Regards X.. ======= S1000+ =======
--- On Sat, 4/11/09, xi <[email protected]> wrote: From: xi <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Who are the true priates Somalians or Americans? To: "World-thread" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, April 11, 2009, 8:28 AM Thank you very much for your post. I makes me think about. Peace and best wishes. Xi On Apr 11, 5:16 pm, "Sumerian.." <[email protected]> wrote: > We are being lied to about pirates' off Somalia. > > Posted by seafan in Latest Breaking News > > Mon Mar 23rd 2009 > > http://journals. democraticunderg round.com/ seafan/2959 > > CNN reports today that > > Pirates attacked a Japanese cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Sunday, a > Japanese Transportation Ministry official said. > > A pair of small pirate vessels fired on a ship operated by Mitsui > O.S.K. Lines about 4 p.m. Somali time (9 a.m. ET), damaging the front > of the ship, but not seriously, according to Masami Suekado. > > ..... > > Then, CNN goes on to declare this: > > The exact number and makeup of the crew were not immediately known, although > none of the crew members is Japanese, Suekado said. > > Pirating off Somalia has increase over the past four or five years as > fishermen from Somalia realize that pirating is more lucrative. > > ..... > > One cannot let that deliberate manipulation of the truth stand. > > === > > Some are clearly just gangsters. But others are trying to stop illegal > dumping and trawling > > Johann Hari: You are being lied to about pirates > > Monday, 5 January 2009 > > http://www.independ > ent.co.uk/ opinion/commenta tors/johann- hari/johann- hari-you- > are-being- lied-to-about- pirates-1225817. html > > Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a > new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed > by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is > sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as > parrot-on-the- shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting > Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the > most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness > of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments > are labelling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an > extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side. > > Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age > of piracy" – from 1650 to 1730 – the idea of the pirate as the > senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the > British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people > believed it was false: pirates were often saved from the gallows by > supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can't? In his book > Villains Of All Nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the > evidence. > > If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – plucked from the docks > of London's East End, young and hungry – you ended up in a floating > wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and > if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the > Cat O' Nine Tails. If you slacked often, you could be thrown overboard. > And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of > your wages. > > Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They > mutinied – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once > they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their > decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out > in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the > disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth > century". > > They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. > The pirates showed "quite clearly – and subversively – that ships did > not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant > service and the Royal Navy." This is why they were romantic heroes, > despite being unproductive thieves. > > The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called > William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he > was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to > keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirateing to live." In > 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have > been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the > Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the > country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas. > > Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the 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". > > No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are > clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food > Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate > leaders, Sugule Ali: "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We > consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our > seas." William Scott would understand. > > Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, > paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in > restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes > – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the > fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent > of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats. > > The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another > pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured > and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant > by keeping possession of the sea." The pirate smiled, and responded: > "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a > petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great > fleet, are called emperor." Once again, our great imperial fleets sail > – but who is the robber? > > j.h...@independent. co.uk > > === > > UN envoy decries illegal fishing, waste dumping off Somalia > > http://afp.google. com/article/ ALeqM5gVV_ gQDsp1m8v7nPcumV c5McYV-Q > > UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The UN special envoy for Somalia on Friday > sounded the alarm about rampant illegal fishing and the dumping of > toxic waste off the coast of the lawless African nation. > > "Because there is no (effective) government, there is so much irregular > fishing from European and Asian countries," Ahmedou Ould Abdallah told > reporters. > > He said he had asked several international non-governmental > organizations, including Global Witness, which works to break the links > between natural resource exploitation, conflict, corruption, and human > rights abuses worldwide, "to trace this illegal fishing, illegal > dumping of waste." > > "It is a disaster off the Somali coast, a disaster (for) the Somali > environment, the Somali population," he added. > > Ould Abdallah said the phenomenon helps fuel the endless civil war in > Somalia as the illegal fishermen are paying corrupt Somali ministers or > warlords for protection or to secure fake licenses. > > East African waters, particularly off Somalia, have huge numbers of > commercial fish species, including the prized yellowfin tuna. > > Foreign trawlers reportedly use prohibited fishing equipment, including > nets with very small mesh sizes and sophisticated underwater lighting > systems, to lure fish to their traps. > > "I am convinced there is dumping of solid waste, chemicals and probably > nuclear (waste).... There is no government (control) and there are few > people with high moral ground," Ould Abdallah added. > > Allegations of waste dumping off Somalia by European companies have > been heard for years, according to Somalia watchers. The problem was > highlighted in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami when broken > hazardous waste containers washed up on Somali shores. > > But world attention has recently focused on piracy off Somalia, which > has taken epidemic proportions since the country sank into chaos after > warlords ousted the late president Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. > > Somalia's coastal waters are now considered to be among the most > dangerous in the world, with more than 25 ships seized by pirates there > last year despite US navy patrols, according to the International > Maritime Bureau. > > Some Somali pirates have reportedly claimed to be acting as > "coastguards" protecting their waters from illegal fishing and dumping > of toxic waste. > > Ould Abdallah cited the case of a Spanish trawler captured by pirates while > illegally fishing for tuna off Somalia in April. > > He said payment of a ransom for the release of the crew "was done in a > very sophisticated manner" with the pirates arranging by phone "to be > paid in Macau." > > The Spanish government said in late April that it paid no ransom to > secure the release of the crew of the Playa de Bakio after six days of > captivity. But Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya chapter of the Seafarers > Assistance Program then said a ransom of 1.2 million dollars (768,000 > euros) was paid. > > On Friday, Estonia urged the European Union to take stronger action > against Somali pirates attacking cargo ships bound for Europe, after an > Estonian sailor was held hostage for 41 days. > > On Sunday pirates seized a 52,000-tonne Japanese vessel and its 21 crew > members off the Somali coast. > > ************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *** > > WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE > > To subscribe to this group, send an email to: > > wvns-subscribe@ yahoogroups. com > > ======= > S1000+ > ======= > > --- On Sat, 4/11/09, Neil van der Linden <[email protected]> wrote: --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World-thread" group. 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