SOMALI PIRATES OPEN 'STOCK EXCHANGE'

from : http://spectregroup.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/todays-pirate/

Public Shares Offered
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B01Z920091201
“In Somalia’s main pirate lair of Haradheere, the sea gangs have set up a cooperative to fund their hijackings offshore, a sort of stock exchange meets criminal syndicate. The gangs have made tens of millions of dollars from ransoms and a deployment by foreign navies in the area has only appeared to drive the attackers to hunt further from shore. It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali diaspora and other nations — and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments. One wealthy former pirate named Mohammed took Reuters around the small facility and said it had proved to be an important way for the pirates to win support from the local community for their operations, despite the dangers involved. “Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 ‘maritime companies’ and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,” Mohammed said. “The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials … we’ve made piracy a community activity.”

“Piracy-related business has become the main profitable economic activity in our area and as locals we depend on their output,” said Mohamed Adam, the town’s deputy security officer. “The district gets a percentage of every ransom from ships that have been released, and that goes on public infrastructure, including our hospital and our public schools.” Haradheere’s “stock exchange” is open 24 hours a day and serves as a bustling focal point for the town. As well as investors, sobbing wives and mothers often turn up there seeking news of male relatives missing in action. Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel. “I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,” she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony. “I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the ‘company’.””

Pirate Democracy
http://www.peterleeson.com/Opportunism_and_Org_Under_the_Black_Flag.pdf
http://www.peterleeson.com/The_Calculus_of_Piratical_Consent.pdf
http://www.peterleeson.com/The_Invisible_Hook.pdf
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/pirate-economics-101-a-qa-with-invisible-hook-author-peter-leeson/
“Q: In the book, you write that pirates had set up their own early versions of constitutional democracy, complete with separation of powers, decades before the American Revolution. Was that only possible because they were outlaws, operating entirely outside the control of any government?
A: That’s right. The pirates of the 18th century set up quite a thoroughgoing system of democracy. The reason that the criminality is driving these structures is because they can’t rely on the state to provide those structures for them. So pirates, more than anyone else, needed to figure out some system of law and order to make it possible for them to remain together long enough to be successful at stealing.
Q: So did these participatory, democratic systems give merchant sailors an incentive to join pirate crews, because it meant they were freer among pirates than on their own ships?
A: The sailors had more freedom and better pay as pirates than as merchantmen. But perhaps the most important thing was freedom from the arbitrariness of captains and the malicious abuses of power that merchant captains were known to inflict on their crews. In a pirate democracy, a crew could, and routinely did, depose their captain if he was abusing his power or was incompetent.”

Pirate Utopias
http://books.google.com/books?id=SJEg0p4RCP4C&dq
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/taz3.html

The Breakaway Semi-Functioning-Democracy Of Somaliland
http://www.somalilandgov.com/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2242/is_1679_287/ai_n27865671

GIFT IDEAS FROM ARTHUR MAGAZINE NO. 1: 2010 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints

2010 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints
Radical Heroes for the New Millennium
by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

32 pages, 12 x 16 inches, saddlestitched, $9.95

Hundreds of radical cultural and political heroes are celebrated here, along with the animating ideas that continue to guide this project — a reprieve from the 500-year-long sentence to life-at-hard-labor that the European colonization of the “New World” and the ensuing devastations of the rest of the world has represented. It is increasingly clear — at the dawn of this new millennium — that the Planetary Work Machine will not rule forever!

Celebrate with this calendar on which every day is a holiday!

Go to Autonomedia to order

The Diggers Papers No. 30: "HUGE INVASION—Hippies Warn S.F."

About this document:
By late March 1967 the Diggers and their allies in the Haight were being overwhelmed by the influx of newcomers to their neighborhood, many of them runaway youths attracted to San Francisco by mainstream news accounts that had exaggerated the availability of Free: free food, free housing, free music, etc. The Diggers made an appeal to the city’s Episcopal clergy. These broadsides reprint how the meeting was reported on in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle, with a little commentary in handwriting, probably from Chester Anderson. Click on each image to enlarge.

