Piratas da Somalia: ferias e decimo-terceiro salario

Inteiramente justo. Como os piratas do Caribe, e sobretudo do Brasil, esses microempresários que arriscam suas vidas e patrimônio numa atividade altamente aleatória, sujeita a correntes marítimas, tempestades, ataques arbitrários de fuzileiros navais imperialistas e outros contratempos políticos, econômicos e sociais, também merecem carteira assinada, férias remuneradas, décimo-terceiro salário, sindicalização e outros direitos laborais, sociais, culturais e sexuais.
Concordo inteiramente...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida 

Piratas da Somália estão de férias Redução da pirataria no Golfo de Áden não significa que os criminosos desistiram de atacar navios. Somali piracy Just taking a break Oct 23rd 2012, 12:40 by D.H. | NAIROBI THERE is no shortage of actors seeking to take the credit for a sharp reduction in piracy off the coast of Somalia. The queue got longer still after the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a Malaysia-based monitoring group, reported that the number of attacks was down by nearly two thirds since last year. At the peak of the crisis in 2009 there were near-daily attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean or the Red Sea; the third quarter of this year saw only one attempted hijacking. In the first nine months of 2012 there were 70 attacks compared with 1999 in the equivalent period the year before. Common explanations for the drop-off include ship-owners’ deployment of armed guards and improvement of vessels’ defences. In addition, a veritable international armada has been assembled off the Horn of Africa to counter the threat. Europe’s anti-piracy force, EU Navfor, has taken a tougher approach, hitting pirate targets onshore in Somalia for the first time in May, following similar American operations.  More frequent arrests also mean that cases against suspected buccaneers are making their way through the courts from the Netherlands to New York. Somalia’s southern neighbour, Kenya, has even claimed that its forces’ move into the port city of Kismayo—in an African Union operation against Islamic militants, the Shabab—had “tackled the piracy problem at source”. Never mind the fact that the pirates were not operating from Kismayo. But an alternative, more worrying, explanation may be that Somalia’s pirate gangs have temporarily closed up shop to do some stock-taking, during a period of particularly bad weather. In the week leading up to the release of the IMB report, three vessels were ransomed, including a UAE-flagged ship that had been held for two years. According to this theory, the pirates are clearing their stock of hostages and hijacked ships while they wait for the weather to change and the international community to tire of an expensive policing operation. In the meantime it still pays well. The Greek-flagged "Free Goddess" cost its owners somewhere between $2.3 and $5 million to have released. There are still 11 vessels and at least 188 crew members being held in Somalia, according to the IMB. Security sources say that the pirates’ men, money and vessels remain largely in place. Just as predictions that the Shabab is close to total defeat after a year on the retreat seem overly optimistic, it is too soon to declare the end of the modern day surge in piracy.

Dos Piratas do Caribe aos Piratas da Somalia: custos

Outros piratas, em outras paragens, alguns até em terra firme, também provocam um prejuízo dos diabos.
Só consultando os jornais, eu posso falar de vários navios piratas navegando em terra firme...

Higher speeds, hired guns drive Somali piracy cost

By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent

(Reuters) - Somali piracy in the Indian Ocean costs the global economy some $7 billion a year, a study said on Wednesday, with ships forced to travel faster over longer routes and increasingly hire armed security guards.

"The question for the shipping industry is how long this is sustainable," said Anna Bowden, program manager for the research by the U.S.-based One Earth Future foundation.

For the last five years, a few hundred pirates sailing from a handful of towns in the Somali enclave of Puntland have pushed ever deeper into the Indian Ocean despite the dozens of international warships trying to stop them.

The study showed world governments spending at least $1.3 billion trying to control the problem, a figure dwarfed by shipping industry costs estimated at up to $5.5 billion.

The biggest single item was the $2.7 billion it costs for lone container ships to hurry through at much higher, and much less economic, speeds. Non-container ships with less flexibility to increase speed were adopting other costly strategies.

Shippers also spent more than $1 billion on private security guards, often armed, a figure that was rising sharply, the study showed. Half of all ships were carrying guards by the end of last year, against an average of 25 percent for the whole year.

That means the private security companies, many based in Britain or elsewhere in northern Europe, that combat the pirates were earning much more than the pirates themselves.

COMPLACENCY SETTING IN?

The report estimated the total paid in ransoms at $160 million although the average ransom for a ship paid in 2011 rose from $4 million to $5 million.

Whilst slightly fewer ships were taken in 2011, the amount of time vessels and crews were held hostage kept increasing, as did the level of violence used in attacks and against hostages.

