Outcasts' land

Three Somalian ministers died and two were severely injured today in an explosion in a hotel in Mogadishu while attending a graduation ceremony. There is no better way to illustrate the degradation of the stability of the UN backed government than that. A government that is only capable of controlling a few packs of the capital, and thanks to the blue berets from the African Union.

A few months ago, when David Axe was reporting from Somalia, he saw a huge tank in the gate of one of the Government compounds. Intrigued, Axe asked one of the commanders of the African peacekeepers, captain Paddy Ankunda, what was the T-55 for. “Not for being used”, Ankunda replied, “but for let the people know we could use them”. Only a month after that they had to use it. And again, only a month after, nine peacekeepers were killed in a double suicide attack, including a Burundian top commander.

Piracy has attracted the attention to the region but it is just a result of the outlaw chaos that reigns in the country area. It wouldn’t exist if a strong government was in place. But the UN backed cabinet is too weak to even defend themselves, as stated today’s attack, not to mention to defend their coastline. A new Somalian Navy is under formation, mirroring the structure of the “Sons of Iraq”, but so far it’s only a few hundred ex-fishermen -and ex-pirates- on the UN payroll sailing on skiffs.

But in Somalia, pirates and the government aren’t the only ones fighting. The al-Sahbab Islamist group, linked to al-Qaeda, is trying to make of Somalia -and Yemen- a regional hub for Islamists. So far, unsuccessfully. Somalia is too remote, too isolated and too xenophobic to become a haven like Afghanistan was. But thanks to the lack of government of any kind, they aren’t disturbed but for occasional skirmishes from Ethiopian troops. And that’s why they are calling for reinforcements. One of al-Qaeda’s most prominent militants, Abu Mansour al-Amriki (the American), lives already there. At least, they don’t like pirates either.

The end of the piracy in the Gulf of Aden is not only in the ocean, but in comprehensive strategies that include also action to support the UN peacekeepers in Mogadishu and the rest of Somalia. The UN has already authorized missions on Somalian soil to pursuit pirates and the government itself has called for support from others countries. Some would say they even begged for an invasion. But with things as they are right now in A'stan, it's unlikely someone else but the African Union will engage the problem. And they are already almost overran.




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Friendly fire 05/10/09

- Iraq combat deaths near record low.

- After a deadly month in Pakistan, Islamabad offers Taliban bounties.

- Tehran set to lose status as Iran capital.

- An excellent data collection about the piracy around the world: all the attacks by pirates in 2009 (raw data)

- Inside the Army’s Far-Out Acid Tests. Dude, that's awesome...




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Heating up the Gulf (of Aden)

At least nine peacekeepers of the African Union (AU) were killed yesterday in a double explosion in their Mogadishu’s headquarters. Among the victims is the Burundian deputy commander. Another top commander, Ugandan General Nathan Mugisha, was also lightly wounded.

The attack has been claimed by the Islamist group al-Sahbab. The rebels suffered a big hit this week after a US raid killed one of their top commanders. Immediately, the group vowed for revenge and it has come in the way of two suicide attacks. Apparently, the rebels infiltrated the compound in two stolen UN cars and detonated them once inside.

This only comes to show once again the delicate situation in Somalia. In between the multiple war clans, sub-clans and war-lords in the region, the Islamists have taken an empty slot to finishing configuring a complex board. Somalian government is incapable of controlling more than a few quarters in Mogadishu, and that thanks to the heavy presence of international forces.

In fact, the situation is so bad for the central Government that it was themselves the ones who begged asked neighbor nations to invade them. However, they are not the only ones asking for reinforcements. The Islamists have called too on a Jihad to support the Somalian brothers in their struggle.

Al-Sahbab is making of Somalia a local hub for Islamists. Somalia is too remote, too isolated and too xenophobic to become a haven like Afghanistan was. But thanks to the lack of government of any kind, they are like at home. One of al-Qaeda’s most prominent militants, Abu Mansour al-Amriki (the American), lives there and from there has released his latest hits. Including a Jihad hip-hop song.

They feel at home, and they start to rule as if they were at home. Last month, al-Shabab was successful kidnapping two French intelligence agents that were training Somali forces. One of the escaped, but the other one remains in captivity. Now, the Islamists have released their demands for the freedom of the French agent. And they include the usual al-Qaeda cocktail: stop supporting the weak UN-backed government and hail the anti-piracy patrols.

