The REAL Pirates of Somalia -- the truth

Toxicity and environmental abuse is everywhere on our planet -- and right now the poorest are suffering the most.  This film tells of a shocking tragedy we hear nothing about in our mainstream media.  Read the information below -- my comments within it are in red -- and watch the video.  We need to know what is going on in our world, no matter how terrible the information may be. Unless we, as a planetary people, wake up and make drastic changes in our leadership, we are dooming our planet and ourselves. We can't just keep going on with our everyday lives, pretending these horrors don't exist!  Very few seem to have noticed, but we are all on the Titanic together -- and we're going down FAST!

(Video: 23 and a half mins): 

  

The REAL Pirates of Somalia

 

http://www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/26332.html

This film charts the shocking events, which 

led to the heretofore unknown phenomenon 

of Somalian Pirates, whose fame was recently 

given the Hollywood treatment, in a film 

starring Tom Hanks.

In the wake of the civil war in Somalia, which

deposed the US-installed puppet dictator of a 

nation whose waters face strategic shipping 

lanes for petroleum carriers exiting the Middle 

Est to ports worldwide, the country did not find

peace but has descended into clan warfare since

1991. The current government cannot even 

control its own capital and Somalia is today 

considered to be the most dangerous country 

on Earth. (And THAT'S saying SOMETHING!)

 

Fishing ships from various industrialized countries 

in Europe, the US and China then began to take 

advantage of this chaotic situation, practicing a 

kind of fishing labeled I.U.U. Illegal, Undeclared, 

Unregulated. 

 

Their incessant and uncontrolled activity, 

employing methods of fishing that are prohibited 

in other regions of the world is depleting the fish 

reserves of a country that lacks the authority and 

resources to protect its coasts. It is estimated that 

the income generated by the illegal fishing amounts 

to more than 450 million dollars, annually. 

 

Tuna fishing has experienced a vertiginous and 

unsustainable increase in the last 10 years. The 

tuna fleet alone, comprised of Spanish ships, with 

60% of the catch and French ships, with 40%, 

illegally poach in Somalian waters, taking

approximately 500,000 tons of tuna each year. 

 

They are robbing the local population of its principal 

source of protein, while destroying the local 

fishermen's way of life and their ability to sustain 

themselves, bringing about an intractably hopeless 

situation, without remedy, to a fragile country in 

agony and almost dead from starvation. 

Since 1990, the Somalian community has protested 

repeatedly before the United Nations and before 

many intergovernmental organizations, their 

complaints falling on deaf ears. But the nightmare 

doesn't end there: 

Since the fall of the government in 1991, other ships 

began to appear near the Somalian coast. Their 

activities were more mysterious. The ships would enter 

Somalia's territorial waters, throw barrels into the sea, 

and leave. 

The contents of these barrels remained a mystery 

until the end of 2004 - the year in which a terrible 

tsunami struck Southeast Asia. When the tsunami 

reached Somalia, hundreds of barrels landed on the 

coast and many barrels broke open and began to leak 

upon the beaches. 

The people in the area soon became sick with 

respiratory infections, intestinal hemorrhages, strange 

chemical reactions on the skin and more than 300 

sudden deaths. After a time, babies began to be born 

with severe birth defects. 

Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the United Nations 

environmental program stated that when the barrels 

were broken by the strength of the tsunami, they 

brought to light an appalling activity: Somalia has been 

being used as a dumping ground for toxic wastes since 

the beginning of the '90s and which has continued, 

unabated for 14 years.

The toxic trash is of comprised of several different 

kinds: principally, radioactive uranium and heavy 

metals like cadmium and mercury. There is also 

hospital and industrial waste, chemical wastes and 

other kinds, of which the filmmaker does not wish 

to name, at this time.

The most alarming factor is the dumping of nuclear 

waste. The radioactive waste is killing the Somalian 

people and is totally destroying the oceans. Ahmedou 

Ould Abdallah, The United Nations special representative 

to Somalia declared to Al-Jazeera that dumping of toxic 

wastes continues to take place into the present time. 

The diplomat affirmed that he had reliable information, 

proving that European and Asiatic corporations are 

dumping the chemicals and nuclear wastes on the 

Somalian coasts. The United Nations sent 

representatives to observe the catastrophe and 

without any more thought, the chapter was closed.

