In Support of the Somali pirates

The recent shrill cry from the corporate media for Somali blood has moved me to put a few points of reason into writing. I am referring to the recent condemnations of the so-called "Somali Pirates" that have been appearing in the press.

The first important point to consider is that the "ransom"* money that the Somali Pirates are collecting is supporting impoverished Somali communities and feeding malnourished children. For these impoverished people, their government and the international community has allowed them to go starving, but the "pirates" provide for their needs by redistributing some of the wealth from those who have too much to those who have too little and no time to wait.

The second important point to keep in mind is that for some time the illegal dumping of toxic waste by the international shipping companies has wreaked havoc on the ocean and the Somali shores without resistance. Again, no government, no corporation, and not the collective efforts of the international community prevented this ecological catastrophe. The Pirates, at least in come cases, have prevented some of these would be pollutants from entering the water by taking matters into their own hands.

When deciding for ourselves whether the Pirates should be considered the scourge of the sea or courageous defenders of the planet and impoverished people, we should consider the stakes at hand: the profits of mega-corporations on one side, human suffering and the health of the planet on the other.

Which side are you on?

* A small aside: the reason that I put the word "ransom" in quotation marks above is because the word "ransom" is not an objective word - it is loaded with a presumption of criminality. For example, when someone is put in jail, the newspapers don't report that the police "kidnapped" someone and are asking for a "ransom" to secure the individual's release. Instead, most newspapers will read that a criminal of some sort was "arrested" and a "bail" was set. I am asking the reader to consider this situation objectively, both from the point of view of a starving Somali child as well as from your own point of view.

I'm not so naive as to think that the Pirates are all real nice and friendly folks ( - they've probably witnessed much horror and sufferings in their lifetimes -), and don't doubt that their actions are motivated by self-interest. Nor do I believe them to be vanguards of Anarchist ideals or models of the virtues of Anarchism. I do, however, see their struggle to exist as being more legitimate than the right of big businesses to make profits, which would be enforced by the same means that the Pirates are demonized for. The point that the commentor brought up about harm that Pirates do to other Somalis is to me, of legitimate concern, and is something that more information about would benefit this post and the opinions that readers form for themselves.

I do believe that the money that they get does help the plight of some people in Somali because it makes sense that the Pirates would need a support structure. It's also been reported in the Associated Press, but that alone doesn't persuade me because that could easily be a lie.

It also makes sense that changes in the economy would economically hurt som Somalis.I am not assuming that piracy in that area helps all poor people without hurting any others, or that all piracy in the area has the same characteristics and effects on others. But the way that it is reported sounds like a recruitment call to military-aged youth all around the world to join fight against the pirates to protect the shipping routes, or to justify it to themselves and their families and friends if they're already enlisted.

I am not proposing or considering going to Somalia to join a pirate group to show solidarity, but no doubt our neighbors and other people around us in our communities, who are enlisted in the military or cinsidering enlisting, are now having to consider the possibility that they might be sent to Somalia where they will have to kill or be killed.

I read about the support that the Pirates give to Somali communities in the New York Times. I think that the article was an AP article, widely duplicated in different news sources, one of which is listed below. The article below can be found at Garowe online, a Somali news source.

"Analysis: Pirates, poverty mark US Somalia failure"
Dec 21, 2008
by Anne Gearan
EDITOR'S NOTE _ Anne Gearan covers U.S. national security affairs for The Associated Press in Washington.
Source: AP

from The International Business Times, "Somali 'pirate-heroes' transform impoverished villages into boomtowns," November 20, 2008

"Meanwhile, towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and chaos are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet cafes. Residents also use their gains to buy generators — allowing full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia."

link to in.ibtimes.com


cominganarchy.com 11/21/2008
"Piracy has its origins in the organized communities of the Puntland coast. In the 1990s, a group of fisherman in settlements there banded together to prevent illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste off their shores."
http://cominganarchy.com/2008/11/21/hostile-takeovers/


aljazeera.net, october11, 2008
"'Toxic waste' behind Somali piracy"