Modern-day pirates and the open sea
Posted by Blueeyes at 4/29/2009 12:43 AM 
Categories: unbelievable, Safety, Opinion, Interesting, Current Events, Military, SCARY, Government, Crime, Barack Obama, gangs
Categories: unbelievable, Safety, Opinion, Interesting, Current Events, Military, SCARY, Government, Crime, Barack Obama, gangs
If you've been watching the news up until the mention of the H1N1 swine flu, every day basically featured something about modern day pirates off the coast of Somalia and nearby African countries. Basically these pirates have found a as soon keep their ownvery lucrative way to make money and lots of it. What they do is they hijack or pirate a ship, like an oil frigate or other commercial vessel, and hold it for ransom along with the ship's crew. Many times the company that owns the ship has paid $1 million ransom to these pirates to get their ship and her crew back.
Recently this hit a boiling point last week when a crew fought off the pirates and to save his crew's lives the captain (Phillips) went with the pirates. The pirates and the captain spent several days in a lifeboat surrounded by US destroyers and frigates. Finally, to make the story short, the parts were shot at close range by Navy sharpshooters (SEALS - a very effective use of governemnt funding, unlike the DEA) and the fourth pirate is currently standing trial in New York City.
So there are some drawbacks to being a pirate. You can die, you can get lost at sea, you can fall overboard and be eaten by a great white shark, you can be put in prison, you can go home empty-handed, and of course, when you are employed by thieves and are a thief you never know who you can trust because you can't trust anyone - this is where the term mutiny came from a long time ago. Basically prior ship is a boat of lawlessness and so is the country of Somalia. It has not had a hard orders of structured regime in years that controls it.
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In the people of Somalia are very very poor when you consider their per capita income compared to any other country like the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and even China. In some of the poorer areas they may be lucky if they come by for dollars in a year to live off of. You could not live a day off that the United States. Shoot, we have a show here by Rachael Ray which shows how to live off a $40 a day. And that's what scrimping and bargaining. Could you imagine living off of four dollars a year? That's what these people do. And when faced with caring for one's family doesn't take long for one of Somalia to go and figure out that being a pirate holds the promise of a much better life.
Now that doesn't necessarily mean that will always happen, as with many militant regimes and other similar countries the majority the money goes to those that are in charge and there is a huge discrepancy in income and pay. Somalian pirates are no different. You see extreme poverty on one end and inordinate wealth on the other right next-door. There are shanties and lean to's and then rate down the street or multimillion dollar houses. Of course the multimillion dollar houses and nice cars belong to the head pirates.
Now is this pirating right? No. So how do we handle it? The ocean is this huge and vast area. Even with the US Navy and several ships from other countries working together they still can't patrol the whole entire area off of Somalia and other areas of Africa that are open to these pirates. The problem here is if you let the pirates continue doing what they're doing your cost of goods will skyrocket. Starting with the price of oil and and then followed by other goods that come from areas around the Middle East and similar areas that have to go through these periods where the pirates lurk.
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Shipping companies like Nordic Atlantic tanker (stock trading symbol NAT) and others have to pay skyrocketing insurance costs on their vessels. These costs are growing at an astronomical rate due to the increase in pirating off of Somalia and other similar areas of Africa. It may even get to the point where shipping costs are so expensive that it becomes cheaper to actually go although other way around the world instead of going through the pirate chartered waters off of Africa. That hasn't happened yet but that could happen were instead they have to go past India near Australia and then come over through the Pacific. That would greatly add to the traveling and destination costs and charges for these shipments.
Maybe NATO and the UN (United Nations) needs to get together and draw up a plan whereby the majority of countries agree that a more stable form of government of some sort that is acceptable to all the nations be set in place in Somalia to help thwart this pirating problem. Now this could also become another Iraq or even Vietnam. This is why it's important that the UN and all nations or a majority of nations be behind this decision so that is not mostly the United States footing the bill and fighting the wars like in Iraq. The US does not need another Iraq right now. But we also do not need these pirates.
It may not seem that bad to see one or two ships being pirated, but it isn't one or two ships. Last I heard there was quite a few probably more like 50 to a 100 of these large commercial vessels that had been captured by pirates and taken back to port to await ransoming.
Regardless, something needs to be done in this issue needs to be addressed. Pirating of this nature and caliber should not be allowed to continue else these gangs of pirates will grow stronger and wealthier than before to long they may even team up with or become terrorists of their own with their own agendas. We do not need any more terrorists or similar minded individuals with large bank accounts and itchy trigger fingers breathing down our backs and controlling our waters. Something needs to be done and hopefully this administration (the Obama administration) takes this under advisement and does something about it. These pirates are becoming a serious problem in the open seas and it's only going to get worse until something is done about it.
