Booze and Boat Bits #7 (5 Short Items of Interest)

And now it's time to return to Blue Lou's quick entries on happenings in the world of piracy, vessels, and alcohol!  It's been a while for some of these topics, starting with...

washed up?

1.  Somalia update:  There are numerous signs that piracy in Somalia has been, if not eradicated, at least brought under a reasonable amount of control.  Signs of its demise began earlier this year.  A September 25th article for the Huffington Post described how Hobyo, historically one of the key pirate dens, is now back on hard times.  You know the boom is over when "most of the prostitutes are gone and luxury cars (are) repossessed."  At that time, 5 vessels had been seized in 2012, compared to 25 in 2011 and 47 in 2010.  December 17th news was even better:  NO ships have been seized by the Somalis in the last 6 months!  Many factors have been credited for the increased success in averting successful pirate attacks--on-board defenses, better and more constant communication between merchant vessels and naval patrols, and air reconnaissance over the shoreline.  Nevertheless, Somali piracy is far from over.  5 ships and 136 hostages are still being held.  In an article for Reuters, Dutch Commodore Ben Bekkering, now commander of NATO's Operation Ocean Shield, told the press, "I am convinced, if navy ships would disappear, the piracy model would still be intact."  He insisted that a minimum of 16 to 18 ships need to be on patrol at any one time just to cover the broad area of the pirates' hunting ground.  Out-of-work pirates, meanwhile, are not treated warmly in the towns where they live, many citizens blaming piracy for what Hobyo mayor Ali Duale Kahiye calls "inflation, indecency, and insecurity."  Even the investors that used to fund pirate expeditions are backing off, seeing decreasing returns.  It is important to keep in mind that poverty and instability will still make the pirates' life appealing.  Yet it seems that...just maybe...we're winning.

washed up?

2.  Kalakala update:  Our dear old ferry has entered a new phase of limbo.  As reported at the Tacoma News Tribune, in November the Kalakala passed from Steve Rodrigues to Karl Anderson, who owns the moorage where the ferry resides and who invited Rodrigues and his boat back in 2004.  The transfer was a "quietly arranged lien foreclosure sale," as Rodrigues owned $4,000 in past due rent.  Kalakala remains in its conundrum:  The Coast Guard still considers it "a hazard to navigation," but, at the same time the Coast Guard has declared it too fragile to move, environmental regulators have forbidden repairs on the water.  Call me a perpetual optimist, but, honestly, I am hopeful about the new ownership.  Rodrigues' heart was in the right place, but he was a dreamer not a planner, and certainly no businessman.  Anderson has made clear that he'd rather restore than scrap, and, besides, the only graving dock up to the task of dismantling the big ferry--a dock that also happens to be owned by Anderson--is tied up with making pontoons for the 520 floating bridge for two years.  Anderson may not be the one to bring back the Kalakala to its former glory, but, at the very least he seems to care about her.  The waiting game continues, same as it ever was.

washed down!

3.  'Tis the season to give beer.  Last week at work, we had "Secret Santa" exchanges.  My Secret Santa scored perfectly, supplying me with toys, a huge one-pound bag of Pirate's Booty cheese puffs, the book Dead Men Tell No Tales on the 18th century pirate Charles Gibbs (a book I didn't even know existed), and finally a gift box with three pint glasses she hand etched with skull and crossbones and two big bottles of ale!!  The beer was from a brewery I was unfamiliar with, Minhas Craft Brewery of Monroe, Wisconsin.  Minhas traces its origins to the Blumer Brewery, founded way back in 1845 during the Midwest's lager boom, and today makes its way out of Wisconsin via Trader Joe's.  Although it is in a little town in rural cheese country, they style themselves nautical under the brand name "Boatswain."  The two beers I was given were a double IPA called Twin Screw Steamer and a strong ale called Heavy Lift Vessel.  The former was unremarkable, simply because I really could care less about IPA.  The latter, however, I would recommend as a sturdy, hearty brew, one that I would not only drink again but also could see myself trying to adapt into a homebrew recipe.  More importantly, I would like to suggest that my coworker Juanita had the right idea:  Don't waste your Christmas money buying socks or a gift card, show someone you care by giving them good ale!

