Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Once upon a time

there were fishermen in somalia...
then westerners came along - italians with ships laden with barrels of european toxic waste... mitsubishi corp taiwanese flagged fishing vessels with long lines and driftnets vacuuming the fish up out of their coastal waters - all to the point that many families simply couldn't feed themselves anymore
So things changed - and the fishermen turned pirate - made some money - and scared the foreigners away. This is the result.

oh sure - it would smell a lot more like justice if the rogues were catching the illegal dumpers and fishing vessels instead of innocent bystanders - but the net effect has been pretty damned good.

The general rule is 'people are going to do things that benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else until someone stops them'. You can use a religion to press mores on people - fear of eternal damnation works wonders in terms of keeping people in line - or you can use draconian governmental authority (good ole Draco... he knew how to impose harsh rules)... but either way if you just lounge about and say you're going to think about things you're pretty well guaranteeing nothing gets done to solve the problem.

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