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.
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.
> 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.
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.
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.
If Andrew didn't help Simon taking back his fish or prevent the stealing even though he knew about it then John has to conclude it's a free for all game with stealing allowed (or not punished, which doesn't change the outcome anyway).
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.
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.
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.
Some people will feel good about "supporting the poor guy" though.