Posted by
thekeenobserver on Monday, April 27, 2009 6:39:59 PM
Remember the old territorial gangster feuds in Chicago in the 1920s?
The most infamous was the brute clash of the Capone Gang versus the
'Bugsy' Moran mob, culminating in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
Well in a sense, that's kind of what's been taking place around Somalia
since the last decade; but media coverage of this "gangster feud at
sea" has been largely non-existent.
In America, there is an intriguing curiosity concerning the
captured, baby-faced 19 year old Somali pirate "lad," who stands
accused of being the mastermind behind the attack on the Maersk Alabama. He faces serious charges that could mean life in prison; he is the
first person in more than a century to be charged with piracy.
Yet he's smiling! But why? What's to be happy about? The prospect of life in prison-- or worse?
But in order to reveal this inexplicability, we must first proceed with a little backround history...the "Somalia story."
In the late 19th century, the seas around Somalia--one of the most
fertile fishing grounds of all the Indian ocean--were first plundered
by British colonial fisherman.
But for the Somali people, with Africa's longest coastline, (and a
largely desert landscape), fishing had provided people one of the only ways for
survival on such a barren land.
Somalia is now so dirt poor that people actually sleep on the ground;
there are no beds, and little in the way of housing, shelter, or even
sanitation, let alone enough provisions to go around to feed oneself.
So from the time they're very young, Somalian children quickly learn to adapt and develop survival skills ...or else.
After fishing Somalia's coastline dry, it was only then did the colonial
Europeans depart. So for the next century, there was relative calm off
Somalia's coast, while the inland inhabitants largely subsisted on agriculture
and raising cattle.
Then a generation ago, came two severe droughts (1974 and 1986). Tens
of thousands of nomadic Somalis --whose livestock were wiped out
--re-settled along the coast. They developed into large communities
that became dependent on offshore fishing.
In 1992, with the fall of the General Barre regime (and the
disintegration of the Somali Navy), sea-poachers swooped in and began
competing for the abundant rock-lobster and prized pelagia fish in the
deep ocean shelf off the Horn of Africa. European ships --having destroyed their own fish stocks by
over-exploitation – now moved in to overfish the Somali coastlines, as
the English had done100 years before.
Russian and Chinese trawlers also began using 30 mile-long
drift nets, stealing an invaluable protein source from some of the
world’s poorest people, and ruining the livelihoods of the legitimate
fishermen. Even Kenya-registered fishing vessels participated in the rape of the Somali fishing grounds.
This vicious use of drift nets-- basically "strip-mining at sea"-- has
allowed an estimated $300 million worth of seafood to be stolen from
the country's coastline in the last ten years, a staggering sum that
could have transformed the country to a functional, market economy.
Like the American gangster territorial wars of the 1920's, the Somali
fisherman began tossing aside their fishing gear and picked up AK-47's
instead.
But that's only half of this ecological nightmare; it gets worse-- much worse-- and also has been largely ignored by the media.
By the mid 90's, toxic dumping off the Somali coast had become another
"growth industry." European companies began callously skirting the
strict environmental rules in their home countries, and mysterious
ships were dumping vast numbers of barrels into the ocean.
The coastal population began to experience strange rashes, nausea,
tumors, and congenitally malformed births. After a 2005 tsunami,
hundreds of leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer
from radiation sickness, and more than 3000 died.
So who were the one's acting as pirates?
Even now, large seeping containers often wash ashore along with
thousands of dead fish, driving the hapless Somalians away from their
own coastline. Somalia has complained for two decades, but with zero
response from the international community.
According to the U.N. it cost $2.50 per ton for a European company to
dump waste off the Horn of Africa, as opposed to $250 per ton to
dispose of it properly in Europe.
In a telephone interview, a Somali pirate "spokesperson", known as
Sugule Ali, gave a story that became a headline in a recent edition of
the "Times of London": it read..."They stole our lobsters; and poisoned
our beaches."
Now, with no other choice, local militias, collaborating with Somali
fishermen, began to capture vessels, and demanded legitimate compensation
in the form of illegal dumping fines. But the scheme quickly shifted to
21st century piracy.
But still, the ravage by foreign vessels off Somalia's coast goes on unjustified, unabated, and unreported.
Unpoliced fishermen have been resorting to detonating underwater explosives, killing endangered species like sea-turtles, orca,
sharks, and baby whales, as well as destroying the reefs and vital
fish habitats in the sea. But still, this largely remains ignored
altogether by the civilized world.
