Pirates

OK, look at the map to the right. One of the highlights for me of my world cruise will be going through the Suez Canal, which is at the end of that rip in eastern Egypt at the northwest end of the Red Sea. There have been news reports of Egyptian protestors threatening to close down the Suez Canal, but I'm assuming the combined forces of the Egyptian military and world-wide commercial interests will keep that from happening.

But I hadn't considered the other end of the Red Sea. See that unlabeled yellow chunk at the bottom right? That's Somalia. Where there is no government, no law, and lots of pirates. I just read an article that, among other things, says:

"In the first six months of 2011, there were 266 piracy attacks compared with 196 incidents over the same period last year, and 60 percent of them were carried out by Somali pirates, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said. ... Five years ago, pirates were more often armed with knives. But now ships, including oil and chemical tankers, are being attacked with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade launchers, the report said. ... Fourteen ships had been attacked in the South Red Sea since May 20."


Am I dissuaded from the cruise? Of course not! I'm sure Holland America will be extremely conservative in its response to any potential threat -- if only because it would be very bad for business to be the cruise line whose passengers suffered rocket-propelled grenade attacks. Rich old people are not big on rocket-propelled grenade attacks. Can't say as I'm all that enthusiastic about them myself.


Now if they could arrange for the pirates to be led by Captain Jack Sparrow ...