E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

It is not often that French get recognized for valiance in the military activities. They seem to be doing a good job killing and capturing pirates, though. Between American and French efforts they might just make the piracy machine consider the cost of their actions.

A more fundamental political problem still has to be resolved in Somali. No ammount of capturing or killing pirates will act as a sufficient deterent when there is no other well compensated work in the area, yet ample supply of young people with guns and boats.

There are only 3 possibilities: 1) Stop shipping goods through this one of the world’s busiest routes 2) Kill anyone that even appears to be leaving any ports in Somali 3) Create an environment where there are other things that these people can do with their lives.

First option will only work if we rethink our world in terms of relying primarily  on local resources. Shutting down the world trade of goods and replacing it with a world trade of ideas, is a great option, but just like anything good it would require a greater change than most societies are willing to consider It would also take time, but in the end it would localise the problems and improve the environment.

Second option would be a political suicide for even suggesting it. Nobody wants to get stuck in a quagmire of managing Samali. Further, it may take a complete extermination, and I hope there are not too many people who would seriously entertain that option.

Third option sounds good, but would only work in conjunction with making the ships well enough protected to make piracy unprofitable. (For the millions spent in ransom payments, dozens of snipers can be hired to escort the ships through dangerous areas and then flown to the next ship that is being escorted. The insurance industry could build in this as a requirement for their insurance policies) More importantly, it would take millions of business and trade coaches who would be willing to work in places like Somalia for years at a time, it would require stable governmental policies that ensure stability and transparent trade in the region. None of that is realistic. Many will argue that this is why we need a stronger World government, but I strongly disagree with the concept in principle, since in the modern day of asyncronous warfare, one kid with a little bit of knowledge can bring down the entire world government to its knees. At least our current destributed system of government is a little more resilient.

So, what is the answer? How should I know… But historically it has been to hire some of the very same young people to be the security guards on the boats. This creates jobs and combats piracy. It would take lots of screening and good training, but it would be very practical, provided they maintain the insentive to not side with the pirates. One way this can be done is by using Somali security in the Carribian and Indonesia, while using Indonesians in Somalia. British have done this successfully for centuries, so why not do it today.

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