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On Pirates

I've written out a couple of posts about the pirates who have been seizing vessels off the Somalian coast. In recent weeks, pirates (likely to be from similar groups) have taken control of even more vessels, including those belonging to the United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

Now an American captain has been held hostage by the pirates, prompting the US to send in warships to "monitor the situation".

I still hold my reservations about how the general problem of piracy is being acknowledged and responded to. I will ask the same questions I asked in a previous post about this:

1. Incentive
I think it would be tremendously helpful to try to find out what is driving these pirates to seize vessels. They have held anything from lethal arms, to oil, to food aid. In my view, it seems to always come down to ransom, hence it seems the pirates are looking for money. They do not seem to want to hurt anyone (a recent BBC article mentions "pirates holding a US captain hostage have warned that using force to rescue him could result in 'disaster'"). So if it's money, we should be asking ourselves, why do these pirates use coercive means to get money? What prevents them from earning regular wages from employment? Or is it a question of whether or not they have the freedom to do so?

2. Leadership
Who do the pirates work for? Do they work for themselves? Or are they truly connected with Al-Shabab, which in recent weeks has been said to be in close ties with Al Qaida? Tracking down the leadership of these pirates is likely to provide answers to question number 1 above.

3. Accountability
OK, so its clear that there are French, Russian, US and even more eyes on the situation - literally. There's ships carrying enough arms to start a small-scale yet destructive war out on the Somalian coast. So, what really is going on? When any hostage situation with the pirates is "resolved", and the time comes for the pirates to hand over a hostage, who is held accountable after the hostage is released? Do the pirates just walk (sail?) away, and the warships go back home? Who is responsible for letting the pirates keep doing what they do? The Somali government seems to be inequipped to stop them, but if foreign governments are trying to use force to obtain their vessels back, what can they do to help prevent this from ever happening again?

It keeps happening - today the pirates seized another ship. So I feel like we might not be asking the right questions about the pirates. Moreso, I feel like this has a lot to do with geopolitical power play, with some of the most militarily powerful countries in the world surrounding the situation and watching eachother more than they're watching the pirates.

Either way, this is my opinion. These are questions that have been running through my head since I first read about the pirates taking control of ships. Comments are healthy for discussion, so feel free to say something if you stopped by to read this.

Till next time, carpe diem.
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