Ever since the collapse of what passed for a legitimate government in Somalia in the early 1990s, the Horn of Africa has suffered at least two major insults.
Firstly, it has become a dumping ground for a lot of European toxic waste, including nuclear waste (a major profit center for the Italian mafia). This has been in keeping with a statement by Larry Summers (yes, that Larry Summers) that Africa was “under-polluted.” As Max Blumenthal reported in a HuffPo post last November:
On December 12, 1991, while serving as chief economist for the World Bank, Summers authored a private memo arguing that the bank should actively encourage the dumping of toxic waste in developing countries, particularly “under populated countries in Africa,” which Summers described as “UNDER-polluted.” Summers added that public outrage over the heightened rates of prostate cancer caused by his proposed dumping would be mitigated by the fact that poor people in developing countries rarely live long enough to develop prostate cancer.
Nice guy, that Larry. Very popular among the Wall Street bailout set, I hear. But I digress.
The second major consequence of Somalia’s becoming a failed state is not unrelated to the first. For centuries, the Horn’s rich fishing waters have been the chief livelihood of its inhabitants. In addition to the deleterious effects of pollution on the fisheries, without an effective coast guard, other (mostly European) nations’ fishing fleets have been free to plunder its waters.
Shiver me timbers, but that seems like major motivation for a career change.
One man’s pirate fleet is another man’s coast guard. At least in the early phases, after which something like this takes on a life of its own.
[Image credit: Don Vernon
Don Vernon’s Fine Art Pirate Gallery]
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Hi Sherry:
I did hear a Warren Olney NPR segment at noon that covered the over-fishing angle, by two different guests.
And this morning Amy Goodman interviewed a Somalian based reporter that dealt with both the fishing and dumping stories. But that’s about it. Nothing in the MSM so far that I’ve heard.
Yesterday, I watched a Fux Newsmodel who, before Capt. Phillips was rescued unharmed, get all pissy with a retired general for not buying into the wingnut “President Pantywaist” meme about how George “We Don’t Negotiate With Terrarists” Bush would have handled the situation. The general politely pointed out that these were pirates, m’am, not terrorists, with a different motivation, requiring a different strategy.
She at least had the good sense to STFU after that.
Much thanks for the information. It does change the perspective a wee bit. Sadly, the media never report the whole story on much of anything anymore. Well, perhaps that’s unfair. They probably never did.