Since last year we've learned a new act of so called terrorism was taking place in the world: Piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
In this one and a half year, Somali pirates have attacked 92 ships of any

kind for a total of 36 successful kidnappings, demanding and obtaining

so far a total ransom of $100 millions.They have been depicted from the large media coverage as the 'bad guys', as 'terrorists'.



But after seeing images of them in action, especially of their equipment, I found myself wondering: how in their mind have they even thought it was possible to overcome a ship with their resources? And even if they could, how do they think they can face the western reaction? It sounds like a suicidal action.. So why are they doing that?

And against the bad publicity the media are putting up, I couldn't resolve myself to think to those people as cold bloodied criminals.
To engage in those crazy hunts with their poor resources and with the risk, or better the certainty, to attract upon them the anger of more powerful countries, the moving reason could only be "desperation".
One of the spokesmen for the pirates to world-wide networks, Sugule Ali, explained it in very simple words in an interview for the N.Y,Times "We only want money, so we can protect ourselves from hunger", not sounding at all frighten by the fact of being surrounded by American warship:"you only die once" he said.

Yes, because what the media don't tell us is the extreme situation in which those people live and have lived for at least the last 100 years.

After my researches, three very interesting facts came up, from under the surface of the global news, that can help to a better understanding.

One, of course, is related to the history of the country.

In fact Somalia has been a colony of both Britain and Italy from 1884 until 1960, and theatre in that period of imperial partition battles, during which very little consideration was given to the population well-being ...just think that in 1960 only 5% of people were literate!
Followed, until today, long periods of military dictatorships, invasions, rebellious fights between clans coming from different regions and backgrounds in the country.

The big picture shows us as a consequence, political instability and progressive deteriorating of agriculture and water supply, with an index of inflation that makes it impossible for a Somali worker to buy even the basic survival items.

And behind every step of this degradation we can sadly recognize the hand of western countries...
As 2008 retiring president Yusuf said, the blame is to the international community that never recognized any Somali government, therefore never supported it, preventing the possibility of a national unification. On the contrary in 2006, the Ethiopian invasion was encouraged as a mean to defeat the ICU power escalation ( Islamic court union), when actually as Peter Lehr, professor in terrorism at the university of St Andrews explained, Islamists could have brought stability; "..supporting the president, gaining the favour of people..this could be the best solution, not patrolling the Gulf of Aden..".
But West prefers a Somalia with no government than a Somali government with a Somali point of view! Problem largely created by western paranoia for fear of another possible Al Qaeda country.
If we also add to the picture that US has been supplying weapons to the different clans ( in exchange of money obviously, when in fact they were sending food aids that were promptly sold to obtain the previously mentioned money, so that they never reached the hungry population!!), we can have a fair idea of how the 'civilised' world never gave to this already tormented country a chance to reach an acceptable standard of living.

Why?

I guess the usual economic reason: ensure a pro-western control for the vital Horn of Africa, on the doorstep of many Islamic countries and densely utilised trading route.
Studies from the Australian oil researcher Range Resources, also revealed that in the north of the country (Puntland) there could be a large deposit of oil, which apparently really excited American and Chinese oil companies, with a potential production of 5-10 billions oil barrels.

The second crucial point emerged from my researches is that Somali shoreline was used by European and Asian companies as illigal dump for toxic substances.

This has been happening for decades, and still continues, causing a further deterioration of the environment, and further deaths at the expenses of the poor.

As Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for UN environmental program witnesses "the containers had different kind of waste, uranium, radioactive waste, mercury, cadmium",

which after the Tsunami of 2004 washed on the coast, provoking cancer like symptoms, skin melting and abdominal bleeding on a large scale. Again the absence of any stable government form and the preoccupation for even more serious problems like war and hunger allowed this shame to continue unpunished.
But it is not quite finished yet...

Furthermore for a not quantified period of time, Europe, Korea, China, Thailand and Yemen have been perpetrators of continuous illegal fishing in the unpatrolled waters of the Gulf of Aden, completely depriving Somali population of the only resource they had left, after the entire inland territory was reduced unusable for other productive activities.

This is the context in which 'pirates' have emerged.
In fact, they call themselves 'central region coastguards' , because of the original nature of their operating.

As K'Naan, Somali hip-hop artist and activist living in Canada explains "..local fishermen mobilized themselves, along with street militia to go into the water and deter westerners from having a free pass at completely destroy Somalian aquatic life.."
And since 1991, when the piracy began (although we've only had information about it lately..maybe a coverup for the illegal actions?), many businesses near the coastline have started and new workplaces have been created, thanks to their activity.
Now,years later, the reason might have become less noble, after the flowing of money made them greedy..but isn't it what us, western countries have been doing for centuries?
And, in specific, weren't those European and Asian firms making money when they dumped their toxic waste for a thousandth of the price? Or when fishing illegally for a total of $300 million per year (even more than the total pirate's ransom!)?
And was anybody worried about how many people were killed in the process? Nah, not really...power of the media!
So once again, who is the pirate here?! ...at least they haven't killed anybody so far..