Tax free deals... pirate style

"Would you like to have some rum Mr. Pirate?"
"No. I think I'll have Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Champagne today please."

When people think of pirates nowadays, they think of Johnny Depp hunting for the hidden treasure. Those days are over. The pirates and the treasures are still there, but nothing is hidden anymore. Instead of the Caribbean raiders, they are the Somali heroes. Somalia has been under many serious conflicts before and after its independence in 1960. It has had no form of government since 1991. Private people take care of themselves or stay under the protection of drug-cartels. With no government there can't be any taxes, but neither any international businesses, nor incoming money. With no police, the robbers can live large and are admired. But why steal from your own people, who have no money to begin with?
Pirates have been around for a long time, but in the past few years the amount of highjackings on the coast of Somalia has skyrocketed. The Somali coast is a major pass way for ships carrying cargo and oil. Yes. Oil. That might be, why it's finally getting more publicity (like this Associated Press article on CNN) in the counties depending on their oil deliveries.
I've followed this dilemma for few years now. I had a Somali kid in my school. He was an aggressive boy, but he did come from a civil war and wasn't used to our "normal life". Then few years went past and I started seeing even more and more Somalis in Finland. You would never guess right...
Now there are many Red Cross and food supply ships, who have food for the non-coastal Somalis (In Somalia this year they missed the rain season for the 3rd time in a row), but they too are afraid of the pirates. The pirates make millions and spread it around for the people close to coast. But because the farmers don't end up getting the donations there were meant to have, they can't survive. They have a choice of either becoming a pirate or an immigrant.
Though I am happy to inform, that EU, NATO, and some partner-countries have started to patrol on the area. They escort and therefore secure the cargo. The mission is hard, since there aren't as many military ships as there are civilian ships, on the Gulf of Aden.

Photos:
The Pirate Bay, Piratbyrån Sweden, 2003. 08. Dec. 2008
Johnson, Mike. "Somali Pirate Crisis" Image. Super Collide. 09. Oct. 2008

In God some of us trust

America. The land where you have the "government of religion" and "separation of freedom and church"...
Or was it the other way around?
I read an article from Jon Kelly on religion and the 2008 presidential election called "In God we trust". Posts like this combined with the news and YouTube, were the main sources of American lifestyle information for me on the other side of the Atlantic. Believe me; it gives a pretty horrifying image on what goes on in the brains of Americans.
It wasn't till I personally met travelling Americans, while travelling myself; I realized how my views were based on individual acts of individual people. This was just so you know I'm not anti-American or anything. The majority of people I have met, while I've lived in this wonderful country, are very smart and have big dreams to fill. But, A big BUT, There are the others. The others we as Europeans (and even some Americans) do not understand. Just like many Americans don't understand the Muslim communities.

Europeans are not nearly as religious as you here in the US (By we, I mean the majority of us). We do not have God TV, so many religious radio channels, celebrity preachers and so on. It’s more personal and more under the radar type of thing. It does not mean we don’t believe in anything. Just that no one, who would even say "God bless [insert country's name here]", would make it far in any elections. Actually in my opinion when mentioning God in politics reflects that the candidate will put their own religion as a priority, when dealing with others.
So our separation of state and church is strong, but we do still teach religion in all schools. The difference is, we only teach “what others believe”, not “what you should believe”. Religions are intact in all of our cultures so deeply, that we cannot ignore them, but we still shouldn't decide based on religion, whether we like a person or not.

Bors, Matt. Muslim In America. July, 2008. www.mattbors.com