The New York Times reports that religious leaders are helping to form an anti-pirate movement, now underway in Somalia, and the Toyota Surf joins the Auto Hall of Infamy.
Grass-roots, antipirate militias are forming. Sheiks and government leaders are embarking on a campaign to excommunicate the pirates, telling them to get out of town and preaching at mosques for women not to marry these un-Islamic, thieving “burcad badeed,” which in Somali translates as sea bandit.
Interestingly, a pirates council called “the Corporation” is responding to the pressure.
Puntland pirates, driving Toyota Surfs, … the pirate ride of choice, arrived at an elder’s house in Garoowe to make their case.
“Negotiation is our religion,” said one pirate, Abdirizak Elmi Abdullahi.
Funny, no body is talking about the illegal fishing and dumping by foreign states. This side of the story was totally suppressed (compared to the piracy).
That’s because no one ever wants to solve the roots of societies problems! Just treat the symptoms, its less work, makes you feel better but doesn’t cure the problem.
The environmental justice arguments only go so far with a hostile group like the Somalian pirates. Nobody is going to give them relief (I hope) until they agree to lay down arms.
Question: are they terrorists or rebels? Its certainly not hard to call them terrorists, but the US has been willing to negotiate, so I suspect they currently do not currently fall under the terrorist rubric. Are they rebels with a cause? Nope. No cause, just ransom $$.
The thing started out (at least partially) by local fisherman who were chasing away foreign fishing vessels and possible ships that were illegally dumping toxic waste that ended up on their shores. This blew into full blown business, possibly because they had nothing to lose and having a chance to win one million dollars seemed like a good idea at the time which attracted additional labor force and competition.
And I would argue that by the definition of US Army handbook, they are terrorists, because they are asserting their will upon civilian population for economic gain. Sounds familiar?