The Truth Behind the Somali Pirates

These Somali Pirates have been popping up in news stories for years now. A private yacht here a private yacht there. Now people are worried because the Pirates have gotten a little too gung ho. Cargo and cruise ships have been the most recent and certainly the most discussed victims of these attacks. The most recent one being an attempted hijacking on the 22 of May, which ended with the pirates being fended off by a group of courageous elderly armed to the teeth with an assortment of collapsible and fixed deck chairs. Some people deem these pirate vicious ruffians with nothing but trouble on their minds. I am not trying to justify the pirates actions but I will say this, there is an action behind every reaction . In case you don’t know Somalia is a country which suffers for murder, famine and general lawlessness every day. The country has been divided into three sections The northern most “Republic of Somaliland” which is a decently well functioning democracy, the north eastern pirating area which is a large stretch of land bordering the sea, and as I like to call it “Rebel land” where everyone is ruled by warlords and caught in a perpetual brawl to the death. The reason this isn’t covered by the media is because there aren’t really any good guys to take the side of.

But let’s talk about the pirates. With no actual government (there is a “transitional” government which pretty much does nothing) the local waters were guarded by no one. This made them an excellent place to dump unwanted waste, of the extremely toxic variety. Foreign fishers who had already over fished their own waters decided to fish in Somalia’s waters. For many Somali’s fishing is their only means of income . A group of fishermen decided to requested aid from the U.N but to no avail. With no one to count on but themselves the fishermen created an independent coast guard to keep un-authorized foreign ships out of their waters. When they began attacking invading ships to show they meant business the countries who fell victim deemed them to be “Pirates”. This was happening around ten years ago. Then when the local warlords began to see the profits that could be made from ransoming off captives they decided to get in on the deal. Supplying the coastguard with better engines , more weapons and their own men the ransoms began to increase in price and frequency. Many young Somali’s are now taking up the battle cry and are thinking of themselves as pirates rather than the originally intended coast guard of Somalia. To them it doesn’t matter if they are pirates and disliked by the rest of the world, it is a usually safe, fast and easy way of getting out of the poverty that so much of their fellow countrymen live in. Many times the pirates have no previous experience with fighting other then what the live with daily. Sometimes going to hijack ships armed with fake RPGs which have been proven to be only plastic or cardboard. As the pirates get more ambitious the means of protecting commerce do to. From water cannons on cruise ships to costly Warships patrolling the seas. I believe that many lives and lots of money could have been saved if only the U.N had aided a people who actually sought their help rather then immediately turned to violence and terrorism. Makes you wonder how many other times this has happened?