4. It may be a wee bit wet and cold for sailing, but what does that matter to underwater archaeologists?  Between diverticulitis, work, and the coming of fall weather, I have not been to the Center for Wooden Boats in months, but then the CWB livery does tend to hibernate, too.  Nevertheless, the CWB's blog "Bearings" tells of restoration work, a new exhibit on boathouses and fishing resorts of Puget Sound, and the ongoing survey of shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Union.  I have embedded a nicely made 9-minute video about the project above, and you can learn more at the Lake Union Virtual Museum.  I have written about this before.  It is not just of local interest:  It is a remarkable work of archaeology because of the extreme conditions it takes place in and the treasure trove of vessels found.

not a wash, a wish

5.  A month ago, I posted on how I was going to 'pretend' to take Mystic Seaport's summer seminar at the Munson Institute.  Well, all of the books have arrived from Amazon as well as two thick readers from Dr. Glenn Gordinier.  Dr. Gordinier told me that the seminar did not have any assignments; this was not a graduate seminar but an educators' seminar, and not only was the reading list too intense for weekly papers, but, really, teachers probably don't need the practice when they're too busy writing articles for actual publication.  So, by comparing the reading list to the draft syllabus posted online, I have created my OWN assignments.  In the upcoming weeks (or, rather, months), I will be posting here what I am already calling, perhaps presumptuously, "The Munson Papers."  Some of these will be topic only until the reading is done.  These subjects include the definition of maritime studies, the relationship between maritime labor and slavery, and the end of the age of sail.  Others, drawing partly from the actual seminar and partly from my own library and interests, already have initial titles:  "Blackbeard in Colonial Context," "Late Piracy and the Early U.S. Navy:  The Case of Charles Gibbs" (thanks again Juanita...you had no idea), and "Scholars and Scavengers:  Archaeology vs. 'Treasure Hunting'."  As you can tell, my brain is all buzzing.  The bad news is that it might be a while 'til you see a post here on the blog, as I lose myself in hundreds of pages of literature; Hell, I might even take a break from O'Brian (*gasp*)!  The good news is that there are over a dozen 'papers' you can look forward to reading...and, for me, perhaps the seeds of a new academic career.  Plus, you know, I'm a pirate, and thus likely to be distracted by something shiny that I think is worth writing about.

Stay roguish, my friends...

Booze and Boat Bits #6 (5 short items of interest)

Hehehehe

I was going to make this the “All Good News” edition, but every single story ended up with a flip side.  In the words of Robert Carlyle’s marvelously creepy Rumpelstiltskin on Once Upon A Time, “All magic comes with a price!”

Judith Tebbutt

1:  The good news:  On Wednesday, Judith Tebbutt, the British woman who was whisked away from the Kenyan resort of Kiwayu Safari Village by Somali "pirates," was released after six months of captivity.  The bad news…is considerable.  One, the son who secured her release appears to have paid a ransom of over a million dollars.  Two, she had no idea until she was a free woman again that her husband had been killed during the kidnapping.  Three, there are still several civilians being held in Somalia, not to mention the nearly two hundred sailors being held on vessels at sea.

All those dots mean booze.

2:  The good news:  Washington state residents are only a couple months away from Booze Emancipation, June 1.  Recently, a fun and helpful interactive map was published that allows you to zoom in on your neighborhood and see who has applied for a liquor license.  It’s just as you’d expect:  grocery chains like QFC and Safeway, “pharmacies” like Walgreens and Bartell, and big box stores like Target and—of course—Cost Co.  I am all abuzz over the potential for competition and, simply, the new convenience.  I can get me rum at the same time I get my cheese, Bandaids, or toilet paper…all the essentials in one spot.  The question:  specialties.  Are the buyers at Safeway really going to think to stock Rogue Blackbeard Dark Rum, Punt e Mes, or Domaine de Canton, or are they just going to stock Bacardi and Martini & Rossi?  Are there going to be stand-alone liquor stores for bartenders or at-home mixologists?  Liberation:  It's never as simple as how you imagined it.

3:   The good news...is that there's no news about the Kalakala.  No reports of taking on water, no threats of immediate demise.  The bad news:  Steve Rodrigues' trailer next to the ferry was hauled away by the property owners, and, as of last report on March 8th, he is depending on family and friends for a place to live.  I am not here to discuss Steve's personal affairs, but since Steve IS the sole visionary for the Kalakala's future this is yet another bad omen.  The one-cent buyer remains a shadow.  The vast majority of online commentary on the Kalakala is negative, most calling for the boat to be scrapped or sunk.  So no news really means that the fate of the Kalakala is still hanging by that same slender, ragged thread.

