Somali Pirates Living in Luxury
You probably don’t visualize a pirate as being anywhere else except on a pirate ship. But some of those infamous Somali pirates are using their stolen loot to build mansions, hire servants and buy luxury cars.
Now of course nobody is condoning what these pirates are doing, or making any sort of apologies for them. But these Somali pirates — unlike some other pirates we could name — are actually giving something back to their communities. Somalia is one of the world’s poorest countries. And now, because of the money being spent by these pirates, some of the local economies are booming.
And unlike still another gang of pirates, the Somali pirates are not groveling and sobbing to the government for a handout.
Just like all political dynasties, pirates come and go. There’s always a gang of Young Turks ready to come along and kick out the Old Guard. In order to make room for these upstart Somali pirates, some old pirates have to fade away.
cross-posted at Bring It On!
Labels: Somali pirates booming local economy, Somali pirates mansions
posted by Tom Harper @ 3:31 PM
10 Comments:
Pirates vs. Indians. Sounds like a World Series match-up to me.
Agi: There you go. A chance for Pittsburgh to trounce Cleveland :)
I'm not sure the Somali pirates qualify as a political dynasty, exactly, but the other comparisons have a lot going for them.
At the core of it, in Somalia greedy, poorly dressed thugs rule by the gun because there is little or no government and no rule of law. In the U.S., greedy, well-dressed thugs see to it as often as they can that the government is run by people who will let them do as they please, never mind about the rule of law. At least, that's the way it's mostly been for the past 30 years.
In Football it would be Kansas City and Washington vs Oakland and Tampa Bay.
If our president can mess with our oil production by invading Iraq why can't he send a force to mess with a country violating international law.
Isn't that where we get "to the shores of Tripoli" from?
Erik
SW: I mostly just wanted to get in a little dig about those poor hedge fund managers who've fallen on hard times. Yup, greedy well-dressed thugs who have the government in their pockets vs. armed thugs who do whatever they want because there's no government at all -- that sums it up.
Erik: Bush probably identifies too closely with the Somali pirates, and doesn't want to interfere with them. Like that old joke about why sharks never attack lawyers: professional courtesy.
Go to hell, Tom. ;-)
Randal: Oops, that's right, a Cleveland guy.
I gotta say, I kinda admire their chutzpah.
Are you sure this isn't just some clever viral marketing for the next Pirates Of The Caribbean movie?
J: Yup, they've got plenty of that.
Lew: Dang, you saw through the gimmick.
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