In fact, this unruled land is the same that hosts the pirates that day after day chase the ships sailing in the Gulf of Aden. Situation is getting worse, instead of improving. It’s clear that Somalia’s inexistent navy cannot face the pirates. Actually, their navy is just starting to be built up and consists basically of a bunch of ships. Sorry, skiffs.

So, with this situation in mind, Western governments are going further. The US has started taking seriously the threat on land, as the raid previously mentioned states. Others, like the Spanish government, in cooperation with the Basque government, has authorized for the first time the hiring of private contractors and the use of long range firearms aboard Spanish and Basque ships in an attempt to deter pirates of seizing them.

The French are going ahead with another front and are proposing a stupidity tax to those who had to be rescued from pirates' hands. Makes sense as so far they have been the bussiest guys around. Three rescues in two years means there are many stupids playing in cruises in the area.

But the best improvement have come from the shipping companies. New measures have reduced the number of assaults dramatically.

Not that all that it’s going to make any change. According to Andrew Scutro, Somali pirates have attacked even military ships. The translator cited by Scutro says that pirates are dumb enough to not distinguish between a military vessel and a freighter. A more frightening version would be, however, if they indeed know what they are attacking.

Ugandan AU Peacekeepers
Photo: Reuters


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Pirates are businessmen

An excellent interview from Scott Carney appeared in Wired magazine's Danger Room throws some light on the piracy business. Just a couple of examples of the great work done by Scott:

"The financiers are the most important since they organize and plan the big shot operations and are able to pay running cost[s]. Financiers always need to forge deals with traders, land cruiser owners, translators, business people to keep the supplies flowing during operations and manage the logistics. There is a long supply chain involved in every hijacking".

"Hostages — especially Westerners — are our only assets, so we try our best to avoid killing them. It only comes to that if they refuse to contact the ship’s owners or agencies. Or if they attack us and we need to defend ourselves".

"Every government in the world is off our coasts. What is left for us? Nine years ago everyone in this town was stable and earn[ed] enough income from fishing. Now there is nothing. We have no way to make a living. We had to defend ourselves. We became watchmen of our coasts and took up our duty to protect the country. Don’t call us pirates. We are protectors".

The complete interview, here.


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Somalia’s return

During the past few months the international fleet that protects -just a way of speaking- Somalia’s coasts, have been really happy and proud of their job. “Assaults have been reduced”, they said. Even they made it to zero assaults for a month. But it was all an illusion. When the cash starts to be needed again and, most important, the monsoon disappears, pirates are back in business.

Nor the incident with Capt. Phillips, nor a greater military deployment were a match for the skiffs. Only bad weather could stop them. But with the clouds out of the horizon, pirates are free to sail again.

Back in land, the situation isn’t better either. Yesterday we knew that two French agents had been kidnapped by Islamic militias in the Sahafi Hotel. At first it was though they were journalists, but later it was told they are intelligence analysts training their Somali counterparts.

That Somali Army, however, is something more like a project than a real deal. After every coup, war, skirmish or change of power in Mogadishu, that army had to be remade. The only permanent competent force in Somalia assisting the Government, are the African Union (AU) peacekeepers. They control the Presidential Palace, a few Government buildings and what keeps the keepers alive: the port and airport, where they got the international aid and weapons.

In the clan war -or even sub-clan war sometimes- of Somalia, the AU soldiers have developed a slightly good job. Their biggest foe is the Al Shabab Islamic militias. The peacekeeper forces have, however, the fire power on their side. Compared to the American army they are very poor equipped but against the Al Shabab, they are freakin’ Stormtroopers.

One of the most important pieces of their arsenal are two old T-55 Soviet tanks. According to David Axe, captain Paddy Ankunda of the AU forces, told him two years ago that even if they never used them, having them there was always welcomed. Not for being used, but for let the people know they could use them.

Until now. This weekend, the peacekeepers were surrounded and they needed the tanks. The inclusion of the tanks itself is a great deal and a symptom of the escalation in the war in Somalia. In the end, it is a no-man’s land with hundreds of weapons running free around and nobody knows what will be the next movement on any side. Somalia is a land of guns, just an augmented mirror of what happens in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa.

In fact, recently were discovered satellite images suggesting that Faina freighter’s tanks, which was seized by Somali pirates half a year ago (do you remember it?) and later released after a ransom payment, ended up in South Sudan Army. The same one who is in the edge of a war with Chad over Darfur, a region full of refugees (do you remember it?). And part of the country whose head of state is Omar Bashir, wanted for The Hague International Court (do you remember it?) under the accusation of sponsoring Islamic militias among other charges. The same Islamic militias Ethiopia and Somalian governments try to fight back at home. And the same Governments unable to put an end to piracy on their costs.

