Pirates of the Indian Ocean

Since the beginning of the civil war in Somalia in the early 90's, hundreds of millions of dollars have been paid to the Somali Falla. Ransom demands for their most recent high profile kidnap victims, Paul and Rachel Chandler, have been slashed from 4 million pounds to just a hundred thousand. I think it's about time the man in charge of England (Gordon Brown) put his hand in his pocket and did the deal while the transfer window is still open.

For everyone who holds the notion of 'Don't reward terrorists' I am with you. But one way or another we will pay, extra for goods we buy because of increases in shipping charges, security escorts required to secure safe passage through dangerous pirate infested waters. We cannot let these two innocent victims die. We have newspapers fighting over who will pay the £250,000 to a girl who, if she doesn't ruin John Terry will almost certainly ruin any slim chance we had of a decent run in the world cup in 110 days time, tabloids will make sure of that, they usually do, only this time our captain has fuelled the negative charge by his incapability to contain his urge for a french fancy.

110 days? Doesn't time fly, I guess not if you are Mr and Mrs Chandler who just 103 days ago were fulfilling a dream of a lifetime happily sailing around the Indian ocean. Today they were reunited for the first time since their capture by pirates back on October 23rd 2009 on doctors orders for the well being of Rachel. This was only a brief reunion but her captures assured her that she will see her Husband again this evening. The doctor, also from the pirates camp, explained these visits are necessary to keep their spirits and hopefully their bodies alive. They know the couple are worthless to them if either of them should die.

The world has donated billions of dollars to various catastrophes around the globe in recent years and most recently to the Haiti earthquake appeal and rightly so, can we not find it in ourselves to help these 2 people who we know are still alive today?

I imagine either way there will be a book, a film and documentaries about the Chandlers in the near future, let's make it a script with a happy ending. Warner Brothers, MGM, Fox, Richard Branson and Rupert Murdoch, they all make fortunes from TV and movies, film makers will pay millions actors that will play the roles of Paul and Rachel Chandler, how about paying the real performers fees now, call it a payment for character research, it doesn't come better than from those playing the parts for real.

Or, Why wont one of the newspapers step up and pay a fee to save 2 lives instead of paying more than double to ruin one man and his family by rewarding yet another 'Kiss and tell Tart' who opened her legs, laid back and didn't think of England.