Nonetheless,, protective measures have proved relatively effective, the study said. So far, pirates have never seized a ship travelling faster than 18 knots. Armed private security guards also had a 100 percent success rate in protecting ships.

Shippers have added barb wire and an array of other measures to vessels, including "citadels" - armored safe rooms in which crews can shelter from attack until naval help arrives.

That has helped bring down insurance premiums, although shippers are still paying some $635 million in extra premiums.

Re-routing ships to hug the Indian coast to avoid the mostly unpatrolled Indian Ocean cost $486-680 million. Crews demanded some $195 million in higher wages to transit the region.

"A major risk for 2012 is that complacency sets in if we think piracy is now under control," said Jens Vestergaard Madsen, a senior researcher on the project. "Pirates were less successful in 2011, but the piracy problem is still not resolved. Ninety nine percent of these costs are spent mitigating the problem, not resolving it."

In its first attempt to put a price tag on Somali piracy a year ago, the foundation estimated an annual global cost of $7-12 billion.

This year's estimate was at the lower end of that range partly because of a better dataset and partly because some numbers used earlier, such as estimates from insurance firms of ransom costs, appeared unrealistically high, the authors said.

The full report can be found at oceansbeyondpiracy.org/

Micro-empresarios do Oceano Indico: grande crescimento do faturamento em 2010

Os micro-empresários que atuam por iniciativa própria, com os instrumentos de bordo (é o caso de se dizer) apresentaram resultados estupendos na última reunião do Board of Somali Adverturers (ou Conselho SUperior dos Piratas Somalianos). Não apenas o número de capturados aumentou, como o volume de negócios conheceu expansão notável no ano findo, com aumento dos lucros em proporções inimagináveis para os padrões conhecidos nesse tipo de empreendimento pré-capitalista. Já se fala em fusions and mergers com piratas de outros lugares, como aqueles que atuam nos estreitos das Molucas e vários que estão pululando na América Latina, sobretudo no Caribe, inclusive no Brasil.
Dificuldades de língua devem ser resolvidas com Google tranlator, ou então usando alguns dos cativos que sejam poliglotas.
Em todo caso, se o sucesso continuar em 2011, os piratas da Somália pensam em lançar suas ações nas principais bolsas internacionais. Acredita-se que nenhuma indústria estabelecida -- nem mesmo de celulares ou tabletes eletrônicas -- apresentou lucratividade tão alta, o que permite prever grandes dividendos para os que decidirem investir na nova atividade emergente.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Pirates seized record 1,181 hostages in 2010 – report
BBC News, 17.01.2010

Somali pirates are now operating further offshore, the IMB says

Pirates took a record 1,181 hostages in 2010, despite increased patrolling of the seas, a maritime watchdog has said.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said 53 ships were hijacked worldwide - 49 of them off Somalia's coast - and eight sailors were killed.

The IMB described as "alarming" the continued increase in hostage-taking incidents - the highest number since the centre began monitoring in 1991.

Overall, there were 445 pirate attacks last year - a 10% rise from 2009.
Last week, a separate study found maritime piracy costs the global economy between $7bn (£4.4bn) and $12bn (£7.6bn) a year.
Measures 'undermined'

"These figures for the number of hostages and vessels taken are the highest we have ever seen," said Pottengal Mukundan, the head of the IMB's Piracy Reporting Centre.

In the seas off Somalia, the IMB said, heavily-armed pirates were often overpowering fishing or merchant vessels and then using them as bases for further attacks.

The Somali attacks accounted for 1,016 hostages seized last year. Somali pirates are currently holding 31 ships with more than 700 crew on board.

Although naval patrols - launched in 2009 in the Gulf of Aden - have foiled a number of attacks, Somali pirates are now operating farther offshore.

"All measures taken at sea to limit the activities of the pirates are undermined because of a lack of responsible authority back in Somalia," the IMB said.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991.
Without schools, hospitals and employment opportunities in south-central Somalia "whatever actions are taken at sea to protect from piracy will have no effect", he told the BBC World Service.

However, the IMB noted that in the Gulf of Aden itself incidents more than halved to 53 due to the presence of foreign navies.
Mr Mukundan said it was "vital" that naval patrols continue.

Elsewhere, violent attacks increased in the South China Sea and waters off Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria.

Last week, a report by US think-tank One Earth Future said that piracy cost the international community up to $12bn each year.
The study calculated the amount from the costs of ransom, security equipment and the impact on trade.

It said the majority of costs came from piracy off Somalia.