Pirate Mercs

nice boat
cant imagine what the operating costs are but
nice boat

 

These things are definately gonna have the one inch fuel lines (25mm?). RE Roll: I just see the poor CG kids get off of a November patrol around Kodiak. Pouring sweat, having been scared to death, they kiss the dock.
These are the 110' Island Class and they try not to go out in more than ten foot. They draw twice as much water as the Norwegian boats. Ours in Homer is the Roanoke Island.

 

Can't help wondering if a significant portion of the money now being spent on naval escorts, skyhigh insurance rates and ransoms couldn't be better spent trying to deal with the poverty that gives rise to such desperation, and the international politics that gives rise to such poverty. Of course, dealing with the religious issues that gave rise to the international politics in the first place is likely to be a sticking point ...

 

"...international politics that gives rise to such poverty."
Those people being turds is now our fault? Don't MAKE me send John Candy up there!

 

sending money to Africa only benfits the , private jet and megayacht companies and the odd Swiss Bank.
They're poor due to internal political problems and most of the top of Africa is a christian muslim problem.

Where do you think Gadaffi spends his billions these days after Reagan taught him not to play games outside Africa

 

well there are two sides to that coin
on the one hand the level of corruption involved in the governments of all countries is legendary, Africa specially so, no amount of aid is going to stop that and more likely just contribute to it ( pun intended ). The real problem came from near shore factory fishing when the governments of Africa 20+ years ago sold off fishing rights thereby destroying the subsistence fishing of the locals. Thats when the real poverty and hunger set in and led to the state of affairs we have now. To a large degree at least.

The other side of the coin is a little less clear. Africa was sliced like a chicken at the end of WW2 and the resulting borders both inhibited tribal movement and instigated racial strife as well did the non existance of a middle class within the old or new social design. Lead to massive corruption that is alive and well to this day.

Put the two together and you get an endless cycle of BS from which no mortal could possibly rise and succeed let alone the common man. There is little hope for Africa under the present system and little hope the present system is likely to change any time soon. It boils down to containment. The oppressors are by now themselves and there crimes are there own, I say they own there own **** and Ill own mine. If they come out and want to rob me I say I stand up and fight. If they come out and want to rob someone else and that someone else wishes to avoid that scenario then the means for them to avoid it should be legal and available. Otherwise the world falls to chaos does it not. Anarchy is not an option to civilized men.
Trick is to now define civilization



I say the Iroquois civilization and constitution was a pretty good model

B

 

"I say the Iroquois civilization and constitution was a pretty good model" - so thot the framers of the U.S. Constitution. A little Roman Senate and plebeian Assembly, a little give-and-take of the Iroquois Constitution. The President might be the Onandanga Fire-Keeper. Don't know how the Judiciary fits in - arguably like the media since the 60's, an arm of the left, subjugating the very constitution that allowed them. Yeah, Bos, the 5 or 6 sovereign nations of the Iroquois lasted longer than the U.S. has so far.

 

Politics. Damnit.

 

Kayaker, it isn't poverty that gives rise to crime; rather it is crime that gives rise to poverty. You take any group of people living in poverty and get them to respect property rights, to be honest in their business dealings, and to reject governmental corruption, and they will not be poor for very long. On the other hand, you take a group of middle-class people who don't behave like that and they will soon descend into poverty. History has shown this many times.

The civilized world has given billions to Africa and it has done nothing to relieve their poverty. In fact, their poverty as gotten worse as one despot after another robs and rapes their countries. These are African despots, by the way, and they are acting well within the typical norms of African leaders dating back as far as African history goes.

A lot of people living in Western society have picked up the curious notion that the high standards of living and relatively low levels of corruption, robbery, ****, slavery, murder, and tribal feuding that exists in the West is the norm, and that the high levels of these things in other places is something unusual that we have to find an explanation for. The opposite is true. All of those evils have been the norm in human society as far back as we have history. It is Western culture that is historically unusual. It is the relative lack of these things in Western culture that is in need of explanation.

Hey, how's that sailing-upwind thing going?

 

I agree with Dave G. It is the individual who produces the culture that produces the religion that produces the dictator who will **** and pillage the country from the inside with of course the help of whoever else wants to help himself to the spoils.
To attempt to reverse the cycle is a very stupid move. Iraq with Sadam Hussain would have been a much better country today.

Each country has the government it deserves.

 

Er. I'm not sure if you really think you agree with me or if you are being sarcastic. I wasn't saying that they deserve what they get or that we have no moral obligation to help them if we can. The large majority of the people in those societies are innocent victims of the thugs. What I was reacting to the statement that their problems are caused by poverty and to the implication that the solution is to give them money. I think both ideas are serious mistakes, well-meaning mistakes but mistakes nonetheless, that make the problems worse. But ... this is already off-topic so I don't intend to discuss what I think the right solution is, because that will really cause an off-topic controversy.

 

Yes, I agree with that too, I don't want to elaborate too much but I believe that just like a person is the maker of his destiny communities are the makers of their history and present time situation. To try to find responsibility outside the country looking at selected historical factors, is not right. Each country is responsible for their trajectory up or down.
To state today that one person is a victim because his neighbour hacked his family to death is a feel good statement. Ignoring that this family may have hacked to death the neighbours for centuries before and at this point in history is on the loosing side is a consideration that can not be ignored.
The question what are we supposed to do is what entertains and makes rich a lot of people. I think that we should do the least possible and punish severely those who interfere and make money out of their misery.

And as for the cause of piratery in Somalia the answer is easy. Somalia is a Muslim country and a lot of the money robbed goes to Alcaida

 

Hi Boston
Well put as always..
I used to eat in the same restuarant as some of the the Mozambique embassy staff in London ( when I lived there 2 years ago) and they couldn't stop telling me how good it is now.
They are one of the lucky ones whereby they solved their internal problem not just had a cease fire so the country is safe and on the up and up now,hard to believe but the internatioanl flights to it are ever increasing.
Cheers

 

I was sitting on a plane in Zimbabwe years ago beside a pastor, we got chatting about Africa and so on ( Zim has a 2 tribe problems like other countries) and he said to me 'Oh it will take another 100+ years to get the tribal problem sorted out and Africa to get moving'
And they all use the tricks of finding an enemy to help stay in power, who cares how many you kill doing that...like bombs in India and Bangledesh...always from polititians and rarely from terrorists

 

...or Eric Cartman.