And you thought he was ugly alive...

4:  The good news:  Shane is dead.  The bad news:  So is Dale, and we all have to wait til Fall for more The Walking Dead.  But there will be Mad Men, and Christina Hendricks is infinitely more sexy than a walker in a barn.

The Goddess Joan

5:  We got an email from our landlord that we need to move by May 31.  This is a complex mixture of good and bad news.  It was inevitable, and in a way I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.  After the initial shock, compounded by the fact that it was morning--I am not a morning person, justsoyaknow-- I have come to realize that this is an opportunity.  Yeah, it's gonna be a gargantuan hassle.  But, in fact, I like moving, and it's something I've done a lot.  Moving is a reset button.  It's a chance to assess your material possessions, sort, and eliminate.  Moving, even just crosstown, means new environs and a chance to learn and explore.  Hell, it's a chance to redecorate, which means maybe I can set up my pirate cave.  For all you readers, I am not going to make this a blog about the move (since this isn't going to mean fulfilling my liveaboard fantasy), and naturally this will temporarily impede my ability to write.  Another day, another horizon.  Watch for my signal flags.

Somalia Update: Of Conferences and Cultural Relativity

Photo op's will solve all the world's problems

Just over a week ago there was a large conference in London on what to do about Somalia.  55 nations and international organizations were there, including big players:  the President of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Sharif Sheikh Ahmed; President Farole of Puntland; British Prime Minister David Cameron; U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  Piracy and terrorism were on the table, but the real issue was that the TFG's mandate is scheduled to run out in August...the "Transition" is to give way to something they'd like to call 'permanence.'  Can anyone actually agree on what that is to look like and how to get there?  How does the problem of piracy fit in?  And what do the Somalis themselves think about it?  To gain some breadth, I read over two dozen articles from what I hoped would be very different media perspectives, including The New York Times, The Huffington Post, the U.K. Guardian, and two online newspapers from Somalia itself, somaliareport.com and garoweonline.com.  My conclusion:  The only way Somalia can gain anything like stability is not by imposing foreign models but by creating something that meshes ALL of the cultural complexities of the region.  That means that the West has to acknowledge the central role of Islam and not paint all the followers of Islam as terrorists or potential terrorists.  Dear readers, please indulge me.  This does have to do with pirates.  More importantly, it has to do with how WE shape the world.


Somalia Update: Perspective

Somali pirate dhow captured by the Royal Navy on January 13th

I will be the first to admit that my reporting and analysis of the ongoing saga of piracy in Somalia is based on trolling online articles.  I track Google News, check the Guardian page on piracy, and keep up on Jay Bahadur's blog.  Again I will confess I am no expert.  Yet by watching the news, it is easy to observe that something has changed.  What is unclear is whether the change is actually a shift in events or simply in how the press covers them.  Three themes have taken over lately.  One, the Somalis may have shifted their focus from large commercial vessels to private yachts, and possibly even to tourists ashore.  Two, naval action in the Gulf of Aden appears to be more successful in averting pirate attacks.  Three, the these two factors, among others, may be indeed be indicative of the beginning of the end of Somali piracy.

Kiwayu Safari Village, Kenya

My last post on Somalia, August 22, 2011--nearly five months ago!--was on Bahadur's book.  We have some catching up to do.  Let's start on September 7, 2011, when The Guardian reported on the release of Jan Quist Johansen and family, who had been held hostage since their 47-foot yacht had been taken in February.  It has been suggested that a $1 million ransom was paid for their release.  Only four days later, there was a big news splash when a British couple, The Tebbutts, were attacked at Kiwayu Safari Village, a resort in Lamu, Kenya, not far from the border with Somalia to the north.  The husband was shot protecting his wife, and she was bundled off in a speedboat.  Somali gunmen had attacked across the border before, but the use of the speedboat immediately brought "pirate" to the lips of many.  The suspicion that the Somali pirates had a new modus operandi was strengthened on October 1, 2011, when an elderly woman was kidnapped by speedboat from her beach house near Lamu.

