The associated press reports:

MOMBASA, Kenya April 11, 2009, 11:15 pm ET · Nineteen American sailors who escaped a pirate hijacking off the Horn of Africa reached safe harbor on Saturday, exhilarated by freedom but mourning the absence of the captain they hailed for sacrificing his freedom to save them.

While we all praise the selfless example of the American captain  and decry piracy which respects neither  life and liberty of others nor their property rights, we should question how and why we human beings display both great and poor character. In my book, The Provocative Qur'an, I point out that it is the presence or absence of Self-building where good and evil go their separate but conflicting ways.

 95:4-6 We have indeed created man in the best of moulds,
           Then do We abase him (to be) the lowest of the low,    
            Except such as believe and do righteous deeds: For they shall have a reward unfailing.