Piracy

**PIRACY AT SEAS ** toc





= = = = = = = = = History = ==

“Yo ho, yo ho A pirate’s life for me.” Long before Errol Flynn buckled on a sword or Johnny Depp sailed the Caribbean, the popular image of the pirate has been of a dashing rogue fighting for love, redemption or adventure even as he seeks fortune. At one time or another most every child and adult has sung that catchy tune to themselves or out loud when playing pirates. Even today, the word pirate continues to conjure up images of swashbuckling men scampering across the decks of sailing of old.  According to Marc Nucup, curator of "Swashbuckler: The Romance of the Pirate exhibit, when people think about pirates or see imagery that invokes pirates they are not thinking about the real individual, such as Blackbeard or Bartholomew Roberts. Instead, they are thinking about what has come out of books or movies. Many sports teams have pirates as mascots, advertisers use pirates to make products such as beer or rum seem much more exotic. Disney has capitalized and this marketing phenomenon with its Pirates of the Caribbean movies as well as pirate merchandise, publications, video games, and attractions at four of its Disney Theme Parks to the tune of a multi-billion dollar industry. To date, the movies have grossed over 2.7 billion dollars. Before the romancing of the pirate there was reality. Since the invention of the sailing vessel, piracy has prevailed. Ever since the time of Julius Caesar, piracy has been a global threat. During his lifetime, Julius Caesar was once held captive for ransom by a group of pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. After he escaped and began to rule Rome, he hunted down the pirates that held him captive and had them executed (“Piracy at Sea”). In the meanwhile, powerful pirates continued   to sail the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Barbary Corsairs controlled the western Mediterranean Sea while the Vikings terrorized the European coastline. Once the Spanish Conquistadors began to bring gold, silver and other treasures from the New World back to Europe and supplies from Europe to the New World, pirates found a whole new area to explore. England added to this problem when Queen Elizabeth of England made her best sailors privateers and granted them permission to plunder and loot in the name and honor of England. Sir John Hawkins, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Captain Kidd became privateers and eventually pirates because it was easy. Thus began the Golden Age of Piracy which lasted until about 1730 in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea when colonial governments focused on ending pirate activity. Even with the actions of these pirates fresh in their minds, poets and writers of the 1800s glamorized their lifestyle. In 1814 Lord Byron published his poem “The Corsair” about a pirate captain that sold 10,000 copies in London on the first day of release and in 1822 Sir Walter Scott published his novel “The Pirate.” Throughout the ages crime on the high seas has been an ever growingsom problem; people see piracy the plundering ships for goods and ransom as a business enterprise. Why do they do it? The answer to that is simple, because it is something that they can actually do to make money, and even simpler than that, because they can. Today, the main problems of piracy appear off the coast of the state of Somalia. Shipman Juma Monita, a native Tanzanian, said, he is used to life at sea and will sail just about anywhere in the world. However, if you mention to this firm, sturdy man sailing along the Somali coast, it will strike fear into even the smallest bones of his body (Lacey). More recently, after the attacks that have been going on since 2007, “The International Maritime Bureau has declared the Somali coast one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world (Lacey).” [] Currently, nothing is being done to protect these sailors in the waters off the coast of Somalia (Motlagh). There have been attempts to address this ever growing problem. However, many of the pirate hijackings have occurred over three hundred and fifty nautical miles of the coast of Somalia, not just right of shore. The primary motive for pirate actions is money. Pirates demand millions of dollars in ransom in exchange for the returning of the crew and goods on the ship. For example, Somali pirates recently freed the Maran Centarus, a Greek flag bearing oil tanker carrying over twenty one million barrels of oil for a record breaking ransom (Mogadishu). The ransom for the release of the Maran Centarus and its twenty eight crew members w as dropped by a plane and estimated to be a record ransom between five and a half and seven million dollars (Mogadishu). Even though measures have tried to be taken to try to put a stop to piracy, nothing has happened. Recently, a two day event was hosted in Lyon, France by INTERPOL, establish guidelines regarding piracy. According to INTERPOL, “the two-day conference (19-20 January) aims to formulate and provide the international community with a cross-sector platform for information-sharing and alerts on the financial aspects related to maritime piracy cases, and in particular to identify key money trails and networks (“INTERPOL”). The conference attendees drafted a resolution to establish an INTERPOL base near the Somali coast which would consist of an international peace keeping force that protect merchant ships from hijacking. Today, most people view piracy as something that they can just put off until later. People need to address the issue of piracy as it is becoming a more global threat today and could become an inhibitor to globalization. If not, piracy will continue to grow, from the growth of that problem, will come even more problems which will make the situation even worse. Piracy needs to be viewed by the world today as a true global crime issue. However, today all people want to see pirates as are swashbuckling men sailing the seven seas fleeing Davy Jones and drinking lots and lots of rum. In fact, people today have taken piracy to much worse extremes. Kids today love to dress up in pirate costumes in pretend like their Captain Jack Sparrow. Currently, Nauticus is featuring the, “Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the //Whydah// from Slave Ship (“Real”).” Understand that while the intention of this new exhibit might be to inform people about the true history of piracy on the high seas, all it will really do is give young children an opportunity to experience what it might have been to live and even dress like a pirate from the 1800s. As with all global issues, there are causes and effects to what causes and what will happen as a result of piracy. One of the main causes in my mind is of course, money. Money makes that world go round and the pirates of the modern world and the world yester year knew that if they plundered ships, they could get money. If you look at the country of Somalia today, approximately seventy-one percent of its over nine million people are employed in primary sector occupations. The GDP per capita, according to the CIA Fact book, was in 2009 six hundred US dollars, per capita. The effect of this problem is that people need money and they are going to do what it takes to get money. One of the methods that they turn to is crime on the high seas. In 2009, piracy attacks reportedly doubled almost 200 percent in previous years. The pirates have now begun to display more and more hijackings all in attempts and making a vast fortune. Some of the plans of the pirates to get rich have even worked as some hijacked ships were held for ransom at over five million dollars and climbing daily.

