy.

502
01:46:37,026 --> 01:46:41,228
Him and his brother
both live out here.

503
01:46:41,363 --> 01:46:45,700
But-- I don't-- it's
just-- I don't know.

504
01:46:45,834 --> 01:46:48,202
I don't know how to
really explain it.

505
01:46:48,336 --> 01:46:50,905
It's a different lifestyle.

506
01:46:51,040 --> 01:46:52,974
I mean like for
either one of you

507
01:46:53,108 --> 01:46:56,010
to come out here and
live for say a month,

508
01:46:56,144 --> 01:46:57,712
it'd be rough on you.

509
01:46:57,846 --> 01:47:00,047
Straight up, it would be.

510
01:47:00,181 --> 01:47:01,416
No bullshit behind it.

511
01:47:01,550 --> 01:47:02,884
It would be rough.

512
01:47:03,018 --> 01:47:07,288
It's like every night,
I-- you lay down.

513
01:47:07,422 --> 01:47:10,224
[mutters] You got to
get up tomorrow morning

514
01:47:10,358 --> 01:47:13,628
and go through it again.

515
01:47:13,762 --> 01:47:14,629
Whatever.

516
01:47:14,763 --> 01:47:15,696
Some days are good days.

517
01:47:15,830 --> 01:47:16,831
Yeah.

518
01:47:16,965 --> 01:47:20,434
I've had a lot of fun
out here, a lot of fun.

519
01:47:20,569 --> 01:47:23,504
But other days are
just like, god damn it.

520
01:47:23,638 --> 01:47:25,606
The train tracks
are right there.

521
01:47:25,741 --> 01:47:26,974
And people have
done it out here.

522
01:47:27,108 --> 01:47:28,375
There's been two of them.

523
01:47:28,510 --> 01:47:30,278
Ah, go ahead and kiss a
train when it goes by.

524
01:47:30,412 --> 01:47:34,682
It'll take your ass out.

525
01:47:34,816 --> 01:47:37,952
Well, my mom is
getting ready to roll.

526
01:47:38,087 --> 01:47:41,422
And the day she rolls,
that's the day I roll.

527
01:47:41,556 --> 01:47:42,723
That's the day I'm out of here.

528
01:47:42,857 --> 01:47:44,092
Yeah.

529
01:47:44,226 --> 01:47:45,827
Because that's when
my money comes in.

530
01:47:45,961 --> 01:47:47,762
Nah, I'm just going
to buy a trailer.

531
01:47:47,896 --> 01:47:51,298
And my ex-wife already has
it picked out at the river.

532
01:47:51,433 --> 01:47:53,434
I already saw a picture of it.

533
01:47:53,568 --> 01:47:54,535
Nice trailer for me.

534
01:47:54,669 --> 01:47:57,539
Hey, it's better than
that god damn tent.

535
01:47:57,672 --> 01:47:58,906
Like, hey.

536
01:47:59,040 --> 01:48:00,808
There it is.

537
01:48:00,943 --> 01:48:03,310
I can fish right off my patio.

538
01:48:03,445 --> 01:48:04,645
That's a nice place to live.

539
01:48:04,780 --> 01:48:05,980
You can live right on the water.

540
01:48:06,115 --> 01:48:08,416
I don't care where you
live, if you live on water,

541
01:48:08,551 --> 01:48:10,751
you're living pretty good
as far as I'm concerned.

542
01:48:10,885 --> 01:48:12,119
Yeah.

543
01:48:12,254 --> 01:48:13,754
I'm going to buy another boat
and just fish my life away.

544
01:48:13,889 --> 01:48:19,894
Fish and drink my live away,
that's all I want to do.

545
01:48:20,028 --> 01:48:21,762
I just felt that
there wasn't anything

546
01:48:21,897 --> 01:48:29,704
for what the majority of us
are out here, middle-aged men.

547
01:48:29,838 --> 01:48:34,375
There were no starting
programs-- nothing--

548
01:48:34,509 --> 01:48:41,081
like if I were to
find a good job.

549
01:48:41,215 --> 01:48:44,385
How could I eat, bathe?

550
01:48:44,519 --> 01:48:46,053
Would I sleep in
my sleeping bag,

551
01:48:46,188 --> 01:48:50,658
next to the place I work at
until I got my first paycheck?

552
01:48:50,792 --> 01:48:51,725
And then what?

553
01:48:51,859 --> 01:48:52,993
A motel?

554
01:48:53,127 --> 01:48:54,795
That's expensive.

555
01:48:54,930 --> 01:48:57,065
And supposedly
they're rehabilitating

556
01:48:57,199 --> 01:48:59,000
some old apartment
buildings or whatnot.

557
01:48:59,134 --> 01:49:01,936
And it's for women and children.

558
01:49:02,070 --> 01:49:04,772
There were no homeless
women and children out here.

559
01:49:04,906 --> 01:49:07,442
I think now it's
happening because

560
01:49:07,576 --> 01:49:11,445
of the foreclosures on
people's homes and whatnot.

561
01:49:11,579 --> 01:49:15,816
But at the onset of
this, there weren't.

562
01:49:15,951 --> 01:49:20,521
Supposedly money came that was
supposed to be for the homeless

563
01:49:20,655 --> 01:49:23,491
here, some $3 million
or something like that.

564
01:49:23,626 --> 01:49:25,927
And then more and more came
from the federal government.

565
01:49:26,061 --> 01:49:28,629
And there are no
programs like that.

566
01:49:28,763 --> 01:49:34,135
They come and they give
toilet paper and bread.

567
01:49:34,269 --> 01:49:39,841
And they raffle--
raffle-- for the ticket.

568
01:49:39,975 --> 01:49:41,209
That if you're
that lucky ticket,

569
01:49:41,343 --> 01:49:44,145
you get a motel
room for three days.

570
01:49:44,279 --> 01:49:45,913
And you can only do
it one time a year.

571
01:49:46,048 --> 01:49:47,715
Like if you win
the raffle again,

572
01:49:47,849 --> 01:49:49,483
you have to turn it
over to somebody else.

573
01:49:49,617 --> 01:49:50,217
You don't have it.

574
01:49:50,351 --> 01:49:52,654
I mean what does that do?

575
01:49:52,787 --> 01:49:55,156
Nothing.

576
01:49:55,290 --> 01:49:59,660
Some people here, it's become
at least a way of life for them.

577
01:49:59,794 --> 01:50:03,831
Or they're just reprobates.

578
01:50:03,965 --> 01:50:07,302
The definition of the word--
they don't want to get ahead.

579
01:50:07,436 --> 01:50:11,839
And they're satisfied
with the way things are.

580
01:50:11,972 --> 01:50:15,209
I'm not.

581
01:50:15,344 --> 01:50:17,211
I don't want to be
like this any longer.

582
01:50:17,345 --> 01:50:20,714
I've been like this for years.

583
01:50:20,849 --> 01:50:25,686
This is like a slap in my
face for me and my friends.

584
01:50:25,820 --> 01:50:28,189
I'm not on drugs.

585
01:50:28,322 --> 01:50:29,690
I'm not.