Booze and Boat Bits #5 (5 short items of interest)

Keeps me in rations

1:  I love good rum, but I am not a total snob.  Although I know and value quality, I still want to make sure I have rum even as I wait for the next paycheck.  That's why Cruzan is awfully nice, because it's inexpensive and tasty.  I recently decided to further explore the lower shelves.  But how to decide, other than the orange sale tag?  How about a pretty label?  On the left we have Calypso Spiced Rum.  The name is meaningless:  There isn't even a remote reference to the Goddess of the Sea, whether among the ancient Greeks or the modern Captain Sparrow fans.  What we do have is a bodacious redheaded pirate with a very nice chest...and a very nice chest full of treasure.  Oh ad men, I am weak.  I soaked the label off, pasted it on a card, burnt it around the edges, and had a cool bookmark (now between pages 342 and 343 of The Mauritius Command).  On the right we have Admiral Nelson's Spiced Rum.  The Hero of Trafalgar now sports flaming red hair, an eye patch, a cutlass that appears to be curved backwards, and...both arms!  OK, so the Nelson of the rum world bears about as much relation to his historical namesake as, well, the Morgan of the rum world.  The common denominator here isn't just nautical kitsch but spice, which seems to make cheap rum palatable in much the same way that blending does for cheap whiskey.  The good news is that, with some ginger ale and a good squeeze of fresh lime, it may not be a fancy cocktail, but it keeps the crew happy.

A sad portrait

2:  Meanwhile, the fate of the Kalakala has gone from unknown to downright mysterious.  On December 19th, it was reported that the ferry had a buyer for Rodrigues' token dollar.  The name and location of the buyer is unknown to apparently all but him.  Indeed, all that has been officially posted is:  "After considering offers from two interested parties, the Kalakala has been sold for $1 to an anonymous buyer. The Kalakala will be saved from the scrap yard and restored to her full glory."  Unofficially, Rodrigues has told the Seattle Times that the buyer is not in Washington State; New York is rumored.  Meanwhile, Rodrigues has been under the gun of the Coast Guard to move or at least to offer a plan.  On December 23rd, his appeal for an extension was denied.  The Coast Guard doesn't even believe that this "buyer" exists.  So now there's a distinct possibility that the next actual owner of the Kalakala may be the Corps of Engineers, who may move her, "pin" her in place, or do nothing at all.  As usual, Rodrigues speaks more mythically than realistically.  The ferry needs someone with vision but also with, ideally, some idea of how a boat works, funding, and connections.  What we have instead is a purported fairy godmother, with the authorities on Rodrigues' heels.  Seriously Steve, show us the moneybags.  Even the faithful need to see that miracle, not just promises.

You never know what you'll drink...but it'll be good.

3:  I love random beer!  I discovered  a while ago at Fred Meyer the Dick's Beer Variety Pack, and I got another box of random beer last week.  The case could contain any of fourteen different brews.  I like Dick's generally--this is a brewery in Centralia, WA, that produces about 3,500 barrels per year in about 20 varieties.  Buying random beer does have its risks:  I may be stuck with styles I just generally wouldn't choose, like IPA and hefeweizen.  On the other hand, their trademark dark Dick Danger Ale is very tasty, the Irish Ale is right up my alley, and the Lava Rock Porter I have in my tankard right now is roasty and deep.  Consider the season and opening that gift from the aunt that doesn't know you.  Now consider opening up a box, and even though you don't know the details, you get beer.  A worthy adventure, eh?

4:  I have been completely remiss keeping up on Somalia, what with being absorbed by Naval exploits of 200 years ago.  There have been attacks averted (by Iran!), civilians released, and pirates sentenced.  It is my duty (at least to my own interest) to get caught up.  I will do this in a more thorough post soon.

Cheery, yummy

5:  Lastly, a thank you to my coworker, Joseph, for giving me a truly great beer.  Trader Joe's 2011 Vintage Ale is in fact made by the great Unibroue brewery of Chambly, Quebec, makers of well-known beers such as La Fin du Monde and Maudite.  Trader Joe's scored a marvelous, dark, bubbly, and spicy limited edition ale.  It's good, it's cheap, and it won't be around for long.  Go now!

Jay Bahadur's The Pirates of Somalia: Time for a Reality Check

That a non-fiction book can be a page turner might be weird to some, but Jay Bahadur's The Pirates of Somalia was completely riveting.  Bahadur is a journalist, but he's also in a way an anthropologist:  He clearly knows that facts gathered from real fieldwork and with real cultural sensitivity are far better than second-hand information and armchair analysis.  Rather than extol his writing, however, I'm going to put here some of the facts about Somali pirates that not only struck me but also would be well to remember in any future discussion.

