If you are within earshot of New York sometime before the remainder of the year, do not miss Keller Easterling's "Some True Stories: researches in the field of flexible truth." It runs from Nov 18 – Dec 23 2008 at the always reliable Storefront for Art and Architecture. Easterling and her collaborators chart the convenience of deviance, highlighting the lure of swimming in the dirty waters of political persuasions.

Immediately, I am reminded of the current piracy off the Somalian coast as a reminder of some of the by-products of these flexible truths. The recent hijacking of an oil tanker from Saudi Arabia's state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd, that is carrying more than 2 million barrels of crude valued at $110 million is a reminder of the power of pirate polity. There have been some 70 pirate attacks in and around the Gulf of Aden so far this year. Of course there really is no government in Somalia right now, so pirating seems like a great option. Aaargh…

[Saudi Arabia's oil tanker Sirius Star was the largest hijacking in history.]

The pirate minefield off the Somalian coast.

Ed's note: Although discovered after the fact, BLDGBLOG and the Lab were in the same headspace yesterday… they have a fantastic overview of piracy, live(!).

[International Shipping Trade Routes] via UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Sky-rocketing global transport costs have effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades. The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to the United States has risen to $8,000, compared with $3,000 early in the decade, according to a recent study of transportation costs. Big container ships, the pack mules of the 21st-century economy, have shaved their top speed by nearly 20 percent to save on fuel costs, substantially slowing shipping times.

While this is certainly not the end of globalization, economists speculate that it may signal a return to more regional manufacturing and economies. Companies are increasingly seeking to limit global shipping costs. Instead of seeking supplies wherever they can be bought most cheaply, regardless of location, and outsourcing the assembly of products all over the world, manufacturers would instead concentrate on performing those activities as close to home as possible, in what is termed the “neighborhood effect”.

Naomi Klein, the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism points out that “the Wal-Mart model is fuel-intensive at every stage, and at every one of those stages we are now seeing an inflation of the costs for boats, trucks, cars. That is leading to a rethinking of this emissions-intensive model, in terms of growing foods locally, producing locally or shopping locally.

All this suggests new patterns of international trade, and new regional economic, production and transportation hubs. Thomas Friedman’s world may well be unflattening. However, the recent economic crisis affecting the US and world markets suggests that for now, the world still contains a few bumps.