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Poverty ahoy as global gaze narrows on piracy

By Brendan J. Worrell (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-11-20 15:57

Earlier this week the European Union approved a 500-million-Euro plan to provide free fruit and vegetables to schools to combat an obesity epidemic in which some 22 million kids are overweight. When I read this I thought, 'tell that to those Somali fishermen who risk life and limb to shortcut a life of squalor by ram raiding passing vessels off the Gulf of Aden'.

"What?" I hear you scream.

"Yes!" I bellow back.

And while G20 leaders met last week to sip champagne and do the knick knack paddy whack with G Dubya, the majority of the globe remains gridlocked in poverty and to those afflicted it must have seemed like the fat cats were merely meowing for more milk last week in Washington.

Now this is no excuse for piracy but desperate times breed desperate men and these guys in their dinghies packing RPG's are really just a manifestation of all that is askew in the global portfolio come Q4 2008. Undeniably it is an inequitable mess, in part mangled by the horse hooves of history and hidden beneath the dung pat of colonialism. It smells but we are obliged to look.

Retro development theorists may pertain that the EU and a few others all have a culpable hand in the chaos that is present in modern day Somalia and the developing world, yet will such recognition improve the situation or rescue those seamen, now numbering around 300, from the clutches of their captors near the Horn of Africa?

To date some have blamed it on the Japanese for overfishing the nearby waters thus making it more difficult for the locals to eke out a living. Someone at Foxnews had the gall to make a connection to the popularity of Johnny Depp whereas others will just dismiss it as another example of Islamic extremism or all that is emblematic of African dsyfunctionalism.

It can be argued in the 47 years since Somalia attained independence ethnic divisions which are characteristic of so much of the 'imposed top-down nation-state legoland' that is the modern African continent have hampered progress and contributed in part to the present dilemma at sea. As such the desired quick fix to piracy is as simple and as available as are the solutions to the opposite Western African quagmire seen in the Congo.

Guns aren't the answer and while we have a flotilla of NATO, US 5th Fleet, Indian, Saudi and now EU warships trying to provide a guarded tunnel of safe passage for vessels travelling through this vital artery of world trade, in the long term this option should really only be considered as a band aid solution. That is if we care about our fellow man.

Ideally trade, facilitated by open, secure passage manages to leverage people out of poverty. This can occur particularly, when those in the region of such commerce feel a benefit and shared interest from such business. Perhaps if it was you or me penniless and we were sitting on the sands of Somalia and gazing at the wealth sailing on by we'd be tempted to sign up too with the crew of Captain Jack Sparrow?

But at present avoidance is an option. On Tuesday Norwegian shipping group Odfjell SE ordered its fleet of more than 90 tankers to sail around the Cape of Good Hope rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi oil tanker and its $100m crude booty on Saturday - an extreme and a supreme waste of precious energy resources.

Is it incredibly na?ve to propose engagement and a redirection of some of the profits from maritime trade into these neighboring regions who are so close to the riches of the world that they can smell it though usually just have to watch it all pass on by? At present the number of attacks in Somali waters this year is close to 100 so there is obvious appeal in this line of employment no matter how full the local prisons get from failed hit and run pirate missions.

For China, one of the world's largest trading nations with a huge maritime stake, leaders may well be pondering whether its time to shed the 'non interventionist' policy. The country's six biggest ports are among the world's top 20 container ports and ocean shipping accounts for 90 per cent of the country's trade. Of note where China does engage Africa with mutual investment taking place and necessary infrastructure being set up, it is often criticized by the US and EU.

At present more than just security for trade routes there also needs to be investment in people and communities. However the trail of modern maritime trade skirts many regions which once would have benefited from sea trade. It's comparable to the construction of modern highways that sound the death knell for local road side businesses that no longer get traffic stopping en route. Look back in history and the region around Somalia appears cosmopolitan and vibrant though the advent of modern container cargo shipping may have changed all that.

For incoming Obama this is another opportunity to prove he's more than just another 'house slave', as claimed by Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahri yesterday. The close proximity of his ethnic Kenya to Somalia provides ample reason to show an interest in a region in obvious need of attention.

Perhaps also those who appear to be having a problem with over eating may wish to get active and start lending a helping hand which inevitably demands a more thorough investigation into the root causes of poverty, privilege, piracy and terrorism around the globe.

Still simply blowing the pirates out of the water may be cheaper and certainly guarantees more viewer ratings than gradual grassroots development initiatives.