The pirate Boyah

1.  Somali pirates are not all the same.  The historical timeline of piracy in Somalia shows that pirates have different origins, motivations, and methods.  Bahadur describes three "waves" of piracy.  The first wave, beginning roughly with the collapse of the central Somali government in 1991, consisted largely of "marine muggings."  This was the mythical era of the fisherman-pirate, struggling against outsiders first by taking on foreign trawlers and then by attacking any passing, worthwhile target.  Eyl was the pirate haven of the day, and one of the chief operators was Abdullahi Abshir, better known as "Boyah," one of Bahadur's main subjects.  The second wave began in 2003 with the rise of Mohamed Abdi Hassan, alias "Afewyne" ("Big Mouth").  Afweyne was--and is--a businessman, and his "Somali Marines" out of the ports of Harardheere and Hobyo are organized in a military fashion.  The targets got larger:  A joint operation between Eyl and Harardheere, crossing not only geographical lines but also clan lines, captured the now-famous MV Faina with its load of tanks.  Yet, in spite of bigger targets and bigger ransoms, these pirates called themselves "Coast Guards" to at least look they were protecting Somalia from evil foreigners.  As recently as February 2011, Afweyne has been described online as a "Robin Hood" for Somalia.  The third wave began, perhaps, in 2008, when the security sector in Puntland collapsed, leaving trained men unemployed and available to go on the account.  Bahadur calls these most recent pirates "opportunists" on the coattails of men like Boyah, Afewyne, and a third kingpin, Garaad Mohammed, who has taken credit for the Maersk Alabama.  Garaad has recently gained attention when the ransom intended for the MV Yuan Xiang, captured by men under his command, was seized in Mogadishu, resulting in the arrest of three Britons.  The lesson here is simply that the Somali pirates should not be viewed as a unified force:  Time, place, and culture make each group unique.  The one constant is the "fisherman" story, which now must be seen as a public relations strategy not a universal fact.

Booze and Boat Bits #3 (5 short items of interest)

1:  Move over Somalia, there's a new pirate hot spot:  Nigeria.  An article for the AFP indicates that there is a surge in maritime attacks in West Africa, and specifically in the Gulf of Guinea.  Fact is, this is neither surprising nor new...just new to me.  After only a quick search, I found online articles about Nigerian pirates going back to at least 2008.  There's even a short Wikipedia entry.  Nigeria is well known for its organized crime, from drug trafficking to international fraud.  This is one of the things that makes piracy here very different from piracy off the Horn of Africa.  I'm learning (see my comments about Jay Bahadur's book below) that the Somali pirates are opportunistic and do not have what could be called long-term structure.  The Nigerians, in contrast, are all but militaristic.  They have to be:  Their prime targets are oil tankers, and they're not after ransom but the cargo itself.  The Nigerians, heavily armed and working in organized groups of high-speed boats, seize ships which they divert to waiting facilities so that the oil can be sold on the very busy, lucrative black market.  Although the pirates are Nigerian, their safe harbor appears to be Benin.  The navies of both countries seem to be unable--or unwilling--to handle the problem.  I'm curious to see what the international reaction is going to be.  Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil-producing nation, supplies a full fifth of the United States' imported oil.  Guess what, we've got more modern pirate news to watch for.

Somalia update: Yemen, the next pirate coast?

In my discussions of Somali piracy, I have not infrequently mentioned that the problem is not a Somali problem alone.  My very first post on modern piracy noted that both Somalis and Yemenis were taken from the now-famous M/V Quest, and in my post on the "Jeffersonian past" I proposed that Yemen may become a new center of pirate activity.  The map of pirate attacks up to 2010 clearly shows a high concentration of reported incidents immediately off of Yemen.  The cultures and governments of Yemen and Somalia have had a long, close relationship; Yemen has unconditionally accepted Somali refugees.  But does this really mean that Yemen plays or could play the same role as Somalia as a pirate haven?  I decided to look closer at history and recent events.

Somalia update: Jay Bahadur, journalist

He wrote this book, which will be on my shelf when it comes out.

He wrote this article for the Guardian, which is absolutely fascinating.

He writes this blog, which appears to be THE blog on Somali pirates.

And he's Canadian, which always gains someone extra points.

Do not ignore this guy.

Somalia update: "Our Jeffersonian past?"