586
01:50:29,824 --> 01:50:31,992
I have these, my dolls
that I picked up.

587
01:50:32,127 --> 01:50:36,297
So you don't think I'm mentally
ill or anything like that.

588
01:50:36,431 --> 01:50:37,498
I picked these up.

589
01:50:37,633 --> 01:50:40,568
I have a tent full of
stuffed animals and dolls.

590
01:50:40,703 --> 01:50:45,439
This is the only thing that I
have to hold on to and for me

591
01:50:45,573 --> 01:50:48,709
to remember my children.

592
01:50:48,843 --> 01:50:49,744
I lost a lot.

593
01:50:49,878 --> 01:50:50,778
And I'm homeless.

594
01:50:50,912 --> 01:50:53,413
And I haven't seen
my children since.

595
01:50:53,548 --> 01:50:56,317
I was unable to
attend court because I

596
01:50:56,451 --> 01:50:58,286
had no transportation.

597
01:50:58,420 --> 01:51:01,121
And the court was way
in San Bernardino.

598
01:51:01,255 --> 01:51:03,724
I'm way in Ontario.

599
01:51:03,858 --> 01:51:10,097
And I lost all of my children.

600
01:51:10,232 --> 01:51:11,732
And I haven't seen
my children since.

601
01:51:11,866 --> 01:51:14,735
And this has been 2003.

602
01:51:14,869 --> 01:51:17,772
And here it is 2009.

603
01:51:17,906 --> 01:51:22,643
So I lost a lot.

604
01:51:22,777 --> 01:51:24,412
I'm trying-- I'm tired.

605
01:51:24,546 --> 01:51:29,684
I'm trying to figure
out am I going ever

606
01:51:29,819 --> 01:51:33,354
get the chance to be a
mother again with my children

607
01:51:33,488 --> 01:51:35,790
that I already have?

608
01:51:35,924 --> 01:51:37,291
I don't have my children.

609
01:51:37,425 --> 01:51:41,062
I'm over here in the dirt.

610
01:51:41,196 --> 01:51:45,966
Getting darker and
darker and darker.

611
01:51:46,101 --> 01:51:51,238
And my wig is because my
hair comes out, mysteriously.

612
01:51:51,372 --> 01:51:54,742
And my hair comes out.

613
01:51:54,876 --> 01:51:56,944
And it wasn't like
that at first.

614
01:51:57,078 --> 01:52:00,348
But when I get over here and
I take my hair out to wash it

615
01:52:00,482 --> 01:52:05,819
and stuff, it's
coming out in patches.

616
01:52:05,954 --> 01:52:11,525
Like someone is shaving my
hair off, that type of stuff.

617
01:52:11,659 --> 01:52:14,395
And I've gotten
overweight to where--

618
01:52:14,530 --> 01:52:18,665
and I'm just starting to handle
my weight in the hot sun.

619
01:52:18,800 --> 01:52:23,237
I can barely walk
across to the corner

620
01:52:23,372 --> 01:52:27,374
without getting hot
and having hot flashes.

621
01:52:27,509 --> 01:52:30,845
So I'm learning how to deal
with my weight and my situation

622
01:52:30,979 --> 01:52:33,313
at the same time.

623
01:52:33,447 --> 01:52:38,285
[train whistle]

624
01:52:38,419 --> 01:53:02,142
[plane engine rumbling]

625
01:53:02,277 --> 01:53:17,558
1, 2, 3, 4, 5-- 13, 14, 15, 16,
17, 18-- 27, 28, 29, 30, 31,

626
01:53:17,693 --> 01:53:30,571
32, 33, 34-- 41, 42, 43, 44,
45, 46, 47, 48, 49-- 54, 55, 56,

627
01:53:30,706 --> 01:53:38,045
57, 58, 59-- 81, 82,
83, 84, want 85--

628
01:53:38,179 --> 01:53:42,049
Involuntary human idleness,
rising unemployment,

629
01:53:42,183 --> 01:53:44,952
goes along with the
idleness of machines.

630
01:53:45,086 --> 01:53:47,722
A long line of
locomotives awaits

631
01:53:47,856 --> 01:53:52,559
the stimulus, the recovery,
the upswing of markets,

632
01:53:52,693 --> 01:53:54,962
the return of
consumer confidence,

633
01:53:55,097 --> 01:54:00,034
the relaxation of credit, the
correction of the correction,

634
01:54:00,168 --> 01:54:03,104
the reinflation of the bubble.

635
01:54:03,238 --> 01:54:07,140
126, 127, 128, 129.

636
01:54:07,274 --> 01:54:12,980
Wow.

637
01:54:13,114 --> 01:54:17,919
[birds calling]

638
01:54:18,052 --> 01:54:18,919
[music]

639
01:54:19,053 --> 01:55:10,937
[non-english singing]

640
01:55:11,072 --> 01:55:14,141
The ship never sails
anywhere near North America.

641
01:55:14,275 --> 01:55:16,344
And yet the Korean
and Indonesian crew

642
01:55:16,478 --> 01:55:19,547
eats rice from California.

643
01:55:19,681 --> 01:55:22,783
California rice is richly
subsidized and floods

644
01:55:22,917 --> 01:55:24,352
the world market.

645
01:55:24,486 --> 01:55:52,379
Korean rice farmers go bankrupt.

646
01:55:52,513 --> 01:56:00,421
[non-english speech]

647
01:56:00,555 --> 01:56:03,324
The ship is carrying fewer
containers than usual.

648
01:56:03,458 --> 01:56:05,926
Cargo is down by a third.

649
01:56:06,061 --> 01:56:19,840
The stern deck is opened up
to the sky and the winter sun.

650
01:56:19,975 --> 01:56:23,844
Where there are mirrors, there
must once have been smoke.

651
01:56:23,978 --> 01:56:26,313
Hong Kong was once
a city of industry,

652
01:56:26,448 --> 01:56:30,885
as well as transport, producing
cheap goods for export.

653
01:56:31,019 --> 01:56:34,755
Now, it is a financial center,
with an uncertain future.

654
01:56:34,890 --> 01:56:39,259
To the north, Shanghai
grows by leaps and bounds.

655
01:56:39,394 --> 01:56:42,229
And shippers increasingly
prefer the new harbors

656
01:56:42,363 --> 01:56:46,333
of the Pearl River Delta.

657
01:56:46,467 --> 01:56:48,836
[beeping]

658
01:56:48,970 --> 01:57:03,284
[ship horn]

659
01:57:03,418 --> 01:57:05,586
The crisis deepens.

660
01:57:05,720 --> 01:57:08,255
Ships are again laid
up by the hundreds,

661
01:57:08,389 --> 01:57:10,424
manned by skeleton
crews, or sent

662
01:57:10,558 --> 01:57:13,994
to the scrap yards of
Bangladesh before their time.

663
01:57:14,128 --> 01:57:16,964
10% of the world fleet is idle.

664
01:57:17,099 --> 01:57:21,902
Shipyards are again in trouble,
as orders for new ships dry up.

665
01:57:22,036 --> 01:57:24,271
Riding high in the
water, this ship

666
01:57:24,405 --> 01:57:38,018
carries only empties,
with nowhere to go.

