by George Root

Created on: April 20, 2009   Last Updated: April 22, 2009

Piracy is rarely a choice made by someone who has had visions of scourging the high seas since they were a child. Many children dream of being pirates, but childhood fantasies usually give way to grown up reality and we leave those visions in our past. The decision to become a pirate is usually a last resort when no other means of employment can be found. If the government of a country that borders a busy shipping lane collapses, the chance that pirates will fill the seas increase dramatically.

Prior to the civil unrest of the 1990's, Somalia and the entire coastal region of Africa was an area struggling to survive. There was a fairly busy trading economy with the local shipping companies that frequented the area, but the area still remained impoverished and many of the people were starving. For many decades from the 1960's to the late 1980's, Somalia and Ethiopia were the focus of relief groups that would try and raise awareness to the plight of the people and convince the world to help. In the early 1990's war broke out in the area, the government of Somalia collapsed and was replaced by a clan based system of warlords, and the economy of Somalia completely disappeared. A situation that looked like it could not get worse did get worse, and the world was about to pay for it.

With no economy and no central government it became difficult for the people of Somalia to find ways to feed their families. It was well known that much of the shipping of goods in the world via the high seas happens just off the coast of Somalia, so people with no other options took to small speed boats and started hijacking ships for ransom.

Right away the efforts to create an economy with piracy were very successful as millions of dollars in ransom money started to come in each time the pirates would take a ship. The clan leaders began to get involved creating a pirate network within Somalia and its surrounding countries, and soon there was a flourishing pirate business in the port towns of Somalia and Ethiopia.

Piracy today is much like the problem caused by religious extremists who are willing to kill for a religious leader. When you solve one problem by killing or arresting a pirate or group of pirates, another pirate clan steps in and starts operating in the region abandoned by the capture or killed pirates. Piracy has become a way of life in Somalia, and as it continues to prosper it will continue to be the only option many young people in the region have to support their families. The fact that it is economic events that brought on the current rise in piracy indicates that solving this problem will be extremely difficult.

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