Pirates...

海盗。。。似乎离我蛮遥远的，除了玩过海盗船，看过Pirates of the Caribbean之外，我以为他们是不存在的， 但是最近看了几篇新闻后，原来现代的海盗还蛮猖狂的。。。

At first, I thought they only existed in ancient time, where people were poor and forced to become pirates to earn a living. Surprisingly, nowadays pirates are so active in Somali area and have hijacked many ships passing by. It seems that the ship's crews can do nothing when hijacked by pirates...except surrender and wait for the company to pay ransom to those pirates. Pathetic...

According to the IMB, 77 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January, 31 were hijacked while 10 are still being held for ransom. Pirates are holding about 200 crew members.

Pirates are rife and well organised in the area where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30 percent of the world's oil transits.

The pirates operate high-powered speedboats and are heavily armed, sometimes holding ships for weeks until they are released for large ransoms paid by governments or owners.

These news drew my attention because recently, I taught some students who are the future seafarers. Seafarer... a high-paid job but not my choice of career. I’ll definitely suffer if I was a seafarer…on the sea for few months…no entertainment, no Internet, no drama, no shopping…I think I’ll be bored to death.

Anyway, I wish all the best to u people…hopefully you won’t have any chance to deal with the pirates. God bless always… 一帆风顺。。。