Al Jazeera English: Somali pirates hijack tanker

[SealLion]

Seems that the pirates of the coast of southern Africa are on the hunt again.

Some of you may recall how a few months ago (last year, I recall), how there was an increase of piracy of the coast of Somalia which was affecting commercial and cargo shipping as well as international fishing vessels.

So as a result, various international navies joined in an effort to support the commercial and fishing interests to prevent Somali pirates from attacking and potentially hijacking commercial shipping interests in the area from ransoming the boats.

According to reports, this maneuver seems to be working.

First, let's see what the news has got to say about all of this:

Somali pirates have hijacked a chemical tanker that was travelling off the coast of Madagascar.....

Now from what I understand is that piracy off these coasts in southern Africa are mostly atttributed to the poverty of the people in that area. This I believe. I recall having watched a documentary that detailed on the poverty of many fisherman in the area and one of the few ways that the Somali fisherman would have been able to survive was to hijack commercial fishing boats from other countries and seek for a ransom.

What the Somali pirates do with the ransom, I have no idea other than to probably suggest that they purchase more guns and ammo with it to pursue further high-sea's piracy.

However, I've come across an interesting article which I 'll share with you here.

I believe that this website is of some reputable news of which it reports.
Not everything that you hear from your local news provider is accurate, you know.
Most of the media are owned by share-holders and the main purpose for them is to make money.

Western-based media ( not including media under the direct supervision of dictators ), are owned by other commercial interests or are heavily influenced by governmental interests to report news that is un-damaging to that government.

Hence the untrustworthiness of western-based media.

So anyways..the news article from The Free Library basically basically talks about other reasons for the existence of piracy.

Apparently, many Somali fisherman are upset that international fishing organizations are fishing in the area and removing what stocks are available to the local fisherman in Somalia, Madagascar, and other close environs.

Check it out:

.......According to Somali accounts, the pirates have been hitting back at an international community that has allowed illegal fishing by international vessels in Somali waters, which has resulted in the near death of the local fishing industry.....

Interesting, I thought.

But there's a bit more though of which the article goes in depth:

THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THE European Union-led Operation Atalanta off the Somali coast against pirates is to protect international vessels using those sea lanes against attacks by Somali pirates. There are 10 countries involved. The corvettes ( the navy ships) are allowed to respond with fire in case of an attack....

that's true; however, the pirates cannot be taken as a sort of prisoner and trialed against in some Euro or North American court. After a pirate is captured, they have their guns and ammo confiscated, and are removed from the navy ship and told to leave the area.
No legal proceedings would occur.

This makes sense because they'd be removing someone from another country and the costs of judge and jury would be astronomically high:

Cost of navy ship plus ammo from navy guns plus holding them in some on board jail while being transported back home to be trialed plus cost of domestic jailing plus cost of feeding plus cost of utilities to house pirate plus cost of judging and trials= HUGE COST

On the other side, the Somali prime minister ( Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke) ,......, has been begging for help to control the illegal fishing by international crews in Somali waters, an action which,........, is the original reason for the piracy off the country's coast.

The Free Library Link

Isnt' that an interesting piece of information. Seems like international commercial interests can't seem to get enough of money. Everywhere they go, all they want to hear is cha-ching...cha-ching

Now many of you might be wondering about the fact that Somalia was an ungoverned country. That's true; however, in 2009 Somalia gained what is called the Transnational Government. Basically, Somalia is pretty much now a governed country.

In 2009, the Islamic Courts Union was absorbed into the Transitional Federal Government, along with the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, a collection of moderate Islamist groups. The Islamists were awarded with 200 seats in parliament.

Wikipedia LInk

Somalia is also a small country that has an economy that is apparently still in the growth stages:

Despite civil unrest, Somalia has maintained a healthy informal economy, based mainly on livestock, remittance/money transfer companies, and telecommunications.......principal exports include fish.......

Wikipedia LInk

Remember what I mentioned earlier about Western-based media are only attuned to the reports that they want their listeners and readership to know about??
That is, the media from the West is largely controlled by share-holder interests. It is also heavily invested by governmental interests that want the general population to only know about ONE side of the story.

Well, here's a classic example of just EXACTLY that.

check it out:'

Sharmarke is not the only one who blames the heightened incidents of piracy off the Somali coast on illegal fishing by international crews. The well-known Somali author, Nuruddin Farah, has been saying as much in recent months. When he addressed a meeting in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, this January, he strongly denounced the little attention given to the Somali pirates' side of the story.

He bemoaned how the Western media has, as usual, told only one side of the story to suit Western interests while neglecting the very important concerns of the Somalis about illegal fishing in their territorial waters -an action that has blighted lives in fishing communities in the country, and which has led to increased piracy off the Somali coast in recent months

See what I mean??

International commercial interests aren't all that they seem to be, it seems. And obviously, so also with Western-based media.

"The media coverage has been ones-ided and superficial,".....

No kidding.

Now you might be wondering that since the pirates are said to have taken huge sums of money for ransoming, that is, if you were to believe the western-based media as well as The International Maritime Bureau, which maintains statistics regarding pirate attacks, someone must be making a boat-load of money, yes??

You'd think that all these pirates are buying Mercedes-Benz, BMW's, super-huge mansions, taking vacations in the south of France, and so forth, yes??

Well, last time I checked, Somalia doesn't have a super-rich economy.

As a matter of fact, I believe that Somalia's resources are on the verge of being exploited by offshore interests and leave very little of the profits to the locals:

American and Chinese oil companies are also excited about the prospect of oil and other natural resources in Somalia.

An oil group listed in Sydney, Range Resources, anticipates that the Puntland province in the north has the potential to produce 5 billion to 10 billion barrels of oil.

