Somalia

Somalia: A Navy Without Boats

We’ve reported frequently on the Somali piracy infesting the Indian Ocean. The good news is that the Somali navy wants to do something about it. The bad news, according to a fascinating but dispiriting account in …

Good Economic News at Last

In theses times of layoffs, deficits and budget cuts, anything involving finances that grows at a 37% clip over two years is good news, right? Well, here’s the latest on the pirate front, from Kenya’s The East African:

Ransom payments paid by shipping companies to Somali pirates have reached nearly $110 million this year — a

Pirate Map!

Alas, there’s no X to mark the spot where the treasure is buried. This is the fascinating report — The Economics of Piracy — we cited a couple of weeks ago that noted Somali pirates can make up to $79K annually plying their trade. Finally got a copy of it, here, from the author, Peter Middlebrook of Geopolicity in the UAE.

He …

Piracy Pays…

We tend to think of the pirate tales out in the Indian Ocean as a throwback to earlier times of clipper ships and gold doubloons. But in 2010, it was a big — make that huge — business. According to a piece in Business Daily Africa on Monday, Indian Ocean pirates cost the world economy as much as $12 billion in 2010 in ransoms, …