Documentary on the history of, and reasons for Somali piracy. A real life "Captain Phillips."
It is of course all about the ransom, which the shippers pay because their insurance covers it, and they pass the cost along to their clients. As of today the shippers still make more money charging these "premium rates" than they pay out to Somali pirates, so there is no motivation to do anything about piracy.
With ships under "flags of convenience" to get around regulations and safety standards, and crews hired from all over the world to get the lowest possible wages, there is little motivation to care about crews during a hijacking. They're expendable.
Somalia of course is a failed state, with no government since 1991. It's run by a bunch of competing warlords, who are thugs. There are few sources of income except piracy. They sit on the shore of a Gulf State with no oil resources of their own, watching 1/3 of the world's economic output steam past their shores.
They consider themselves nothing more than fishermen. Fishers of resources bypassing them at sea. Hijackers are lauded as heroes in Somalia.
Frightening. Frustrating. Abhorrent.
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