About Me

My photo
Laid back; chilled out.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

SHIVER ME TIMBERS!

I distinctly remember, after watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean, thinking how twisted it was to glorify Jack Sparrow. Granted, he was quite entertaining, but a pirate's a pirate, whichever way you look at it. But then again, all they tried to do was get the booty. And aren't we all? [Yes, I crack myself up.]

The modern-day pirate seems to be of a whole 'nother breed tho. Their intentions - and demands - have broadened considerably. I can only imagine how much it must suck to be stuck in some floating contraption with cats who could waste you in a heartbeat. I can't exactly relate to it since I'm seldom on water, but I can only imagine.

So, yesterday evening, after leaving school early and grabbing some Long John Silver's on the way home, I was looking through CNN's site and, mid-bite, saw a photo of the [grinning] captured Somali pirate who's being made into a publicity stunt an example of. Sipping on some rum & coke, I thought about the futility of the whole exercise. I now know why history is important - it can teach a lot about sh*t that happened in the past and, more importantly, sh*t that doesn't have to happen today.

Virtually all pirates are motivated by one thing and one thing only - monetary gain. Which begs the question: Couldn't they find other - shall we say - less perilous ways to make a living? If not, why? What forced them to choose this precarious path? After working backwards like this, a reasonably satisfactory hypothesis can be reached, which probably would be summed up as this: There aren't any jobs, the government is sh*t, the rest of the world doesn't care, and they gotta eat. Then the real question would become how to help the pirates out so they didn't have to do that sh*t anymore, not how to stop the piracy.

Having come to that semi-satisfactory conclusion, I took a congratulatory shot of Captain Morgan, vaguely wishing I had a parrot squawking on my shoulder.


***************************

Hip-hop quote of the day:


Intro:
"What is it that everybody has
that
some pirates and thieves try to take?
[Pause]
The booty."

A Tribe Called Quest in Da Booty

11 comments:

KK said...

LOL! I don't know about that savvy. That question could be asked of just about all crimes from gun running aqnd drug trafficking to prostitution. Personally I think history should help us out here... whatever they did to get rid of the original Jack Sparrows should be applied within context... or if it just went out of fashion, then we should hope it's just a passing tide that hopefully won't last a hundred years:)

KK said...

Ps: I wonder if rum is still the drink of choice for the modern pirate. Can't quite picture them chewing on veve and sipping on Sprite as they while their time away waiting for a merchant ship to come their way:)

O.k. now I'll get my own blogspace.

|d®| said...

I hope the piracy isn't some sort of hobby, like:
Dude, I'm bored out of my mind. There's nothing to f*cking do. Oh wait, I know, let's scale that tanker!And you got jokes, man - chewing on veve, sipping on Sprite... picking under their fingernails with bayonets from their AKs...

Farmgal said...

How are ya...i have tagged you. Please visit my wordpress blog for details

|d®| said...

Hey! Doing good, thanks. You?
Alright then, I'll check it out.

cloudvillian™ said...

Good looking out on the ATCQ quote at the end. Perfect match.

|d®| said...

Miss those cats, for real. Was ecstatic when Q-Tip came back; love that Gettin' Up joint.

cloudvillian™ said...

Renaissance = breath of fresh air in HH

Sleek said...

u raise some interesting questions...and i love the hip hop quote. i think the lure of lotsa money with not too much input(the huge risks aside) is bait anyone with few options would gladly take...

|d®| said...

True that. Easy money is sometimes irresistible to resist. Problem is, they probably find out too late it doesn't come that easy.

D said...

sorry i haven't read ur blogs in a while but "Shiver me timbers"??? Nice one.