The Ever Given ship ran aground in the southern part of the Suez Canal, Egypt, on March 26, 2021. (Photo: AFP/VNA) The Ever Given ship is no longer blocking the Suez Canal, but the story doesn’t end there with companies embroiled in a lengthy legal battle related to the event, hoping to “save” it. goods worth hundreds of millions of dollars are still being held on this ship for months. IKEA and Lenovo are two of many companies whose goods were detained on board the Ever Given after the ship was stranded at the airport. Suez Canal for six days in March. Many smaller companies such as the British bicycle manufacturer Pearson 1860 and Snuggy UK also had many important orders stuck on this ship. An Egyptian court has detained the Ever Given and its 18,300 containers after the Suez Canal Authority filed its first petition against the ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha of Japan, for 916 compensation. million USD for damages and losses caused by the above incident. Therefore, the Ever Given ship and all its cargo are being held at Great Bitter Lake in the canal during the aforementioned legal battle. Many companies have products on ship Ever Given said they were completely unaware of the status of the goods while the proceedings were ongoing, and were not involved in the negotiations surrounding the release of the goods. Even if the parties reach an agreement, these companies or their insurance companies may still be liable for some part of the award. Companies may be forced to spend money under the “General average” clause in international maritime law, under which the parties involved in a shipping voyage are forced to share the costs proportionally if there is a loss. happening. Clyde & Co., a law firm representing companies and insurers with more than $100 million worth of cargo stranded on the Ever Given ship, estimates the total value of the cargo on board at between 600-700 million dollars./.

The image of an article by Sheng Kinh Times shared about the event that the dragon fell on Yingkou. (Photo from Sohu) In “Yingkou City Chronicle” (of China Book Publishing House) and “History of Yingkou” (by Heilongjiang People’s Publishing House) both mentioned this strange incident. According to the records in it, in the summer of 1934, in Yingkou suddenly appeared heavy rain for 40 days in a row. Heavy rains caused the water of the Lieu River to rise rapidly and turned the reed swamp on the north bank of the river into a vast body of water. After the rain stopped, the people living here discovered a giant dragon trapped in the reeds. At that time, people believed that dragons coming down from the sky were a good omen. Fearing that the dragon would die, many people knitted reeds into sunshades and poured water over the dragon to prevent it from drying out. Many monks and people came to pray and pray until there was another long rain and the dragon disappeared. More than 20 days later, this dragon reappeared in the reeds 10km from the mouth of the Lieu River. However, this time, the dragon was no longer a living being but dead, the flesh beginning to rot with an unpleasant fishy odor. After that, the city’s 6th police station came to decompose and bring the dragon’s skeleton to an empty land near the West Sea estuary for people to admire for a few days. The “Tinh Kinh Times” at that time reported on this event. As a result, a large number of curious people from the three northeastern provinces took the train to Yingkou. At that time, train tickets to and from Yingkou both increased rapidly and were extremely scarce. The image is said to be the skeleton of a dragon. (Photo from Qulishi) The article in Thinh Kinh also shared that the dragon was stranded in a hole 17m long, 8m wide, on the wall of the crater there were very clear claw marks. It has 2 horns on its head and 4 claws on its belly. This description is quite similar to the records in the “Chronicles of Yingkou City” in terms of length and detail with horns on the head. In addition, this book also said that the dragon has up to 29 dorsal vertebrae. According to the book, the dragon’s skeleton was made into a specimen and delivered to Yingkou Fisheries High School for display. CCTV came in and the truth was unexpected Since the arrival of the true dragon in Yingkou, this story has attracted many media coverage over the years. Many mixed opinions have been given and all want the truth about this story to be revealed soon. But it wasn’t until 2004, when the “Into Science” column of China Central Television’s CCTV 10 channel gave the audience a satisfactory answer about the dragon’s fall. So at Doanh Khau. From a scientific point of view, the program editors made a documentary titled “The solution to the mystery of 70 years ago” based on reports from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Realistic image of baleen whale bones. (Photo from Sohu) In the end, with the collected documents and evaluation results, the conclusions of the editorial team and experts in the film made everyone completely surprised. Accordingly, the fact that the dragon descended in Yingkou is just a legend handed down for more than 70 years from 1934 to 2004. In fact, the animal stranded in the reeds on the banks of the Liao River that year was just a one baleen whale giant. And that picture of a cactus with two horns was misplaced. That so-called dragon horn actually refers to the lower jaw bone of the whale. So after many years of controversy, the case of dragons falling at Yingkou has finally come to a conclusion, although many people still think that CCTV’s assessment is not satisfactory.

