What you won’t see in the movie trailer and what the mainstream media tends to ignore is why Somali piracy started in the first place: foreign companies are illegally over-fishing Somali waters and dumping large quantities of nuclear and hazardous waste off of Somalia’s coast. This is by no means a justification of violent piracy, but the pirates may have some justice on their side. When the government of Somalia collapsed in 1991, the waters off of Somalia’s 2,000 miles of coastline, the longest of mainland Africa, became a free-for-all for foreign companies seeking to save millions by dumping nuclear waste with no accountability, and for fishing companies illegally trolling the waters for tens of thousands of tons of illegal catch each year. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, the toxic waste has caused the population to suffer “acute respiratory infections, dry heavy coughing and mouth bleeding, abdominal hemorrhages, unusual skin chemical reactions, and sudden death after inhaling toxic materials.” And an estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the country’s coastline each year. The illegal fishing by foreign companies robs an already starving nation a vital protein source and costs legitimate fisherman their livelihoods. After begging the international community to take action to no avail, Somali fishermen say they had no choice and took up arms and speedboats to head out to try to dissuade the dumpers and illegal fishing boats, or to at least wage a “tax” on them by holding them for ransom. They call themselves the Volunteer Coast Guard of Somalia, and one poll shows they have the support of more than 70 percent of their nation. “What they would do initially is whatever ships they thought were suspicious of crossing illegally into Somali waters, they would hijack them and hold them for ransom,” Somali rapper and activist K’Naan said in a YouTube interview. “Most Somalis will tell you they can’t readily condemn pirates. Nobody was there to protect them and the fishermen who was there would complain time and time again. It got to the United Nations Security Council and was ignored and thrown out. It was months after that that who we are now calling pirates, these men mobilized themselves, these fishermen got street militias from the streets and brought them on board into the ocean to protect the Somali waters.” Read more: ryot.org/how-hollywood-got-captain-phillips-dead-wrong/408561#ixzz2hA0QPNqF Follow us: @RYOTnews on Twitter | RYOTnews on Facebook
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 19:27:42 +0000