???With Blackbeard long gone and Capt. Jack Sparrow cruising only on the screens of cinemas, the U.S. almost forgot that real-life pirates continue to sail the waters of the world, looting and plundering as they please.
???However, the kidnapping of Capt. Richard Phillips by Somalian pirates earlier this month woke up the slumbering giant, fixating the collective American vision and provoking a sense of nationalism not felt since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
???When three snipers simultaneously shot and killed three pirates holding Phillips captive in a dramatic rescue mission last week, the entire country seemed to pat itself on the back.
???Though the entire issue seems to be black and white, that we are the good sailors and merchants and the pirates are evil kidnappers and villains, there is more to the story than what sits on the surface.
???Piracy has a long and controversial history. The modern concept of piracy sprang up in the 1600s as a response to British naval policies.
???During this time, the Royal Navy was expanding greatly, and Britain was heavily increasing its amount of merchant ships as well. To keep up with demand, the British government began conscripting men between the ages of 18 and 45 to spend time at sea. These men were generally treated poorly by their captains and were constantly whipped or thrown overboard.
???The public was strongly opposed to this policy. Soon, men began mutinying against their captains and taking ships for their own purposes.
???Sure, they stole goods from other sea-faring vessels, but pirate ship captains were elected democratically and everybody shared the spoils. The British public was much more positive toward the pirates than the members of the Royal Navy.
???To combat this apparent dichotomy, the British government started a massive P.R. campaign labeling pirates as bloodthirsty, villainous thieves.
???Flash forward 350 years and the world has a renewed interest in these brutal buccaneers.
???Pirates are no longer swashbuckling British chaps looking for a way out of the duties of military life. They are now jobless, homeless, foodless Somalians, searching for a way to survive and defend their own waters.
???Somalia has been in a state of total collapse for close to 20 years. The government has shifted between radical Islamic groups and secular people looking for a way to bring stability to their country.
???In the meantime, barrels containing illegally dumped nuclear waste that allegedly came from European ships washed up on Somalian shores during the tsunami in 2005, according to a U.N. report. Somalian children are already facing deformities and diseases related to these toxins.
???Illegal fishing also became a huge problem along the long Somalain coastline, with many areas becoming so overfished that local fishermen came home empty handed day after day.
???The Somalian piracy problem sprang out of these Western-caused issues. With no navy of their own, the Somalian citizens banded together in an effort to defend their waters. Like the British pirates of the past, the Somalian population embraces them, as they appear to be the only defense the country has at this time.
???Western nations now find themselves working hard to curb an issue that they may have inadvertently caused themselves. Perhaps tackling the cause of the problem could be more effective than sniping every pirate who boards a foreign ship.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
