The Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman has a dispatch from Boosaaso, Somalia — the booming, lethal heart of the country’s pirate trade. Think of it as the South Bronx, circa 1989. But instead of slinging rock, hustlers there are taking boats.
People [here] describe a certain high-rolling pirate swagger. Flush with cash, the pirates drive the biggest cars, run many of the town’s businesses — like hotels — and throw the best parties, residents say. Fatuma Abdul Kadir said she went to a pirate wedding in July that lasted two days, with nonstop dancing and goat meat, and a band flown in from neighboring Djibouti.
“It was wonderful,” said Ms. Fatuma, 21. “I’m now dating a pirate.”
But the best pirate story of the day is this remarkable segment on Marketplace. Here’s a snippet, from Kelly McEvers’ reporter’s notebook from Belakang Padang, Indonesia:
The pirate, Agus, told us he used to earn $7 a day farming cocoa in a village more than 1,000 miles away. His earnings were barely enough to support his wife, three children, parents, and siblings…
The conditions have to be right before pirates will head out “shopping” for a cargo ship to rob: a moonless night, a lull in patrols, and enough money to buy weapons and fuel for the motorized canoes.
Once they identify a suitable victim, seven to nine men don ski masks and black shirts, motor out into international waters, sidle up to the ship, and climb on board using a long bamboo pole with a hook on one end.
They threaten the captain and crew with long machetes, then steal all the money in the ship’s safe… If they succeed in getting the cash, each pirate can clear between $600 and $2,000.
Agus and his partners have a hard time saving what they steal…. That’s because pirates here are notorious for spending their booty on “happy-happy” — that is, a night of boozing and girls-for-hire. Agus’ weakness is a woman named Yuna who works in a dance troupe that travels from island to island and charges men to dance with them.
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