Saturday, May 29, 2010

Hostis humani generis

Nowadays oil product transportation at the international level is mainly carried out by sea.
Thus, the sea trade routes are even more important today than several centuries ago when there were a unique mean to carry goods in far distances.
It is ridiculous, though, that a small African country could seriously influence the world oil traffic, causing economic and political problems to many great powers and hastening world financial crisis.
In autumn, 2008 Somalian pirates captured the Saudi tanker “Sirius Star”. As usual they wanted to get a considerable amount of money for freeing the ship. That time the Danish oil company “A.P.Moller-Maersk” had to send about 50 oil-carrying tankers around the Cape of Good Hope (according to experts evaluation, such a route change could increase the delivery term for more than 12 days and the price by 40%), the Norwegian company “Frontline” under the pressure exerted by goods owners had to refuse to use the Suez Canal to pass both its own and freighted ships. Transport companies throughout the world faced the problem of dramatic increase of the transported good insurance prices as well as decline in demand for rent of supertankers to transport goods in the water area of the Gulf of Aden. In light of the growing global financial crisis these complications in the field of sea shipping exacerbated the world economic slowdown.
Almost two years have passed and no oil tanker can feel itself safe in the near of Somalia coast. International institutions are too busy to solve "bigger "problems and do nothing to change the situation.
What do you think should be done there? Will military interference result in second Iraq?
http://www.eastwest-review.com/article/hostis-humani-generis-part-1

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