667
01:57:38,152 --> 01:57:40,855
From centuries of river
trading the Chinese

668
01:57:40,989 --> 01:57:43,958
have learned to create
floating archipelagos of ships

669
01:57:44,091 --> 01:57:46,694
and barges.

670
01:57:46,828 --> 01:57:49,029
The ship is not an
isolated thing, but

671
01:57:49,163 --> 01:58:00,040
a unit in a makeshift ensemble.

672
01:58:00,175 --> 01:58:04,477
Behind it all, is back-breaking
toil and dockworkers' casual

673
01:58:04,611 --> 01:58:08,082
physical feats.

674
01:58:08,217 --> 01:58:12,052
The link between the ship
and dock and city streets

675
01:58:12,187 --> 01:58:15,889
is seen in the street porters
of the Hong Kong of the 1960s,

676
01:58:16,023 --> 01:58:19,760
photographed by
Ed van der Elsken;

677
01:58:19,895 --> 01:58:37,177
the physical definition of work,
moving a mass, over a distance.

678
01:58:37,311 --> 01:58:46,520
[music playing]

679
01:58:46,654 --> 01:58:48,221
What is the training
for work in the Hong

680
01:58:48,356 --> 01:58:51,826
Kong of the 21st
century, when industry

681
01:58:51,960 --> 01:58:56,163
has fled across the
border to China proper?

682
01:58:56,297 --> 01:58:58,932
The sea is a great
instrument for testing,

683
01:58:59,066 --> 01:59:02,169
for trials and tribulations.

684
01:59:02,303 --> 01:59:29,562
[music playing]

685
01:59:29,696 --> 02:00:32,893
[speaking chinese]

686
02:00:33,028 --> 02:00:38,131
We started in 1946,
straight after World War II.

687
02:00:38,265 --> 02:00:41,735
The idea being to take
urchins and orphans

688
02:00:41,870 --> 02:00:44,905
off the streets of Hong Kong.

689
02:00:45,040 --> 02:00:47,875
The group that
started it was a group

690
02:00:48,009 --> 02:00:52,712
that involved the church,
local businessmen, lawyers,

691
02:00:52,846 --> 02:00:54,214
et cetera.

692
02:00:54,348 --> 02:00:59,486
And then over the
next 10 years, it

693
02:00:59,620 --> 02:01:02,122
became-- it went from
just a school that

694
02:01:02,256 --> 02:01:05,926
was involved with
disadvantaged kids,

695
02:01:06,061 --> 02:01:09,262
to then giving kids
some purpose in life.

696
02:01:09,397 --> 02:01:12,499
It ran parallel to the
development of the shipping

697
02:01:12,633 --> 02:01:15,903
industry in Hong Kong,
hence [inaudible].

698
02:01:16,037 --> 02:01:19,206
And in 2001, changed,
due to government policy,

699
02:01:19,340 --> 02:01:21,975
to a mainstream
secondary school.

700
02:01:22,110 --> 02:01:24,945
And this time, we were able
to have a work experience

701
02:01:25,080 --> 02:01:28,248
program for them in the final
years of secondary school.

702
02:01:28,382 --> 02:01:32,019
And about 95% of
our boys graduate

703
02:01:32,153 --> 02:01:36,390
with jobs in a hospitality
industry or jobs

704
02:01:36,525 --> 02:01:40,160
allied to what could recently
be called the maritime industry.

705
02:01:40,295 --> 02:01:43,663
One of the reasons that Hong
Kong workers dropped out

706
02:01:43,798 --> 02:01:49,469
of the industry was because
they were overpriced.

707
02:01:49,604 --> 02:01:51,605
You could get cheaper
labor in the Philippines,

708
02:01:51,739 --> 02:01:57,678
in Bangladesh,
India, wherever else.

709
02:01:57,812 --> 02:01:59,446
In the old days,
if you went to sea,

710
02:01:59,580 --> 02:02:02,449
you went to sea for
three months, six months.

711
02:02:02,583 --> 02:02:04,818
Kids these days don't
want to do that.

712
02:02:04,953 --> 02:02:09,123
Home is far too comfortable,
no matter how humble it may be.

713
02:02:09,257 --> 02:02:13,394
And so this rise of things
like the ferry services,

714
02:02:13,528 --> 02:02:19,900
the coastal trading services in
China, have the potential to,

715
02:02:20,034 --> 02:02:24,738
once again, offer acceptable--
acceptable in the mind

716
02:02:24,872 --> 02:02:27,374
of the kids-- job opportunities.

717
02:02:27,508 --> 02:02:46,860
[speaking chinese]

718
02:02:46,995 --> 02:02:51,999
We've had boys, for example,
placed at top hotels

719
02:02:52,133 --> 02:02:54,868
and been offered
employment solely

720
02:02:55,003 --> 02:02:59,072
because the boys
are disciplined.

721
02:02:59,207 --> 02:03:02,443
And that, of course, is part
of this idea of the drill,

722
02:03:02,577 --> 02:03:06,180
and the ceremonial parade
too, which develops supposedly

723
02:03:06,314 --> 02:03:09,016
a sense of both self
and corporate discipline

724
02:03:09,150 --> 02:03:12,452
in the boys so that they
learn right from wrong.

725
02:03:12,586 --> 02:03:14,888
They know how to
act, how to do it.

726
02:03:15,023 --> 02:03:18,358
And the funny thing
is, it actually works.

727
02:03:18,492 --> 02:03:20,460
Go!

728
02:03:20,594 --> 02:03:24,931
[speaking chinese]

729
02:03:25,065 --> 02:04:31,497
[music playing]

730
02:04:31,632 --> 02:04:34,434
Hong Kong is a vertical
city, offering deep draft

731
02:04:34,568 --> 02:04:36,502
for ocean-going vessels.

732
02:04:36,637 --> 02:04:39,239
But for that very reason,
providing little space

733
02:04:39,374 --> 02:04:42,942
for the storage and
handling of containers.

734
02:04:43,077 --> 02:04:46,380
The solution takes a page from
the architectural fantasies

735
02:04:46,514 --> 02:04:51,184
of Piranesi, great spiral
towers of transport,

736
02:04:51,318 --> 02:04:55,021
14 kilometers of vertical coil.

737
02:04:55,155 --> 02:05:17,911
[rumbling]

738
02:05:18,045 --> 02:05:20,546
The essential
objective with APL was

739
02:05:20,681 --> 02:05:23,950
to provide a smooth and
efficient logistics center.

740
02:05:24,085 --> 02:05:25,752
"Logistics" was a new
word at that time.

741
02:05:25,886 --> 02:05:28,121
Essentially, what we tried
to do is make every floor

742
02:05:28,255 --> 02:05:29,990
a ground floor.

743
02:05:30,124 --> 02:05:32,960
To do that, I had to
design a huge ramp, which

744
02:05:33,094 --> 02:05:34,260
was extremely expensive.

745
02:05:34,394 --> 02:05:35,228
But it works.

746
02:05:35,362 --> 02:05:37,664
I put two lanes up.

