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Monday 13 April 2009
You are being lied to about pirates

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”.

Notes

  1. stef-lee reblogged this from bingoparaphernalia
  2. bingoparaphernalia reblogged this from smart-tart and added:
    Everyone should read this.
  3. artentist reblogged this from shawnblog
  4. inetmac reblogged this from shawnblog and added:
    I really wonder how much of this is true? I guess I wouldn’t be at all suprised if it was 100% true. Sad really, makes...
  5. roryorear reblogged this from unburyingthelead and added:
    Great article. “Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and...
  6. smart-tart reblogged this from unburyingthelead
  7. unburyingthelead reblogged this from vruz
  8. bluenemesis reblogged this from butterflyeffects
  9. petuniamarmoset reblogged this from butterflyeffects and added:
    I am so glad someone posted this. I was trying to find something about it last night, and couldn’t seem to find...
  10. microbatdynamo reblogged this from butterflyeffects
  11. butterflyeffects reblogged this from shawnblog and added:
    In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and...
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