Wikipedia LInk

So who's telling the truth with respect to the pirates, who no doubt do commit acts of high sea's piracy, and are reputed in hijacking ships and calling for an average of 2 million dollars in ransom??

Is it the media and their sponsored interests who only want ONE side of the story to be presented or is it the Somalian fisherman who have their local fishing industry ravaged and raped by foreign commercial fishing industries who make up all kinds of lies so as to hide truthful news from the rest of us by deliberately with-holding information.

This being done with an organization that for the life of me, I can't understand why it would co-operate in such endevors other than to get financial kick-backs: The International Maritime Bureau

If you can think of some other reason why, let me know...

And if it is the western-based media, then I'd say that it's corruption that has reared it's ugly head once again.

LIke I said previously in another news post of mine: Corruption is like a disease.
It's viral, in fact.


Here's the link to the Al Jazeera English link:

Al Jazeera English - Africa - Somali pirates hijack tanker

[slikrapid]

Seems that the pirates of the coast of southern Africa are on the hunt again.

Some of you may recall how a few months ago (last year, I recall), how there was an increase of piracy of the coast of Somalia which was affecting commercial and cargo shipping as well as international fishing vessels.

i remember that one and also that it kind of didn't make much sense, the way it was told in the media

firstly imo this story about fishermen turned pirates turned hijackers is a very thin one, it would be more believable if they just quit fishing and went into some other area to earn their living, being hard working people and not criminals as we are made to believe

and there are a few other things like:

if they are angry at the international fishing crews, why would they attack other types of vessels, unrelated to the real foreign troublemakers, i suppose fishermen can easily notice the difference between a fishing ship and say, a cargo vessel, even though they are poor and not well educated

so if the former fishermen now have the power to hijack any foreign fishing boat, how come they didn't already amassed a large number of modern fishing boats that would make them on par with the foreign ones, increase their catch, make their fishing lives easier and so on, or has the pirate life become more alluring in the meantime

in order to attack the international vessels the hijackers need fast boats equipped with some decent firepower if they aim to pose a serious threat, yet such boats aren't that common, cost a lot (add all the equipment), can be traced/spotted easily (for example, i imagine satellite imagery would be helpful or cooperation with insider mercenaries in somalia in order to sabotage the hijackers) and as mentioned in the article, there are no luxury cars for the hijacker & their families to brag about, yet there is no mention if they brag about their fast boats or big guns, or is it their modest nature that interferes here

how come other fishing crews are so 'hot for' just somalian fish, is other neighboring fish that bad or already depleted, or maybe they know that, since there is no real government in somalia, they can basically do whatever they like and get away with it

wasn't there the matter of how it was cheaper for the attacked companies to pay a ransom rather than to pay a defensive fleet or force, yet now there is a EU fleet ready to respond with weapons, reading wikipedia it seems like various countries are sending their military vessels in the area as well, as if its a war zone or something

also, it seems somalia has most of its exports based on agriculture & livestock related sales, fishing coming at a distant 3rd? place, suggesting a lower importance in overall somalian economy - in a strong contrast to this mainly agriculture-based economy is a supposedly well developed/installed road infrastructure, telecommunication infrastructure, booming air transport (in 20 years from 1 to 60? commercial aircrafts), and on top of it its a country without a real government, meaning no real overall jurisdiction, meaning a kind of anarchy where everyone seems to be able to do whatever they want, and get away with it - imo all these things are somewhat strange/unusual/surreal, can i say unexpected nowadays?

so if i was to guess who these pirates/hijackers from somalia really are i would say they are a few outfits of local mercenaries, probably military trained and hired/led by western agents to perform these attacks - maybe for the money, but maybe for the continuous instability (or perceived one) in that area (excuse to send more troops, tighten control of strategic points, create problems for certain international transports or routes, buy time for companies 'in the know' to search for oil & co. or to grab market share in somalia while other international ones are too worried about security issues)

however, the pirates cannot be taken as a sort of prisoner and trialed against in some Euro or North American court. After a pirate is captured, they have their guns and ammo confiscated, and are removed from the navy ship and told to leave the area.
No legal proceedings would occur.

This makes sense because they'd be removing someone from another country and the costs of judge and jury would be astronomically high:

this is also strange and convenient so that the hijackers can just get some new ammo (and a new boat?) and repeat the same hijacking scenario, imo it wouldn't be too hard to convince some local authority to be in charge of sentencing & imprisonment of their own citizens when caught in acts of hijacking (multiple eye witnesses), meaning costs...what costs? add the somalian virtually open sea border and modern technology of usa & EU and the piracy problem in that area should evaporate quickly, but maybe they aren't really interested in eliminating the problem in the first place

as for those reporters from australia & so on, i haven seen any of their findings, so a question to those who did: can it be that what these reporters found is a good story on poverty in somalia and a hyped/stretched one on the fisherman-pirate connection

Now you might be wondering that since the pirates are said to have taken huge sums of money for ransoming, that is, if you were to believe the western-based media as well as The International Maritime Bureau, which maintains statistics regarding pirate attacks, someone must be making a boat-load of money, yes??

the mainstream media are probably just reporting what local authorities (like the africom generals, EU/UN officials, etc.) had to say about it and this bureau is probably another UN & World (insert title/description) Organization side-kick, making sure to give proper (meaning suitable to certain interests) instructions/suggestions/'expert' opinions to the big ones in charge - other than these standard-issue tasks imo there is not much more for them to gain here, maybe for some trusted insiders with secretive connections for special information but thats about it

btw for those thinking about what these pirates do & stand for and comparing them to early pirates (yes, the supposedly jolly buccaneers or whatnot) or to digital age pirates or to pirate political parties may end up meeting it all with disbelief at the broad meaning this (may i say prostituted) term seems to encompass