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Somali Pirates Open Up a "Stock Exchange"
reginaldo writes to clue us that pirates in Somalia have opened up a cooperative in Haradheere, where investors can pay money or guns to help their favorite pirate crew for a share of the piracy profits. "'Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 "maritime companies" and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,' Mohammed [a wealthy former pirate who took a Reuters reporter to the facility] said. ... Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. 'I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,' she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. 'I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the "company."'"
The Somalis would probably say that the western shipping companies initiated force by entering their waters, and that other western companies initiated force by fishing their waters to depletion and dumping toxic waste on their coast. The problem with 'initiation of force' is that you the interpretation of it is relative. Of course, you are going to believe that your relative interpretation of it is the objective truth, so there is little point arguing with you.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
The answer is yes, of course you can.
Maybe I shouldn't have asked Israel?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."