747
02:05:37,798 --> 02:05:39,266
I had to check
with the Hong Kong

748
02:05:39,400 --> 02:05:40,900
government and local
traffic conditions

749
02:05:41,035 --> 02:05:45,438
to ensure that the gradient was
enough for the worst container

750
02:05:45,572 --> 02:05:46,873
to get up, the
heaviest container.

751
02:05:47,008 --> 02:05:48,942
The vehicles would
drive up to the roof.

752
02:05:49,076 --> 02:05:50,376
Allotted space was available.

753
02:05:50,511 --> 02:05:52,346
Then they would be
assigned to go down.

754
02:05:52,480 --> 02:05:54,547
That way, there was
never any traffic jams.

755
02:05:54,682 --> 02:05:56,116
The building was
quite successful.

756
02:05:56,250 --> 02:05:58,551
It's the largest industrial
building in the world.

757
02:05:58,686 --> 02:06:02,289
And it's around 1
million square meters.

758
02:06:02,423 --> 02:06:06,059
So we never took ecological
aspects of the diesel fuel.

759
02:06:06,194 --> 02:06:08,995
But the fact is, instead of
them driving through the city,

760
02:06:09,130 --> 02:06:11,231
in Quiantang, or in
other residential areas,

761
02:06:11,366 --> 02:06:14,201
to go to the local factories
and the local warehouses,

762
02:06:14,335 --> 02:06:16,036
the diesel fuel is
basically by the quart.

763
02:06:16,170 --> 02:06:17,871
And hopefully, a little bit
of wind can dissipate it.

764
02:06:18,005 --> 02:06:19,406
But it was never
really looked at.

765
02:06:19,541 --> 02:06:23,543
We did hear that people
have breathing problems.

766
02:06:23,677 --> 02:06:25,378
That's interesting.

767
02:06:25,513 --> 02:06:28,115
At the beginning, we took a look
at putting in is ventilation.

768
02:06:28,249 --> 02:06:29,783
You needed that
because it's enclosed,

769
02:06:29,917 --> 02:06:30,984
with the vehicles in there.

770
02:06:31,118 --> 02:06:32,385
And they would
have to become more

771
02:06:32,519 --> 02:06:33,753
sophisticated in doing that.

772
02:06:33,888 --> 02:06:35,689
But basically, you'd
have to suck out

773
02:06:35,823 --> 02:06:37,023
the air within the terminal.

774
02:06:37,158 --> 02:06:39,392
And put an envelope around
it and blow it outside.

775
02:06:39,526 --> 02:06:40,861
And hopefully, it
gets dissipated

776
02:06:40,995 --> 02:06:41,895
over the harbor and that.

777
02:06:42,029 --> 02:06:44,064
But that's an interesting point.

778
02:06:44,198 --> 02:07:00,146
I thought they did
put in ventilation.

779
02:07:00,281 --> 02:07:05,986
The container itself has made
it possible to ship increased

780
02:07:06,120 --> 02:07:09,756
volumes and access
these markets.

781
02:07:09,890 --> 02:07:16,363
It has helped consumers
being able to purchase things

782
02:07:16,497 --> 02:07:18,831
that they would not have
been able to buy before.

783
02:07:18,966 --> 02:07:22,535
And because the ability to
be able to ship these goods

784
02:07:22,669 --> 02:07:26,873
has made it possible to
produce large volumes.

785
02:07:27,007 --> 02:07:29,176
And the production
of these huge volumes

786
02:07:29,310 --> 02:07:35,815
has brought down the prices.

787
02:07:35,950 --> 02:07:38,752
What we basically have
done with containerization

788
02:07:38,886 --> 02:07:41,654
is allowed Asia to
begin production

789
02:07:41,789 --> 02:07:43,556
of the goods that
were made locally.

790
02:07:43,690 --> 02:07:47,160
And as the people gained
wealth, they themselves

791
02:07:47,294 --> 02:07:48,795
became more affluent.

792
02:07:48,929 --> 02:07:50,963
And then, they,
themselves, started

793
02:07:51,098 --> 02:07:53,467
wanting cars and everything
else, like the Americans then.

794
02:07:53,601 --> 02:08:04,511
So a lot of the production
is being shifted.

795
02:08:04,646 --> 02:08:07,614
The Hong Kong Seamen's Union has
a militant history, going back

796
02:08:07,748 --> 02:08:09,716
to the 1920s.

797
02:08:09,850 --> 02:08:12,251
Today, the union
tends to retirees

798
02:08:12,385 --> 02:08:17,324
and the widows of seafarers.

799
02:08:17,458 --> 02:08:19,559
The elderly seafaring
community reunites

800
02:08:19,693 --> 02:08:22,362
for lessons in Cantonese opera.

801
02:08:22,496 --> 02:09:19,986
[singing - cantonese]

802
02:09:20,120 --> 02:09:32,432
A former seafarer tends to
the union's guest house.

803
02:09:32,567 --> 02:09:35,067
Seaport cities have
rituals of hospitality

804
02:09:35,202 --> 02:09:43,075
that go back to the Christian
socialists of the 19th century.

805
02:09:43,209 --> 02:09:43,610
Hello.

806
02:09:43,744 --> 02:09:44,577
How are you?

807
02:09:44,711 --> 02:09:47,580
I have a paper for you.

808
02:09:47,714 --> 02:09:48,581
OK.

809
02:09:48,715 --> 02:09:50,583
All right.

810
02:09:50,717 --> 02:10:07,066
[music playing]

811
02:10:07,200 --> 02:10:08,134
Hi.

812
02:10:08,269 --> 02:10:10,537
I'm just going to leave
the paper for you.

813
02:10:10,670 --> 02:10:11,038
OK.

814
02:10:11,171 --> 02:10:12,405
Thank you.

815
02:10:12,539 --> 02:10:15,541
Who is the guy staying here?

816
02:10:15,675 --> 02:10:18,411
He joined another ship.

817
02:10:18,546 --> 02:10:23,750
I only four months and
16 days, I stay there.

818
02:10:23,884 --> 02:10:25,184
And then I transfer other ship.

819
02:10:25,318 --> 02:10:26,119
Ah, yes.

820
02:10:26,253 --> 02:10:28,121
But my contract
is container ship.

821
02:10:28,255 --> 02:10:30,089
Right, right, right.

822
02:10:30,223 --> 02:10:30,657
OK.

823
02:10:30,791 --> 02:10:31,324
Thank you, sir.

824
02:10:31,458 --> 02:10:31,825
I'll see you later.

825
02:10:31,959 --> 02:10:38,531
Yep.

826
02:10:38,665 --> 02:10:41,868
This is a double here.

827
02:10:42,002 --> 02:10:44,237
This is a double room.

828
02:10:44,371 --> 02:10:46,839
These are the rooms which
are the most popular.

829
02:10:46,974 --> 02:10:48,975
I'm not saying the most
popular with seafarers.

830
02:10:49,109 --> 02:10:50,543
But the most popular
with the shipping

831
02:10:50,678 --> 02:10:53,246
companies because they're
quite reasonably priced.

832
02:10:53,380 --> 02:10:55,348
And you can put two people in.

