When I first read about this matter I exclaimed "this is what I'm talking about, it's not always black and white" pounding my fist on the desk, my partner looked at me and said you're thinking way to hard again. To the contrary this really takes very little thought. It only takes desire, the desire to observe every angle of a problem even if it means you may find some blood on your own hands.
We are all familiar with the recent stand off between the U.S. Navy and Somali Pirates where a hostage was saved from his nightmarish ordeal trapped inside a life boat. We agree that what the Pirates did was illegal, innocent lives were endangered and justice was served...but was it? "After the Somali government collapsed in the early 1990's industrial nations and corporations including the West encroached on their sovereign waters and began catching and hauling all the fish they could carry. This went on for years until fish populations of course became depleted. To add insult to injury industrialized nations used Somali waters as nuclear dumping grounds. These activities continued with impunity for years. The ramifications of toxic dumping hit full force with the 2005 tsunami, when leaking barrels were washed ashore, sickening hundred and causing birth defects in newborn infants. Meanwhile, the uncontrolled fishing harvests damaged the economic livelihoods of Somali fishermen and eroded the country's supply of a primary food source. This is when the piracy began."
When the media started going ape $#!+ over piracy should we have expected anything less from a people placed in this position by powers of nations who for all intents and purposes raped them while they were down? Where was the mighty U.S. Navy to defend these people's right to sustenance? Why were Western industrialized nations and corporations dumping toxic waste in Somali waters knowing full well it was illegal and knowing full well the likely hood of contamination? We stood by and did nothing! Something that would have actually mattered in this world and before the eyes of God if you are a believer and we turned our backs. Why? I'll tell you why, because it just didn't effect us ENOUGH! That's why. It wasn't until piracy began to disrupt oil tanker traffic that the U.S. turned it's eye on Somalia like the fiery eye in The Lord of The Rings searching for Frodo. Oh hey they're F'ing around with our oil we need to get these sons a b*tches. Outrageous! We should be ashamed of our selves. Instead of casting Somalia in a light of chaotic evil which only lives to wound civilization for it's own purposes we should openly recognize the problem and fix what we had a hand in destroying.
Fiorelli
I find it hard to believe that toxic materials were dumped off any shore. You have the Mariana straights, anything sinking to the bottom of the trench would never be coming to the surface again
1The Horn of Africa has been known for its pirates for decades. It is only now that ships basically run by computers, and moronic laws about armed ships entering too many ports. So you have a handful of men unarmed on a ship worth 10's of millions of dollars, it is just to good to let go by.
2Well the Somali's don't have nuclear waste so it's certainly not theirs. One doesn't have to make much of a leap to imagine where it came from.
3Piracy on that coast goes back more then decades. Its been going on for over a century.
4Interesting article. I notice that the author offers no proof to his outrageous claims.
5Of course piracy has been going on, it's been going on for hundreds of years. The point of the article is why the spike in Somali piracy? After their fish harvest was depleted and their beaches became contaminated with industrialized waste Somali piracy jumped dramatically in the following years. The point is pretty evident to me.
6"A United Nations report in 2006 said that, in the absence of the country's at one time serviceable coastguard, Somali waters have become the site of an international "free for all," with fishing fleets from around the world illegally plundering Somali stocks and freezing out the country's own rudimentarily-equipped fishermen. According to another U.N. report, an estimated $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from the country's coastline each year."
I admit sometimes the truth does sting but the truth is the truth.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892376,00.html
7The point may be evident, but is it true? If it is, then why didn't we hear about it years ago, when it was first going on? I get the feeling there are other reasons for what's going on, but this is a convenient excuse.
8Okay...the anger is justified BUT should the anger be pointed at the US?
Did WE (the US) deplete their fishing?
Were WE (the US) the ones dumping toxic waste?
Are WE (the US) supposed to police the entire world of ALL injustices?
Those who did this should be accountable but by WHOM and at what cost?
Somalia has been a frightening example of what happens when a nation's natural water table is used up. It is a vicious circle of events. No drinking water--no crops--people die--look for other means of survival--when that is gone---resort to violence.
We can look forward to this happening soon (I predict within the next 10 yrs if nothing is done to prevent it) In Asia...specifically China, Japan, and the Koreas. Piracy is already there now BUT not near as bold because they have not reached the same level of despair/need/demand=increased violence.
9Well UnDave if you want to dispute a U.N. report by all means go knock your self out at U.N. Plaza. It is not a far fetched idea IMO that unprotected waters would be taken advantage of in this manner.
The article from Huffington Post was actually a pointed criticism at the commercial media for not bringing enough light and specifics to the Somali situation years ago and only when it became a U.S. vs. Somali Pirate situation was a commercial media light shown on Somalia but the whole story was never told. It was just bad Somali pirates vs. the U.S. That is the authors criticism and a legitimate one at that.
As for the anger towards the U.S. that's my mainly on my behalf. Here is a situation we should have been involved in, protecting a food source and sovereign waters of a people who were not in a place to protect it for themselves. We should have had the foresight and wisdom enough to know the out come of allowing their waters to be fished out and their shores contaminated.
10USA! USA! USA!
11If it is nuclear waste, physicists should be able to determine EXACTLY where they came from. The nation responsible could and should be be easily identifiable. As to the validity of a U.N. studies, i am less then impressed on any of their objectivity as far as collecting data, let alone interpreting that data. NO ONE, no university researcher of ANY university no matter how prestigious anywhere in the world, can get to review the actual data collection techniques, and raw data collected. That is unheard of at the university level.
12The only nations that have fleets world wide are Russian and Japan. Those two nations are literally stripping the oceans of of schooling fish. Japan uses weather satellites to follow the ocean currents and water temperature. They know what temperature and at what depth various food fish prefer, and direct their fleets to those locations. Those schools have no safe place or time to reproduce at the levels that are self sustaining. Russia is notorious for it's fleets fishing as close as to a countries as international law allows, or until confronted.
13As an avid scuba diver I can tell you first hand what I have seen off every coast I have been in...literal raping of the ocean floor for trinkets to sell to tourists.
Please refuse to buy ANYTHING with seashells on it and TELL the owner why you aren't buying their wares.
The world as a whole does not comprehend the impact of our oceans and our lives. The ocean dies we will follow.
Every heavy rain which takes pesticides out to see brings with it death to marine life. The poison chokes the oxygen out of the water killing the plant life...the plant life many animals require to survive...then the marine life that depends on them...it is a circle of destruction that has almost completely destroyed miles of the Gulf of Mexico/Texas reefs....and that is OUR back yard.
While I feel for Somalia and their strife I see it as a international warning that our oceans MUST be protected. Those who are dumping nuclear or any other destructive media must be accountable.
Many people have no idea how much THEY impact the ocean. There is a three mile wide/three mile deep trash island between the US and Asia. Wonder how that got there? They found plastic containers from all over the world there.
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