$100 Million News

Two interesting pieces of news today have a hefty figure attached to them. The first is regarding arson in California. A recent court verdict has sentenced a homeless man to four years in prison for setting two fires in California. The fires were set in 2002 and 2006; the latter of which was the fifth largest forest fire in California state history. Along with four years in prison the man was fined $101 Million.

Somali pirates hijacked a Saudi Arabian oil tanker with $100 million worth of crude oil in its hold. With Somali being essentially stateless and completely lawless the violence and hording has long been spilling off of the horn of Africa and polluting the nearby waters. This has resulted in already tumultuous seas becoming increasingly difficult to navigate for the huge queue of ships from the middle east carrying oil destined for Europe as well as the endless flow of container ships coming from China.

The first story seems ludicrous. Why levy such a huge fine? A homeless person would be lucky to afford $101 without adding another six zeros to the figure. But, at the same time, it is tied to the direct costs of fighting the two blazes. It doesn't even factor in the value of the timber or biodiversity lost.
As for the pirates, I wonder what their endgame is? They cannot process the fuel. It is not as though Somalis have the technical expertise or infrastructure to bring it to even the blackest market. I mean a similarly large container ship from china would make a far better target. With time the ship could be unloaded with more rudimentary equipment and whatever trinkets are on board could likely be brought to market much easier than crude oil. Further to that, The thousands of containers would probably make squatter houses of a higher quality than the ones found in slums near Mogadishu.