Everything is connected in this annoying Africa.



Photo: AP

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Aye captain, no end on sight!

Asymmetrical warfare is the new black in international armed conflicts. Obviously, the seas weren’t going to be indifferent to this fashion.

The problem of the Somali pirates is starting to become too big to be handled by traditional Navies. And its aftermath will be sensitive for the Western countries. Already in an economic downturn, it specially affects the Europeans, that can see the consumer goods’ prices climbing too much. For Americans and Russians the problem is not so bad: neither their commerce is directly affected nor their ships use those routes.

That’s why only last week we had the first seizure on an American freighter: the odds are against the European and Asian ships just for a matter of numbers; they are many more. For the rest, the area where pirates operate is key for the maritime commerce lines between Asia and Europe. The Gulf of Aden sees every year more than 20,000 ships going through it. Add to those number the intense fishing business (mostly Europeans, again) and make the maths of people sailing around.

In fact, this latter issue was the one that triggered the piracy in the region. Just 20 years ago, the now sea bandits were just fishermen. The big European ships, using big trawling nets, decimated the fish on the waters. The local industry couldn’t compete with the big boats of the foreigners. So they organize themselves against them to render a “fine” for fishing around.

What started as a revolutionary fee imposed to foreign fishermen operating in the area turned into something bigger and more organized. Being a pirate today is highly profitable, compared to the risks. And what’s more ironical, piracy is finally achieving its starting goal. According to the magazine Warship International Fleet Review, the tuna hauls of foreign fishing companies in the region has been cut in half.

All this could have been avoided with the presence of a strong central government in Somalia. But for years, there hasn’t been anything at all. The fall of the State in 1991 and the forwarding waves of armed conflicts (USA, Al Qaeda, Ethiopia) left a broad zone of the Horn of Africa alone with a huge arsenal at their own. Somalia is not a failed state, because there isn’t even a state. The official Government controls only a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu. The rest, is just a no man’s land between their neighbors and the sea.


There are no easy solutions to the problem. Noah Sachtman, from Danger Room, proposes some. Some, like sending in the Navy (in fact, they are already there) and kill the pirates who seize freighters (like in captain Phillips’ incident), seem to be in line with the vision from a 72% of Americans, who want a tougher approach.

But it doesn’t look easy to coordinate a dozen navies and twice that number of warships. And in fact, it doesn’t seem to be having much effect on the pirates either. It is true that during the first months of 2009 the Joint Task Force had a relative success. The attacks were cut and all appeared to be a bad nightmare from the past. But it was just a mere illusion. As soon as the spring sun started to shine and good weather come back, pirates started to sail again, stronger than before.

And about the possibility of killing the pirates, the possible revenges against other ships make that option very unattractive for the crews. And the non-lethal weapons, only have worked so far once. Sailors, in general, prefer their shipowners to throw ransoms rather than bullets. And that’s why stopping the payments won’t work either. There will be always someone who will pay and will destabilize the general strategy.

Other options suggested by Noah include make convoys or give guns to the crews, but neither of them are welcomed by the shipowners. Convoys worked during WWI, but the delays forming them would result in millionaire losses for the companies. On the other hand, the option of arming the crews, apart from sounding impossible to some kind of ships (no firearms at all onboard tankers, for example) is hardly against the will of the sailors. They are the first one that doesn’t want any guns onboard.

So, if we don’t send in the military (that also, is not prepared for this kind of warfare) and don’t arm the crews, there is only one option: mercenaries to protect the ships. In this way goes Ron Paul’s proposal. The former Republican candidate to the presidency suggests giving “letters of marquee” to modern privateers.

The professionals like Blackwater Xe, already are on the market, since last year. Shipowners, though, are not so happy with the idea. They cannot afford the bills that the USA pays in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US Navy Admirals are considering another option that lies in between the contractors and the armies. This would be to pay pirates to attack their brothers. This is, copy the tactic used in Mesopotamia with the “Sons of Iraq” to apply it in open seas.


But probably, the only good, solid and stable exit to the problem would be to implement a strong Government in Somalia and attack the pirates on shore. Barbery wars were only solved when pirates’ refuge in Algiers was taken by the French. And the UN has already authorized raids in Somalia’s soil to prosecute the sea bandits.

