Part I: Background

. In 2008, the number of reported piracy attacks off East Africa rose astronomically. In the first quarter of 2008, there were 11 piracy attacks in that region, rising to 23 in the second quarter and rocketing to 50 in the third and 51 in the fourth quarters, making a total of 135 attacks during 2008 (" Piracy in waters off the coast of Somalia"). There is a variety of reasons to explain why some people in the country have turned to piracy; but mainly poverty and the lack of central government to enforce laws on both its citizens and foreigners that are disobeying the law. Due to illegal fishing practices that have depleted fisheries, many fishermen became unemployed and now they have found a source of income turning their seafaring skills into piracy. Also very importantly is the fact that Somalia, as many underdeveloped nations has become a ground for industrial waste dumping generated by Europe and the United States. All these factors have left many Somalis with very little options but to turn into piracy as a form of survival and violent revolt against inequality in their desperate world.



Poverty in Somalia has been a continuing issue, due partly to the legacy of colonization as poverty is an issue in many areas of the world. Somalia has had numerous difficulties in becoming a fully independent country. The nation receives continuous aid from international organizations as the UN, WHO, UNESCO, etc., yet the nation struggles to survive. In this chaotic economy, the overwhelming majority lives under scarcity; a third of population depends on food aid. The nation also has been set back politically; it has been without a central government since 1991. Also since the early nineties there has been an increase of illegal fishing by foreign companies especially for tuna. According to the article "The "other" pirates of the horn of Africa." 700 foreign-owned companies have fully engaged in unlicensed fishing thus leaving fishermen jobless. Even more distressful is the fact that because industrialized nations produce more waste than they can handle, and as they cannot dispose of them in their own boundaries due to rigorous environmental laws, popular awareness of the effects of toxic waste and therefore opposition and restrictions simply make it easier and far cheaper to dump the waste elsewhere; meaning frequently Africa and in this case Somalia.



Due to the lack of political stability, the pirates are adopting the role of the state creating order (Evans). Pirates become criminals because of desperation for a livelihood, money, and as a reaction for what many first-world nations have in many ways provoked in Somalia.