In March of 2012, a fishing vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates and 29 members of the boat were held hostage. All of these members were men and most were from countries in Southeast Asia consisting of Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. 29 members were taken hostage but one member died during the hijacking and two member died due to illness while being kept hostage. The remaining 26 were held captive for almost five years and have recently been released. There is no information pertaining to whether there was ransom paid or not.
A World Bank study says Somali Pirates could actually cost the global economy $18 billion due to ships having to change their routes and pay higher insurance premiums. When these hijacks happen it can also decrease the amount of tourist visiting the surrounding countries.
Questions
If you were hypothetically on a boat or cruise ship and your vessel was hijacked, would you try to escape or would you cooperate? Why?
Do you think America should be more aware occurrences like this? Why? What should we do about it?
What do you think the Somali pirates are trying to accomplish?
My opinion:
I personally think I would just cooperate and hope for the best. I would probably pray that I and everyone else that was captured stays safe. I think America should certainly be more aware of things like this, even if this hijacking didn't affect our country as much as others, but we could definitely help when these things occur and for future reference stay away from Somalia or be prepared to take those pirates down. I think the Somali pirates are trying to gain power more than anything and make a statement. These pirates should be careful who they mess with, though.
Replies
Good story and well done overall! You only replied on two different days.
I would cooperate, I would want to live another day and go home. America says that the navy is all over the world so we definitely should be more aware. The Somali pirates probably wanted money or treasure like gold or jewels.
It depends on what chances I was given. If I was given a chance to escape I would, but if not I would stay and take my chances. We should be more aware of things like this, because it could be us next. I think they just wanted money, but they didn't actually want to kill anyone and that is why most of them lived. All they wanted was the money not the people.
I would want to escape but when I am in the middle of the ocean there is very little that I can do. I think we should be more aware about this but there is not much we can do about it.
I part of me would want to escape when being "kidnapped", but that could lead to worse things if the escape didn't work out. I think america should be more aware of it because it could get worse and it just isn't a thing they we should forget about until it happens again. I think they were trying to get their supplies and food
I agree that we shouldn't just wait until something happens again. Even though it isn't affecting our country, we still need to do something to help and be more cautious ourselves if ever going through or near the Indian Ocean.
I think we should be more aware of occurrences like this because we can maybe prevent things like this from happening again. I really don't know what the Somali pirates are trying to accomplish.
I think they are looking for money or trying to gain power, but I agree. I don't understand why such a relatively small group of people think they have so much authority.
No, I wouldn't want to fail at escaping and then have everyone punished because I was just trying to escape for myself. To feel the power and control, lots of people want to get some type of message out there and I think they just wanted to feel powerful.
I agree, I think they want power, but I don't think this is an effective way of doing it.
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