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Bangladesh

Pirates of the Arabian

2011-02-20

Interesting article...

This pirate does not wear a Royal Navy jacket, a red feather in his hat, an eye patch or have a Jolly Rogers flag. In tattered clothes, he limps out of his room at Yellowgate police station in Mumbai, holding a urine pouch on his side. His leader is no flamboyant, swaying Johnny Depp, mouthing, "Son, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy?" Captain Hrufer Noor, 34 -- puss oozing from his knees, and his skin peeling -- breaks down while talking about how he switched to buccaneering.

The 28 Somali pirates captured by the Indian Navy and Coastguards a couple of weeks ago could make many die-hard pirate fans consign the swashbuckling stereotype to the Davy Jones' Locker, which, in case you're not 'savvy', lies at the bottom of the ocean. There is no sound of 'Ho ho and a bottle of rum' from the lock-up they are huddled together in. Their clamour for food and medicine confound the mythical fearlessness of legends, such as Edward Teach alias Blackbeard, John 'Calico' Rakham or Bartholomew Roberts. Their injuries -- in filthy slings and bandages -- are too real to remind anyone of the one-legged Long John Silver from R L Stevenson's Treasure Island.

But the thing that makes the Somali pirates most starkly different to their lionised predecessors -- fictional or historical -- is the reasons they give for choosing this notorious life. Notoriety was the last thing on Noor's mind considering that he has kept his profession a secret from his wife. "She thinks I'm on a security assignment. I used to be a driver. The civil war finished everything. My employer migrated to Kenya and left me jobless. I took to piracy to feed my wife and three children and on the insistence of Mohammed Allen Galey, a pirate don." His story sounds very different from that of the wealthy 'gentleman pirate' Stede Bonnet, who, legend has it, gave up his respectable life for adventure and, by some accounts, to escape a nagging wife.

Posted by:tu3031

#8 tw - back in those days, how long did sailors last if they DIDN'T turn pirate?

I've no idea, Anguper Hupomosing9418. Mostly not terribly much longer, I imagine -- Americans were still being impressed into the British navy until the War of 1812, as I recall, which suggests the need for fresh bodies continued to be great.

The problem with being a somewhat widely read dilettante is that one's knowledge is invariably spotty.

Posted by: trailing wife 2011-02-20 20:15

#7 4. Sounds pretty easy to me.

Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-02-20 14:25

#6 Pirates, at least in the horn of Africa and Indian Ocean areas of operations, thrive because of the lack of will on the part of the seafaring nations to deal with them. The failed state of Somalia is a perfect petri dish for this activity. So we have some choices:

1. Do nothing.

2. Pick off the relative few at sea, like it is done now.

3. Quarantine (blockade) Somalia.

4. Take over Somalia and transform it into a workable country (like Afghanistan, heh). Any volunteers? Any NGOs want a contract?

4. Take one of the pirate havens, like Hobyo, and turn it into rubble and desert again, with a warning to the others to cease and desist or it will happen to them.

There are no easy solutions, but the piracy can be stopped if there is a will.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2011-02-20 14:01

#5 Today Piracy is a clear symptom of the bankruptcy of the ruling class. It was something 'international law' was suppose to have done away with. Now with the blatant reality in everyone's face, the same said elite refuse to admit their programs, laws, and procedures are a pile of ritualistic crap. However, rather than admit the truth and really deal with the problem, they'd rather protect their little hollow game of importance and position.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-02-20 09:18

#4 Pirates the lot.

The In-Laws [On working for the CIA]
Vince Ricardo: Are you interested in joining? The benefits are terrific. The trick is not to get killed. That's really the key to the benefit program.

Posted by: Besoeker 2011-02-20 07:40

#3 tw - back in those days, how long did sailors last if they DIDN'T turn pirate?

Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-02-20 07:13

#2 Piracy has always been an unhealthy profession for the crew. I read somewhere that during the 18th century, sailors lasted about a year from the day they turned pirate, and generally died penniless.

Posted by: trailing wife 2011-02-20 06:48

#1 From Wikipedia ,<---- Link to Larger Map

Lets not make these guys out to be heros, they are not, people are dying here.

Posted by: Goodluck 2011-02-20 04:46

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