I don’t know about you, but I have to do a double take when I see the news and it talks about pirates. Pirates? Pirates make me think of Johnny Depp or the old Spanish Galleons that glided around the Carribbean firing balls of metal at one another. Instead, there are speedboats and bandana-wearing guys firing rocket propelled grenades at cargo ships and oil tankers. No signs of cunning and articulate parrots anywhere, just guys chewing khat, sailing around and firing guns.

I have a certain sympathy for these people. There has been no government in Somalia for many years, no infrastructure, no hope. They see the throbbing veins of Western commerce forced to pass their coast and are taking advantage, earning much money in the process. You can imagine that the local warlords are pushing the young people of their fiefdoms into their naval mugging careers with no career in medicine or politics on offer as alternatives. They are like lambs to the slaughter.

This is serious business. Pirates are being killed, probably in larger numbers than the shipping companies and their insurance companies would want you to know. The killings that we hear about – information readily available to the gangs – are creating some kind of pirate brotherhood. They are threatening to kill their hostages and up the ante in their activities. With the threat of this, the Western forces are galvanising themselves in the area, raising up the tension.

Where will it end? I suspect the forces of good will crack down hard on any small and fast moving ship in the area and send a lot of young unfortunate men quietly down to Davy Jones’ locker. I don’t see any other outcome or see any other way that this can be avoided. Democracy is not knocking on Somalia’s door.