Now that we've gotten that out of the way, today I want to talk about pirates.
No, not the most expensive adult film ever made; real pirates who roll up on oil tankers with AK-47s and grenades and dominate the Indian Ocean.
So much of the world's shipping traffic travels by the Horn of Africa and the Strait of Malacca that the scores of desperately poor people who watch all that wealth float by want a piece. So, they get some Zodiacs and surplus Soviet arms and strike fear into the hearts of some unwitting oil or transport ship captain. Its getting to the point where the pirates can do basically whatever they want, and local law enforcement agencies don't have the resources to do shit.
This kind of trend is so interesting to me because of how it is a by-product of Western Culture. All I want is my oil and I don't care how it gets to my gas tank. Meanwhile, some 22 year old in Indonesia is thinking that the only way he can live his life is to throw a rope ladder over the side of a huge ship and rob it.
Let me know your thoughts on Modern Piracy in the comments. Are the readers of His Champion sympathetic or antagonistic to the modern pirate?
For further reading, check out this article from Slate, the online newspaper.
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My two-cents: it's a pirate's life for me. What isn't glorious about stealing the decayed remains of dinosaurs with a piecemeal arsenal of mixed firearms, taking us one step closer to a Mad Max / Waterworldesque hybrid future? Also, if I were an oil pirate, all of my heists would necessarily involve one pirate friend toting along a boom box, playing the "Ping Island/Lightning Strike Op" song in the background. You know, to raise pirate morale.
ReplyDelete-Kev
I think this post should have actually been about porn.
ReplyDeleteIs it true that the high seas are full of blood-thirsty pirates?
ReplyDelete