Guns on boats equals 5 years jail time

[sailnow2011]

Originally Posted by zeehag

ye do not see other nations producing gun nutz, do ye??/ hell no.
get over your obsession with weaponry. speak peace--do peace. walk your talk

LOL zee, you crack me up. Was this all satire?

[Polux]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Great historical fiction.. followed all his adventures including India in the books and the excellent TV series..
Bussaco is just up the road.

Hehe, read those on India last year...in Italian. Among the first 3 or 4 books I read in Italian

[roland stockham]

Originally Posted by morven55

You make [some] great points, but please, just one question: do you feel it proper or "neighborly" [not referring to you] to express publicly "Anti-[any
country] comments if they can be seen as inflammatory?

Actually yes I do in the context of what is clearly a political debate (even if it is on a sailing forum). As an example of why; I just discovered that to apply for a change in status of my nursing license in Canada I now have to apply to a foreign company (US) and pay my fees in a foreign currency (US$). WTF does if have to do with the USA who gets to be a nurse in Canada and why has my government sold out this service. I find it deeply offensive, an infringement of my civil liberties and an invasion of our sovereignty.
Given an opportunity I do feel it right to talk to people who live there and say 'do you know about this and do you agree with it'. It may be challenging sometimes but I hope politely so and a critique of the system not the individual.

[smj]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

Agreed!!

The first thing we need to do is stop spending billions every year trying to buy friendship with "foreign aid", it's obviously a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

I can think of far better uses for that money in our own country, no need to give it away, especially to all of the Muslim countries, for obvious reasons.

For obvious reasons, your a sad little man.

[roverhi]

Apparently ships pick up guards for the passage through the western Indian Ocean, Red Sea route. A few years ago guards on one of those ships mistook some local fishing boats for pirates and shot them up. Sounds like this may be some local payback. If these people were indeed guards doing 'pilot boat' duties, would expect the US government to get involved and the defendants to be quickly released. If they were some rebel force trying to slip into India, it's another story.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

Agreed!!

The first thing we need to do is stop spending billions every year trying to buy friendship with "foreign aid", it's obviously a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

I can think of far better uses for that money in our own country, no need to give it away, especially to all of the Muslim countries, for obvious reasons.

Most of all you have to change the way that money is spent on those countries: What is the benefice to US if the image US gets in the end is a very poor one. That means the US is spending money but not making friends.

I read recently a book written by Malalai Joya an activist from Afghanistan and a former parlamentar and I was appalled. Portugal had also police forces there and I never imagine that NATO was viewed so negatively there after all efforts that have been made to bring piece.

Off course, Afghanistan is a mess and I have to give allowances to some political ingenuity to Malalain Joya vision but she lived and worked there and what she describes is appalling, including in what regards the way western help is viewed by the population.

As usual a wide berth in what regards the two different visions regarding that help: the one of the western populations on the countries that are helping them and the one from the ones that are "helped".

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Polux

Most of all you have to change the way that money is spent on those countries: What is the benefice to US if the image US gets in the end is a very poor one. That means the US is spending money but not making friends.

I read recently a book written by Malalai Joya an activist from Afghanistan and a former parlamentar and I was appalled. Portugal had also police forces there and I never imagine that NATO was viewed so negatively there after all efforts that have been made to bring piece.

Off course, Afghanistan is a mess and I have to give allowances to some political ingenuity to Malalain Joya vision but she lived and worked there and what she describes is appalling, including in what regards the way western help is viewed by the population.

As usual a wide berth in what regards the two different visions regarding that help: the one of the western populations on the countries that are helping them and the one from the ones that are "helped".

Ahh... the Pathans.. aka Pashtun aka Taliban... the Lost Tribe of Israel..
They and the other tribes that make up Afghanistan have severely kicked the **** out of the British twice.. kicked the **** out of the Russians more or less independently and are still kicking ass after the latest 'Strategic Victory'
The Afghans just want everyone to piss off and leave them alone.. they are bored shitless with conquerors over the centuries and are pretty much a law unto themselves..
It has ever been that way in the NWFP..

[SV Bonzi]

Originally Posted by roland stockham

Actually yes I do in the context of what is clearly a political debate (even if it is on a sailing forum). As an example of why; I just discovered that to apply for a change in status of my nursing license in Canada I now have to apply to a foreign company (US) and pay my fees in a foreign currency (US$). WTF does if have to do with the USA who gets to be a nurse in Canada and why has my government sold out this service. I find it deeply offensive, an infringement of my civil liberties and an invasion of our sovereignty.
Given an opportunity I do feel it right to talk to people who live there and say 'do you know about this and do you agree with it'. It may be challenging sometimes but I hope politely so and a critique of the system not the individual.

