Funny, you don't look Liberian
What does the Nordic Empress, seen here as it passed Hoboken's 14th Street Pier yesterday, have to do with a world hot spot currently making headlines?
It may be named "Nordic," but this ship is registered in Liberia, where President Charles Taylor has just accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria and is said to be leaving soon. Liberia, where 15 U.S. Marines and other civil affairs experts have just landed.
A lot of ships are registered in Liberia, because their owners pay no taxes there. Even without taxes, Liberia currently receives an estimated $15 million to $20 million a year from its ship registry. At least one United Nations investigation found evidence that some of that money had been diverted to rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone's civil war.
Now this one, the Norwegian Sea, it's not Norwegian, either. It's registered in the Bahamas, also a tax haven, but a less controversial one:
photos by Michael Dagley
posted by Janet Dagley Dagley @2:52 PM
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