The problem is that not many countries are willing to take part in an operation in the Horn of Africa with boots on the ground. Ethiopia did it because it was in their own good, to avoid an Islamist nightmare in their backyard. Maybe Kenya could be convinced to intervene for the same reason, but they are already with too many problems at home. For the rest of the countries, that’s unlikely to happen.

The United States are already involved in three asymmetrical wars in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Getting into more trouble may be considered, but after “Black Hawk Down” it is unlikely to see American troops getting alone in a serious operation on Somali soil. Only, maybe, France could get along the US in this adventure. The French have launched nine operations against the pirates, one of them, a helicopter-borne commandos infiltration on shore.

For the rest, nothing is expected. The EU created a task force and was the first one in the area, but lacks of the logistics to get involved in an asymmetrical war in Africa being already engaged in Iraq and with the Talibans in Afghanistan, what is their priority right now. China, India, Japan and other Asian countries have done more than enough. At least, to the light of their public opinions, that is what counts. Russia? Don’t expect the Russians in this game.

However, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is willing to create something like a state in Somalia. This position collides with UN decision last December to pull out of the country and end its mission there. Obama bets too for tough hand against the pirates. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also elaborated a few proposals in this way.

Clinton comes with the already said ideas of increasing the coordination between the navies, modernize freighters’ passive defensive systems, make some government building and, the most original idea, freeze the assets of the pirates. A great idea if it wasn’t because it is really hard to bring into a safe port.

First, there is no State in Somalia who controls the banks. There aren’t even banks. And then, there is the issue of the money. Pirates doesn’t use online accounts transfers to get the ransoms. They want cash, preferably in sport bags handled over by hand or launched into an area in land or the sea from helicopters. And after they got the money, they don’t save it into Swiss accounts like AIG executives.


For now, some as Abu Muqawama see signs in Obama’s policy that show they may be preparing an intervention soon. But until then, the Horn of Africa will be the most dangerous place on Earth.

And it's getting worse.

Somalia’s Prime Minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, says that with the money from the ransoms -a huge amount in the last months- pirates are now able to buy more weapons, more equipment and more contacts.

Until now, they always attacked small preys near the coastline armed with cheap weapons like RPGs and old Kalashnikovs. And more important, they lacked from logistic and information.

But as David Axe suggests, now, thanks to their GPS devices and a wide net of spies -made up of money- that includes port authorities and custom officers form Port Said to Mombasa and Dubai, pirates know exactly which ships are where, when, what are carrying and if they are able to attack them or not. And the beginning of seizures after the dark increases the worries about the pirates acquiring night vision tech.

That’s why Sharmake asks for guns to fight them back. But introduce more weapons in a country already riddled with them seems very risky. Last time that happened, thousands of Somali soldiers deserted with their uniforms and their guns. And even if they don’t do so this time, the Somali army has only less than 5,000 really loyal boots.

Of course, in the end, the Somalis will have to become a solid country with a strong state, but as for today, they aren’t still up for the job. And getting more weapons without control won’t help.

Meanwhile, as the Economist states, the best ally for the freighters in the Indic will be bad weather. The monsoon starts at the end of May and lasts until August. Let’s hope this year will be a bit longer.



Photos: EPA / Veronique de Viguerie / Reuters / Jehad Nga

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US Navy 1 - Pirates 0 (Updated)

Finally. Captain Richard Phillips, kidnapped by Somali pirates since Wednesday in the Indic Ocean waters, was freed yesterday by the US Navy SEALS.

Details from the operation are coming out quietly. We know for sure that Obama approved at least twice similar operations to liberate Phillips –for those angry Republicans accusing him of not doing anything. In fact, last Friday the Navy tried to reach the lifeboat of the pirates, but they were repeled with fire.

At the end, Navy snipers took their chance when one of the pirates was onboard the USS Bainbridge negotiating the fate of Captain Phillips. They shot down the other three in an intense but short sniper fire. 3 bullets, 3 dead pirates. The remaining pirate waits in the American ship to know what Hill be his future, but he faces a life in prison in the US. Captain Phillips is free, alive and healthy.

But 24 hours alter the rescue operation we still don’t know for sure how it was. Apparently it all started when Phillips was pointed by one of the pirates with his AK-47 and the USS Bainbridge captain ordered to neutralize them. But it is unclear if Phillips jumped into the water when the shoot-out started or if it was before -and then the SEAL’s snipers started to make their job.