= The Effects of Piracy =

Piracy started ever since the first boats were made. When the “new world” was found, there were ships that traveled from Europe to the Americas. Most times where trade ships would go can be a risk in running into a pirate ship. Julius Caesar, before he was emperor, he was known to be captured by Cilician pirates when sailing though the Aegean Sea”//Bengala//”. This made him really mad. When he had power, he raised a navy and found the pirates. He captured them and killed each and every one of them. There are many reasons that cause piracy to happen. But what effected by piracy is that governments loses money, companies using transport ships that gets raided loses money, aned people' lives are efestted. Countries and companies lose a lot of money by paying ransoms to pirates. In 2007 there were ship mates taken as hostage 292, and kidnap for ransom at 63. In 2008, the numbers grew in hostage counts to 889, kidnap for ransom 42. Usually when the pirate demands a ransom; the companies pay it because they do not wish for the crew members of their ship to be hurt or killed. But in April 2009 a U.S. container ship the //Maersk Alabama// was attacked by Somali pirates. Their captain gave himself up as hostage so that his crew may go. After they left, the crew went to a Kenyan Port. They notified the nevy and safelly rescued the captain "//Bengala//". Attempts are being made to stop piracy at seas so the ships may travel to and from destinations = = safely. The European Union took upon the responsibility to go and stop the piracy in the Somalia area. Along with this, many other countries, such as China and Japan, has involve themselves with the piracy issue in Samolia.


 * What is effected :**
 * In Somalia, almost all the coastal villages are supporting piracy at sea.


 * Being a pirate in Somalia is usually socially acceptable.


 * Young Somali boys wants to be a pirate. Most of the Somali pirates are young, between 20 and 35 years of age. So it's easily recruiting young men who have no work and making money is a big thing


 * Many people and government lose money. On an average Somali pirates collect a ransom of $2 million for each captured vessel.


 * Somali pirates have money; they have power; and they are getting stronger day by day.


 * Special restaurants have come up to supply food for the crews of the hijacked ships.


 * For a Somali woman it is considered lucky to marry a pirate. But for some, pirates are looked down upon.


 * Pirates have money so they can support a family.

