NOTE about SOMALI PIRACY and ITS PIRATES
I was writing in an earlier entry to this blog about the LRAD and its appropriateness for use against Somali piracy.
But any generalized assumption on my part about the nature and causes of Somali piracy causes me to reconsider what I have just written–it is probably nothing more than an oversimplication–what if some of the Somali pirates are in fact fisherfolk who have been radicalized as a result of the decimation of their once-plentiful resources, destruction that occurred as a result of illegal fishing and toxic dumping, etc?
SEE: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/analysis_somalia_piracy_began_in_response
(personal note: I clearly recall sailing along the Somali, Yemeni, and Omani coastlines in 1994 and seeing millions and millions of giant tuna as they churned and jumped in the seas, but apparently now that astonishing abundance that I saw for myself has been depleted and is largely gone?).
If the argument that the Somali pirates are in actuality impoverished fisherfolk with no other option but piracy, then the “pirates†are victimized, oppressed people who have embraced this criminal activity as a last-resort response in the absence of other alternatives…).
In principle, I absolutely disagree with the act of piracy and with the mayhem it represents, although I keep an open mind when I observe and try to explain its cause.
