Wednesday June 21, 2017
By Doug Anderson
The crew of a Danish cargo ship face Somali pirates in A Hijacking. Photo: Supplied
Where is the Phantom when you need him?
For those who came in late … the celebrated occupant of the skull cave swore on the skull of his father to devote his life to the extermination of Bengali pirates operating under the flag of the notorious Singh Brotherhood.
He's been at it for more than 450 years so it's curious that the unlovely owners of large cargo fleets, plying the world's oceans via offices in Monrovia and Lisbon, didn't send a message to Guran of The Bandar Pygmy People, Mr Walker's* personal secretary, via Jungle Drums telco when, in 2004, Somali pirates began to hijack ships in the Indian Ocean and hold them to ransom.
International reaction was, however, swift and predictable with armed guards employed to thwart any attempt to board and commandeer.
Far too few people were aware the actions of these Somali bandits were prompted by fleets of international fishing vessels arriving in the waters off Puntland and hoovering up catches traditionally the bounty of local fishermen.
Small craft, taking just enough, were monstered by factory ships and greedy transnational entities. They were eventually driven to desperation and the piracy began. Hundreds of vessels, their crew and cargoes, were seized between 2004 and 2012 with the cost to trade in the billions of dollars.
The aggrieved fishermen were soon replaced by ruthless buccaneers out for a fast buck creating a problem that elicited commensurately harsh responses.
So harsh that potential rewards were soon overwhelmed by the risk – but not before global insurance companies had made a killing from escalating premiums.
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In March this year a Comoras-flagged oil tanker, Aris13, was seized – the first hijacking since 2012. The apparent resumption of hostilities adds topicality to Tobias Lindholm's sparse yet muscular film.
Let's not forget that powerful businessmen operate in Somalia and that the somewhat rickety Puntland government in the nation's north-east, desperate for money to prop up a society crippled by an intractable, clan-based civil war since 1991, now sells licences to international fishing fleets.
It's unlikely much – if any – of this revenue ends up with indigenous fishermen so their grievances persist.
Here though, the pivotal moral elements are enunciated by the ship's Danish owner who says: "This is my company, my ship and my men" when a $15-million demand is tabled.
The company's intermediary, Connor (played by actual hostage negotiator Gary Skjoldmose-Porter), reckons $500,000 is adequate – devaluing the seven-man crew's worth to less than $70 grand each.
On this reckoning, the pirates, for their part, stand to make about $20 grand each rather than half a million. Their middle man, Omar, is just as shrewd as Connor so the issue becomes a business transaction like any other with negotiation and compromise as the pivots in a "win-win" paradigm.
Omar could well be related to Salvo, the hero of John Le Carre's superb 2006 novel, Mission Song.
Oscar Wilde's definition of cynicism: "A man who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing", is critical to proceedings.
A Hijacking (2012) is on SBS, Tuesday, 11.30pm.