Haiti — another donor steps up

Aporea, via “Green Left Weekly“:

Spokespeople for the so-called Somali pirates have expressed willingness to part of their loot captured from transnational boats to Haiti.

Leaders of these groups have declared they have links in various places around the world to help them ensure the delivery of aid without being detected by the armed forces of enemy governments.

The “pirates” typically redistribute a significant portion of their profits among relatives and the local population.

A Somali “pirate” spokesperson said: “The humanitarian aid to Haiti can not be controlled by the United States and European countries; they have no moral authority to do so.

“They are the ones pirating mankind for many years.”

It makes sense in a way. At least according to some theories, the pirates of the Caribbean were the first modern corporates.

It just wouldn’t have done to admit that Elizabeth the First of England was financing her naval expansion with piracy:   not to put a fine gloss on it, she was hiring thugs to rob the Spanish gold fleets . Even though Philip II of Spain was her brother-in-law and hating one’s in-laws is an old and honored tradition, it still is a bit gauche to engage in outright theft (never mind that it wasn’t Spanish gold, and Philip was busy robbing the Americans).

So… some bright lad came up with the simple idea of hiding the ownership of the enterprise behind a smokescreen. Who got a share of the booty? The “shareholders”… and who knew who they might be?  Certainly, the people who dealt in paper were fine, upstanding types.  It was good to be Queen.

OK, so the Somali pirates are a closed corporation and not traded on the exchange.  But they’re hardly the only one that isn’t publicly traded.  And most of the loot they’re distributing belonged to someone else at some point, and the Somalis aren’t the first corporation to be suspected of unfair pricing and cutthroat competitive practices.  With pirates corporations still looting the Caribbean, obtaining commodities often at the point of a gun, then divvying up the proceeds with their mateys o’er the water.  At least one group of corporate raiders shows they have the right sense of values.

Arrrgh…