About this series:
Arthur Magazine is proud to present scans of essential documents produced by and about the San Francisco Diggers, who were in many ways the epicentral actors in the Haight-Ashbury during the epic, wildly imaginative period from late ’66 through ’67. The Diggers’ ideas and activities are essential counter-cultural history, sure, but they are also especially relevant to the current era, for reasons that should be obvious to the gentle Arthur reader.

Most of the documents that we are presenting are broadsides originally published on a Gestetner machine owned and operated in the Haight by the novelist/poet Chester Anderson and his protege/sidekick Claude Hayward, who used the name “Communication Company,” or more commonly, “Com/Co.” According to Claude, these broadsides were then “handed out on the street, page by page, super hot media, because the reader trusted the source, which was another freaky looking hippie who had handed it to him/her.”

Previously posted Diggers Papers:
http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/diggers

Donate
You can be a patron of this series by making a tax-deductible donation to Arthur Magazine via our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas: info here

Sundogs and a circumzenithal arc…

From Spaceweather.com:

Last week, a powerful blizzard paralyzed parts of the US midwest. Mike Hollingshead of Blair, Nebraska, walked outside after the storm and this is what he saw:

Sunlight shining through ice crystals had produced a bright pair of sundogs and a vivid circumzenithal arc. “These tend to appear on the backside of a storm’s clearing line as ice crystals blow through the air,” notes Hollingshead. “It’s a beautiful sight but not a ton of fun to photograph at 5o F with winds blowing 40 mph.”

'GWC' pt. 4 by Jesse Moynihan

Get ready for more transpersonal vision and non-locality as Jesse Moynihan’s GWC continues! Here’s the previous chapters, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Jesse Moynihan self published 2 books in 2005, and ran a strip in the Philadelphia Weekly. He’s been featured in Meathaus and Canicola anthologies. This year, Bodega put out a larger volume of his work called Follow Me. He recently collaborated with Dash Shaw on a strip that will appear in an upcoming issue of Believer Magazine.

Meanwhile Jesse has been plugging away every Thursday on his webcomic, Forming, which is a sprawling account of human origins, transgender aliens, and ripped gods.

Continue reading →

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Chingiz Aitmatov

Aimtmatov
DECEMBER 12 — CHINGIZ AITMATOV
Kyrgystani novelist, diplomat, sly Stalinist critic.
ChingizAitmatov_TheDayLastsMoreThanAHundredYears

DECEMBER 12 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
JEWISH CHANNUKAH begins. Mexico: FIESTA OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE, greatest of the great Mexican fiestas. Not only was the Virgin the pa-
troness of the Mexican Revolution, but she has also absorbed the cult of
the Aztec goddess of the earth and of corn. Vestiges of the Aztec cere-
monies persist in this fiesta. Polynesia: FEAST OF REKAREKA, God of Pleas-
ure. Arizona: Hopi Indians begin eight-day-long FAREWELL TO AUTUMN.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 12 IN HISTORY
1531 — Virgin of Guadalupe appears to Indian boy, Tepeyac, Mexico.
1731 — Scientist Erasmus Darwin born, Nottinghamshire, England.
1812 — Death of Sacajawea, native guide for Lewis & Clark Expedition.
1821 — French writer Gustave Flaubert born, Rouen, France.
1863 — Norwegian painter and printmaker Edvard Munch born.
1885 — Russian proto-Constructivist Vladimir Tatlin born, Kharkiv, Russia.
1907 — Zulu King Dinizulu surrenders to British military forces, Natal.
1928 — Kyrgystani novelist, diplomat Ghingiz Aitmatov born, Sheker Tallaskoi.
1964 — “Solidarity” anarchist bookstore opens, Chicago, Illinois.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.

The Diggers Papers No. 29: "Haight-Ashbury Girl Digger Meeting"

About this document:
Author unknown.

