How to Handle Piracy

I have nothing specifically to offer on how to deal with the piracy drama that's unfolding near the Horn of Africa. But I can extrapolate some general principles from my experience in eradicating a rat's nest in my back yard.

We have a row of citris trees in our backyard, and roof rats love to eat oranges and also nibble telephone lines. While smaller than the Norwegian rat that you see in urban areas, roof rats can be as big as a cat. They are smart, fertile, and destructive. Astonishingly, they can climb up vertical walls.

I saw a large rat on my wood pile. A week later, I saw a half dozen baby rats skulking around my backyard.

So how did I get rid of the rats?

I got rid of them by observing them and then by entrapping them in a way that was in alignment with their nature. They are fast creatures, but their speed is their folly as they will rush thoughtlessly into a glue trap. I killed three rats that way.

They are curious, with an insatiable need to forage for food, but like dark, enclosed areas. So I dropped biscuit-like decoagulants into the wood pile, and a day later there were two dead rats on the lawn. Flies buzzed around the wood pile, telling me that there must be more dead rats under the wood. Finally, I tried to remove the conditions that fostered rats, such as fruit on the ground and fresh water.

It seems to me that the use of these principles-- entrapping them by playing to the enemy's strength and also removing the preconditions for creating enemies in the first place-- can be applied generally anywhere, including to piracy. What is needed, therefore, is an understanding of how pirates behave and then an understanding of the conditions that give rise to piracy in the first place. It is also important to give thought to the enemy's nexus-- how they interact and interface with the environment-- in the rat's case by embedding themselves into a wood pile surrounded by fruit trees. I think if the piracy problem is framed in this light, the solution to piracy will reveal itself.