West Bank, and… Arctic Ocean One thing is easy to see: When the Egyptian dredgers devote themselves to “working day and night” to bring that 400m long and 220,000-ton ship back into the ocean, they don’t just forget to sleep. because the Suez Canal is one of the country’s greatest pride, not only because there is $ 9 billion of cargo stuck every day, but because the circulation of boats on the Suez Canal is closely related. to their own piece of rice. As Eslam Negm – an Egyptian sailor involved in dredging and rescue – shared: “We – that is the majority of Egyptians – live off this canal”. From there, no need for accurate data, anyone can imagine the huge profits that this artery maritime route brings. And therefore, it should not be surprising, given the immediate alternatives to the Suez Canal (or at least the worst case scenario) proposed in the vehicles. international mass news. First is Israel. According to The Arab Weekly on March 30, 2021, the congestion of the Suez Canal prompted discussion of alternatives to the Suez Canal – including Israel’s Ben Gurion Canal project linking the Red Sea. with the Mediterranean (also known as the Israel Canal) – come alive. The Israelis see this route as a competitor to the Suez Canal. Tel Aviv intends to turn the Israeli canal into a multifaceted project, such as building small towns, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs around the waterway. Outline of the Israeli canal project. Before that, on March 25, Business Insider (USA) announced the content of a secret memo written in 1963, which was declassified in 1996. Accordingly, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory of America used to study a project using nuclear explosions to dig a 160-mile (257 km) canal across the Negev desert in Israel, connecting the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea (Red Sea). Historian Alex Wellerstein – who also mentioned that profile on his personal social networking site Twitter – thinks this is a model option. However, in 1967, when the Arab-Israeli war broke out, the Suez Canal had to be closed for eight years, no one said anything about the Israeli canal. That is not difficult to understand, because in the 60s of the last century, trade activities as well as the volume of goods and especially the interdependence of all factors are not rich and diverse. form, development, complexity … as present – 21st century. The problem is: Because of the implications of nuclear radiation, there is no guarantee that neighboring (and still skeptical or hostile) Muslim Arab countries will allow Israel to redeploy the mining project. Ben Gurion channel. Meanwhile, when 380 ships were waiting at the Suez Canal, Russia announced: Bringing the project of the Northern maritime route along the North North Ocean connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and committed Russia will ensure the safety of this new traffic route, as well as ensure that transportation costs will be cheaper. This sea route shortens 40% of the journey from China to Egypt to Europe, and the journey time is less than 15 days. Due to climate change, the amount of floating ice on the above line is less and less, the travel will be easier and easier. The Russian side pledged to let the icebreaker come to save any merchant who got caught in the ice on the way. Russia alone plans to use this maritime route to export its oil and gas. Those are the inevitable movements stemming from the fact, when everyone has seen how vulnerable the modern global supply chain is. That fact makes any country have conditions to prepare a backup plan, at the same time looking for opportunities to startle on the logistic “piece of cake”. Eternal aura However, we can believe that every Suez Canal project may not be of reference value, but will never achieve its goal of completely replacing the 193.3 long sea journey. km, connecting the Hong Hai with the Mediterranean. Just as the Panama Canal passing through Central America connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, history and reality give the Suez Canal an incomparable position, by any competitor. Compared with the northern maritime route that Russia is planning to deploy, the absolute advantage of the Suez Canal is not not afraid of freezing in winter, but … near the “oil navel” of the planet. The position on the European – Asia – African junction of the Suez Canal is also extremely important, when North Africa – Middle East has never been a “hot spot”, never a place in the Middle East. The world’s leading power mind competes for influence on the global geopolitical map. Above all, the Mediterranean is the most important commercial center (if not the most important commercial center) of humankind since ancient times, also the site of a series of ancient civilizations. . 19,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal each year Israel may still proceed with the digging of the Ben Gurion Canal. However, “human peace” will be the biggest obstacle facing the Jewish state. On March 29, when Egyptian President El Sisi announced: “Egypt has succeeded in ending the crisis of the ship stranded in the Suez Canal, and bringing everything back to normal. This is all about it.” the world is reassured about the transportation of goods and their needs through this lifeline “, it can be said that he has made all the friendly Muslim Arab states reassured to” ignore them. “with every other alternative, especially the idea of ​​using another canal to benefit Israel. Old habits and relationships, whatever you say, always play a core role, even in terms of interests. Of course, Egypt would have to do much better than its part, to make sure as much as possible that an incident like the Ever Given ship ran aground – that is, the global supply chain was interrupted by a very windy night. But, of course, the era when famous maritime restaurants such as Vasco da Gama, Bartholomeus Diaz or Ferdinand Magenllan had to go around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern end of Africa to reach India was also far in the past. . Mankind will not return to those days, but it is not necessary to have another way, after more than 100 years familiar with the Suez winds … * Every year, the Suez Canal brings Egypt an average profit of about $ 6 billion, with about 19,000 ships passing, carrying goods equivalent to 10% of the total global trade turnover. In 2020, under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the paralysis of the global trade machine, this figure will still reach USD 5.61 billion. * Since digging canals by traditional methods will be extremely expensive, the Americans are expected to use the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (Pneums) method. This is a viable option, because this nearly 160-mile canal, 130 miles of uninhabited desert, could have nuclear detonation. According to calculations, to dig each mile of the canal, it is necessary to detonate 4 nuclear devices (temporarily called the atomic bomb) of the size of 2 million tons of TNT. So a total of 520 atomic bombs or 1.04 billion tons of TNT need to be detonated to dig this canal.

