I was reading this news piece on CNN today saying that 5 Somali pirates have been sentenced to 5 years in prison, and it reminded me of an older video of musician K’naan explaining why the piracy phenomenon started. Yes, I found out about it in this totally random way, because for some reason whatever articles were written about the subject in the media never got traction.
Note that this information is supported by UN reports (beginning of page 134), the UN Envoy to Somalia Ould Abdallah, journalists and of course the Somali people.
I believe that, to a degree, the actions of Somali pirates are justified. Yes, they may be unproductive thieves, but when their country has no effective government and foreign companies are taking advantage of that fact by illegally stealing their seafood (under the protection of the EU) and dumping toxic waste (including radioactive material) in their waters, they have to do something to survive and protect their waters.
Arrrgh!
The world is worried that the Gulf oil spill might cost fishermen in the region their livelihoods, and for good reason. But what about the Somali fishermen? Why does nobody seem to care about them? Because the world doesn’t have any perspective on their situation. Nobody is talking about why those people have turned to piracy.
Of course some of the Somali pirates are nothing but gangsters and thieves with no other intentions than getting rich off of piracy. But there are people who do it to protect their waters, and to support families. They have the support of the Somali people (70% of them strongly support piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters, according to WardherNews), and they have my support too. I don’t believe the “robber” label should only apply to the small and defenseless while the big and powerful can get away with it.
What do you think?
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