= Video =

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= Possible Solution =

For 2000 years, piracy at sea has been a serious problem all around the world. From sea robbers who stole from the Ancient Greeks (Royal) to Ching Shih, a woman who was in command of over 80,000 pirates along the coast of China precisely two hundred years ago. (Royal) It may be a different time, but the source of piracy remains the same. For many years, poverty has been the reason many people resort to piracy and today Somalia, the epitome of poverty in Africa, is the center of modern day piracy. Everyday both privately owned as well as government owned ships are being hijacked and hostages and cargo are kept for ransom. The question is how can the problem of piracy at sea be stopped? There are many ways to answer this question, but most of them involve the Navy and that comes with a lot of risks being that the Somali pirates are very experienced so, according to Abukar Arman not involving the military is the best way to solve piracy at sea. Piracy began as an act of protest against European and Asian based fishing companies who were illegally fishing in Somali waters depleting sea life in the waters. (Arman) Eventually, the de facto Somali coast guard was formed to prevent these “fishing mafias” from abusing Somali sea resources and to prevent mercenary ships from dumping toxic waste into the water .(Arman) “ Leaders of the partnership gave interviews to the international media challenging the conventional wisdom that identified their acts as "piracy" and the monies they collected as "ransom." This claim not only helped to present a moral argument in defense of the partnership's illegal activities, but it enabled them to score a few public relations points.” (Arman) Even though the reasons this problem began are righteous, the hijacking of ships is beginning to interrupt international trade as well as aid for starving Somali citizens. Anti- piracy forces have been put to work and have been successful at capturing some of the Somali pirates, but their efforts have not been enough to remove the threat of piracy around Somalia. (BBC) Other anti- piracy forces, like the Danish owned company As Solutions, are working to protect the ships coming through the pirate infested Gulf of Aden by working with local authorities as well as Kenya and Tanzania to ensure that every vessel passing through has a safe journey, but year by year pirate attacks become more sophisticated. Recently the attacks have not only been in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, but far into the Indian Ocean and by patrolling ship lanes rather than trying to block suspected pirates from leaving the ports, navies are putting themselves at risk of being attacked. Once way to ameliorate this problem is to control piracy from land, (Gvosdev) but some companies and governments are willing to pay ransoms instead. Another possible solution to the problem of piracy at sea would be to i ntroduce a U.N. resolution that mandates a massive international effort to clean the countless barrels and containers of radioactive materials dumped in Somali waters (Arman) which is one of the reasons that the de facto Somali coast guard formed. When the waste is gone, then the pirates will loose their rising support and their numbers will lessen gradually over time. Also, the U.S can help the Somali government build their own navy so that they can prevent pirates from hijacking foreign ships, as well as preventing foreign companies from hyper- fishing in Somalia waters. If these don’t work then one can one can use passive defense like Captain Peter Stapleton did when the British cargo ship, the Boularibank, was attacked by pirates while sailing through the Gulf of Aden on it’s way back home to the British port of Hull. Two attack boats were launched from a trawler that was acting as the pirates' mother ship. (Keane) The ship was too large to escape from it’s attackers so Captain Stapleton prepared to defend his ship. When the pirates realized that no one was going to surrender shots were fired, but no one was injured. In order to defend the ship, the captain and crew threw 10- foot long pieces of timber on to the pirate boats driving them back. "My bottom line was I don't want to kill anybody but I want to put them off boarding my ship so if you drop them in the water in front of a speed boat he has got to pull away from you, he cannot go over it. So that was the thinking all the time. Passive defence." The captain said in an interview with Fregal Keane from BBC Radio 4. He was later awarded a Merchant Navy Metal for bravery and he still sails that route. There has not been a successful hijacking in the since July in the Gulf of Aden (BBC), Somali pirates still pose a serious threat to international trade. By blocking the pirates availability to the sea and by helping the Somali navy prevent pollution and illegal activity in the Gulf, the Somali pirates may not hold a threat any longer.

=** Piracy Causes and Effects **=


 * Piracy, is a known fact to many of us. It is occurring today in many places, and it has caused international worry. However, can we all say that we know what piracy is? Well piracy in the form I wish to talk about, is the overwhelming and taking of goods from other ships on the sea for economic and personal pleasure. So what exactly are some of the causes of piracy? What are some of the effects that have evolved from it? What actions are being taken in order to stop Piracy? First I would like to point out some of the possible causes to Piracy. Much piracy has occurred off the coast of Somalia. Some people believe that the reasons for the pirate acts are that Somalia is a very poor country, with a very unstable government. Many people who live in Somalia struggle with starvation and poverty every day. Also a lot of toxic waste has been dumped along the shores of the coast and has killed many of the fish which before were a resource for food. Many of the pirates also have found it easier economically to steal goods, rather than put effort into earning them. It has been so profitable for them that they are able to achieve 10,000 dollars in one attack of a ship (Middleton 2) “All you need is three guys and a little boat, and the next day you’re millionaires,” stated Abdullahi Omar Qawden, a captain that was in Somalia’s naval forces. Many descriptions have been made by Somali citizens of the luxurious lives piracy is creating in various poor villages. The irony is so overwhelming, how crime is bringing wealth in a country this poor and heartbroken (Gettleman 1)?Another location where pirating is occurring, is in Indonesia and other neighboring Asian countries. Noel Choong, at the international piracy reporting centre in the Malaysian Capital Kuala Lumpur says, “ My concern is that with this new global financial crisis, we’re going to see a lot of Somali copycat attacks in Asia(Williamson pg 1).” Like Noel Choong, many other Asian countries are worried on the same matter; the piracy in Somalia is rising everyday and reaching further of the Somali coast as well(Williamson 1). ** **During these constant attacks of piracy, the US, Japan, Russia, as well as the European Union have sent naval forces in an effort to lower the rate of pirates attacking ships. However, even though various attempts have been made, Japan and the US are saying that they are only willing to help, but that the countries themselves will have to resolve the problem. Also many small countries are trying to pitch in to help with the issues of Piracy because; they themselves are worried about the threatening rise of this Global Crime (Gettleman 2).** **Another main point that can be noticed is that a lot of the poor countries who have very unstable governments, or who are economically unstable, are choosing this route to follow. Also many fishermen, as well as criminals, are the most likely to follow down this ** **pathway, because, again it is easier economically and also it saves much time and effort. For example, “Money changers walk around with thick wads of hundred-dollar bills”(Gettlemen 1). However, another aspect involved is that people, who are used to a lack of safety, tend to not be bothered by Piracy. For example, the people in Somalia live in worry, fear, and distress as well as violence every day. Therefore, many innocent people who are choosing to pirate are really innocent people. Hitherto, it is so hard to make decisions upon how exactly to go about the matter at hand. Another thing needed to be taken into account is that since 2006, Piracy has been rising rapidly and time needs to be fully considered. Especially now, because the pirates are showing signs of success, therefore resulting into more people wanting to pursue their actions.** **Piracy is a Global Crime which worries many countries around the world today, it has caused international distress to many nations, but I believe that the more aware we become and the more we join together nation bonding with nation, I am certain that a resolution, an end, and a new beginning can be formed to shape our world into a better place. That is what I believe our world needs to stop this rapidly growing crime that is taking place all around the world in our waters. In my view this crime really began, due to injustice to a desperate nation that found a wrong way of survival. So if we join together to help this nation we could change not just one but many problems around world today. **

