Black Market Beach

Sometimes you read something in the paper that surprises you when you thought you were no longer able to be surprised about the wicked things that humans get up to. Today it was the new phenomenon of beach stealing.

Singapore has been accused of waging a 'sand war' and paying smugglers to steal entire beaches belonging to its neighbors. The island city has grown 20 per cent in the last fifty years by reclaiming land from the sea and the recent bans on exporting sand in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam have have increased demand for sand and created a lucrative black market. Under cover of night, the smugglers have raided beaches in Indonesia and Malaysia, carrying away millions of tons of coastline and shipping it to Singapore. Environmental groups fear impending environmental catastrophe and blame corruption in the Singapore government.

Is there anything we won't steal, anything that can't be bought?