In school, on the first day of a new class, some Cambodian kids were discussing how they came to the U.S. I was all worried about the new class, and had jitters, but one of the kids behind me started talking about how hard it was for his family to get to the U.S., because they had to get past the Thai pirates.
I turned around and apologized for listening in, and laughed and said- "you guys had to fight your way past pirates?!" and the all laughed. Nice planet we have here.
We Americans have a hard time comprehending that things we thought were consigned to the history books, things like piracy, slavery, child labor and indentured servitude, are thriving enterprises in many parts of the world.