When government can't protect you, it still won't let you protect yourself

Chiquita has agreed to pay a $25 million fine for the crime of paying protection money to Colombian paramilitary groups. It is a tragedy.

When government can't keep your people safe, when government's "War on Drugs" is the very reason cocaine yields such high profits, what else are you going to do? Chiquita determined that it could still make a profit by paying off the would-be kidnappers, ultimately paying much more money than a security system which couldn't protect everyone. And for trying to protect its employees, Chiquita is being punished. All it takes is the U.S. federal government to call them a "terrorist group." At times I feel like such a fool for not having foresight about what all the post-9/11 legislation could doa .

Some might argue that giving in to extortion schemes by Colombian paramilitary groups, local mobsters, etc., only funds the groups to do more. Certainly, and what difference is there when we pay taxes to government so it can further terrorize the people?

Ironically, the kidnappers seem to keep their word once paid off, which is something we can never expect from government. More ironically, all we American taxpayers are ourselves guilty of paying money to a terrorist group, namely the federal government. After all, what happens if we don't pay our taxes? We'll be kidnapped from our loved ones, who will have to pay hefty ransoms for our release, which still may not come for a very long time.