Piracy on the High Seas

[#HBC | Dark Horse]

I noticed several threads about illegal downloading, however, I haven't seen a thread about the other, older type of piracy.

The days of Blackbeard are long gone, but piracy is still a big threat to the world, especially in poorer countries near water (such as Somalia) And makes the seas much mote dangerous.

What actions should we take? Should we do nothing at all?

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

Who cares about africa? Who sincerely cares about what happens to africa?

Does that sound harsh? Yes, because it is. Very harsh. However, africa is, for the most part, ****ed. We have to figure our own **** out, then we can go sink a few pirates.

 

[Bob Jane T-Mart]

I don't believe we see significant piracy in any states that are functioning correctly. Take the EU for example, I don't believe there is much piracy there.

I believe that this piracy is a symptom of a much larger underlying issue. Simply put: Nations that are basket-cases. If those nations had a method of maintaining law and order in their own waters or nearby, then piracy would be much less of an issue. However, it's not always possible to maintain order in waters off your coast if you're dealing with civil-wars, widespread poverty, you get the picture.

Also, according to the link, many of the pirates are those that have lost their livelihoods and must resort to piracy to stay alive.

So, the action should be, fix Africa. Unfortunately, that's a massive task, and when we've tried to do such things to other countries it hasn't really worked, take Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam. International Aid isn't really enough either...

 

[vVv Rapture]

I don't believe we see significant piracy in any states that are functioning correctly. Take the EU for example, I don't believe there is much piracy there.

I believe that this piracy is a symptom of a much larger underlying issue. Simply put: Nations that are basket-cases. If those nations had a method of maintaining law and order in their own waters or nearby, then piracy would be much less of an issue. However, it's not always possible to maintain order in waters off your coast if you're dealing with civil-wars, widespread poverty, you get the picture.

Also, according to the link, many of the pirates are those that have lost their livelihoods and must resort to piracy to stay alive.

So, the action should be, fix Africa. Unfortunately, that's a massive task, and when we've tried to do such things to other countries it hasn't really worked, take Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam. International Aid isn't really enough either...

Well, realize what you are saying. This isn't "fixing" one nation or a region. You're suggesting fixing an entire continent. We can barely do anything in one or two middle eastern countries, let alone an entire continent (not to mention the most chaotic of all the continents in terms of human conflict).

You can't really fix this problem. It's like trying to get rid of terrorism. For every terrorist you convict or capture or that kills himself, dozens or more are converted. Piracy is probably even worse since, as you said, many of the pirates must resort to piracy to stay alive. A lot of terrorists are not in this situation, but still become part of these legions or what have you regardless. Imagine if terrorism was a way of life like piracy is.

With that said, piracy is also a lot easier to contain, hypothetically, since, in this case, it's happening on the open waters. You can't hide very well out in the ocean. Completely oceanic domination would be the only way to stop it, but then again, who has the right to do that?

 

[Bob Jane T-Mart]

Well, realize what you are saying. This isn't "fixing" one nation or a region. You're suggesting fixing an entire continent. We can barely do anything in one or two middle eastern countries, let alone an entire continent (not to mention the most chaotic of all the continents in terms of human conflict).

I know. That's why I said it was massive. I understand that Africa is in a lot of trouble at the moment, and that fixing it would be a huge task.

 

[KrazyGlue]

Just because something will take a long time to fix doesn't mean the world should procrastinate on it. How would that help anything? If nothing else, the problem can at least be lessened. Why do we have laws? Crime will never stop. We have laws to lessen the problem. Sure, it's not perfect, and we're never going to have a perfect law system, but it's a hell of a lot better than saying "**** it, we're never going to stop crime so let's give up!!!"

Bob Jane is absolutely correct in that piracy is a result of Africa having weak governments, if you can even call them that. And yes, it will take a hell of a lot of time to install any successful law system.

 

[Dragoon Fighter]

You can't really fix this problem. It's like trying to get rid of terrorism. For every terrorist you convict or capture or that kills himself, dozens or more are converted. Piracy is probably even worse since, as you said, many of the pirates must resort to piracy to stay alive. A lot of terrorists are not in this situation, but still become part of these legions or what have you regardless. Imagine if terrorism was a way of life like piracy is.

Piracy is a form of terrorism. Definition of a terrorist.

With that said, piracy is also a lot easier to contain, hypothetically, since, in this case, it's happening on the open waters. You can't hide very well out in the ocean. Completely oceanic domination would be the only way to stop it, but then again, who has the right to do that?

No, In some cases it is even harder as there is no where for the targeted boat to hide and I can almost grantee that the pirates have weapons. (I can not guarantee that the targeted boat does however.)

Also here is an article on protecting your self from pirates. Some of the problems of carrying fire arms with you on a boat for self protection are mentioned in this article.

 

[Namaste]

Who cares about africa? Who sincerely cares about what happens to africa?

Does that sound harsh? Yes, because it is. Very harsh. However, africa is, for the most part, ****ed. We have to figure our own **** out, then we can go sink a few pirates.

They be stealin our oil!

Really, I think the world is way too globalized now for us to ignore things like this. Not that I know what anyone should do about pirates, though reportedly the big reason it increased was because we illegally fished there waters, then dumped toxic waste in it, which would be similar to us going to someone's farm, eating all his crops, then salting the earth and peaceing out