It’s a primary example of how one-sided media coverage can unjustly distort the picture of who actually are the REAL pirates.
So is it any wonder that our smiling Somali prisoner is overjoyed to be
in U.S., with 3 squares, and a relatively clean place to sleep and
shower? Even though he may be in prison on Riker's Island, it's a half-a-world
away from his dirt poor native land.
No doubt, our pirate is happy to be in a prison. To him now, he can
eat like a king, sleep in a real bed, enjoy the sanitary facilities, and spend his time watching cableTV -- the lifestyle of an
aristocrat in Somalia.
Just like the Jeffersons, our smiling teen pirate captive will be “moving on up.”
This is a "shining" example of why Americans kids take their country
for granted-- and why immigrants see it as a land of wealth and fantasy.
Just imagine what was going through our captured prisoner’s mind, as he
as rode through New York City to his initial hearing: "Look at all
these cars; and these Americans...so well dressed...so clean... and
many of them are so fat."
An obese Somalian? Never!
"I'm actually in America...I made it! I won't ever go hungry again. I
can sleep on a bed like a civilized human being. I can educate myself
in the prison library. Hey, I might even learn to write, and author an
autobiography and get rich, and possibly be released in 25 years, and
I will be free in America!"
Free at last...free at last.
Yes-- free in America- the land of opportunity; that's probably how the rail-thin Somali teen pirate sees it.
So who doesn't blame him for smiling? It's probably every Somali kid's
fantasy dream: to go from barely surviving in the world's poorest
country, then overnight, to be living for the rest of your life in the
world's richest land.
But what about minority children who are born in America, and grow up
poor? What's their perspective on life in the world's richest country?
Despite their poverty, they have food in abundance; the U.S.is the only country on earth with grossly obese poor people.
Despite their "poverty," most poor kids have fashionable clothes, cellphones, and the "bling" to go with it.
Despite their poverty, they attend public schools in a country that
spends more on its students per capita than almost any other nation in
the world; yet many refuse to apply themselves, and accuse those who do
of "acting white."
This curiosity was first formally proposed in the mid-80's by Mr. John
Ogbu, an emigrating Nigerian professor of anthropology at the
University of California at Berkeley, which has since become almost a
truism: "When minority students try hard and do well, they are
disparaged by their less successful peers for "acting white."
Hence, many end up with no education, no motivation, no future, with their
only survival skill being their ability to cash their monthly Obama
check.
And for those who do graduate and go on to college, most take "ethnic
studies" courses, or major in ‘womens' studies, and graduate with few
marketable skills other than being hired for a supervisory position
with ACORN (or going into the military, which is an honorable career,
but requires no college).
Now let’s play our favorite game…"what if."
What if, by some master-stroke, the young Somali pirate's ACLU lawyer is able
to get him freed, somehow convincing the jury that he was a "misguided
youth," and "had no other recourse but the peer pressure to piracy."
America (being the magnanimous country that it is) would no doubt
permit him to stay, and perhaps, with an outpouring of sympathy, the
acquitted pirate would be given a place to live until he "gets on his
feet."
And within a decade, who would bet against the fact that our young,
poor Somali pirate would become successful, because he was grateful for
the opportunity to live in America, where you're restricted only by the
limitations placed on oneself --and not blame anyone else.
So for all those American kids out there who are born into poverty,
grow up hating their circumstances, and blame everyone for their
"misfortune" and lack of opportunity; perhaps we should administer some
tough love if they should drop out of school --'sentence'
them to a year in Somalia --and see what happens when
they're allowed to return.
It'd be interesting indeed to find out.
And realistically, could we expect starving Somalians to stand passively
on their beaches, paddling in someone else's toxic waste, watching
foreigners snatch their fish to be eaten in restaurants in London and
Paris?
If this was going on off the coastlines of America, how would we respond?
The essence of the modern war on piracy could be best summarized by the
story of a captured 4th-centuy BC pirate, who-- after being
brought before Alexander the Great-- the fabled Alexander demanded to
know: "What do you mean by your attempt to keep possession of the sea?"
The smiling pirate responded: "The same as what you mean by seizing the
whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a
robber: while you, who do it with a great army and fleet, are called
emperor."
So once again-- who was being the real pirate?
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