A2 RIHLA #20

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Piracy at Sea Today

1. How does piracy continue to exist in the modern world?

In Somalia, piracy continues to exist through the siezing of ships big or small to gain profit. Piracy began when Somalia's government collapsed, and the waters of Somalia were plundered by commerical fishing fleets. Some fishermen, angry, confronted the fishing boats and demanded that they pay tax. Now, there have been various attacks happenins all around the waters surrounding Somalia. THe pirates even take the occupants of the ships they sieze as hostage and demand a ransom from family members. This ransom is given to the pirates through the air, dropping from the sky. The way to do so is by dropping a brick of shrink-wrapped cash from a plane with a parachute helping an easy drift. From my background knowledge, I know there are also pirates lurking in the waters of the Carribbean, as they recently killed some number of seamen.

2. In what ways has piracy seemed to have changed from earlier times of exploration?

When piracy first began, it was usually assiagned by the government or the current ruler. The biggest reason as to why piracy began was because the nations felt threatened that another might rise above them in wealth and power, so to avoid that from happening, the government issues a privateer to raid the ships of oppposing nations to gain their wealth and power. Piracy began to demonstrate power. Nations siezed one another's ships to bring back the walth to the queen/king, adding to the power of the nation. Nowadays, however, piracry became something private. Pirates are raiding ships, taking hostages, and demanding ransom for their own benefits. Instead of the government helping them, the government is trying to come up with ways to put an end to piracy. Pirates have harmed others for their own benefits, not helping anyone else, and costing the world more than $5 billion each year.

3. How are authorities trying to combat the problem? Do you think there are other solutions? Explain fully.

Currently, the authorities are trying to put force with force. The European Union tried to fight the pirates at their home base, destroying items belonging to the pirates. The approach the EU has taken only involves a helicopter, never actually touching the land of Somalia. In March of 2012, the EU allowed the forces patrolling the Indian Ocean to attack Somalian bases. The patrols can now attack on land. The EU were able to help decrease the number of pirates from when it first began; however, the pirates today still pose much threat to the safety and money of whoever they choose as the next victim. I think that there should be other solutions to piracy. The biggest solution is to first rebuild the government because the stronger the government fighting piracy, the better the chance of actually defeating piracy. The government must then lead its people to help fight against piracy. If the way to do so is through violent attacks on pirate bases, then so be it. There has to be hands on approach when battling pirates because it is easier to avoid things dropping from the sky because we forsee it coming. The plan of attack should be to surprise the pirates, catch them offguard, weakening their force by a little bit, allowing for the upperhand for us. On the contrary, I think piracy will never be gone for good. I think there will be people out there who will find piracy justifiable simply because it supports their family.

4. Do you think piracy (both during the Age of Exploration AND now) is ever justifiable?

I do not think that piracy is ever justifiable. Piracy is theft, and theft is never okay. There are people out there working their hearts and bodies away to earn an honest living, and it would be unfair to them if the pirates come along and simply take the money those people worked so hard for. It is still possible to be successful if you work hard; it is not ineffective. Even if the government issues the privateers, I do not think it was ever justifiable. Firstly, the fact that the nations were taking the goods from another country to send back home to gain wealth was already appalling. Those goods belong to the native people that has occupied the land long before the arrival of explorers who claim to know what they were doing, when in truth, they landed in a place they never meant to land in. Those goods are then stolen by another nation, and that is piracy. Privateers were stealing already stolen goods. Two wrongs never make a right., Piracy is wrong. If people are getting harmed, especially, then piracy must stop. There should not be lost lives over theft.

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