US owned company maybe? Most of Canada's back office support is done offshore. Many positions in Central America, many immigrants who got themselves into legal trouble then were deported from the US (after living most of their life on US soil). Most will not even have a Spanish or Portuguese accent. I was shocked when I found out how many postions (over 15,000 in April 2015) especially when the Canadian Government was giving my employer (A US company) 16 - 18 million a year in wage supplements (US currency), that is money they could have easily paid a Canadian firm to do the same service my employer provided and kept their money in Canada. When the Canadian government stopped giving my employer the subsidies (Canada ended the apprenticeship program) we closed our facilities and moved the jobs back to the US (roughly 800 jobs).

[adlib2]

---Quote (Originally by socaldmax)---

The first thing we need to do is stop spending billions every year trying to buy friendship with "foreign aid", it's obviously a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.
I can think of far better uses for that money in our own country, no need to give it away, especially to all of the Muslim countries, for obvious reasons. End.

I used to think the same then I learned that most of the Aid Money was tied to spending on goods and services in the US. So it is being spent here.

[JTHAW]

Originally Posted by Vipe6

The world isn't only black and white. It's not that whlie some of us do not agree with american foreign politics that we are supporters of IS, far from it. For me both are as despicable. You can bomb the world to pieces but you can't bomb it into peace. Never has there been any peace as a result of war, peace has never come from the barrel of a gun.

eh Vipe...your absolutely right, The Americans should never have entered WW 2 ; you and everyone you know in twerp should be speaking german right now... unbelievable...wtf

[adlib2]

QUOTE:
Off course, Afghanistan is a mess and I have to give allowances to some political ingenuity to Malalain Joya vision but she lived and worked there and what she describes is appalling, including in what regards the way western help is viewed by the population.

As usual a wide berth in what regards the two different visions regarding that help: the one of the western populations on the countries that are helping them and the one from the ones that are "helped".
---End Quote---
Ahh... the Pathans.. aka Pashtun aka Taliban...

My father served on the North West Frontier in the 1930's and faught with and against the Pathans. Always had a high regard for them as fighters.

My son has completed three tours in Afghanistan with the UN, most recent two years ago.
He told me the Afghans referred to UN Forces as 'Crusaders" and if you read anything about the Crusades 'Crusader' is not a term of endearment for the Muslims..

[adlib2]

QUOTE:
Apparently ships pick up guards for the passage through the western Indian Ocean, Red Sea route. A few years ago guards on one of those ships mistook some local fishing boats for pirates and shot them up. Sounds like this may be some local payback. If these people were indeed guards doing 'pilot boat' duties, would expect the US government to get involved and the defendants to be quickly released. If they were some rebel force trying to slip into India, it's another story. END

The ship is flagged Sierra Leone and non of the crew were US nationals, so I cannot see why the US would be involved just because the ship is owned in the US.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Freemind

I was responding to her calling someone , what was it, ...uncontributive or some such.
So, read the original post, then tell me what abortion has to do with an American owned vessel's crew doing something stupid.
I see that zeehag is popular, I don't care one way or another.
On second thought, don't tell me what you think. I've tried all I care to.

One of the other consistent behavioral patterns of some folks is to take a small bit of a LONG discussion and blow it out of proportion and then continue to argue about it.

Almost as much fun as ignoring science.

And they always do it so nicely, dontcha think?

[Don C L]

So, to refer back to post #1, if I may be so bold, many years ago I crewed on a delivery from Sri Lanka to Hong Kong. We had some good sized guns on board since the Strait of Malacca had a bad rep, probably still does, and we were warned not to declare them in Singapore because it is the death penalty to bring in guns. I wonder if anyone knows that to be true or not now or ever? When we got to Singapore our skipper declared the guns rather than have them found in the inspection. The young officer's face went white and he said, "let me go to next question." That morning in the paper there were two tankers moored offshore that had been boarded and robbed at gun point and the Singapore coastal patrol seemed unable to thwart the frequent boardings and thus (was our theory) they were lenient on guns on yachts. At least this was the word at the Changi yacht club when we were there in 1981. What is Singapore like now?

[Aaarrgh]

Hillary? Is that you? Get your @$$ back in this bed! The Debate is over! Nobody watched it anyway! This is not FaceBook!
Love, Bill