Saturday, January 10, 2009

Break out the world's smallest violin

Okay, I know I'm blogging more often here than usual, but can you believe this garbage???

An AP news story headlined "5 Pirates Drown With Ransom Share," and it tries to drum up sympathy for the pirates. For crying out loud! I say, thank God there is poetic justice in the world after all. But here are some bits from the story:

Piracy is one of the few ways to make money in Somalia. Half the population is dependent on aid and a whole generation has grown up knowing nothing but war. A recent report by London's Chatham House think-tank said pirates raked in more than $30 million in ransoms last year.

Well, cry me a river. See, they can't do anything but take innocent hostages and demand ransom, because that's one of the few ways of making money in their country! Piracy: Main source of income in Somalia. I feel so sad for them.

Or how about this...

Abukar Haji, uncle of one of the dead pirates, blamed the naval surveillance for the accident that killed his pirate nephew Saturday.

"The boat the pirates were traveling in capsized because it was running at high speed because the pirates were afraid of an attack from the warships patrolling around," he said.

"There has been human and monetary loss but what makes us feel sad is that we don't still have the dead bodies of our relatives. Four are still missing and one washed up on the shore."

Pirate Daud Nure said three of the eight passengers had managed to swim to shore after the boat overturned in rough seas. He was not part of the pirate operation but knew those involved.

"Here in Haradhere the news is grim, relatives are looking for their dead," he said.

I just love that quote from "Pirate Daud Nure." As if "pirate" were just some normal appellation. But I suppose we should be glad that the AP is revealing its source. And we're supposed to feel so bad that those nasty, nasty warships caused the death of the poor pirates because they might be (shiff) chasing them. And this is "grim news." God forbid we should have a sense of justice. Maybe they should have interviewed the relatives of some of the hostages and asked them if they think this news is grim.

I'm pretty nearly speechless. This is outrageous. I know that if I read more AP news stories I'd see more outrageous stuff than this, but this is the one that I happened to see today.

7 comments:

William Luse said...

Sounds like, metaphorically, they sort of walked their own gangplank. May it happen more often.

Lydia McGrew said...

Exactly. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. When I saw that headline, it had me cheering.

I'll bet those grieving Pirate Family relatives are especially sorry that the ransom walked the plank, too.

Todd McKimmey said...

They're not pirates any more, btw. It's law-abidingly challenged seafarers.

Lydia McGrew said...

"Long John Silver, a disabled individual in the piracy trade, had this to say about the situation..."

Todd McKimmey said...

Turns out it was an "operation gone wrong" according to CNN.

They were headed toward shore with the money, the pirates on the shore wanted a small cut, so they started firing their guns in the air. The pirates, fearing they were under attack (ohs nos!), turned the small boat around and capsized it.

Here

William Luse said...

That's hysterical. A comedy of terrorists.

Richard D said...

They've grown up knowing nothing but war. And piracy is one of the only ways to make money in Somalia.

These two points from the article make me think that we're not doing a very good job reaching our world for Christ. If a nation is in this bad of shape they need to hear the gospel before their boat capsizes rather than realizing a bit too late that farming or architecture is a better occupation than piracy.