I am inexplicably drawn to
stories of the Somalian pirates. I think it is because for me this represents the world of global capitalism grinding up against those it has excluded.
It seems to me that the pirates are far from criminals. To call them evil would be plain wrong, and terrorists? Not unless anybody who works to earn a better wage or improve their stock in life is a terrorist. In my opinion these are men who have found a way of earning money for themselves (and probably many people dependent on them). Is there any harm done to anyone through this form of piracy? Well, I can't see any - the money they get in ransoms comes from big multinational corporations, or people who have so much that they can afford an ocean going yacht, and who, I would presume have insurance. Speaking of insurance, I am not speaking from any authority here, but I would imagine commercial ships and most private ships would have some sort of insurance against piracy. So what does this have to do with anything? Well, this means that any money that is paid to pirates comes from insurance firms who basically gamble with their shareholders money (they use algorithms which basically say how much they need to charge people as a premium vs. how much they will need to pay out (the actual risk) and then whack a hefty profit on top). If the shareholders are losing out, helaas pindakaas ("too bad so sad" in dutch), these are people who have enough money to take a risk with some by putting it in the stock market - you have good days, you have bad. So insurance firms aren't losing out (just adjusting their premiums), and people who are putting money into stocks (probably owners of insurance firms) are maybe having one more bad day, which they probably won't even notice given the current state of stock markets!
So nobody goes home hungry because of pirates, but what about the people on the boats? When they get hijacked, that must be pretty scary. Sure, not having control over your situation is scary, but I would imagine seafarers would be used to this in some sense or another. Apart from the odd beating, I understand that the pirates treat their hostages very well, handing around cooked goat meat (seriously, did they bring the goat with them and cook it there?!) and letting them phone home to calm anxious relatives. I would imagine the weather also isn't as bad off the coast of Somalia either - in any case, the pirates stopped pirating in bad weather. Yes, everybody thought it was due to the increased naval presence - turns out it was just a little nippy out.
Granted I probably skimmed way too lightly over a lot of very intricate issues in the second paragraph, and was a bit too blasé about the experience of being held hostage in the last, but there is a bigger issue at work here for me. The fact that as soon as multinationals start losing money, the governments of the world jump, and not only do they jump, but while saying "how high" they raise the ante for the pirates. In order to get one American captain back, they kill 3 pirates. Up until now, as I have mentioned, the pirates have been very hospitable and not done any hostages harm. I would not be surprised if this lenient piracy comes to an abrupt end.
Working for an organisations that runs 3 ocean going ships, I have a rough idea of how much it costs to get a ship around the world. The money being spent patrolling the waters off Somalia are being paid for by taxpayers in the countries that are sending warships. Would a fairer solution not be to let the companies pay for security on their ships, or just for the ransoms, and the government can go on taking care of their citizens more equitably?
This story of pirates highlights the fact that the current global economy is desperately skewed in the favour of a rich minority, through not taking into account externalities. Whether these externalities be environmental, or piratical.
As long as they stay peaceful, I'm on the side of the pirates.