This is good news for the whole world, because the Suez Canal is a vital maritime route for international trade. But during the nearly 1 week of being trapped, how great of the damage has you caused, are you curious? Let’s take a look at some prominent numbers, to see how sensitive the world economy is in fact. Huge numbers The Ever Given is a super ship of over 400 meters long, weighs more than 220,000 tons, can carry a maximum of 20,000 containers. At the time of jam, the ship was carrying a total of 18,300 containers. The ship is operated by shipping company Evergreen Marine based in Taiwan (China), and is among the largest in the world. The ship has been stranded since March 23 while entering the Suez Canal from the Red Sea. After hitting the shore, it ran aground and turned sideways, blocking the canal. Initially, it was thought that the wind was too strong, but the SCA believes this is not the only reason. More investigation will be needed to find out whether the main cause is technical or human impact. And also because of the jam that alone on Sunday (March 28), there are about 369 ships waiting at both ends of the canal, waiting for the time to pass the 193km long route, although it is unknown when. Run with time Over the weekend, 14 tugboats were mobilized to pull Ever Given out of the strand. Thanks to this, it has rotated “slightly” about 30 degrees. On March 29, after the media reported that the ship had begun to re-float, the SCA announced that Ever Given was completely rescued. According to the SCA, they will keep the ship operating during high tide – a condition required to put the ship back in the middle of the route and clear the canal. Some small boats have begun to move, but others will have to wait a long time, said Richard Mead, chief executive of shipping company Lloyd’s List. “We are seeing about 450 ships waiting to cross the canal. It will take quite a while to resolve this congestion.” Scary damage 12% of world trade, about 1 million barrels of oil and 8% of liquefied natural gas – those are the numbers the Canal is responsible for each day. According to SCA President Osama Rabie, the canal’s revenue lost between 14 million and 15 million dollars per day. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, maritime operations through the Suez Canal contributed up to 2 percent of Egypt’s GDP. Meanwhile, data from Lloyd’s List shows that the damage from the congestion is estimated at around $ 9.6 billion a day – $ 400 million per hour, and $ 6.7 million per minute. Looking at the bigger picture, global trade suffers losses ranging from $ 6 billion to $ 10 billion a week, according to insurance company Allianz. At the same time, the trade growth decreased by 0.2% to 0.4%. The cost of chartering a ship from Asia to the Middle East increased by 47%, to $ 2.2 million. Some shipping lines have chosen to detour to avoid the Suez Canal – such as through Cape Hao Vong. This means that travel times, costs and fuel will also increase, affecting a wide variety of industries – from retail, supermarkets to manufacturers around the world. The exact amount of damage is really difficult to calculate until the canal is fully cleared and the trade continues. Many UK companies have said they are still waiting to know when the goods will arrive. Some even have stock right on the ship Ever Given. Although the ship was freed, some expressed concern as the canal was still congested. Many companies even think of using air for transportation, which means the cost will be tripled. Perhaps, it is very rare that the world has seen such a tremendous impact from a stranded ship. Source: BBC

Abdullah Abdul-Gawad and the “tiny” excavator. Photo: BI

But what happened five days later is quite the opposite.