Anyway, the point is that at least Captain Phillips is alive. And now he become a new nacional hero (sorry Sully, your time is over)

It is not the first time pirates are taken down by firearms, but it is the first time the Americans are involved. This incident will mark an inflexion point and probably, from now on, we will be immersed in new maritime guerrilla warfare. For now on, pirates have promised retaliation.


Photo: AP Photo/US Navy

Update: Well, they promised retaliation... Indeed. Just this morning, an American Congressman took off in Mogadishu under mortar fire.

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Killing flies with cannonballs

Back in last year’s November, when I started writing this blog, I did so talking about pirates. Then, the modern buccaneers were right on the top of the wave. The kidnapping of a supertanker and a freighter loaded of tanks woke up Governments all around the globe.

Immediately, some countries sent their ships to the area. Not so China and the US, who joined the force months later. Since then, it’s become the biggest and most heterogen combat fleet since World War II, according to the CNN. And although at the beginning it seemed to have some effect on the attacks, truth is that pirates are back in business. They were just enjoying the money from their last prey.

Only in the last month there have been more than 30 seizures -half of them in the last week. “Numancia” Spanish frigate could abort the seizure of a Panamanian cargo on Tuesday. The French weren’t so successful in their rescue attempt. It was the third operation that the French Special Forces were delivering against the pirates, but this one didn’t come out well.

All the others were when the ransom had been already paid and the hostages freed. They ended up with the pirates captured or dead. It was like a warning to pirates, like saying that piracy doesn’t worth. This time the tactic was different. They attempted to rescue the hostages without paying any ransom and the result was a dead hostage.

But what has attracted the attention of the media has been the seizure of a Danish freighter with American flag and crew onboard, the MV Maersk Alabama. The pirates assaulted the cargo ship but the crew was able to recapture it. Pirates then escaped in a lifeboat with the captain as a hostage. He is still held captive.

The captain couldn’t do more than what he did, exchanging himself as hostage for his crew. It was worthless the attempt to escape swimming. The USS Bainbridge who is following the lifeboat of the pirates, couldn’t do anything. It didn’t even have a helicopter onboard -epic fail- and for now, the ship only can monitor the pirates with drones. Another amphibious ship, this one with choppers and Special Ops teams onboard, is heading to the area. The FBI is also negotiating with the pirates.

Meanwhile a small fleet of other seized ships with pirates onboard are also trying to locate their commarades, defying the omnipotent US Navy. The intention is to create a circle surrounding the lifeboat and carry the captain to land where negotiations can be delivered with Washington, even for the future, having the captain as their safe.

This incident has shown even more the need for a new small ship to face this threat. The same kind that Gates pushed in his budget proposal. The big destructors, frigates and carriers are unable to make any good against the rapid squiffs and irregular pirate tactics. But a small, agile ship, able to navigate near the coast and with airborne units -just like the Littoral Combat Ship- is the perfect match for them. And that’s precisely Obama’s and Gates’ phylosophy. Anything else is like try to kill flies with cannonballs.

It also has shown that the fact of having a naval deterrent in the area is worthless. You can deter someone who has something to lose, not someone who doesn’t have anything. Problem is not piracy, that’s the consequence of the poverty and lack of government in Somalia. Before being pirates they were just fishers, why then live in danger?

The problem is in Somalia, on shore, not in the water. America is a young country and may not know a lot about the lessons from History. But just 200 years ago, when the US were a growing nation, they joined their first international military mission abroad to combat the piracy in Barbary. They should remember that the problem wasn't solved until the French invaded Algiers.



Photo. Reuters

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Pirates!

I'm late. I know, and I'm sorry. It's something I'm trying to solve, but I can't help it. I'm one of those people genetically programmed to always arrive late. And my Latin blood makes the rest. My friends are aware about it and they just accept it. They know that probably, they will have to wait for me. So now, we directly meet into the pub, where the cold weather is not so cold, and dangers are instead of getting too hot.

However, arriving late makes me lose something sometimes. Arriving late to the blogosphere made me lose the American presidential campaign -nowadays, if you lost it as well, here is a good two minutes resume- or what some people called the 2008 crack even before it happened. But I'm here, and I'm on time to suffer their effects. It's gonna be a very agitated sea out there in the next few months. And talking about an agitated sea, I arrive in the peak of pirate season.

