Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Argh!

I've been following the piracy story for a couple of years now for two reasons. One, I read an outstanding article in The Atlantic in 2003, titled "Anarchy at Sea" and two, once when I was reading CNN, I saw a story on Somali pirates and told Liz. She proceeded to imitate Captain Barbossa and the rest is history. I now regularly read about modern day pirates.

Chatham House recently came out with a new report on "Piracy in Somalia". Worth reading if you'd like a break from the doom and gloom present day life and want to read about how shipping $100M of oil ain't what it used to be.

3 comments:

Bubba the Hutt said...

I'm with Liz on that one, these guys don't wear cool pirate hats, clothes, earings, peg legs, and not a parrot in sight. Just a bunch of skinny guys with AK-47's.

Where's your culture?

And where were these guys planning on taking a tanker that moves through the water about as fast as I can swim (not very fast)? And what are they going to do if the tanker is taken by force, blow it up? It's in their own back yard. Reminds me of a part in Blazing Saddles when the new Sherrif comes to town and everyone wants to shoot him, so he pulls a gun on himself and threatens to shoot.

Other images that come to mind when thinking about the pirates hijaking a boat the size of three aircraft carriers:

Jeff Van Gundy holding on to Alonzo Mourning's leg trying to break up a fight:
http://khaderf.tripod.com/photoalbum/van_gundy_mourning.jpg

Bit off more than they could chew:
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c103/wulfweard/october06/melon.jpg

Now what?
http://ipadventures.com/images/stuck.jpg

Bubba the Hutt said...

Or, for easier linking:

Mourning and Gundy

Bite off more than you can chew

Now what

liz said...

LOL- I remember pointing out a CNN article to you and shouting to you in the other room about it. Only to find my VAST disapopintment to see they didn't look anything like REAL [hollywood] pirates. And they didn't even get anything from the ship they were 'pirating'- can you even call it that if you don't get the booty?

nothing's worse than an under-dressed pirate getting caught.

That was like finding out Santa isn't real.