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Those pesky Somali pirates are having a tough couple of days. One day after three of them got picked off by U.S. Navy Seals, another pirate raid was thwarted by a different type of amphibious mammal.
Yesterday, a group of Chinese merchant ships was saved from imminent Somalian pirate attack by thousands of dolphins, which sprung up out of the water between them.
Though the Chinese merchant ships had a Chinese navy fleet escorting them through the dangerous Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast, the dolphins were what foiled the pirates' attack. Apparently, the pirates had only stopped heading towards the merchant ships when the giant school of dolphins appeared.
Military protection has proven to be somewhat futile against the harassing pirates anyways. According to Xinhua, about 20 percent of all ships that pass through the Gulf of Aden are attacked by pirates. Piracy off the shores of Somalia has increased significantly since the 1990s as shipping companies began to pay ransoms and negotiate safe-passage.
Perhaps the U.N. Security Council should stop relying on military force and call in Aquaman instead. It appears his troops are doing a better job protecting ships than the world's most powerful navies.
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This story is very, very likely fabricated.
So let me get the message straight: the small band of malcontents and wrong-doers is overwhelmed and must yield to the righteous will of the great multitude.
...and I guess this picture was either taken by the pirates or the dolphins.
Let me guess the ship's cargo. A load of shit?
Buck, I'd like to comment on what you've said for just a moment. First of all, this picture is not fabricated. My father took it while serving on the USS Admission. I think you should be more careful about what you say or else not say anything at all. Thank you for your time. America also thanks you.
I don't think the picture is fake, but there is no proof the guys in the small boats were pirates and there's no proof they were turned away by dolphins. Anyone that's ever seen dolphins from a boat knows that they definitely get out of the way. Furthermore, the story is from Xinhua, guaranteeing that it's at partially BS.
Seems like a plot from a straight to DVD Disney movie...
Furthermore, look at some of the other headlines from this "source" : "Four accidents occur continuously on Xishang Experssway" Perhaps it was mixed up in translation or just Xinhuaed into being false
@ONez
Please, think about what I wrote for a moment (you may need to re-read it slowly, so you fully understand). I said the story was fabricated, not the photo.
As for the photo itself, I was merely suggesting that it was certainly not taken from the scene described in the Xinhua piece. There is no need to fabricate a picture of a heard of dolphins.
I think you should improve your reading comprehension and thinking skills. Otherwise, please do not read or think at all.
Now, take a moment to absorb all of that. Reality thanks you.
Buck,
Let me being by conceding your complaint. Your original post does in fact highlight the story as a fabrication, and while you do write about the picture, nothing useful is written, about its authenticity or otherwise. I suppose I was driven to skim your comment rather than read it more discerningly because it seems as if it were written by someone more concerned with his own ability at linguistic auto-fellatio rather than someone interested in using language as a medium of communication. For your own edification, the term malcontent in fact describes an entity who is discontented or disgusted, often towards a force of authority. I'd like to properly inform you that while the pirates may in fact be disgusted at one thing or another, all we actually know is that their actions are driven by the pursuit of monetary gain. This can also be proven via a cursory viewing of the film Pirates of the Caribbean (I, II, or III) and possibly Peter Pan as well. Or you could turn to history: following the fall of the Somalian government in 1991, ex-soldiers and rebel forces turned to piracy as a means of income generation. Many major shipping companies adopted policies that called for the paying of ransom demands. Were the pirates actually malcontents, I'm sure the major shipping companies would have agreed to print and distribute pamphlets detailing the pirates' complaints. Finally, whether the ships or the dolphins (I'm sorry that your delivery is unclear) involved represented the will of the great multitude, I cannot say. Whether their will in acting is righteous, I'll leave to the reader, for I truly believe assigning righteousness requires a personal value judgment. I apologize that I cannot wholeheartedly adopt your moral compass.
In conclusion, I wish you all the best in your future posts. I'll sit here waiting anxiously/living my life without much concern for its intersection with your own.
ONez,
You seem to know a lot about pirates, but you missed the point.
My comment "the small band of malcontents and wrong-doers is overwhelmed and must yield to the righteous will of the great multitude." is meant to suggest that that the story serves some value as a propaganda tool in disseminating cultural values and norms through a (probably) fabricated parable. Such a statement and its implicit judgments might be aptly applied to groups such the "Dalai clique," as the state media derisively labels the followers of the Dalai Lama. Such news are the subtle means by which the media is used to manipulate the public, but as such intention is not necessarily intended in this case, I did not make this explicit, believing that those so attuned would grasp my meaning. Evidently, you were not one of those people.
I will spend the rest of my life pining for the day we finally meet!
Calling Buck Rogerz out for not "using language as a medium of communication" is a bit rich with this kind of purple prose ONez:
"For your own edification, the term malcontent in fact describes an entity who is discontented or disgusted"