So far, there hasn't been a single trial, detention, or 

sentence for the these criminal acts. 

Somalia is a devastated country that is literally 

starving to death, with rich countries flocking in 

to snatch away the fish - and on the way, they 

contaminate the country's waters with toxic and 

nuclear waste: This is the context in which the 

men that some call "pirates" appeared. (Who would
want to eat the tuna caught in such toxic waters? 
Fish is not on my menu at all anymore. ALL fish!)

Being completely defenselessness and undefended, 

some fishermen reacted in a desperate way. They 

began to form alliances of small armed groups and 

using motorboats, they tried to drive away the foreign 

fishing boats and dissuade the ships that dump wastes 

into their waters. 

They call themselves "Volunteer Somalian Coastguard". 

According to a survey, 70% of the Somalian population 

strongly supports this activity as a form of defending the 

country's territorial waters. One of their leaders, Sugule 

Ali, explains their motives: "To put a stop to the illegal 

fishing and the dumping in our waters. We don't consider 

ourselves outlaws of the sea. We consider those who fish 

illegally and dump toxic wastes to be the outlaws."

At first, no one took them seriously. The foreign fishing 

fleets continued to fish with impunity and the toxic waste 

dumping continued - but given that this is happening in a 

country that was armed to the teeth and divided into rival 

groups of current and ex-combatants, soon these groups 

joined the fishermen and this the erstwhile fisherman-based 

"Volunteer Somalian Coastguard" became heavily-armed.

Due to newfound weapons and aided by trained warriors, 

they began to see a lucrative business in the capture of 

these ships by creating the financial need for their rescue. 

As soon as they they began hijacking these these 

malevolent ships, the area began seeing a mass-clearing 

and the foreign fleets. 

The powerful nations saw their lucrative fishing business 

threatened and themselves deprived of their private and

cheap dumping ground for toxic and nuclear wastes. The 

United Nations, which has systematically ignored 

the Somali's complaints, began instead, to listen 

to the countries affected by Somalian "pirates". 

Spain and France, countries with important fishing 

fleets in the area headed the petition for a joint military 

action. This is how "Operation Atlanta" was born The 

mission brought eight battle ships, supply ships and 

surveillance aircrafts. 

Following the failure of the operation, its duration and 

budget was increased, with more than 20 ships and 

1,800 soldiers. The approximate cost for this operation 

to the Spanish government amounts to more than 6 

million euros per month. The cost of the Galician and 

Basque tuna fishermen's private security forces 

amounts to half a million euros per month. The Spanish 

government takes responsibility for half of this cost, 

using the nation's general budget. 

Let's remember the definition of a pirate: They rob 

at sea, taking possession of that which does not 

belong to them. They carry out their actions, 

heavily-armed and on occasion, they have the 

protection of a nation-State 

But...Why do these fleets fish there? Can't they do it in 

their own territorial waters? In their own oceans? No. 

And the reason they can't is terrible: It's been completely 

fished-out. The rich countries have exterminated the 

marine life in their own oceans. The marine ecosystems 

of Europe have been exploited to the limit.  (And now
they are fishing in toxic waters that they continue to
poison with more radioactive waste! Any fish they catch
there must be glowing with toxicity.  What IDIOCY!)

Senegal (also subjected to toxic dumping, along with 

many other African nations) trying to protect its own 

natural resources, stopped renewing its fishing agreements 

with EU counties in 2006 - but it seems impossible to stop 

the European fishing fleets. They mock the law, creating 

fake corporations and buying licenses from other countries 

and flying flags of convenience. One can purchase flags of 

convenience in a few minutes on the Internet for less than 

500 euros. 

In Senegal, fishing boats have ceased to be useful 

for their intended purpose and now they are used to 

transport immigrants, looking for a better future in

European countries. Ironically, they are flocking to 

the very same countries that have plundered their 

futures in their own country. In Somalia, the boats 

can no longer be used for fishing and now they are 

used for piracy. 

The global conference on the Oceans announced that 75% 

of the world's fish reserves have disappeared. The Food 

and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also 

reported that 80% of the worlds fisheries are over exploited 

and 30% of all marine species are under the biological 

security limit.

Taking all of this into account, many scientific studies 

calculate that in the year 2048 all of the world's fishing 

reserves will have been depleted.