Somali Pirates Face Looming Crisis: Wine, Women, Cars to be Lost

I am not going to bring you down with talk of Citibank, and how we can probably assume that someone, somewhere, in NYC or Washington, is having frantic and heated discussions right now. If we have learned anything this year, we have come to realize that every weekend brings a cluster of secret activity that will be sprung upon us Monday morning. Besides, it's the weekend. Gas prices are dropping, and next week brings us some delicious chow. Why focus on domestic financial crisis when we can look at the looming crisis about to fall upon the shores and waters of Somalia.

I am sitting here in the comfort of my home reading about pirates. Is this not so 17th century or what? This report is amusing, primarily because it includes the phrase "pirate lair":

Speaking to AFP from the pirate lair of Harardhere, a member of the group holding the Sirius Star said there was no plan to destroy the super-tanker or harm its crew but warned any military bid to free it would be "disastrous."

(AFP)

Are we in novel times or what? It almost seems like we are back in more adventurous days, where chaos is around every corner, and money can be had, and a young man can step out into the world and make his fortune, slave to the desk no more.

Thoughts of adventure aside, for the Somali pirates some introspection is probably in order.

I wonder if some smart pirate analyst is starting to ask his fellow pirates, "Are we overextending ourselves, much like western banks? How long do we really think we can continue in business when we start taking over tankers filled with millions of dollars of oil, or stuffed to the gills with Ukrainian tanks?"

Then again people, whether running Western financial institutions, or Somali financial schemes, rarely pause to reflect when caught up in the moment of accumulating money, and spending that money (and always on the usual stuff: wine, women, and big cars).  

They also seem to have missed the crucial inflection point in this ongoing endeavor, which came when the Indian Navy took it upon themselves to sink one of the mother ships used as a base.  When one of the less efficient Navies is starting to take shots at you directly, that should probably be a signal to change your business plan before the ten real navies from Europe and Russia start steaming in your direction.

SOMALI pirates who hijacked the Saudi oil supertanker Sirius Star are demanding $US25 million ($39 million) in ransom, while plans have emerged for additional warships from 10 European countries and Russia to converge on the region to tackle the pirate problem.


One of the pirates on the ship, Mohamed Said, told news agencies: "We do not want long-term discussions to resolve the matter. The Saudis have 10 days to comply, otherwise we will take action that could be disastrous."

(Sydney Morning Herald)

Clearly, the pirates are not looking at the long term. It goes something like this: all current hijacked ships get their ransoms paid as the developed nations get the decks cleared. Then, a flotilla of Western ships remain permanently in your waters sinking anything that moves. The money dries up. You lose your extra beautiful wives. You lose your fancy car. You lose your brick house. You lose the respect of the villagers who you have been tossing a few extra dollars to.