833
02:10:55,483 --> 02:10:58,551
And if you only want a room
for one night, most seafarers,

834
02:10:58,686 --> 02:11:01,321
as long as they get a good
breakfast-- and the breakfast,

835
02:11:01,455 --> 02:11:04,824
they go to all the buffet
lunch-- they're quite happy.

836
02:11:04,958 --> 02:11:06,593
And most of the seafarers'
love coming here

837
02:11:06,727 --> 02:11:08,327
for the-- if they're
joining the ship.

838
02:11:08,462 --> 02:11:11,131
Because they usually have the
buffet lunch and the buffet

839
02:11:11,265 --> 02:11:12,965
diner before they
join the vessel.

840
02:11:13,100 --> 02:11:15,935
And that means that they get--
if you've been coming out

841
02:11:16,069 --> 02:11:17,804
of the Philippines, the
last couple of weeks,

842
02:11:17,938 --> 02:11:20,740
you wouldn't have
eaten that much.

843
02:11:20,874 --> 02:11:22,074
And your cash is short.

844
02:11:22,209 --> 02:11:24,844
You don't have any cash usually
when you join the vessel.

845
02:11:24,979 --> 02:11:27,747
And you sort of eat up as if
you haven't eaten for a week.

846
02:11:27,881 --> 02:11:29,548
So they're very
happy to come here.

847
02:11:29,683 --> 02:11:31,217
The accommodation is basic.

848
02:11:31,352 --> 02:11:35,021
But everything else, I think
they're very happy with.

849
02:11:35,155 --> 02:11:36,790
There's a seafarers port.

850
02:11:36,924 --> 02:11:40,326
And all this wealth that you see
around you, and in Hong Kong,

851
02:11:40,461 --> 02:11:44,096
was built up on the
hard work of seafarers,

852
02:11:44,231 --> 02:11:47,333
who made a lot of money for
the ship owners, who really are

853
02:11:47,468 --> 02:11:52,572
the founders of all these
hotels and shopping malls

854
02:11:52,706 --> 02:11:54,808
that you see.

855
02:11:54,941 --> 02:11:55,975
Here we are.

856
02:11:56,109 --> 02:12:01,248
This is the computer
world of non-communication

857
02:12:01,382 --> 02:12:02,382
between each other.

858
02:12:02,516 --> 02:12:05,385
But communication with
other ships, or family,

859
02:12:05,519 --> 02:12:06,819
friends in China, or whatever.

860
02:12:06,953 --> 02:12:08,488
These are all croupiers.

861
02:12:08,622 --> 02:12:11,157
Or most of them are croupiers.

862
02:12:11,291 --> 02:12:13,192
Because they have a day off.

863
02:12:13,327 --> 02:12:15,161
And then they have to go
back on board the ship

864
02:12:15,295 --> 02:12:17,130
to go out tonight.

865
02:12:17,264 --> 02:12:18,531
They're on the casino ships.

866
02:12:18,665 --> 02:12:19,099
Yeah.

867
02:12:19,233 --> 02:12:20,700
That's right.

868
02:12:20,834 --> 02:12:21,701
All Star Cruises?

869
02:12:21,835 --> 02:12:22,368
No.

870
02:12:22,502 --> 02:12:23,403
Some.

871
02:12:23,537 --> 02:12:24,604
Are you all All Star Cruises?

872
02:12:24,738 --> 02:12:25,237
Yes.

873
02:12:25,371 --> 02:12:25,738
Yes.

874
02:12:25,872 --> 02:12:30,910
All right.

875
02:12:31,044 --> 02:12:32,211
They are seafarers.

876
02:12:32,346 --> 02:12:34,814
But they're not in that sort
of true sense of the word.

877
02:12:34,949 --> 02:12:38,584
But then, they are floating
from A to B-- or floating,

878
02:12:38,718 --> 02:12:39,686
not from A to B actually.

879
02:12:39,820 --> 02:12:41,754
Just floating out into
international waters

880
02:12:41,888 --> 02:12:43,722
and coming back
in, in the morning.

881
02:12:43,857 --> 02:12:45,625
But what's amazingly,
they tell me

882
02:12:45,760 --> 02:12:49,228
they see the same people
every night on the ship.

883
02:12:49,362 --> 02:12:50,563
Hundreds.

884
02:12:50,698 --> 02:12:57,236
It's just incredible that
they've got the money to spend.

885
02:12:57,371 --> 02:12:59,939
But it's nice to provide
somewhere for them

886
02:13:00,073 --> 02:13:01,340
to hang about.

887
02:13:01,475 --> 02:13:03,276
Otherwise, they've be drifting
around from one internet cafe

888
02:13:03,410 --> 02:13:05,144
to another or just
sitting around.

889
02:13:05,279 --> 02:13:07,613
And it gets them off their
ship, where they're probably

890
02:13:07,747 --> 02:13:11,251
in two to a cabin or three.

891
02:13:11,385 --> 02:13:14,186
I love Hong Kong!

892
02:13:14,320 --> 02:13:24,464
[cheer]

893
02:13:24,598 --> 02:13:26,700
Ocean shipping was
the first industry

894
02:13:26,834 --> 02:13:28,768
to be globalized, in
a deliberate effort

895
02:13:28,902 --> 02:13:31,537
to say the lowest
possible wages.

896
02:13:31,672 --> 02:13:35,141
This was because of yet another
post-war maritime invention

897
02:13:35,275 --> 02:13:38,044
of the Americans, the
flag of convenience,

898
02:13:38,178 --> 02:13:40,713
which allows ships owned
in the rich countries

899
02:13:40,848 --> 02:13:46,118
to register in poor countries,
like Liberia and Panama.

900
02:13:46,253 --> 02:13:49,589
This legal loophole makes
it possible to hire cheaper

901
02:13:49,723 --> 02:13:53,693
foreign crews and avoid
safety rules and regulations.

902
02:13:53,828 --> 02:13:57,897
Taken together, the flag of
convenience and the container,

903
02:13:58,031 --> 02:14:01,968
take us back to a world
of relentless toil,

904
02:14:02,102 --> 02:14:05,238
interrupted only briefly.

905
02:14:05,372 --> 02:14:16,549
[rumbling]

906
02:14:16,684 --> 02:14:19,585
It is Filipinos who are
the globalized world's

907
02:14:19,719 --> 02:14:21,554
most itinerant workers.

908
02:14:21,688 --> 02:14:23,389
Young men go to sea.

909
02:14:23,524 --> 02:14:26,192
And women, many
young and some older,

910
02:14:26,326 --> 02:14:29,295
are domestics in the
cities of the rich.

911
02:14:29,429 --> 02:14:31,997
Every Sunday, scores
of thousands of maids,

912
02:14:32,132 --> 02:14:34,734
who work in isolation
throughout the week,

913
02:14:34,869 --> 02:14:37,971
gather in Hong Kong Central,
turning the vacant space

914
02:14:38,105 --> 02:14:43,042
beneath the banks into picnic
ground, hair salon, church,

915
02:14:43,176 --> 02:16:15,268
school, dance hall,
political forum.

