I've been having an interesting conversation with a colleage from work about a subject that a classmate has just happened to blog about. And that is the situation regarding the pirates off the Somalia coast.
To be clear, there is no excuse for the taking of men and cargo and holding them for ransom. But an e-mail I received has caused me to think about the guiding forces directing these men. The forces besides poverty and despair.
While I don't know if it's true or not, the e-mail suggests that after the Somali government collapsed, foreign entities moved in off the coast of Somalia and began overfishing the waters as there wasn't an authority to stop them. The same mail also said that other foreign entities began using the coasts to dump trash. These two illegal activies increased the already difficult circumstances in Somalia by taking away one of their principle means of substanance. The initial highjackings of vessels were of fishing boats who operated illegally off Somalia's coast. The purpose was to stop them from overfishing the waters. From there, the highjackings grew into a large scale criminal enterprise.
Again, I don't know if this e-mail is true or not. I don't condone piracy and feel that the U.S. killing the pirates who took the American Captain hostage were completely just.
All I'm suggesting, is that we should examine the root cause of the problem. Just as piracy is unjust, so is exploitation of the poor.
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