= Works Cited =

Annas, Teresa. "'Real Pirates' Storm the Nauticus." //Virginian Pilot// (2009): 1-2. Web. 9 Feb 2010. . <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">"Security Applications." //Argus//. Web. 21 Feb 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 18px;">Arman, Abukar. //Non- Military Solutions to the Somali Piracy Dilemma//.Worldpress.org.3342. Worldpress.org. Web. 29 April, 2009. 11 Feb 2010. AS Solution. Anti- Piracy. Assolution.com, 2006. Web. 11 Feb 2010. BBC News. “Can Somali pirates be defeated?”.BBC, 2009.Web. 11 Feb, 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Bahadur, Jay. “Heroes in a Land of Pirates.” //New York Times// (2010): 1-3. Web. 21 Jan 2010 Barisic, Sonja. "Museum Explores Appeal of Pirates in Pop Culture." //Associated Press// (2006): 1-2. Web. 9 Feb 2010. Gvosdev, Nikolas. “The ‘Black Hawk Down’ Effect”. New York Times, 2009. Web. 11 February, 2010. Mogadishu,. “Somali Pirates Free Oil Tanker for Record Ransom.” //Hahleej Times// (2010): 1. Web. 21 Jan 2010 Keane, Fregal. “British captain’s Somali pirate nightmare”. BBC Radio 4, 2009.Web. 11 Feb. 2010 “Piracy at Sea.” //Associated Press// (2010) 1. Web. 21 Jan 2010 "Pirates in Children's Literature." //Rutgers University// (2009): 1-2. Web. 9 Feb 2010. <index2.php?reqstyleid=0&start=#>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Royal Navy Museum. //Piracy//. Royal Navy Museum, 2002. Web. 11 February 2010. "The Start of Piracy." //Amazon.com// (2009): 1-2. Web. 9 Feb 2010. <index2.php?reqstyleid=0&start=#>. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: left;">"The Start of Piracy." //Think Quest// (2009): 1-2. Web. 9 Feb 2010. <index2.php?reqstyleid=0&start=#>. "Who's Using Our Products." //Pacific Coast Securities//. Web. 21 Feb 2010. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Williamson, Lucy. ‘Somalia effect’ on piracy Asia.BBC. 23 April 2009.19 January 2010.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Gettlemen, Jeffrey. ‘Somalia’s Pirates Flourish in a Lawless Nation’.New York ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Times. 31 October 2009. 6 February 2010 **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Middleton, Roger. Piracy Symptom of Bigger Problem. BBC. 15 April ****<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2009. 18 January 2010. **

Debusmann, Bernd. "The business case for high-seas piracy." Reuters (2008) - Web. Feb. 22, 2010.

** Bengala, Shashank. "How the US crew fought off Somali pirates." __The Christian Science Monitor__ (April 15, 2009) WORLD: 6. __Global Issues In Context__. Gale. Tallwood High School. 9 Feb. 2010 ** ** <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodId=GIC>. ** ** "Cargo Ship Maersk Alabama and Its American Crew Made It To a Kenyan Port After Being Hijacked By Somali Pirates After the Captain Offered Himself As a Hostage." __NBC Nightly News (Video)__ (April 11, 2009) __Global Issues In Context__. Gale. Tallwood High School. 9 Feb. 2010 ** ** <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/start.do?prodId=GIC>. ** Swart Johan/ “Piracy at sea and its effect on commercial shipping around Africa”/ March 9, 2009