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IMDB rating: 6.80 Plot: With the end of the North American Civil War, the manufacturers of repeating rifles find a profitable means of making money selling the weapons to the North American Indians, using the front man John Lattimer to sell the rifles to the Cheyenne. While traveling in a stagecoach with Calamity Jane and William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his young wife Louisa Cody that want to settle down in Hays City managing a hotel, Wild Bill Hickok finds the guide Breezy wounded by arrows and telling that the Indians are attacking a fort using repeating rifles. Hickok meets Gen. George A. Custer that assigns Buffalo Bill to guide a troop with ammunition to help the fort. Meanwhile the Cheyenne kidnap Calamity Jane, forcing Hickok to expose himself to rescue her. |
Actors: Cooper Gary,Ellison James,Bickford Charles,Hall Porter,Harvey Paul,Varconi Victor,Miljan John,McGlynn Sr. Frank,Bates Granville,Albertson Frank,Pratt Purnell,Kohler Fred,Moriarity Pat,Biography,War,Western,
Who are the real pirates? Capitalist imperialists or Somalian plainsmen?
In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its 9 million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country?s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.
Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. envoy to Somalia, tells me: ?Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it.? Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to ?dispose? of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: ?Nothing. There has been no cleanup, no compensation and no prevention.?
At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia?s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia?s unprotected seas.
The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: ?If nothing is done, there soon won?t be much fish left in our coastal waters.?
This is the context in which the men we are calling ?pirates? have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somalian fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a ?tax? on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coast Guard of Somalia - and it?s not hard to see why.
In a surreal telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was ?to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters ? We don?t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas.? William Scott would understand those words.
No, this doesn?t make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters - especially those who have held up World Food Program supplies. But the ?pirates? have the overwhelming support of the local population for a reason. The independent Somalian news site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent ?strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country?s territorial waters.?
One of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was ?to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters ? We don?t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas.?
During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America?s founding fathers paid pirates to protect America?s territorial waters, because they had no navy or coast guard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?
Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn?t act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit corridor for 20 percent of the world?s oil supply, we begin to shriek about ?evil.? If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gunboats to root out Somalia?s criminals.
The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarized by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know ?what he meant by keeping possession of the sea.? The pirate smiled and responded: ?What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor.?
Once again, our great imperial fleets sail in today - but who is the robber?
http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/you-are-be ing-lied-to-about-pirates/
Stephen, that is a false analogy.
You are purposely misrepresenting my point to try to make me look bad. It FAILED.
There is documented proof on everything in the article. There is no connection between the article and 9/11/2001 attacks.
lol @ the people trying to write it off as a rant just because it goes against what the media tells you in the United States.
YOU ARE ONLY GETTING ONE SIDE OF THE STORY IN THE USA
George S. only a drone would say that I am lying and not point out where. Apparently you haven’t been doing enough objective studies. Everything in the article is true.
Capitalist imperialists
What is ignored, or deliberately concealed, by both the American political establishment and the media, is Washington











