The idea of piracy has made a sensational comeback in popular culture and world politics in the last several years. Hollywood has cashed in millions of dollars popularizing the old mischief. I have attended enough pirate themed children birthday parties to start to consider pirates lovable rascals.

That’s until the Somali pirates enter the picture and ruin the facade for all of us. The news of teenage Somali pirates has infiltrated the airwaves around the world, coming to its climax a few weeks ago with the murderous act of the U.S military. With what is called a ‘failed state’, we have come to expect anything from Somalia. Piracy is not the worst of them. After all, it has been drummed into our psyche that we humans are self destructing beings if not watched over by the more prudent amongst us, such as governments, despite how tyrannical. Lo and behold, Somalis don’t have one.

Such is the picture that is being painted for us of the Somali pirates. A bunch of unruly teenagers causing trouble on high sea. Given our modern education/conditioning that the state is our guardian, the image of Somali pirates quickly conjures thoughts of undisciplined and out of control children. The corporate media relentlessly drives that idea home.

Not surprisingly, not much in this world is so black and white. The piracy issue at the Horn has a few other more plausible causes than failed state, unruly teenagers and/or thievery. Among them, the following three are worth discussing: food procurement, toxic dumping and falling shipping rates.

Fish as Food

Once Somali fishermen had thriving businesses supplying fish to other Somalis. This once thriving fish market at the Horn has been brought down by another form of piracy, overfishing by non-local fishermen. Since the collapse of Somali’s central government, the country has not had adequate coast guard. This has allowed organized and well funded fishermen who can travel the long distance to steal fish from Somali coastlines. As there is no regulation as to how much to fish, the thieves get to fish to their heart’s delight. It is estimated that over $300 million worth fish has been stolen from the Somali coast. As a result, Somali fishermen are rendered without income, and more importantly the struggling nation is left without its once abundant food source. Food became scarce and starvation ensued. They complained, and no one listened. Western governments with their loud mouth media outlets blamed warlords, Islamic militants, etc. and moved on to their next act.

Toxic Dumping

Once the fish source was depleted, the next destructive force appeared in forms of toxic nuclear waste dumping at the beleaguered coast. Unmarked ships started to flock towards the coast from Europe with their toxic cargo looking for darkness and unmonitored areas of the coast to relieve themselves. Most of this toxic waste originated from European factories that contracted the services of the Italian mafia to do the dirty work. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of toxic waste was dumped in the warm waters of the Somali coastline. The effects of the 2005 Tsunami damaged some of these barrels and washed the toxic waste that includes lead, mercury and other radioactive heavy metals ashore. Soon after, Somalis started seeing the effect of this inhumanity in forms of strange diseases and children that were being born malformed. They complained, and no one listened.

Falling Shipping Rates

At the beginning of 2009, the shipping companies who have been involved in dumping the toxic waste for next to nothing have seen their shipping rates falling literary down to nothing. Their next best idea was insurance scam. By now they have noticed that Somalis have organized volunteer coastguard and have started to patrol the area, at times seizing some ships and confiscating the cargo. It didn’t take much creativity to present oneself as a bait to these makeshift coastguards. This ensued the insurance payouts. The pirates got paid an increment from such claims. The shipping companies got paid much more than they would have if they were just transporting cargo. The insurance companies didn’t mind it either, because they sold more insurance policies using the scare and increased premiums on their existing ones. A win win situation for all who were looking for a quick cash flow. That is until the cowboys arrived.

The Cowboys

The U.S. military has no vested interest in commerce in the region. It does have a mounting interest in the strategic location of the Horn. Lacking any compelling reason for a military build up in the region, the U.S. government has been trying to get a foot hold in the region for years now. Along the lines of some concoction like War on Terror, the U.S. started beating war drums, this time a Global War on Piracy. To that end, they sent a highly trained killing machine, the Navy Seals, to the region to rescue a small merchant ship held hostage by scarcely armed Somali teenagers. The ensuing media coverage was blinding. Every maneuver that was being made by the inept Somali teenagers was breaking news in the western hemisphere. The inevitable happened a few days later, sparing us all of the nauseating coverage. The cowboys fired. The cowboys shot. The drama was over. Not before a case was made for a need for increased military presence in the region, however.

Such is the story of modern piracy. Not so much different from the piracy of yonder years in its inception and promogulation. In the 18th century, overworked, underpaid and dehumanized shipmates of the British empire mutinied and took control of the hell on water on which their exploitation was realized. From then on, they built what is now known as the golden age of piracy with all its tales of egalitarian societies on high seas. Right before his public hanging in Charleston, South Carolina the renown pirate William Scott said, ‘What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live.’ Piracy has never been a problem on its own. It has, however, always been a symptom and desperate reaction to much bigger underlying problems. The act of Somali pirates is a reaction to such underlying problems that are facing their nation and their existence. They have been crying for help, but no one listens.