This year has seen a dramatic rise in pirate attacks. A total of 199 incidents were reported to the Piracy Reporting Center (PRC) in the first nine months of 2008 and a total of 581 crew members have been taken hostage. It's estimated that pirates have received between $18 million and $30 million in ransom this year.
The reasons for the spike in attacks are numerous but the most interesting is that pirate gangs are living glorified lifestyles:
"They live a high profile life - driving luxury vehicles, using fancy mobiles and laptops, living in big, decorated houses, marrying beautiful women."
Especially in East Africa where millions are dependent on food aid, it's easy to see why many are being swayed into the pirate lifestyle.
Posts
1 comment:
My first thought is "cool." But then I sort of think they sound like gang members which I think are totally uncool.
Could this be the next consumer group? Should we start profiling Pirates in the Trend Lab?
Is this going to be a tab on CNN.com from now on? Are there any celebrities we might suspect as being one of these underground Pirates? :p
Post a Comment