I really don't get my information from Fox News (Keith Olbermann used to call them "Fixed News"), but they showed up on Google with an article about a Republican Senator, Mark Kirk, who just returned from the Horn of Africa.  This, by the way, is this Mark Kirk who 'replaced' Barack Obama in Illinois when he became Prseident.  Senator Kirk thinks the U.S. Navy needs to get much tougher on the Somalis.  What struck me was this quote:  "We should recall our Jeffersonian past and blockade main pirate port locations."  "Jeffersonian past?"  It didn't compute at first, and then I recalled that era when piracy was a major problem for the very young United States.

Barbary Corsair Dragut Reis

The Barbary Corsairs were pirates in the sense that they were thieves at sea, but they were a very particular kind of brigand.  These raiders from the Barbary Coast, the area named by Europeans for the Berber inhabitants, had been bothering European ships and towns for centuries before Jefferson's time.  Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, the chief ports, were nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, because Moors exiled from Spain in 1492 were fair game until the Sultan offered them protection.  In fact these were pirate city-states whose chief source of income was plunder.  Their main booty was not gold or goods but slaves:  It has been said that perhaps a million or more Europeans were captured between 1530 and 1780.  There was both religious and monetary drive behind the Corsairs' activity.  For one, all Europeans were infidels, and capturing them was in their Muslim worldview a guaranteed ticket to paradise.  For another, there was profit in either selling the captives directly into slavery or getting paid a ransom for their freedom.  The captives could be slaves for years, working as manual laborers, domestic servants, or--worst of all--oarsmen aboard the dreaded Barbary galleys.  Some of the most successful Corsairs were not Moors at all but Englishmen and Europeans who had lost their privateering commissions between the many religious wars of the time and turned full pirate.  This is not, of course, unlike the buccaneers and pirates of the Caribbean, but here these turncoats were potentially enslaving their own countrymen.  Key among these scoundrels was Jack Ward, an Englishman who introduced square-rigged ships to the Barbary fleet and thus made the Corsairs the dominant maritime force in the Mediterranean in the 17th century.

Pirate Droid!

Don't get carried away imagining C-3PO wearing a tricorne.  The company ReconRobotics is now developing a little mechanical bilge monkey to fight--or at least spy on--them Somali pirates.  The technology's pretty cool.  For one, Pirate Droid (its real, current name is "Throwbot") weighs only about a pound and is about the size of a beer can.  It can survive being thrown 120 feet.  The wheels are magnetic and strong enough to go up the hull of a captured vessel and over the side.  Pirate Droid can then recon the vessel for pirates and hostages, equipped with an infrared camera for seeing in the dark.  Existing Throwbots are usually simply thrown by human power, but the company is talking about a "marsupial robot deployment system" (pirate koalas?!?) that would allow them to be launched from a cannon mounted on a larger robotic vehicle such as a "droid chopper" or unmanned boat.

Somalia update: He said, he said

Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet patrolling Somali waters, April 18:  "I would like to see the industry side be more willing to embrace embarked security teams," he said. "There have been no ships successfully pirated with embarked security teams. So let that be its own statement."

Somalia update: The war steps up

Last Friday...  The MV Arillah-I, a bulk freighter registered to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was attacked.  The pirates, armed with AK-47's and rocket-propelled grenades, approached in two skiffs launched from a mothership.  The crew of the ship, however, had already called for assistance and were secured in their vessel's safe room.  Instead the pirates were met by UAE Special Forces with air backing.  The ship is now on its way back to Dubai, where the pirates will be tried.  If convicted, they will face life in prison.

Piracy in Somalia: The Real Thing Is So Much Scarier

Piracy:  It's not just for reenactors.

As much as I enjoy imagining the era of "Calico" Jack Rackham and Howell Davis, I also follow piracy in modern times.  Very recently, piracy had a media burst as the privately-owned sailboat Quest was captured off of Africa and, in spite of--or because of--being tailed by the U.S. Navy, all four crew were killed, including two people from Seattle.

The center for modern piracy is Somalia.  By all accounts, this is not a place anyone would really want to be.  It is almost completely arid, it is phenomenally poor, and it has been in a state of civil war since 1991, a war fueled by territoriality and, naturally, religion in the form of Islamic fundamentalism.  Anyone who's seen Black Hawk Down has seen graphically portrayed the madness that was Mogadishu, Somalia's "capitol," when United States troops as part of a United Nations operation ended up very much in the wrong place at the wrong time in 1993.  I watched this movie after I had started following news about the Somali pirates.  While I was left undecided on whether this was a boys-with-guns war movie or an interesting modern-events film, one thing was made clear to me:  Piracy in Somalia is the direct result of a country in chaos.