Somali sea crooks spoil fun for make-believe pirates

[tigerlilly]

Not a pirate, but I saw this in the Houston Chronicle this morning and thought y'all might find it interesting.  Good heavens!  Some idiot might be offended if you dress like pirates!  You'd better stop...
/sarcasm

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bizarre/6375937.html

Somalia spoils fun for make-believe pirates
By MOISES MENDOZA Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
April 16, 2009, 12:16AM

America's pirate subculture is a peculiar world where grown men strap on eye patches, sing pirate chanteys and take on names like, in Clayton Jackson's case, Morick Towain.

Once a month, Jackson dresses up in pirate garb — such as a head wrap, pair of pointy boots and special piratey pants. Then he hits the bars for some drinks with a few similarly dressed friends.

"Being a pirate is about freedom, it's the lifestyle of that old-time period that catches my attention," said Jackson of Dallas, who runs a social group for Texas pirates. Spurred by popular movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, interest in pirates of centuries past has skyrocketed in recent years.

But the recent worldwide furor over real-life Somali pirates raises a pressing question: Should people really be romanticizing murderous pirates — even old ones?

In the tightknit pirate subculture, the issue is a touchy subject and rarely discussed. Leaders of the movement say they've recently begun fielding more pointed, occasionally uncomfortable questions.

"If we had been thinking ahead we would have called it `Talk Like a Buccaneer Day,' " said John Baur, speaking of the now famous Talk Like a Pirate Day he co-founded with friend Mark Summers in 1995.

Summers became so concerned with the issue of modern-day piracy, he recently wrote an open letter to the Somali pirates in a trade magazine.

Golden age of piracy
From the dawn of shipping, pirates have plied the seas, stealing from ships and attacking villages.

In the age of antiquity, pirates could be found throughout the Mediterranean. Julius Caesar is even said to have been kidnapped and held by pirates for a time.

But many of today's legends stem from the 17th to 18th centuries — known today as piracy's golden age.

Back then, men with names like Blackbeard roamed the ocean, pillaging and raping at will.

In the 17th century, buccaneers were renowned for their cruelty. They hung men by their genitals and bound ropes around victims' heads to make their eyes bulge, said Virginia Lunsford, a history professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.

"They were horribly violent, much more violent than anything we would see today," Lunsford said.

But as European armies decimated piracy and the threat faded away, the once-feared ruffians began to be idealized. Their legends have spawned books, movies and even resting spots dedicated to their memory — Galveston pirate Jean Lafitte, for instance, has his own leafy Louisiana park.

"As we get further away from the past, it's easier to become more romantic about piracy," said Stephen Curley, a Texas A&M-Galveston English professor. "It's sort of the exotic Robin Hood phenomenon."

In recent years, pirates have moved beyond mere romanticism: Now they are widely seen as silly, fun rum-swiggers. So, too, are participants in the American pirate subculture.

But the questions about Somali pirates have become a wee bit annoying — and the founders of Talk Like a Pirate Day face them all the time.

In Summers' Pirates Magazine piece, he wrote that modern-day pirates lack colorful characters like the pirates of old. Plus, he wrote, the AK-47 is a vulgar weapon.

In an e-mail explaining his position, he said that "none of them will be — nor should be — romanticized in their lifetime."

Said Baur: "We have to explain to our audience that we definitely don't condone piracy in any way. ... Pirates in the old days were thieves and scoundrels but we've smeared Vaseline on the lens of history in a way."

The Bilge Pumps, a group of Dallas natives who dress in pirate gear and sing chanteys, have also answered tough questions about one of their magnets. It says "The Bilge Pumps Support Piracy."

Band member Craig Lutke said it's just meant to be funny.

"People who see our show and know who we are realize exactly how silly we are," Lutke said. "We know they were scoundrels back then. Obviously we're different."

'Just about having fun'
The commission that runs Corpus Christi's pirate-themed festival, which starts next week, says the negative pirate attention hasn't affected them.

"It really isn't an issue. This is just about having fun," said Barry Box, the head of the commission that puts on the festival.

Experts say it's unclear how the blitz of publicity for modern-day pirates could mold future perceptions of a bygone era's scoundrels.

But, Lunsford said, pirates are likely to maintain their place in popular lore.

"I don't think, honestly, people understand how horrific they were," she said.

moises.mendoza@chron.com

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

There's a fundamental difference with the Somali pirates versus the "Golden Age" pirates so many of us delight in re-enacting.  The Somali pirates are hired guns, pure and simple.  They work for warlords, who in turn also employ accountants and negotiators and warehouse personnel and distributors.  They are the muscle for organised crime in that region.

The idealised pirates we portray are individualists.  Out for themselves only, against the world, on their own.  Were they criminals?  Of course.  No one can dispute that with a straight face.  But more than anything, we're honouring a bygone set of ideals.  Sparks that are rapidly fading from the modern world. 

Independence.  Individuality.  Freedom.

That's what we're glorifying, albeit in a romanticised fashion.  Not these thugs.

[tigerlilly]

Oh, agreed.  I just thought it was almost funny that someone might equate romanticized fantasy pirates with modern Somali pirates, or think that pirate re-enactors support actual real-life piracy.  Sort of like when people think the Knights Templar are in the Klan, because they both wear white robes.  Or when people *who live in Amish country and should know better* look at my middle-class renaissance garb and ask me if I'm Amish because I'm wearing a white caul.