I'm not talking this time about the increase of pirate CDs and DVDs sold due to the mix of X-mas shopping and breakdown times. I'm talking about truly pirates, although in the XXI century and without rum -these prefer a hallucinogen called qat. Attacks in open sea to all size boats and vessels to get an economic benefit from it.



It's not new. Piracy is as old as navigation. In fact, these modern pirates aren't so different from those who sailed the coast of Barbery. For a long time, the vessels across the Strait of Ormuz and the coasts of Indonesia have had several ways of protecting themselves from pirate attacks. They are well prepared for that. But a conjunction of a lack of effective rule in the Islamic Somalia and economic difficulties, have made the piracy boom to rise dramatically in the past two years.

According to an article from Jon Henley in The Guardian, in 2007 there were 264 successful attacks. By the end of August this year they were 199. But the most impressive number is about the "where" have they been. Before, the majority of those attacks were on the China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, today it is in the eastern cost of Africa where the problem resides. Here they went from 30 assaults in 2006 to 60 in 2007 and they are almost 100 since the beginning of 2008. Half of the total of attacks of the year worldwide.

And there is a significative difference. While in Asia they are quick assaults -pirates only want money onboard and they leave- in Africa are more common the hijackers. Hijackers heavily armored, from automatic guns to grenade launchers, that seize the ships and their crew asking for millionaire rescues.

For now they have reached nearly $30 mill this way. The African pirates operate from small speedboats launched from mother ships and have good contacts in the Gulf who provide them with the details of the routes of their preys. Nowadays, although a boat could be as big as a football pitch, the sea is a very vast space to search in.

The seize of a freighter with 30 tanks and other heavy guns onboard and the recent hijack of a supertanker -both in Kenya's waters, far away from the Somalian pirate bases, an example of their voracity- have lighten the alarms in some desks. Especially concerning to the second one. Her tanks, full with oil with a value of more than $100 mill, made rise the price of the Brent oil barrel over $1 that day.

All this, together with some previous hijacks -including several European fishing boats and a luxury French yacht- forced some NATO countries to send a multinational small fleet to patrol the area. There have even been some fights already. Like the one of two weeks ago, that ended up with the sinking of a suspected pirate mother ship -it ended up being a hijacked fishing boat- by an Indian frigate or the shooting involving the Royal Navy.

Against this cloudy future, some companies have announced their interest in contracting mercenaries to escort their freights. Sounds reasonable, especially because the pirate activity is forcing them to take an alternative -and very expensive- route through South Africa. That means to increase the trip in several weeks and in consequence, as well the final price of the products -increase on the bill that at the end will pay the European consumers, the final destiny of many of the goods transported by those companies. And that's even without considering the increase of the insurance prices.

And what says Blackwater, the mercenaries' company that has been sharing their bullet-proof love all around the globe for the past few years, about all this? Well, they responded to the call with a noisy... Aaaaarrrr! The North Carolina company anounced that they will send the McArthur, the first of many vessels, to the area by the end of the year. Pirates against mercenaries. Like in a Hollywood movie and, a priceless end of the story? Of course, both will feel like fish in the water in a wild and outlaw area like those seas -or in Somalia's Puntland, that's the same.

In the meanwhile, in Somalia the situation is very different to what it was. In Eyl, a pirate's refuge, new wealthy people is the average, especially on the pay day. Those days, dollars come from the sky. Literally, as many rescues are paid by dropping sacks of money from helicopters. According to the locals, even women prefer to marry a pirate, as they have more resources. Or simply, they have resources. No wonder, as paying for an Islamic marriage is not cheap for the groom. Those pirates live in harmony, without fights between themselves, and in democracy and equality: decisions are taken by voting and prizes are divided equally, except for the one that recovers the money from the rescue. Usually it is the oldest member of the gang and he gets an extra for the risk of the operation.

It's no strange that many young Somalian are leaving College to find a way of living in piracy. In a country where life expectancy is on 46, the average annual income is $600 and has been immerse on a continuous civil war since for decades, who rejects an opportunity to get money fast and not very dangerous? Not even Jack Sparrow had it better to get his crew.

And to end, following on the seven seas, something funny. The Australian navy will shut down on Christmas. An unusual way of holidays for modern armed forces that made some people -specially in the USA- get reluctant about that idea. Even more on a time when another potentially dangerous actor of the area, China, has built a new hospital ship. What is it for? To be able to help on natural disaster -the tsunami of two years ago left China on a shame as they couldn't send help to the area? Or is it to support possible terrestrial deployments? Maybe in Taiwan?

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