Piracy, Pollution, Plunder, and the Press.

Before you accept without further scrutiny the prevailing American narrative about Somalian piracy -- that it is the savage product of anarchy, poverty, greed, and opportunistic anti-Westernism -- consider the case for a much messier scenario: one in which illegal overfishing and dumping of toxic wastes, including radioactive materials (according to the U.N. envoy to Somalia) by industrialized nations have decimated Somalian fishing waters and sickened coastal residents to the point where a nation already without a government now gives its pirates a 70 percent approval rating as protectors of the national interest.

The story itself is radioactive. Wherever it and the evidence supporting it have surfaced here and in Europe, mostly online, something close to open warfare has broken out among readers and commentators. And it should, in fact, be treated as radioactive. Unfounded and reflexive charges of such magnitude would be reckless. Unfortunately for the industrialized world, though, unfounded and reflexive denial of such charges, if they are true, is just as reckless and exponentially more harmful.

So, after you have digested the standard American accounts of ruthless Somalians on the high seas, don't even think about making up your mind until you have at least read and pondered the following:

• Johann Hari's incendiary piece in The Independent in which he writes, in part:

As soon as the [Somalian] government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence".

• The Daily Planet reprint of a 2007 African News Journal story detailing European toxic waste dumping along African coastlines, including the coast of Somalia.

• The EarthFirst account linking overfishing, waste dumping, and Somalian piracy.

• An essay by Somali-Canadian activist K'naan tracing the recent Somali history of governmental breakdown, illegal foreign fishing and toxic dumping, and the resulting rise of piracy and popular sympathy for pirates, published at the Huffington Post.

• Pieces in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times that cite the ire of Somali fishermen and pirates at alleged rampant Western illegal fishing and poisoning of the waters off Somalia, and that quote Somalis to this effect as they express their approval of pirate attacks on large vessels.

Interestingly, L.A. Times reporters Abukar Albadri and Edmund Sanders and New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman seem to show no interest in either verifying or debunking the allegations of illegal fishing, wanton pollution, and resulting coastal sickness. And that's the problem with most of the American coverage we see of the piracy crisis: as it has with terrorism, it fixates on the "sudden" spectacle of violence against Our Way of Life while showing little curiosity about how the industrialized world's role in the longer-term suffering of others may have helped lead to this impasse.

Labeling these questions as anti-American won't cut it here. Are we interested in the whole truth, or aren't we?

Comments

[Karla]

Wow. Thanks for the info Bruce

[Amanuel Malik]

It's been said, "The first victim of injustice is the truth!" Now that some of the truth about piracy is exposed, the many Somalian immigrants who live in the Minnesota area can breath easy in finding partial explanation as to why their children are being born autistic or with some sort of birth defects. The trouble with exposing the truth about any injustice is, one thing to know it, but another to make sure justice is served eventually. The capitalists got their fill. Who will advocate for the parents who are stuck with defective children? You and I, the informed ones. A quick question before I quit: in whose perspective is Johann Hari's piece in the Independent deemed "incendiary?"

Amanuel

[Bruce A Jacobs]

I think Hari's piece was incendiary. That's a good thing. It ignited necessary questions on all sides of the issue, and it inflamed passions in a realm where Europeans and Americans have come to feel far too innocent and righteous.

Thanks, too, for your (and others') appreciation of Soul Priority.