Aaaaaargh
You might have heard that off the coast of Somalia, pirates have boarded a ship and tried to take it over. I’ve heard that a deal was struck and the ship continued with its rout but the captain would give himself up in exchange. The navy did nothing.
This article here (the same articlehere as well) puts things in perspective a bit differently. While I realize the Somali govt is non-existent, I didn’t really thing about its coastal waters.
As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it.” Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to “dispose” of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: “Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention.”
If true, no wonder the piracy has developed to protect the interest of local populations. This seems a rather “unexpected” solution to being self-sufficient.
During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America’s founding fathers paid pirates to protect America’s territorial waters, because they had no navy or coastguard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?
*UPDATE*
The SEALs shot the pirates and freed the captain (link). Continuing with business as usual.
