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Africa's pirates may be a well-armed, rag-tag bunch, but they have taken a lesson from Wall Street and banking and political power players: Now they have their own letterhead and paperwork to facilitate payments for and release of various captive people or vessels.
A Somali intelligence officer once observed about the pirates plying the sea lanes off Africa that they represented a concrete example of a wider truth: "If you do not share your wealth with us, we will share our poverty with you."
With paperwork in hand, who knows what will be next for these entrepreneurs ... Savile Row suits? High-impact lawyers? Villas on the Adriatic coast, cheek-by-jowl with pontiffs and other pirates?
Pretty soon all of the pirates will not only indulge in the same activities ... they'll all look alike. No need for senseless violence ... no need for raggedy clothes ... we will keep things well-organized and polite... the K-Y Jelly of pirates everywhere.
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ACtually mafia gang types do graduate, wipe their hands, pay off their old debts, and then buy - status. See tycon in Macau for example.
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