Yarr matey!

So pirates are still alive and kickin'. That's right... I figured we got rid of them like 200 years ago, but I guess not. With the complete dysfunction of most of Africa, and the absolute anarchy that now prevails in Somalia, it looks like the East African coast is now prime retail for some swashbucklin'.

Let's not forget about Indonesian pirates, either. Once again, Indonesia is an artificial nation-state that's barely making ends meet, and consequently it kind of frays at the edges.

My opinion? After the initial "sweet dude, pirates!" that any Westerner would begin with, it kinda sucks for those who get involved. But, eh, maybe there's more to the picture that we don't know yet. Politics abhors a vacuum, so the pirates are obviously some sort of attempt to fill that vacuum. The difference between pirates and privateers is minimal; one has state sanction to steal and one doesn't. Perhaps the pirates are a manifestation of new, unofficial states forming at the edges of a largely anarchic area? Or perhaps they're some natural sort of nationalistic assertion of territorial rights by a territory that doesn't have a government? For those anarchists out in the audience, this could be interesting to watch. And for the rest of us... fuck it, they're PIRATES! :D