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John Burnett has done an excellent job of bringing public attention to a very real but unpublicised threat to both commerce and public safety. He writes from first hand experience, both as a yachtsman and as a supernumerary on a large oil tanker. He writes from extensive research and discussions with those who are fighting pirates on the high seas. The government of my own country, Australia, has made much of joining in President Bush jnr's "War on Terror". Australia was the only country to join with the USA and the UK in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Our government has made much electoral mileage by huge efforts to promote fear of refugees, to the point of seizing a Norwegian container ship our own Maritime Safety Authority asked to rescue refugees from a sinking vessel. Our government has been silent on the real threat piracy poses. Most Australian trade passes through the Straits of Malacca, as does a large proportion of the world's maritime commerce. Yet these waters are the most dangerous for piracy. Even a 300,000 tonne supertanker was attacked. While governments boast of their "War on Terror" the very real, multi-million doar-a-year threat of piracy receives little attention except for Malaysia and international shipping companies who have combined to set up the International Piracy centre which features in Burnett's book. I high commend Mr Burnett for publicising a real threat to world commerce and peace. The tragedy is the lack of action by governments while millions are stolen by pirates and many seafarers die. As Burnett says, the very real likelihood of regional terrorist groups working with pirates poses the nightmare scenario of burning supertankers in major ports, like the 19.09.1992 collision between a container ship and and oil tanker in the Straits of Malacca. As Burnett relates, this calamity happened because pirates had boraded one ship and murdered the crew. Burnett has highlighted the real danger modern piracy poses, especially in this time of fanatical terrorist attacks. The reader is left to ponder why major countries and their navies are absent from this real, bloody and costly front in the "War on Terror". greyollie
Australia
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