Ever Given – a container ship the size of a skyscraper was stranded on the banks of the canal on March 23. And Abdul-Gawad’s boss immediately called him to the scene.

“We need you to get in the car and come now because you are the only excavator driver nearby,” the leader told the 28-year-old male employee, who has been driving the excavator since college.

Abdul-Gawad vs “monster”

Liberating Ever Given was a combined effort, with winch, tugboat and excavator. But Abdul-Gawad was the one who really faced the problem. Once at the base of the ship, Abdul-Gawad had no choice but to start digging.

According to his estimates, the bow of Ever Given was stuck below about 6 meters of ground. The stern is also caught on the opposite shore. The ship blocked the Suez Canal, blocking all traffic.

The image of a tiny excavator facing a giant ship made many people laugh. But for Abdul-Gawad the situation is much less humorous. It is really dangerous.

The dreadful contrast between the size of the Ever Given ship and the size of Abdul-Gawad’s excavator. Photo: BI

Taking on the task of shoveling to release the bow, just a small mistake by Abdul-Gawad could cause the ship carrying tens of thousands of containers to collapse.

“I was afraid that the ship would be too tilted on one side or the other. If it leans on me, goodbye the excavator, goodbye Abdul-Gawad.

If you see the contrast between the size of the ship and the size of the excavator, you will find it very frightening. ”

Two other excavators were dispatched to the scene a few days later, but the drivers were too scared to do what Abdul-Gawad was doing. Instead, they were just sticking around clearing the rock that Abdul-Gawad dug.

21 hours / day

Wearing thin flip flops, Abdul-Gawad undertook digging for hours. When the tugs are active, Abdul-Gawad will receive a radio signal to temporarily retreat away.

“But you know, until I dig 5 or 6 meters, there’s still no movement.”

Photo: BI

When pictures of Abdul-Gawad’s excavator began to appear on the Internet, he said he felt as if “people were just making fun of me.”

“And that’s what made me more determined. I think, you’re making fun of me so I’ll prove I can do this. ”

Abdul-Gawad said that for several days, he and his colleagues were only allowed to rest at a barracks of border guards nearby.

“They know that if we go home, we won’t be back in about eight or nine hours,” he said.

Abdul-Gawad and his colleagues only slept about three hours a night. One day, only one hour of sleep.

Success

On March 25, a dedicated dredger – Mashhour – participated in the rescue effort Ever Given. Abdul-Gawad’s job at this time was to move soil, rock and sand from the bow of the ship to another place, while the Mashhour knocked silt off the canal.

This concerted effort – with the help of a high tide – brought hopeful signs the next day. And finally, the campaign was successful on March 29. The image of the Ever Given boat escaping made all the workers shout, and the tugboats honk to celebrate.

Abdul-Gawad said he and his colleagues were “half alive from exhaustion.”

“We were pushed to our limits,” said Abdul-Gawad. “But the moment we saw Ever Given off to sea, all fatigue seemed to vanish.”

Field survey officials. Photo: BI

Scary silence

The Suez Canal is a source of pride in Egypt, being called “Egypt’s Gift to the World” on billboards when it expanded in 2015.

President of Egypt – Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared: “The Egyptians have ended the crisis of the ship stranded Ever Given despite all difficulties.”

But Abdul-Gawad said he hardly attended any of the celebrations. Apart from a small ceremony held by a newspaper, Abdul-Gawad received little or no official recognition for his role.

“I was invited to a ceremony, where they honor the people who took the ships out to sea.” But it is primarily intended for Suez Canal Authority employees, not including Abdul-Gawad because he works for a subcontractor.

Invitations were also sent to Abdul-Gawad at the last minute only. Because the celebration took place in a city four hours away by car. And Abdul-Gawad received an invitation an hour and a half earlier.

Abdul-Gawad said he felt deeply hurt.

“The Suez Canal Authority patted himself on the chest that they have done a great job. But in the end, without an excavator, the ship wouldn’t go anywhere. It can still get stuck. ”

Image of the jam seen from satellite. Photo: Maxar

In an interview on April 8, Abdul-Gawad said that he and his colleagues still have not received overtime pay, even though they work more than 21 hours a day.

However, Abdul-Gawad said he will look back on those extraordinary days with pride.

“This is an achievement,” he said. “At first it was an achievement for Egypt, but it was also an achievement for me. This event can only happen once in my life. Twice at most. It is something to be proud of.”