PIRATES!

The recent news coverage about gangs of pirates operating around the Horn of Africa call to mind that terminology is critical to explain actions and reactions. To most Americans the issue is pretty clear: Some form of theft and accompanying violence in international waters by hoodlums in boats. This justifies the use of force to liberate persons and property, to restore the "freedom of the seas," and to punish the malefactors. After all, sending American Marines to Tripoli to rout pirates in that North African locale in the early 19th Century was part of our national heritage. There is a Marine "fight song" that alludes to "the shores of Tripoli" and that episode of "pirate-bashing."


President Obama and our recent political regimes prefer to work as part of a "world community" and therefore are, likely as not, inclined to put together a naval task force of many colors (flags). There would be no problem in rounding up representative naval forces from Great Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Japan, Argentina and other marine powers. Whether or not the pirate gangs are well identified is another issue unknown to the layman in such matters. Certainly, marine troops must be landed to put the quietus on these cheeky bandits.


That's the way many Americans might look at the matter.


How do the pirates look at their actions? Why are they doing the piracies?


Certainly, money is a primary issue. The implication is that these pirates don't have any, or much, money. Are these seaways "fished out?" Were these fisherman once? I can't say - but it is possible. There are reasons to suppose that the "Horn of Africa" is a poor, largely jejune area. Finding a way to survive may not be "a piece of cake." Land areas that can be cruel to those who try to live in them may induce in such people a hard, even cruel, approach to life. Crime can pay. Therefore, one need only develope a new term for an old crime to justify and "launder" the planned action(s). This process may lead to grasping energetically at revolutionary doctrines, radical religious doctrines, et al, to make the actions taken, if rightly seen, altogether proper, moral and humane.


When I consider these African pirates, I cannot help but to think of the old "Robber Barons" that forced travelers on certain rivers in Europe, such as the Seine, to pay a "toll" to proceed safely along their way. Those who did not might be assaulted by boats or bombarded by cannon, or both. There was a kind of "travelers tax" imposed.


Now, this idea has not gone away by any means. The District of Columbia's political regimes have for more than twenty years tried to impose a "commuter tax" on residents of Virginia and Maryland. They have not succeeded yet, but, with statehood, they might well pass such a law.


The District of Columbia's political regimes, frustrated in their attempts to gain more "moolah" to spend well or foolishly by means of a "commuter tax," then turned to the "camera on every corner" strategy to increase the income from "speeding tickets." By setting unnatural speeds and employing quick light changes, these cameras have brought in a lot of loot for the Mayor and City Council to mispend. The AAA Organization even had a spokesperson employ the term "speed trap" to describe the District of Columbia. These cameras can be useful in expanding the revenue base by mailing "jaywalking" tickets to offenders and, potentially, by other natural or ingenious rationales for revenue expansion.


All this leads back to the pirates of northeast Africa. Rather than attacking them with violence, why not allow them to set up "toll bouys" at sea which include cameras that can identify a ship. A monthly "Toll Bill" could then be mailed to the ship's owner(s)? Similarly, "speeding at sea" in the area of the Horn might earn the "scofflaw" shipowner a "marine speeding citation." More developed technological countries could advance the former pirates the necessary and sufficient equipment, based on anticipated income. The Horn of Africa would become, as with most progressive countries, regulated. Some of the poor people in the area of the Horn would have a new, honest source of income. Role models would be created for the youth.


Rather than tax the citizens of "wealthy nations" (typically translated as taxing the poor of wealthy nations) for the purpose of directly providing aid of a charitable sort to distressed people in poorer areas of the Earth, why not give them a little monopoly upon which to build a base for an expanding, progressive economy? All one needs to do is expand the definition of natural resource to include these "artificial" resources.


Can't pirates develop by means of "quantum leap," social evolution into Post-Modernist Administrators?






April, 2009