The Somali are not born pirates

Dear Friends,

I happened to witness a ‘statement tamasha1’ in a recent meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission where a delegation spoke about the Somalia piracy in Indian Ocean and the need to take appropriate measures. The unread statement was that some richest tuna grounds of the Indian Ocean are not accessible to some of the greediest fishing nations due to piracy. All is said about the dominant players, but nothing of the circumstances which created the situation in the first place. While this tamasha is being enacted over and over, the delegates adorn the saintly garb and presume that people of Somalia were born pirates.

Whenever I hear this tamasha I respond immediately stating that the world community cannot escape the burden of guilt for the state of affairs in Somalia that made a subsistence community to resort to piracy. (Sarcastically I mention that if piracy is restricting tuna fishing, it should be good for the conservation of tuna!) As Einstein said, we cannot find a solution to a problem at the same level it was created. We need to elevate ourselves to a higher level or dimension to understand the systemic issues and find lasting solutions. This is not possible within the paradigm of global trade where the game rules are of rat race and people are consumers, if not commodity.

On another occasion a proposal for studying the piracy affected area as a quasi- MPA2 with some international funding support was suggested. This seems similar to the story of a good fellow who preferred to eat his early morning breakfast in the light when the neighbour’s hut caught fire (there is a proverb in my native village to this meaning3). The untold benefits are the livelihood support that could be provided to some consultants in the name of science, while the misery of the people remains in a hidden layer.

I am really shocked to notice that there is no recognition of the people of Somalia in any of these contexts. I happened to be the only person to get agitated all the time when such issues are brought to the floor. My good friends from African nations, for reasons not known, either seem ignorant about the issue or approach the case as ‘none of our business’.

I have a problem. I am unable to erase the picture of the Sudanese child that Kevin Carter captured and made public. Whenever I hear about injustice to the people of Africa the image appears in my mind. How the people of the resource-rich continent could be so poor and deprived. The Horn of Africa is the most strategically placed coastal zone in the Indian Ocean. How the region could remain so underdeveloped and its people turn to piracy?

The greed of the rich to propagate their interest at the cost of the fellowmen in other countries is the root cause. A world where people misappropriate resources beyond their endowments and entitlement would not be a happy and peaceful place. A global awakening to accept this truth is the need of the time. That should lead to the transformation facilitating the system shift.

Dr K Vijayakumaran, Fishery Survey of India, Mumbai, India

NOTES

1. Tamasha means joke or funny performance in most Indian languages
2. MPA: Marine Protected Area
3. The Malayalam proverb from Palakkad regiona of Kerala is: ‘Vettayodu vetta kuracchu vellachhorunnatte’