Somali Pirate Update

by leavingwt 13 Replies latest social current

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  leavingwt

  The Market Has Spoken

  Somali pirates are in the business of making money, not harming hostages. Of the 815 hostages Somali pirates took last year, only four died and two were injured under pirate care.

  Pirates aren’t treating hostages well because they’re nice guys. They’re treating hostages well because it pays to do so. A dead hostage fetches no ransom and pirates’ business model would collapse if they injured prisoners or allowed them to die. The economics of piracy has a simple bottom line: for all the problems piracy may pose, the threat of dead and injured innocents isn’t one of them.

  The market has spoken: Even in today’s pirate-infested waters off Somalia, the low probability of being captured by pirates, together with the fact that pirates release their hostages unscathed, means it’s cheaper--and safer--to go without armed guards.

  http://volokh.com/posts/1242735020.shtml
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  Warlock

  Do they wear patches?

  That is the question.

  Warlock
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  Priest73

  http://www.somalicruises.com/

  Apastafest?
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  Witness 007

  Priest lol funny...Somalia cruise, BYO guns!
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  Elsewhere

  Sure... until you're the one with an RPG and an AK47 pointed at your head.
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  Big Tex

  What's a pirate's favorite letter of the alphabet?

  rrrrrrrrrrrr
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  Elsewhere

  boooooooooooo
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  BizzyBee

  it’s cheaper--and safer--to go without armed guards.

  I think that is faulty reasoning. If hostage-taking is accommodated by non-resistance and paying large ransoms, piracy will increase and so will the dollar amount of ransoms. Armed guards on board targeted ships who use aggressive tactics (resulting in dead pirates) is bound to make piracy as a career path unattractive (low-probability of getting paid, high probability of getting dead.)
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  leavingwt

  Bizzy, I think you're making the case for why I own a gun.

  Surely, it will deter would-be attackers/burglars, when they hear me chamber a round?
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  Elsewhere

  > Surely, it will deter would-be attackers/burglars, when they hear me chamber a round?

  Ahhh yes... by far the most effective way to make the sound of foot steps in the dark come to a sudden and abrupt stop... followed by the sound of a sudden and abrupt retreat out the nearest exit.