916
02:16:15,402 --> 02:16:28,714
[music playing]

917
02:16:28,848 --> 02:16:39,692
[speaking filipino]

918
02:16:39,827 --> 02:16:44,663
Maids and seafarers
meet, a brief encounter,

919
02:16:44,798 --> 02:16:49,702
isolated in the house, lonely
aboard the ship, far from home,

920
02:16:49,836 --> 02:16:52,472
cleaning all the time.

921
02:16:52,606 --> 02:17:00,346
[speaking filipino]

922
02:17:00,480 --> 02:17:14,093
[music playing]

923
02:17:14,227 --> 02:17:29,942
[music - "new york, new york"]

924
02:17:30,077 --> 02:17:33,346
Here in Shenzhen, the
cosmopolitan boom city just

925
02:17:33,480 --> 02:17:35,548
across the border
from Hong Kong,

926
02:17:35,682 --> 02:17:38,985
industrial migrants can
dream of impossible travels,

927
02:17:39,119 --> 02:17:41,955
as if they were as mobile
as the goods they produce.

928
02:17:42,089 --> 02:17:45,725
Holland, known as the
country of windmills,

929
02:17:45,859 --> 02:17:49,662
is also famous throughout
the world for its flowers.

930
02:17:49,796 --> 02:17:53,599
The windmills and tulips
create the beautiful studies

931
02:17:53,734 --> 02:18:02,508
of rustic simplicity, yet
full of figure and vitality.

932
02:18:02,642 --> 02:18:04,944
China never had
a maritime world.

933
02:18:05,079 --> 02:18:08,648
It's always been a continental
society, a continental culture,

934
02:18:08,782 --> 02:18:12,585
interested primarily in
what's going on inland.

935
02:18:12,719 --> 02:18:18,257
The sea was always a
small, peripheral activity,

936
02:18:18,391 --> 02:18:20,526
of no fundamental importance.

937
02:18:20,660 --> 02:18:23,395
And it's only recently
that has changed.

938
02:18:23,530 --> 02:18:25,598
It does depend now on
the maritime world,

939
02:18:25,732 --> 02:18:27,533
on maritime trade, on
trade with elsewhere,

940
02:18:27,667 --> 02:18:29,502
in a way that it
never did in the past.

941
02:18:29,636 --> 02:18:31,737
And that has changed,
and is changing,

942
02:18:31,872 --> 02:19:47,179
how people perceive
the sea, but slowly.

943
02:19:47,313 --> 02:20:04,663
[beeping]

944
02:20:04,798 --> 02:20:08,133
The synergy of logistics,
transportation, the container,

945
02:20:08,267 --> 02:20:12,638
and the very large
pool of people

946
02:20:12,772 --> 02:20:17,143
who readily are prepared to
change their lives dramatically

947
02:20:17,277 --> 02:20:22,849
by migrating to areas where
they have no family, no friends,

948
02:20:22,983 --> 02:20:27,720
and to be prepared
to work for 12,

949
02:20:27,854 --> 02:20:36,929
14, 15 hours without
complaining, with the only idea

950
02:20:37,064 --> 02:20:40,066
in mind to make a better
tomorrow for themselves

951
02:20:40,200 --> 02:20:43,202
and for their
families or children,

952
02:20:43,337 --> 02:20:57,083
has made it possible to develop
China in the way that it has.

953
02:20:57,217 --> 02:21:00,485
60% of China's exports
to the United States

954
02:21:00,620 --> 02:21:04,023
are produced by American-owned
multinational companies.

955
02:21:04,157 --> 02:21:08,627
This factory is Chinese owned.

956
02:21:08,762 --> 02:21:11,664
The factory's products appear
on the American market,

957
02:21:11,798 --> 02:21:13,899
with familiar brand names.

958
02:21:14,034 --> 02:21:17,736
Its largest retail customer
is Walmart, the third biggest

959
02:21:17,871 --> 02:21:28,547
company in the world and the
biggest importer into the US.

960
02:21:28,681 --> 02:21:31,583
Walmart pays the
lowest possible wages,

961
02:21:31,718 --> 02:21:34,387
demands deep discounts
from its suppliers,

962
02:21:34,521 --> 02:21:50,503
and sells to the bottom ranks
of the American working class.

963
02:21:50,637 --> 02:22:02,414
[rumbling]

964
02:22:02,548 --> 02:22:23,235
[speaking chinese]

965
02:22:23,370 --> 02:22:26,572
If we think of plastics
and imagine light industry,

966
02:22:26,706 --> 02:22:28,608
we forget the metallic
heaviness and precision

967
02:22:28,742 --> 02:22:35,047
of injection molds, which must
themselves be manufactured.

968
02:22:35,181 --> 02:23:27,232
[rumbling]

969
02:23:27,366 --> 02:23:29,334
[beeping]

970
02:23:29,468 --> 02:23:31,804
[speaking chinese]

971
02:23:31,938 --> 02:23:34,440
American and European
corporate lobbyists

972
02:23:34,575 --> 02:23:38,411
fought hard and en masse against
a new Chinese labor law, that

973
02:23:38,545 --> 02:23:40,613
cracked open the door
to collective bargaining

974
02:23:40,747 --> 02:23:42,948
and higher wages.

975
02:23:43,083 --> 02:23:46,385
China's foreign partners
would like the low wage utopia

976
02:23:46,519 --> 02:23:50,857
to last forever.

977
02:23:50,990 --> 02:24:37,469
[rumbling]

978
02:24:37,603 --> 02:24:41,373
[pounding]

979
02:24:41,507 --> 02:24:44,110
All this for a morning coffee?

980
02:24:44,244 --> 02:24:45,778
The day's first
drink can still be

981
02:24:45,912 --> 02:24:48,046
brewed in a glass
or a metal pot,

982
02:24:48,181 --> 02:24:51,683
or poured by hand through
a mesh filter, any of which

983
02:24:51,818 --> 02:24:54,553
lasts longer than an
electrical appliance planned

984
02:24:54,687 --> 02:24:59,024
for obsolesce.

985
02:24:59,159 --> 02:25:03,462
In 2007, because we work with
so many different manufacturers,

986
02:25:03,597 --> 02:25:06,832
we started to hear more
and more that manufacturers

987
02:25:06,967 --> 02:25:10,102
were complaining of not being
able to fill their production

988
02:25:10,235 --> 02:25:11,170
lines.

989
02:25:11,304 --> 02:25:13,839
And normally, in a
crisis, in a recession,

990
02:25:13,973 --> 02:25:17,042
people go for less
expensive items.

991
02:25:17,177 --> 02:25:21,646
So we started to design
items that are low cost.

992
02:25:21,781 --> 02:25:23,882
But we also started
making items which

993
02:25:24,017 --> 02:25:27,386
are more expensive
and better quality

994
02:25:27,521 --> 02:25:31,590
because consumers are
a lot more prudent.

995
02:25:31,725 --> 02:25:34,126
So if they, for instance,
buy a coffee maker,

996
02:25:34,260 --> 02:25:37,362
they no longer buy it with the
idea of using it for a year,

997
02:25:37,496 --> 02:25:38,931
then discarding it.

998
02:25:39,065 --> 02:25:40,933
They buy it and
they want to keep it

999
02:25:41,067 --> 02:25:44,303
for five years or 10 years.

