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Somali Piracy

Written by Ralph E. Stone. Posted in Opinion, Politics

Published on April 16, 2009 with 8 Comments

somali_pirates.jpg
Suspected pirates keep their hands in the air as directed by sailors
aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG 72) (not shown),
in the Gulf of Aden, February 11, 2009. A multinational naval force
seized the seven suspected pirates in the first such action
in its anti-piracy campaign, the U.S. Navy said.
(REUTERS/Jason R. Zalasky/U.S. Navy/Handout)

By Ralph E. Stone

April 16, 2009

Piracy is a deplorable act. However, the news media invariably omits some important background information. Consider, since the collapse of the Somalia government in 1991, foreign trawlers and vessels have been overfishing Somali territorial waters and at the same time dumping toxic waste, including nuclear waste, into its waters. These foreign vessels are from all of southern Europe, France, Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and Norway. Somalia has become a free-for-all coast for dumping toxic waste. Somalia complained to the United Nations and the European Union, but were ignored. Who is going to listen to a poor, unstable African country? Somalia tried to chase these fishing “pirates” away, but they returned with navy escorts.

With the loss of their livelihood, many of these fishermen turned to piracy. Perhaps, the United Nations and the world should reexamine Somali complaints.

Ralph E. Stone

Ralph E. Stone

I was born in Massachusetts; graduated from Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School; served as an officer in the Vietnam war; retired from the Federal Trade Commission (consumer and antitrust law); travel extensively with my wife Judi; and since retirement involved in domestic violence prevention and consumer issues.

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  • http://criticalcloud.blogspot.com el Greco

    By this logic, the salmon fishermen of Northern California will be turning to piracy soon, too.

  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/patmonkrn/ Patrick Monk

    Thankyou for publishing this Luke. It exposes yet again the hypocrisy and bias of the MSM and our Foreign “policy”. Whenever our “droit de seigneur” is challenged our knee jerk reaction is to start pontificating about ‘the axis of evil’ or some such self serving slogan. While I’m sure there may be some ‘criminal elements’ involved, what drove these individuals, farmers and fishermen, to such a course of action in the first place. Where was our outrage and intervention during the time when these folks were being deprived of their lives and livelihood.
    When one is being deprived of the means and opportunity to put bread in the mouths of the children, the natural human reaction is to acquire a loaf by whatever means necessary.

  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/patmonkrn/ Patrick Monk

    Such mindless myopia could be the result of foie gras withdrawal since Ross deprived the self styled ‘bon vivants’ of this delcacy.

  • Richmondman

    Allow merchant marines to carry arms. Have the Navy hunt down and sink the pirate mother ships. Show them no quarter. These are pirates. Treat them as such.

  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/patmonkrn/ Patrick Monk

    One of the tragedies of this world is that too many people are content to react with knee jerk macho militarism, and have neither the capacity or inclination to try and educate themselves as to the root causes of so much mayhem and misery. There is a little more background on this story if you google;-

    huffingtonpost – you are being lied to.

  • JK

    Question: Why is it impossible for some progressives to accept that are bad people in the world? Some people just suck and make poor decisions that hurt others. One poor decision, for example, would be to become a pirate and go around taking ships carrying food aid hostage. Sorry, as much as you want to, you can’t excuse everything away.

  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/patmonkrn/ Patrick Monk

    WHAT TURNS FISHERMEN INTO FELONS.
    JK. I did not excuse or condone acts of piracy or criminality. My suggestion is that before condemning, we take time to investigate what causes people to act with such desparation. I gave a link to one article as a starting point for further background info and research. The scenario here is all too familiar, it also helps explain why we are now held in such contempt throughout much of the world, and one of the reasons for 911.
    We have been led by an endless series of ‘administrations’ that have supported and condoned the actions of repressive dictatorships at the expense of indigenous populations. We only ‘intervene’ when our economic self interest is put at risk, or our power and control is threatened. Whenever there is a real humanitarian crisis we tend to sit back and watch the suffering, not only abroad, but here at home……New Orleans.
    I personally consider there is incredible danger in such hubris and myopia. Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost and the shit will rain down, like it did in the streets of New York. I also think that unless and until we demand a major change in our foreign and economic policies, we can expect increased ‘violence’ directed against US in particular. You can only keep someones back to the wall for so long. Sooner or later the worm will turn…into a venemous snake. I am not trying to “excuse everything away”, I am suggesting we stop making excuses and accept our culpability.

  • NathanSF

    Thanks for publishing this, and thank you Patrick for your perspective. The hypocrisy of the US and the EU towards less developed countries knows no bounds. I don’t feel that this is ‘excusing everything away’, as much as looking into the root causes and the context in which events take place.