Personal Post 4

With this whole kony thing that's been going on recently it reminded me of a book I read this summer on the pirates of Somalia. It's by a now famous Canadian journalist named Jay Bahadur who decided to travel to Somalia to do his dissertation on a topic that was very popular but that he felt was only getting limited publicity, and the publicity it was getting was just sensational press. For those of you that are interested in these types of topics I highly recommend this book because it's one of the most informative, well written pieces I have ever read. He covers every aspect of pirating and the reason it came about. So how does this relate to kony? Well, I'm not exactly sure, but it did make me aware of the irony of western culture and civilization. Does anyone know why there was suddenly an upsurge in pirating in the middle of such a war torn country? Wouldn't you think that they would be more interested in stabilizing their country? You would think. But in order to have a stable country you need a source of income. That's where the problem lies. For hundreds of years the people of Somalia have relied on fishing as a source of income and food. It was their livelihood. Then, in the middle of a civil war, when food and income was a huge priority, illegal fishing trawlers from Japan and Europe and even Canada started fishing their shores. Suddenly they were destroying habitat and taking all of the fish, and the government couldn't do anything because all its resources were being used in the war. The fishermen started to get angry; wouldn't you? They decided they weren't going to sit by as their only source of sustinence was taken away and decided to take action. At first they held boats hostage just as a way of showing the other countries not to mess with them, and to have some sort of justice, but as newer generations came along they realized they could make a lot of money on the ransoming the ships and that's where we are today. Now for the ironic part. Why did this whole pandemic start? Because rich countries like ourselves were taking fish from poor countries like Africa. This is why I have a hard time supporting government and big businesses and stuff, because at the end of the day, no matter what their mission statements are, or what they supposedly believe, there's always a bottom line- money. Who can make the most money? Is it morally wrong to take from a country that already has nothing? You bet, but they have the best resources. If they go in and take what they want will there be consequences? No, because they have the bigger guns, and the better government, and more money. Then, when suddenly the people you're stealing from don't let themselves be walked all over it's as if they came out of the blue and are doing it for no reason. Before I read this book I had heard a little on the Somali pirates, but only about western side of it, how they were asking for millions of dollars to ransom ships and how businesses were shutting down because they couldn't meet the demands the pirates were asking. After reading the book I realized the amount of propaganda in the media, and how one sided news is. The people who shout above the rest are the ones heard, and the ones with the most money are the ones controlling everything. This is why I am sometimes cynical when it comes to the governments response and the western civilizations response to helping Africa. Sure, a lot of whats going on is atrocious and something needs to be done, but a lot of the time we were as much of the problem as they were. Did we really need to take fish from an already poor country? I think if the excess of wealth we have here was spread to other less fortunate countries there'd be so much less conflict. Instead, the bullies take everything, and when the light gets shined on them they feel remorseful and try to make amends with the people they bullied.