When I was five years old, I dreamed of being a Pirate, or an Engineer.
Sadly, becoming an Engineer won out, after all times had changed and technology had done away with the romantic notion that piracy on the high seas was a cool gig.
But sometimes old things are made new, and despite living in a world with GPS tracking, piracy has made a triumphant comeback. First, there was Keira Knightly, Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp making piracy on the silver screen look cool again in the Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy, and now the world faces a major out break of piracy along the Somalia coast line.
The latest in a long list of piracy was the recent attack on the US ship (Danish owned) Maersk Alabama. The Maersk Alabama was boarded by pirates on Wednesday (April 8) in a failed highjack attempt. Unfortunately the pirates ended up kidnapping the ship’s Captain Richard Phillips (of Underhill, VT). This incident has brought both the US Navy and the FBI into play, and currently a US Navy Destroyer has the pirates and the kidnapped captain in sight. Meanwhile, FBI negotiators have been brought in to try and resolve the issue, heightening the drama.
All of this however does not have the makings of a future Hollywood Blockbuster. After all, how do you glamorize this band of 21st century pirates? These pirates do not wear the colorful costumes of their predecessors, sail majestic wooden ships, or have the looks of a Keria Knightly or Johnny Depp. Instead, these are poor modern day imitations, made up of Somali clansman fisherman who dabble a bit in weapons trafficking one minute and a highjack or two the next. Nothing romantic there really, or at least, not romantic enough for a Hollywood hit.
No, sadly what we have here is strictly a made for TV movie at best, or maybe a badly funded Steven Seagal movie. In other words, this is a story not really worth telling, except for the fact that it’s becoming a thorn in the side of some pretty big nations with Russia, France, Spain, Japan and the US all having had ships attacked (list of ships attacked : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Somali_pirates).
And aside from the nuisance its creating and costs involved in these attacks, Somali pirates are also affecting the delivery of humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of Somalis. Aid to Somali (up to 80%) after all comes mostly by sea, and fewer are the ships willing to take the risk these days. The Maersk Alabama was one of those ships.
And there in lies the rub as to why this story can never truly be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, for what kind of pirate code (of the movie variety at least) would make an allowance for that type of real pain and suffering? That, and of course the story line does not befit colorful costumes, Hollywood starlets, or majestic wooden ships.
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