"They have money; they have power and they are getting stronger by the day," says Abdi Farah Juha who lives in the regional capital, Garowe."They wed the most beautiful girls; they are building big houses; they have new cars; new guns," he says.
"Piracy in many ways is socially acceptable. They have become fashionable."
BBC News/Africa, 10/28/08
Yo Ho, Yo Ho - A Pirate's Life for Me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIN-MqaA_Dk
Mark and I were sitting in one of the front rows of the boat on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland in Anaheim -- the original and best. Meredith, about 18 months old, was sitting between us at the point where the boat finishes the "prologue" - that slow, queue-up part of the ride at the very beginning where they channel the newly-filled boats while the computer spaces them for the voyage ahead.
All of a sudden, as soon as we reached the part where the boat was set to "plunge" down a full story in depth, she stood up and began to wave her arms and shout. The force of the fall and the air generated from it blew Mark's newest baseball cap right off his head and into the blackness behind us.
Boo hoo. I was too busy grabbing onto Meredith's little legs to prevent a REAL tragedy.
I don't know how much time elapsed before my heart beat went back to normal rhythm. Since I had already been on this ride too many times to count, it's not like I really missed anything. But, I certainly didn't process most of whatever was left. My legs were wobbly when I "deboated" at the landing site, which was at the back of the launching site where we had started this almost-fiasco.
To this day, I recall the sensation of thinking that my child was going to be an international headline about an accident at The Happiest Place on Earth, and recoil in horror.
I guess real horror has been unfolding before us for a long time, but some of us weren't paying attention. Some of our fellow citizens in the media have now come off the oxygen tanks, back to the surface of planet Earth, trading their hyperventilating over one man to report real world news. As it happens. Imagine that.
Just proves that there is really nothing new under the sun. Since the dawning of the ages, men and women have found ways to make money, or steal it if necessary. So, the dudes in Somali are just following a time-worn pattern. A new age way of find a need and fill it. More like find an opportunity and steal it.
These pirates aren't stupid -- they keep demanding more money, and ship owners keep paying.
Wonder where it will end....
Meanwhile, estimates suggest that these mates have "earned" close to $100 million in ransom since the 1990's. And, we're just now thinking it might be time to do something about it???
We have people in our government who know a lot about how to achieve energy independence for our country. If we don't want them to be President or Vice President, that's fair -- we had an election, and some people voted against party as much as policy.
But, maybe the new guys -- mostly guys -- could think about what is really good for the country and, at least, have a conversation with some of those people.
I would be happy to locate and forward the coordinates to Juneau, Alaska, if that would help them.
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