1000
02:25:44,437 --> 02:25:46,605
In other words, the
center drops out

1001
02:25:46,740 --> 02:25:51,043
of the market, goods for the
poor, goods for the rich.

1002
02:25:51,177 --> 02:26:09,361
There's no one in the middle.

1003
02:26:09,495 --> 02:26:56,541
[speaking chinese]

1004
02:26:56,675 --> 02:29:06,371
[singing - chinese]

1005
02:29:06,506 --> 02:29:09,508
Where will these young
women be in 20 years?

1006
02:29:09,642 --> 02:29:11,911
Will they return to
villages that have finally

1007
02:29:12,045 --> 02:29:15,647
been developed or will the
Chinese industrial economy

1008
02:29:15,782 --> 02:29:19,485
continue to rely upon the
cheap labor of 100 million

1009
02:29:19,619 --> 02:29:22,888
young migrants
from poor villages.

1010
02:29:23,022 --> 02:30:46,138
[speaking chinese]

1011
02:30:46,272 --> 02:30:48,540
Wages are indeed
rising, as labor

1012
02:30:48,675 --> 02:30:51,943
becomes scarce in the
Southeastern industrial belts.

1013
02:30:52,077 --> 02:30:53,679
And migrant workers
are increasingly

1014
02:30:53,813 --> 02:31:00,351
taking to the streets
to press their demands.

1015
02:31:00,485 --> 02:31:07,759
[rumbling]

1016
02:31:07,893 --> 02:31:30,582
[prayer - indonesian]

1017
02:31:30,716 --> 02:33:59,364
[speaking indonesian]

1018
02:33:59,498 --> 02:34:19,317
[speaking korean]

1019
02:34:19,451 --> 02:35:10,234
[speaking spanish]

1020
02:35:10,369 --> 02:35:13,504
A smaller port
allows us to rethink.

1021
02:35:13,639 --> 02:35:17,842
What is the way forward for
a small city near the sea?

1022
02:35:17,977 --> 02:35:21,613
The rhetoric of efficiency, the
miracle of the global supply

1023
02:35:21,747 --> 02:35:26,284
chain, just in time, intermodal,
cheap goods from China,

1024
02:35:26,418 --> 02:35:29,253
more and more stuff
with no end in sight,

1025
02:35:29,388 --> 02:35:32,424
this rhetoric goes only
so far in justifying

1026
02:35:32,558 --> 02:35:35,894
the global trading system.

1027
02:35:36,027 --> 02:35:43,435
[rattling]

1028
02:35:43,570 --> 02:35:48,406
There is a softer alternative,
the McDonaldization of culture,

1029
02:35:48,540 --> 02:35:50,108
the franchise model.

1030
02:35:50,243 --> 02:35:52,310
This is the velvet
glove that cushions

1031
02:35:52,444 --> 02:35:56,347
the iron fist of world trade.

1032
02:35:56,482 --> 02:35:59,283
In order to establish
its autonomy for Madrid,

1033
02:35:59,418 --> 02:36:01,285
the Basque bourgeoisie
makes an alliance

1034
02:36:01,420 --> 02:36:03,221
with a New York
museum that can only

1035
02:36:03,355 --> 02:36:09,027
survive by exporting
its operations.

1036
02:36:09,162 --> 02:36:12,197
If there's a building
that refuses to be a box,

1037
02:36:12,332 --> 02:36:15,700
this is it-- Frank Gehry's
Guggenheim, Bilbao.

1038
02:36:15,835 --> 02:36:18,036
A museum clad in
titanium, bought cheaply

1039
02:36:18,171 --> 02:36:21,572
on the Russian market, as
the former socialist economy

1040
02:36:21,707 --> 02:36:26,444
was butchered for quick profits;
aerospace metal, a metal that

1041
02:36:26,578 --> 02:36:28,947
defies time and rust.

1042
02:36:29,081 --> 02:36:31,783
The museum contributes
to a pervasive illusion,

1043
02:36:31,917 --> 02:36:36,087
only it and it's artistic
contents are contemporary.

1044
02:36:36,222 --> 02:36:39,758
The city must struggle to
keep up with the new fashion.

1045
02:36:39,892 --> 02:36:42,193
In a way, the
contemporary art museum

1046
02:36:42,327 --> 02:36:46,565
turns the city into
an antique shop.

1047
02:36:46,699 --> 02:38:04,543
[speaking spanish]

1048
02:38:04,677 --> 02:38:08,379
Following the container terminal
that moved seven years earlier,

1049
02:38:08,513 --> 02:38:11,316
this chain factory will
relocate down river,

1050
02:38:11,451 --> 02:38:14,119
making way for a new zone
of expensive housing,

1051
02:38:14,253 --> 02:38:18,423
designed by another famous
international architect.

1052
02:38:18,557 --> 02:38:20,491
These chains are not antiques.

1053
02:38:20,626 --> 02:38:22,994
Without them, ships
would never anchor

1054
02:38:23,129 --> 02:38:28,933
and there would
be no world trade.

1055
02:38:29,068 --> 02:38:31,869
Cultural tourism can
replace industry.

1056
02:38:32,004 --> 02:38:35,406
A dingy city will thrive
anew and escape the drudgery

1057
02:38:35,540 --> 02:38:42,413
of the maritime industrial past.

1058
02:38:42,547 --> 02:38:46,617
A fish that never rots,
a ship that never rusts,

1059
02:38:46,752 --> 02:38:51,922
a lighthouse that only
shines when the Sun is out.

1060
02:38:52,056 --> 02:38:59,297
[bells clanging]

1061
02:38:59,432 --> 02:39:02,500
Down river from the
Guggenheim, the industrial past

1062
02:39:02,634 --> 02:39:04,569
refuses to go away.

1063
02:39:04,704 --> 02:39:08,973
The strange mix of bourgeoisie
heroism and social realism,

1064
02:39:09,108 --> 02:39:11,843
dating from the end of the
19th century, the heyday

1065
02:39:11,977 --> 02:39:14,279
of the steel industry in Bilbao.

1066
02:39:14,413 --> 02:39:17,949
Behind, the transporter
bridge of the same period.

1067
02:39:18,083 --> 02:39:31,629
Metallic capitalist wonders that
fly beneath the tourist radar.

1068
02:39:31,763 --> 02:39:35,400
Outside the museum, we
find works in rusty steel

1069
02:39:35,535 --> 02:39:39,737
by the Basque sculptors
Oteiza and Chillida.

1070
02:39:39,872 --> 02:39:42,006
To the end of his
life, Oteiza refused

1071
02:39:42,141 --> 02:39:44,809
to exhibit at the
Guggenheim, regarding it

1072
02:39:44,943 --> 02:39:49,648
as a bastion of America
cultural imperialism.

1073
02:39:49,782 --> 02:39:53,851
The title of this work is called
The Matter of Time because time

1074
02:39:53,986 --> 02:39:58,657
was the major input into how
we place the entire field that

1075
02:39:58,790 --> 02:39:59,290
we're--

1076
02:39:59,424 --> 02:40:33,457
[speaking spanish]

1077
02:40:33,592 --> 02:40:36,060
--the subject is the
apples on the table

1078
02:40:36,195 --> 02:40:38,896
or the time is in the
landscape of the painting.

