to think the Somali kidnap couple don't get any sympathy because they are not young and attractive?

[littlestmummystop]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250361/Rachel-Chandler-My-rape-terror-hands-Somali-pirates. html

If they were: Blonde, young and female there would've been a tabloid appeal to save them.

or if they'd been a couple with a child

or if they'd been related to someone famous or v rich

But they are just a middle class middle aged couple whose family can't afford the ransom. So no big appeal or even news coverage ?

AIBU?

No, I think its because rightly or wrongly, people feel they bear some responsibility for the situation in which they find themselves.

Agree littlestmummystop.

I don't understand why they would be held responsible for their situation?

yanbu i feel so desperatly sad for that couple. ifaik they were near the sechelles when they were taken.

and many other people 'bear responsibility' for their situations but it seems they are able to capture the media's attention, whereas his poor couple haven't.

on that last video they looked so frail.
i hope they get out this safe.

Agree with you KurriKurri, i believe i read somewhere on here that someone who knows a captain would never have sailed the waters they did because of the risk of pirates.

I feel sorry for them but they must bear some of the responsibility.Also if the ransom was paid they other pirates would expect the same & then everyone would be in danger.

But they weren't actually doing anything illegal were they? An error of judgement maybe, for which they are paying a very heavy price.

There is far more sympathy for young women caught drug smuggling then for a middle class couple.

I don't know what the answer is, they have had news coverage both newspaper and tv.

What though can be done, if you pay the ransom you send a big messaage that this works.

my own personal view would be to use the sas and get them out.

the sas have been used before when there have been hostages taken, so why not now with these hostages?

They were told by many people before they sailed that the route they were planning was a route with a high risk of encountering pirates.
they were forewarned, yet they chose to go, no-one made them
I feel sorry for their plight

I was trying to suggest a reason why they appear not to have much public sympathy, and that is my perception, I don't think it's because they are middle aged and middle class.

On a personal level of course I feel compassion for anyone in a frightening and dangerous situation, regardless of the background story.

They need Jack Baeur on the case..hehe

But, to be serious I agree that if the ransom is paid then it sets a precedent. Just as we don't negotiate with terrorists....

companies that have there boats and crew taken hostage - they pay the ransom though, so in some ways the kidnappers don't know that when they take the boat, they have been paid before and think they will again....

this might be your link

That we don't have sympathy for them because they're not young and attractive is what the pirates are saying.

I would think that while they do have to bear some responsibility for winding up where they are, surely people do feel sympathy towards them and their family.
But feeling sympathetic is not the same as thinking the ransom should be paid.
An appeal for what? Money?
News coverage? - there's not really a lot they can keep saying is there? There was some recently when a journalist gained access to the couple.

Although I feel sorry for them and their families, the UK government does not pay ransoms.

Companies have insurance for this sort of thing and don't seem to worry about paying them off (according to an article I read in the Economist a while back.)

What's happening to them is terrible. If they were my parents, I would beg, borrow or steal to raise some amount of money that I would hope would be acceptable to free them (eg, I'd think they'd be happy with a comparatively small amount of what they're asking for, better something than nothing? I've given it a lot of thought, actually.) But expecting the government to pay them off, no, I wouldn't. It would only encourage them to take more British flagged ships, because they'd know they'd be an easy couple of million pounds. It's simply not in the interest of the government, nor the safety of future British boats in the area.

The Italian goverment do pay of the ransom though - so they will keep targeting thinking the ransom will be paid.

I suspect there is much going on behind the scenes that we don't knwo about. As a yachtie I find this dilemma hard, you wouldn't believe the number of areas that are designated at risk of pirates but this doesn't mean the areas have to be out of bounds...it just means take precautions. I would sincerely hope that as blue water cruisers they would have taken proper training and precautions...but who knows.

I also suspect that to the masses, yachties are seen as upper middle class pleasure seekers, therefore worthy of less sympathy.

This is a hideous dilemma, and one that I find it very hard to make a decision on.

Its a terrible situation and I really feel for them and their families. To be fair if you or I were in the same situation - able to go around the world on a boat, small sailing boat by comparison to the huge company boats that have been taken - wouldn't you think you might be a bit safer? That being said, there are all sorts of factors at work here, again being in a small boat they could have gone off track without realising it and further into territory or like a mugging victim in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I doubt very much they will make any mistake like that again should they be able to get out of it, like many things you don't think it will happen to you. Smoking and Lung Cancer? Date Rape? Mugging in a city? Swine flu in Mexico?

I hope that they can be released soon but I feel that there is little chance of that happening - would be nice if the sas went in to get them though!

exactly MrsC, many parts of the world are dangerous, parts of most towns are dangerous to walk at night time, it doesn't mean that if you are attacked or whatever it's your own fault.

Gut feel? might be something in the OP.

The lack of publicity may be a deliberate thing. The priates may be more likely to hold on for higher ransom payments if they know there is a great deal of interest, whereas if it appears that the British aren't so bothered it's possible the kidnappers get bored and let them go. Just a though (and probably totally wrong).
Should say it's the fact that they are being held apart which almost upsets me more than anything else.

YANBU you are right and spot on, if it were a young family or young people than the likes of David Beckham and Paul Macarntey say would have been involved in raising awareness and funds. I was listening to news coverage of it a couple of weeks ago on LBC and one listener phoned in and said that it was their fault and that media coverage should stop! , he would not have said that if that had been his grandparents or parents now would he! Yes they should bear some responsibility for their actions as they ignored warnings but the Government should pay the ransome, they pay so much in benefit to the undeserving (I mean those who sit on their fat backsides procreating and going down the boozer all day long)

I find it hard to feel any sympathy because they knew exactly what they were doing, they ignored advice from everyone under the sun and arrogantly went their own sweet way. Now they expect to be bailed out when they should have listened in the first place and not put themselves and the government in this position. Of course it's very very sad what's happening to them, and I feel desperately sad for their families. But it was completely avoidable.

And on the original point, I don't watch tv news and I don't read a newspaper so I have no idea what they look like.

a lot of people though do oten think though that the victim was at fault, a rape when drunk and it was the girsl fault, a robbery when you left an item on view and that was the victims fault.

often officals will explain that you shoudln't have done that and it wouldn't have happened.

This couple where and are within there rights to sail from the Seychelles, just of the african coast.

What do you do ban all sailing down the east coast of africa?

I don't know whether that is true or not. I do feel very sorry for them as it's a terrible situation but it was a foolish thing to do.