Saturday Morning Links. Including, Of Course, Pirates.

by Michael Bear · 2009-08-15 11:01:00 UTC
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A few links to start the weekend:

- Harry Rud has a great piece on the recent Taliban attack in Kabul.  Also, for those with an Afghanistan-fixation, his post on the upcoming Afghan elections is well worth the read.

- William Easterly at Aid Watch has a two part series on the self-interest of NGO officials.  (Part two is here.)

- A post by Celeste in N'Djamena about the joys (and not-joys) of trying to drive in Chad.

- Alanna Shaikh on the myth of all powerful expatriate leadership.  Amen.

- On a related note, an interesting piece posted by the Hauser Center at Harvard about the relationship between international aid and questions of justice, focusing on some of the disparities between international and national staff.

- From The Onion: Recent Rise in International Disputes Traced Back to Cute U.N. Tour Guide.

And, finally, pirates - from Danger Room at Wired, a fascinating interview with a Somali pirate on when to negotiate, and when to kill hostages.

According to the pirate: "Hostages — especially Westerners — are our only assets, so we try our best to avoid killing them. It only comes to that if they refuse to contact the ship’s owners or agencies. Or if they attack us and we need to defend ourselves."  So, ummmm, good news for all those sailing off the Somali coast.

[Photo of Somali pirates from http://stopannoyingme.com]

Michael Bear
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