Happy New Year I’m Brian Wiklendt I’m lead counsel with Garfinkel Schwartz.
I’m coming to you today from a Winter Park restaurant wine distributor.
They call it the Wine Barn.
My office is in Maitland Florida which is pretty much just up the street.
The Wine Barn is very well known for not only its wines around the world but its wood fired
pizza which there’s a just an incredible smell coming from outside from their fire
pit that they they do these pizzas from a lot of different sources in Orlando.
At least from the locals this place is ranked number one for wood fired artisan pizza and
so I’m going to enjoy myself after I finish speaking with you.
Unfortunately I don’t like to do this but I’d like to give an update on the things
that are going around the world that civilian contractors and overseas contractors should
be aware of.
Our firm specializes and kind of only does Defense Base Act and Longshore cases.
So that’s why I like to give updates to potential clients and people that may be needing
services for the future along with our current clients.
When I said unfortunately I meant that I’m going to go ahead and just read this.
I’d like to update you on the South China Sea and there’s no other better way than
reading it other than like it’s just too complicated to paraphrase.
So I apologize in advance for having to read this.
So in 2017 we explained earlier that China reclaimed the South China Sea for economic
purposes.
China’s actions are based on an ancient map whose date has been disputed.
But this ancient map pretty much these different countries all claim the same land and China’s
trying to lay claim to any additional land.
So basically you have Malaysia Brunei Taiwan Vietnam and the Philippines also thinking
that they hold a claim to this land in the South China Sea.
China has actually built physically created land where there was no land before and these
obviously are the disputed islands in the South China Sea.
According to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and reported by The Washington
Post China has built 18 I’m sorry 72 acres of this type of land.
The land is built from below sea level to above the water and the land is now used to
house airplane hangars military bases radar and missile shelters.
All this was done so that China’s military can patrol the South China Sea.
In an effort to de-escalate and prevent military action China in the late summer of 2017 agreed
not to claim further lands or islands according to Reuters.
In December of 2017 a month ago Forbes reports that Philippines and China are each attempting
to protect its own commercial interest.
So why is the South China Sea an issue for our clients and for potential overseas contractors
that are going to have to go there?
It’s because trillions of dollars in natural gas and oil are below the sea level in this
area which is exactly why everyone is trying to dispute and claim it.
There’s more than $5 trillion in world trade that moves annually in the South China Sea
as well.
We’d like to reiterate that our civilian contractors that based on the knowledge that
we’ve gathered over the years there’s a four to one ratio pretty much of military
versus the number of contractors.
So for every one military person there is in the South China Sea there’s going to
be four overseas private contractors.
They’re also going to obviously contractors are going to be in high demand we predict
in the South China Sea because of these conflicts and because of the amount of money that’s
at stake.
This is also probably going to turn into a very high risk danger zone which is where
a lot of my clients are getting business solicited to them to say hey can you come over here.
So this could be another high danger zone that people could easily get injured in whether
that be an act of terror or whether that be a dangerous work environment.
And so basically that’s why we wanted to update you on the South China Sea.
And just I know that we hope that you never face an injury in a place like the South China
Sea but if you do you should be prepared for that because you don’t know what kind of
medical areas there’s what what kind of medical treatment there’s going to be in
those areas that are remote how much danger you’re going to get yourself involved in.
We all we obviously want to look at the bright side of things but you also have to be prepared
in case you are injured what your rights are under the Defense Base Act.
And if you don’t call me or contact me or look at my website look at my videos contact
someone that knows about the Defense Base Act before you get injured so that when you
do you know exactly what steps to take.
Because a lot of times your employer is not going to tell you what to do they’re just
going to send you home and you’re going to be stuck and they’re not going to tell
you what your rights are.
So like I said even if it’s not me that’s okay you can contact me for free before or
after an injury.
If you don’t do that then please find find someone that that specializes and knows what
they’re doing when it comes to the Defense Base Act that being an attorney.
Again thank you very much.
Stay safe.
Be prepared.
And I hope you don’t have to contact me because of an injury but if you do we’ll
do the best we possibly can to help you get the benefits that you deserve.
Thanks for listening.
Again Happy New Year.
Good luck in the future.