Lifestyle Glitz - September Tranquility 2016

M O D E R N P I R A T E S
Piracy became a serious problem in the early
1980s. Since then, the numbers of their attacks
on people traveling by sea increased.
Between 1993 and 2003, their numbers
tripled and in 2004, the world experienced
more than 200 pirate attacks worldwide.
Catching these modern sea bandits was just
as difficult as it was to catch their ancestors.
No authority could do much on the sea, and
even though countries invested in sea police
or military defenses, there wasn’t much success.
Moreover, modern sea bandits could use many
of the old tricks their ancestors used. They
could hide behind the flag of any state they
chose to belong to, which made it almost impossible
to recognize and arrest them. In fact,
it may come as a shock but not all governments
were against sea bandits. Some collaborated
with them. Today, pirates are frequently
present in the Southeastern and Southern Asia
regions. Some still sail in the South American
sea and South of the Red Sea. They wear
masks, are good with disguising, and have a
very aggressive nature.
There are two kinds of modern sea bandits:
organizations of sea bandits and minor sea
bandits. As the name implies, organizations of
sea bandits are large operating groups. Their
goals are to loot small ships they come across
at sea. They attack to complete their agreed
business and are mostly a link in some criminal
chain. On the other hand, minor sea bandits
work independently and have smaller goals. They
work for no one and loot small ships.
P I R A T E S A R E S E A R O B B E R S
People may call them “Pirates” but they are no
different from the ‘Sea Robbers’ of old times.
Modern sea bandits use speedboats, have sonars,
use radars, and stick to the most recent
technology. They use machine guns, rocketpropelled
grenades, torpedoes, and all kinds of
weapons at sea. They may even have access to
satellite communications. They can locate any
ship they want to target. They have a new and
advanced style of robbing people, but in the end,
they are sea robbers.
P I R A T E S F R O M 3 0 0 Y E A R S A G O
No matter how the modern sea bandits act, they
will remain the same as the sea bandits from
three hundred years ago. In the past, sea bandits
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