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?

if the couple had been young them more people would have empathised with them as most of us have done something adventurous in our youth that could have (or did) get us into a dangerous situation.

as it is, very few people in britain can directly identify with this couple as most people their age are not out sailing round the world.

however, i do not agree with the pirate's charge that we don't care because they are old.. the truth is that some people probably do care a lot - i'm guessing somebody has a collection going for them... but they're never going to get one dollar from every man woman and child in the uk.

here you go: www.savethechandlers.com/

plenty of people care.

I didn't feel that sorry for them at first then I read this article

[http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/peter-popham-two-people-of-no-monetary -value-ndash-and-so-arent-worth-saving-1894467.html here]

and thought it made a good point.

here

What DarrellRivers said.

People can't expect the government to intervene, either, every time things go awry when they chose to go abroad.

It's a sad situation, but the government can't start paying out ransoms, sending military in to risk their lives, negotiating with pirates, etc. every time people ignore foreign office warnings.

They don't just make those up out of thin area.

That doesn't change my feelings one iota, in fact it makes me even angrier. Ken Bigley is another good example. He was working in an unsafe area, making shedloads of money in exchange for the risk (many apologies if I've mis-remembered that, it was a while ago now!). He also knew the risks he was taking and he paid for them. Incredibly sad but he went into it with his eyes open. Where does this all end, if we pay ransoms for everyone that takes it upon themselves to wander where they feel like, regardless of risk.

And with reference to youth and prettiness, from what I remember, Mr Bigley was neither and he got enough attention.

It is a terrible situation, I'm not heartless but it annoys me that these people were so free with their own lives but expect others to care more than they did.

I feel a huge amount of sympathy for them as I know that they were nowhere near the normal operating area for pirates. I am amazed at the posters who think they they brought it on themselves. They had just left the Seychelles and were not on a route that would take them near Somalia. They were in what would be viewed as a safe area and as part of the commercial shipping community we were amazed at quite how far out of their normal operating zone the pirates had strayed.

I think they were taken because they were white and sailing a yacht and because the French government paid a ransom for a French yacht that was seized. Although commandos did attack the pirates and recover part of that ransom the precedent was set.

If you want to blame anyone then imo blame the French government for their completely irresponsible behaviour. This poor couple are completely innocent and did absolutely nothing to bring this on themselves.

But they had already delayed that part of that journey, knowing it to be risky and then they changed their minds and went anyway. This 'poor couple' are not completely innocent. Tragic yes, but not completely innocent and they have to accept responsibility for their actions. But hey, no one is kicking themselves more than them now. Pity they didn't do a bit of kicking earlier.

This gives those of you not clued up on the geographical area a very good idea of how far out of the area of danger this poor couple were.

I agree with MollieO. They were NOT sailling where they had been told not to. They were hundreds of miles from the identified areas of risk. And the pirates are presumably holding out for their ransome because whilst the UK gvt does not pay ransomes, other gvts do, and plenty of commercial organisations do.

i think the lack of rolling news coverage on this story is actually down to the family, not because they are too old and ugly to put on the tv.
their family released a statement last week/week before asking that news coverage was not too much and making it clear they did not want an internet campaign to raise the ransom money. iirc the family are in negotiations with the pirates to secure the couple's release and felt that too much publiclty could put them in more danger.

I do feel very sorry for them as people, they are in a terrible predicament. But the government is 100% right not to pay a ransom to the Somali pirates as all that would happen is that more innocent people would be kidnapped as a result.

Unfortunately life can be dreadfully harsh at times and this is one of those times.

I think you are probably correct in that there'd be more publicity if they were famous/young etc. The meedja works that way and is age and looks discrimitory which is wrong.

However I don't think we can begin a precident to start negotiating with pirates. That would ultimately put more people in danger. I feel sad for them, they must be terrified, but why oh why didn't they heed the very real warnings?

Mollie has made my earlier point far more emphatically than I could!

At the time of the kidnapping, a Royal Marines boarding party, attached to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship The Wave Knight, could see the Chandlers and the pirates - but according to various reports, either the marines did not intervene at the request of the couple, amid concerns they would be killed OR the marines didn't get the go-ahead from the MOD.

Oh that is a good article slightly stressed and similar to one I read a few months ago where it was pointed out that the French do pay to release French yachties. Although there was an argument that in doing so you make French yachts a target, and that if the British government is known not to pay ransom for individuals then they are less likely to be captured.

BendyBob commercial shipowners negotiate with pirates every day. Either they pay, or they have insurance which pays or cargo insurers pay.

However now most commercial shipping is protected by either armed guards or the navy of various interested countries. It makes them harder targets although still worthwhile in terms of the revenue that can be raised.

The pirates have used their ill gotten gains to arm themselves with the latest technology making it easier to track vessels. They are also using seized vessels as their mother ships.

I assume they thought this yacht would pay a ransom as other yachts have done and as the bigger ships do. I doubt no one was more surprised than the pirates that this has not happened in this case.

As for the SAS rescuing them, the pirates are keeping them separate and it would be very hard to mount a military rescue of both at the same time. The British government have already acknowledged that they missed the one good opportunity they had, shortly after the Chandlers were taken, because of apparent equipment failure.