
The truth about pirates of Somalia - hoffcoder
http://www.africaontheblog.com/the-truth-about-somali-pirates/
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muyuu
They forgot the part where they repeatedly rape female crew, and where they
murder crew for petty reasons.

Some people will feel good about "supporting the poor guy" though.

~~~
Spooky23
I think the original author's view of piracy was irrevocably tainted by
watching "Jake and the Neverland Pirates". Academic sympathy for highwaymen or
pirates is easy when they aren't trying to rob, ransom, or kill you.

They also forgot the part where the able seamen manning those ships aren't
exactly living the high lives themselves. Those sailors help captive or hurt
are supporting families back at home, and sacrifice alot to do so.

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etherael
Yeah, this is stupid.

They kidnap and murder pleasure cruising civilians on small yachts as well as
raid, rape and murder in beach side resorts in bordering countries. You'll
excuse me if I have zero sympathy.

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enko
> during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami when broken hazardous waste containers
> eventually found their way onto Somali shores leaving a large majority of
> the population suffering from various illnesses, such as radiation sickness

This sounds extremely doubtful. Tsunami-borne hazardous waste containers
breaking up in Somalia en masse? _Radioactive_ waste!? And a "large majority"
of Somalians were poisoned by this?

I don't usually like to play the wiki-pedant but a very big [citation needed]
on that.

~~~
eaurouge
The dumping of hazardous waste on third world countries isn't exactly news.
The given example may (or may not) be inaccurate but this is something that's
been going on for decades.

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icegreentea
I think its key to keep in mind a couple view points here, that all try to
minimize going to black and white.

a) Consider that in general, treating the cause is more effective than
treating the symptom, even if you find that kind of unsavoury. No doubt the
pirates have done some bad things that are (and should be!) crimes. But just
piling on the warships and spec-ops to interdict/kill all of them isn't
exactly the best way to solve it, as it appears to leave one of the root
causes of the phenomenon untouched anyways. We can draw parallels to American
street gangs. Yes, they do totally crappy stuff. But now that we bothered
studying them, we can see part of the reason of their existence is that they
fill a hole in the lives of many young people in certain situations. This by
no ways truly justifies theirs actions, but helps explains them, and
ultimately if we want to resolve the problem in a real way (beyond just
killing them all), we need to listen.

b) Worthy causes can be linked to unworthy actions. People struggle with this
all the time. Some people have trouble allowing any blemishes on the
characters that lead their cause. Other people relish in the blemishes, and
use them to discredit the entire movement. Typical examples are the slave
owning Founding Fathers, and the plagiarizing Dr Martin Luthur King.

~~~
memracom
Who knew that people would be human, and so imperfect?

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spingsprong
John steals Simon's fish.

Therefore it's okay for Simon to rob Andrew?

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eaurouge
It may not be okay, but Simon may have no choice but to steal.

Some of the things we do (in the US and other developed nations) have far-
reaching global consequences, in certain cases destroying lives and
livelihoods. But we're always outraged when these affected people react in
ways we find uncomfortable.

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stronglikedan
> Simon may have no choice but to steal

There's always a choice. Thievery is despicable.

~~~
ozy123
You can't envisage a single scenario where you would steal? Or where it was
the lesser evil?

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bausson
Wow, I was quite taken aback, expecting to read about al-quaida, got robin
hood instead.

Still, it is only one source, but having this version of this story of those
so-called pirate is definitely a plus.

~~~
stefs
i've read that while the pirates were fishermen in the beginning (who really
didn't have much choice), when people realised how profitable it was the trade
was taken over by soldiers/mercenaries. the soldier-pirates are a lot worse
than the fisherman-pirates and don't give back to the community quite as much.

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cup
On a side note, Somalia now has a semi-autonomaus transitional federal
government and is actually doing a relatively good job. Not only have they
implemented a .so domain but they're starting to organise and regulate the
booming telecommunications industry.

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ozh
"However, an eye for an eye will make the world blind"

Heh. True.

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CmonDev
Love the black strip on the top. You don't even notice it until you need it.

~~~
johnchristopher
You mean that black bar ? [http://imgur.com/KdwcTRD](http://imgur.com/KdwcTRD)

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durzagott
This is what I see: [http://imgur.com/aI79G4g](http://imgur.com/aI79G4g)

Chrome, Ubuntu 13.10

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cratermoon
Libertarian Paradise!

