Haradhere, Somalia -- Tides of change are sweeping into eastern Somalia via the Indian Ocean.
Residents of the impoverished Gulf of Aden coastal region are combing its beaches in a desperate attempt to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars set adrift by suicidal seafaring plunderers.
For reasons not yet determined, the bodies of thieving corsairs have washed ashore, ballasted by plastic bags full of ill-gotten ransom money.
"We are unsuccessful fishermen because we feed the bait to our starving families," according to local starving man Abdulahi Dintu. "The nets, we rendered into broth."
"Today's fresh catch?" he continued. "Pounds sterling. Why would those outlaws end their own lives? They had everything."
Somalia-based oceangoing marauders are terrorizing one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, commandeering huge 100,000 ton vessels but using nothing more than rocket-propelled grenades, rickety speedboats, and edgy contemporary swashbuckling.
An international flotilla of warships has gathered to put an end to the cutthroats' high-spirited shenanigans but has so far failed to make much impression on the maritime hijackings.
American, British, French, German, Indian, Russian, and Chinese warships are among the naval forces that have assembled to stop the pirates' self-destructive tendencies, but with limited effect.
"If saving these poor scoundrels from themselves means losing few million tons of freight," said Canadian Navy Vice Admiral Bruce Allen Haye, "then that's just a small price we're willing to pay again and again and again."
Predictably, dissenting opinions are evident within the coalition's ranks.
Great Britain's 24-year-old Prince Harry, an army lieutenant presently training to fly helicopters, was quoted as saying he hoped to be deployed to "wherever that is" so he could "give those ragheads a right good bollocking."
Despite their self-inflicted losses, the privateers' ambitions appear to be set ever higher -- bigger ships captured farther and farther from East Africa's shoreline. A personal and financial meltdown is the inevitable outcome.
"After tasting the heady wine of raiding ships bearing precious cargo like crude oil or battle tanks," Vice Admiral Haye added, "how can they go back to the cheap beer of copying movie DVDs and computer software?"