1079
02:40:39,031 --> 02:40:43,067
My pieces are based on
the subject matter, not--

1080
02:40:43,202 --> 02:40:44,969
The Guggenheim fortune
was made in the copper

1081
02:40:45,104 --> 02:40:47,772
mines of New Mexico and Chile.

1082
02:40:47,906 --> 02:40:50,108
The vast gallery is sponsored
by the largest steel

1083
02:40:50,242 --> 02:40:52,643
company in the
world, ArcelorMittal.

1084
02:40:52,778 --> 02:40:54,879
--in relation to
your body rhythm--

1085
02:40:55,013 --> 02:40:57,482
The spiraling labyrinths
of the American sculptor,

1086
02:40:57,617 --> 02:41:01,653
Richard Serra, a shipyard
worker in his youth.

1087
02:41:01,787 --> 02:41:43,561
[rumbling]

1088
02:41:43,695 --> 02:42:20,832
[music playing]

1089
02:42:20,966 --> 02:42:23,901
The imbalance of
trade-- the world

1090
02:42:24,036 --> 02:42:27,004
is increasingly divided
between producing nations

1091
02:42:27,139 --> 02:42:29,174
that strive to
develop and consuming

1092
02:42:29,308 --> 02:42:31,809
nations mired in debt.

1093
02:42:31,943 --> 02:42:33,344
In the rich
countries, capital is

1094
02:42:33,479 --> 02:42:35,880
freed from its
industrial obligations.

1095
02:42:36,014 --> 02:42:40,185
And finance is king, inventing
ever more clever and risky

1096
02:42:40,319 --> 02:42:44,121
instruments for enrichment.

1097
02:42:44,256 --> 02:42:47,658
In the poor countries, young
people labor long hours,

1098
02:42:47,792 --> 02:42:50,328
making more and more
things for export.

1099
02:42:50,462 --> 02:42:53,498
Worldwide supply
exceeds command.

1100
02:42:53,632 --> 02:42:56,367
Profit margins fall in
both the real economy

1101
02:42:56,502 --> 02:42:59,237
and in the finance
sector, leaving financiers

1102
02:42:59,371 --> 02:43:02,774
to invent ever crazier
ways for selling debt

1103
02:43:02,908 --> 02:43:05,143
to gullible creditors.

1104
02:43:05,277 --> 02:43:10,348
Debt-driven consumerism
can last only so long.

1105
02:43:10,482 --> 02:43:14,452
What happens when the system
runs out of workers to exploit,

1106
02:43:14,587 --> 02:43:18,456
when the credit bubble breaks,
when hyperproducing China

1107
02:43:18,591 --> 02:43:22,360
owns the debt of
hyperconsuming America.

1108
02:43:22,494 --> 02:43:25,630
Can the system, as
we know it, survive?

1109
02:43:25,765 --> 02:43:29,000
Does the container, like
capitalism in general,

1110
02:43:29,134 --> 02:43:31,135
sow the seeds of
its own destruction

1111
02:43:31,270 --> 02:43:34,939
by allowing industry
to take flight?

1112
02:43:35,073 --> 02:43:47,818
A Trojan horse, that
turns on its inventors.

1113
02:43:47,953 --> 02:43:50,554
Near Antwerp, we return
to a more brutal model

1114
02:43:50,688 --> 02:43:52,923
of development.

1115
02:43:53,058 --> 02:43:55,893
Containers conquer
the quaintest village.

1116
02:43:56,027 --> 02:43:58,062
No one plans a Guggenheim here.

1117
02:43:58,196 --> 02:45:33,824
[speaking dutch]

1118
02:45:33,958 --> 02:45:37,194
This being Belgium,
things are complicated.

1119
02:45:37,329 --> 02:45:38,829
The Flemish
nationalist government

1120
02:45:38,963 --> 02:45:41,633
sees the Port of Antwerp
as the economic motor

1121
02:45:41,767 --> 02:45:44,101
of an independent
Flemish state and seeks

1122
02:45:44,236 --> 02:45:48,039
to catch up with, and surpass,
Rotterdam and Hamburg,

1123
02:45:48,173 --> 02:45:50,174
as the gateway to Europe.

1124
02:45:50,308 --> 02:45:53,711
For all their nationalism, they
play the globalization game

1125
02:45:53,845 --> 02:45:55,112
well.

1126
02:45:55,247 --> 02:45:58,582
Some of Doel's supporters
are left-wing antiglobalists

1127
02:45:58,717 --> 02:46:04,355
and ecologists, who embrace the
ideal of universal hospitality.

1128
02:46:04,489 --> 02:46:07,358
Others are radical
right-wing nationalists,

1129
02:46:07,492 --> 02:46:10,627
who act in the name of Flemish
heritage and tradition,

1130
02:46:10,762 --> 02:46:12,463
and who would exclude strangers.

1131
02:46:12,597 --> 02:47:18,362
[speaking german]

1132
02:47:18,496 --> 02:47:29,307
[music playing]

1133
02:47:29,441 --> 02:47:40,251
[bike rattling]

1134
02:47:40,385 --> 02:47:44,688
[ship horn]

1135
02:47:44,822 --> 02:47:47,925
A last dance for Doel.

1136
02:47:48,059 --> 02:47:50,728
[music playing]

1137
02:47:50,863 --> 02:47:53,731
If the village of Doel were
to survive against all odds,

1138
02:47:53,866 --> 02:47:57,468
we could pose another question,
perhaps unfair, and better

1139
02:47:57,602 --> 02:47:59,771
directed to all the
people of Flanders

1140
02:47:59,905 --> 02:48:02,974
and all the rich
countries of the world.

1141
02:48:03,108 --> 02:48:07,077
What hospitality would be
extended to stranded seafarers

1142
02:48:07,212 --> 02:48:09,781
if a bankrupt ship were
to moor in the estuary,

1143
02:48:09,915 --> 02:48:12,950
or if a ship were to
sink in the channel?

1144
02:48:13,085 --> 02:48:15,986
What hospitality to
refugees from the lowlands

1145
02:48:16,120 --> 02:48:19,457
of the global south,
who flee rising tides?

1146
02:48:19,591 --> 02:48:21,759
The managerial
elites, who profit

1147
02:48:21,894 --> 02:48:26,497
from the flow of endless boxes,
have lost all credibility.

1148
02:48:26,631 --> 02:48:29,133
More and more is not the answer.

1149
02:48:29,268 --> 02:48:33,137
The lifeboat carved from the
wooden shoe of days gone by

1150
02:48:33,271 --> 02:48:34,938
is all we've got.

1151
02:48:35,073 --> 02:48:40,310
The lowly crew must
seize the helm.

1152
02:48:40,445 --> 02:48:45,182
The last gift to remain safely
in Pandora's box, after evils

1153
02:48:45,316 --> 02:48:52,589
have been unleashed
upon the world, is hope.

1154
02:48:52,723 --> 02:48:55,659
[music playing]