Previously posted Diggers Papers:
http://www.arthurmag.com/contributors/diggers

Donate
You can be a patron of this series by making a tax-deductible donation to Arthur Magazine via our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas: info here

"Down Home Radio is a hardcore, unreconstructed, paleo-acoustic folk music program."

From Eli Smith at Down Home Radio Show, coming to you out of New York City:

The show’s been going on now for more than 3 years. Its been a great project; a quick look through the archives will show you the depth and scope of what has been aired on Down Home Radio – dozens of in depth radio interviews with well known elders of the folk scene as well as many great new performers you won’t hear about anywhere else, articles, archival materials, tons of amazing old recordings drawn from obscure sources, plus lots of hard to find out-of-print LPs, digitized and posted for your pleasure and convenience, all for free.

But I can’t continue to do the show without your support. Increasing demands on my time from other projects and the rigors of getting along in New York City make it hard to find time for Down Home Radio anymore. If you value this show/archive, recognize it as something unique and much more than just a blog, please support what I’m doing. Down Home Radio needs funds to replace broken equipment, to pay for all the technical, logistical and office expenses involved with the program and to continue to bring you the coverage only DHR can.

With your support DHR can not only continue but will be able to expand its programming and produce new shows of all kinds on a regular basis, as well as pay for ads in magazines and generally increase its profile and listenership. I have not set a specific monetary goal for this fund drive, but rather hope that listeners will show their appreciation for the shows already produced and donate an amount that will offset to a significant degree the cost of its continuing production and progress for a years time.

Check out today’s show to hear music from some of the awesome new performers I would like to have on the show in the future, plus live recordings from the 2009 Brooklyn Folk Festival, sponsored by Down Home Radio and organized by yours truly. I also have a number of great interviews already recorded that I can’t find the time to get to, including Jack Elliott, Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Jody Stecher, Larry Hanks, as well as Archie Green, Harold Leventhal and Jim Longhi – very important figures in folk music history who are now deceased. That’s why I have staged this fund drive, in an effort to muster the resources to continue this unique voice in the media and add this important material to the public archive that is Down Home Radio.

Down Home Radio is live from the grass roots of the folk revival that’s going on right now. If you appreciate this kind of coverage, please make a tax deductible donation to Down Home Radio, and receive any or all of the 3 awesome premiums listed below.

Thanks. Your host,

Eli

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Grace Paley

DECEMBER 11 — GRACE PALEY
American short-story writer, poet, political activist.

DECEMBER 11 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Geneva, Switzerland: THE ESCALADE. Gala carnival commemorating December 11, 1602, when alarm bells rang in the middle of the night. The Savoyards were scaling the city walls. Men rushed to battle stations, women to the kitchens where they heated great pots of soup and water, which were dumped on the enemy with great success. Masquerades and revels.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 11 IN HISTORY…
1911 — Superb Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz born, Gamaliya, Cairo, Egypt.
1922 — American feminist writer, poet Grace Paley born, Bronx, New York City.
1927 — Soviet Commune in Canton, China is begun.
1928 — Cuban filmmaker Tomás Gutierrez Alea born, Havana.
1936 — Edward VIII abdicates English throne to marry a twice-divorced American.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Henrietta Yurchenco

DECEMBER 10 — HENRIETTA YURCHENCO
Ethnomusicologist, radio broadcaster, folk music pioneer.

DECEMBER 10 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS…
Point Hope, Alaska: Merry Inuit FESTIVAL FOR THE SOULS OF DEAD WHALES. HUMAN RIGHTS DAY.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 10 IN HISTORY…
1805 — Journalist William Lloyd Garrison born, Newburyport, Massachusetts.
1830 — Poet, recluse Emily Dickinson born, Amherst, Massachusetts.
1865 — Haymarket martyr, anarchist August Spies born, Landeck, Germany.
1904 — Russian doctor Ivan Pavlov wins Nobel Prize for Physiology.
1924 — Founding of the Society for Human Rights, first Gay Rights organization.
1967 — Composer, singer Otis Redding dies in plane crash.
2007 — Pioneer world music ethnocologist Henrietta Yurchenco dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.