Recently this hit a boiling point last week when a crew fought off the pirates and to save his crew's lives the captain (Phillips) went with the pirates. The pirates and the captain spent several days in a lifeboat surrounded by US destroyers and frigates. Finally, to make the story short, the parts were shot at close range by Navy sharpshooters (SEALS - a very effective use of governemnt funding, unlike the DEA) and the fourth pirate is currently standing trial in New York City.
So there are some drawbacks to being a pirate. You can die, you can get lost at sea, you can fall overboard and be eaten by a great white shark, you can be put in prison, you can go home empty-handed, and of course, when you are employed by thieves and are a thief you never know who you can trust because you can't trust anyone - this is where the term mutiny came from a long time ago. Basically prior ship is a boat of lawlessness and so is the country of Somalia. It has not had a hard orders of structured regime in years that controls it.
Does your skin look like that of a pirate - rough, aged, acne ridden? Do you want cleaner, clearer and more youthful looking skin? Try a skin peel from the number one name in online skin peels - Bestskinpeel.com!
In the people of Somalia are very very poor when you consider their per capita income compared to any other country like the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and even China. In some of the poorer areas they may be lucky if they come by for dollars in a year to live off of. You could not live a day off that the United States. Shoot, we have a show here by Rachael Ray which shows how to live off a $40 a day. And that's what scrimping and bargaining. Could you imagine living off of four dollars a year? That's what these people do. And when faced with caring for one's family doesn't take long for one of Somalia to go and figure out that being a pirate holds the promise of a much better life.
Now that doesn't necessarily mean that will always happen, as with many militant regimes and other similar countries the majority the money goes to those that are in charge and there is a huge discrepancy in income and pay. Somalian pirates are no different. You see extreme poverty on one end and inordinate wealth on the other right next-door. There are shanties and lean to's and then rate down the street or multimillion dollar houses. Of course the multimillion dollar houses and nice cars belong to the head pirates.
Now is this pirating right? No. So how do we handle it? The ocean is this huge and vast area. Even with the US Navy and several ships from other countries working together they still can't patrol the whole entire area off of Somalia and other areas of Africa that are open to these pirates. The problem here is if you let the pirates continue doing what they're doing your cost of goods will skyrocket. Starting with the price of oil and and then followed by other goods that come from areas around the Middle East and similar areas that have to go through these periods where the pirates lurk.
Do you have foggy, cloudy and ugly headlight lenses on your car or truck? Save big money and gain greater night time driving safety by restoring them to new again with the biggest and best name in headlight restoration - New Lite from MDWholesale.com!
Shipping companies like Nordic Atlantic tanker (stock trading symbol NAT) and others have to pay skyrocketing insurance costs on their vessels. These costs are growing at an astronomical rate due to the increase in pirating off of Somalia and other similar areas of Africa. It may even get to the point where shipping costs are so expensive that it becomes cheaper to actually go although other way around the world instead of going through the pirate chartered waters off of Africa. That hasn't happened yet but that could happen were instead they have to go past India near Australia and then come over through the Pacific. That would greatly add to the traveling and destination costs and charges for these shipments.
Maybe NATO and the UN (United Nations) needs to get together and draw up a plan whereby the majority of countries agree that a more stable form of government of some sort that is acceptable to all the nations be set in place in Somalia to help thwart this pirating problem. Now this could also become another Iraq or even Vietnam. This is why it's important that the UN and all nations or a majority of nations be behind this decision so that is not mostly the United States footing the bill and fighting the wars like in Iraq. The US does not need another Iraq right now. But we also do not need these pirates.
It may not seem that bad to see one or two ships being pirated, but it isn't one or two ships. Last I heard there was quite a few probably more like 50 to a 100 of these large commercial vessels that had been captured by pirates and taken back to port to await ransoming.
Regardless, something needs to be done in this issue needs to be addressed. Pirating of this nature and caliber should not be allowed to continue else these gangs of pirates will grow stronger and wealthier than before to long they may even team up with or become terrorists of their own with their own agendas. We do not need any more terrorists or similar minded individuals with large bank accounts and itchy trigger fingers breathing down our backs and controlling our waters. Something needs to be done and hopefully this administration (the Obama administration) takes this under advisement and does something about it. These pirates are becoming a serious problem in the open seas and it's only going to get worse until something is done about it.
I say they should just kill the pirates. This is what they did in the 1700's. They would literally hunt them down with the royal British navy and kill them.
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Well, its kind of hard to deal with these pirates when the commander in chief is one:
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