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

Funny how people get this stuff all muddled in their heads, isn't it?  Usually because their only half informed and haven't been paying attention in the first place.  I've had to field lots of questions because people know I research and write on the subject quite heavily.  Blows their minds a bit when the find out these guys pale in comparison to pirates from the "Golden Age", especially against the likes of sociopaths such as L'Ollonais, Roc Brasiliano, and Bartholomew Roberts.

[Monsignor de Beaumanoir]

M'Lady Tigerlilly, you are absolutely correct in your assessment. You might also add the stigma of the "Crusades" to go along with the reenactors sporting the colors of the Medieval Military Orders.

The problem is we've let the media govern our lives, and raise our children.

Folks need to break away from the tube, and crack the seal on some of them books.........

Huzzah Mad Jack!

[SirBlackFox]

I think the biggest difference between us and those Somali wanna-bes is that WE DRESS BETTER! HUZZAH!

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

And don't forget, Sir Black Fox, it takes more skill to use a flintlock than it does an RPG! 

[*Teach*]

And truth be known, it was rare for your kidnapped victims to be harmed in any way in the golden days. Pirates wanted ransom, and you don't get that for injured goods.
Also, most times the ships attacked simply gave up without a fight because of the pirates own propaganda machines. No one wanted to fight the with the horrific tales being told of pirates in those days.
Does that mean that pirates in the golden days were kindly folk? Of course not, but they were nothing like the Somali thieves.
Today's pirates are thugs, attempting the at-sea equivalent of a carjacking against unarmed foes. I am firmly in the camp of arming the merchant marines. That would put a fast end to cargo ships being stopped by speed boats.

People also don't seem to realize that some of us modern day pirates truly study the old pirates. You'd be amazed at how many books I have read on Teach alone. They fascinate me to no end. We know exactly what parts we want to romanticize and what parts we would just as soon pretend didn't exist.
That also brings up the question of: Will today's pirates ever be studied or romanticized? I rather think not. Gangs and thugs don't get that kind of respect.

I think that whoever wrote that article really hasn't done much reading on pirates either. There are some blatant distortions in there left over from the pirate propagandas.

*Now, who wants to share in some rum and pillaging?*

[Tipsy Gypsy]

I think the biggest difference between us and those Somali wanna-bes is that WE DRESS BETTER! HUZZAH!

I suspect that hygeine is better, too!

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

Spot on, Teach.  All very true.

I'm waiting for the world governments to make the same blunders that were made in the 17th and 18th centuries.  First, divert a sizeable yet insufficient military force to the region in hopes of making an example of the pirates.  The pirates, in turn, will adapt and thwart this effort by spreading out and making the area impossible to police.  Strong punishment of any pirates they do apprehend will only escalate the attacks in the end.  Eventually, they'll offer amnesty to any pirates who agree to leave the profession.  This will be somewhat successful for a limited amount of time.  Once the governments decide the problem is "fixed" and they can no longer justify the cost of maintaining a presence in the area, the pirates will go back to doing what they do best.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

[Riot]

Half informed and assuming the rest of the story is a lot of the problem.  and we ALL know what assuming does, correct?

Btw that was meant together the bulk of society and mainstream media..

[tigerlilly]

  ...Blows their minds a bit when the find out these guys pale in comparison to pirates from the "Golden Age", especially against the likes of sociopaths such as L'Ollonais, Roc Brasiliano, and Bartholomew Roberts.

That had occoured to me, too.  People in the 17th century were *not* squeamish.  For the most part they would hardly bat an eye at the painful and messy execution of a  12-year-old pickpocket.  Yet these people were seriously afraid of the pirates, and considered them monsterous.  Do the math. 

I think the biggest difference between us and those Somali wanna-bes is that WE DRESS BETTER! HUZZAH!

Amen.

[Cobaltblu]

I think if someone who portrays a pirate, at for example a renaissance faire, has their fun ruined because of the actions of modern pirates then perhaps that person isn't coming to terms with what pirates did hundreds of years ago and what pirates have always done.

Pirates were criminals who boarded and stole ships and often killed people to do so.

Of course there were a full spectrum of people who were involved in piracy from murderers all the way up to noble individuals who just wanted to make a living.

I think the Somali's of today are definitely pirates and not just criminals because they use force or the threat of force to board ships and extract ransom.  These pirates haven't even killed their prisoners, although it seems recently that they are threatening to kill certain sailors they capture.

As the public today despises these Somali pirates, the public has always generally despised pirates.

But that being said, there is nothing wrong with portraying certain characteristics of pirates and there is no reason for anyone's fun to be ruined or for anyone to tone down their pirate character.

People have always fantasized about doing what they want when they want irregardless of the law because in the end humans evolved from animals and those are our base animal instincts.

Instincts and desires are natural...the law is a creation of "civilized" society and only has what meaning we collectively agree it holds and requires the vast majority of individuals to follow it for it to be practical.

Regards,

CB

[RumbaRue]

The difference between pirates of old and those of today: Prisoners are treated better and automatic weapons as opposed to black powder.