So not surprised -- makes a great deal more sense. (I was trying to figure out how in the hell you could have barges, y'know, slink as they sneak up to an island and then, uhm, carve some of it out.) That, and the snarky tone in the article about Singapore "hoarding" sand -- I mean, there's hoarding salt in wintry areas, and I get hoarding fresh water or gasoline or whatever else governments save for their people, but sand? Can't you, like, buy that? Doesn't Australia have entire regions that are a whole lot of sand?
Still... if I had a boat and a crew of people to dig, and the market were right there, I'd probably have thought of doing the snatch-and-sell as well. It's basic economics: there's demand, and someone's gonna supply. Although I have to say that it's just an amusing side-note to think of some Indonesian Coast Guard ship doing its rounds, and some little low-rank dweeb with the binoculars asking his CO, "doesn't that island out there seem... a little shorter today, sir?"
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Date: 4 Jul 2011 09:14 pm (UTC)So not surprised -- makes a great deal more sense. (I was trying to figure out how in the hell you could have barges, y'know, slink as they sneak up to an island and then, uhm, carve some of it out.) That, and the snarky tone in the article about Singapore "hoarding" sand -- I mean, there's hoarding salt in wintry areas, and I get hoarding fresh water or gasoline or whatever else governments save for their people, but sand? Can't you, like, buy that? Doesn't Australia have entire regions that are a whole lot of sand?
Still... if I had a boat and a crew of people to dig, and the market were right there, I'd probably have thought of doing the snatch-and-sell as well. It's basic economics: there's demand, and someone's gonna supply. Although I have to say that it's just an amusing side-note to think of some Indonesian Coast Guard ship doing its rounds, and some little low-rank dweeb with the binoculars asking his CO, "doesn't that island out there seem... a little shorter today, sir?"