Modern piracy

This week's Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) "Trade Fact" reports that Piracy Rates Have Dropped (March 28). 

In some parts of the world, pirates are on the defensive; annual pirate-attack totals peaked in 2003 at 445 and have fallen in each of the three years since. The sharpest drop is in Southeast Asia. Improving technology, revived naval budgets in Indonesia after recovery from the Asian financial crisis, and international agreements on protection of shipping in the Strait of Malacca have combined to cut attacks in the Strait and Indonesian territorial waters by nearly two-thirds -- from high points of 119 in 2002 and 149 in 2003 to last year's 61. Experts Jane Chan and Joshua Ho at Singapore's Rajaratnam School of International Studies find the downward trend continuing late in 2006.

Southeast Asia's success, though, is not universal...

The International Maritime Bureau's experts, based at Kuala Lumpur's Piracy Reporting Center, counted 239 pirate attacks [worldwide - Ben] last year...

As always, the weekly trade fact post has several interesting links for further reading.

Comments

[r4 dsi gold]

Hi,
Really Modern piracy evolved from desperation, deprivation and hopelessness...Piracy is rarely a choice made by someone who has had visions of scourging the high seas since they were a child.