The Chandlers have been released from 13 months of pirate hospitality. Their boat was boarded as they sailed in the Seychelles oblivious to the world. It's quite important to say oblivious, because being oblivious should equate to being ignorant, arrogant and stupid on a level of George Bush. I've had a look at the Google map just to get an idea of where the Seychelles lay. It's on the West Coast of Africa, with Somalia, Tanzania and Madagascar all in the vicinity, and if you wish to look further along the West Coast you will find Eritrea. It doesn't take much to ask yourself which one of these countries suddenly hits you in the face. I'll not give three guesses unless your name happens to be Chandler. In which case, yes it's Somalia. A country well known for rich pirates who border oil tankers and then hold them to ransom. Pirates who have taken on this occupation because fishing just didn't pay well enough and it is so much more butch to wear a gun on your hip than carry a fishing net. Pirates who are known to be pretty rich through these exploits. In their pastime they also do a side line in arms dealing, target practice and enjoying the seas on very fast boats.
Somalia is a country known for it's lawlessness, poverty and lack of governance. A country which any normal thinking sailor would say to themselves, besides the Bermuda Triangle, where else should I avoid going? Yes, this particular area is it. I'm not a sailor and it really hasn't taken me much time to come to this conclusion, then again I don't have either the Bush gene or the Chandler gene. They no doubt have some familial thing going on they don't yet know about.
The Chandlers were released because their ransom was paid. A nice hefty £625,000 figure has been banded about in the press. They are alive, they have been liberated. But shame on you Chandlers. For now your ransom money will go towards more weapons, fast boats, drunken pirate nights and even the deaths of other innocent people. Britain like other countries does not pay ransoms. The reasons are explicitly obvious, there's that word again. Unfortunately there is no law which jails the downright stupid. Or rather those so stupid as to cause future dangers to the rest of the world. But were there a justifiable reason to have one, then the case of the Chandlers certainly holds weight. If this new government were to bring in a law of such then next week we'd see the Chandlers lose their liberty again, and in this case you would think quite rightly as well.
