La maggior parte di voi ha già sentito parlare dei pirati somali. Proprio di recente hanno catturato una nave da carico americana e tenuto in ostaggio il capitano. Essi hanno catturato anche molte altre navi di diversi paesi. In effetti, il comandante americano è stato fortunato - e l'ha scampata, con l'aiuto di alcuni incursori della marina americana (Navy Seals) - ma centinaia di navi internazionali e il loro equipaggio sono ancora in pericolo per i pirati somali che chiedono milioni di dollari per il riscatto delle ships and their crews.
You know all this already, though. And you think that's probably just another group of underworld persons who seek to get rich quick. It is also likely that you end up simply to kill them or find their base camp in Somalia and destroy it.
But there is another side to this story is not told. And when you hear, you might just change your opinion on what is in progress.
I first describe Somalia. Not a good place, in fact, has been compared to hell on earth. All of Africa is poor by Western standards, but Somalia is poor by African standards. Decades of drought, famine, genocide, war and corruption have left the residents of this dusty ruin of a country in constant struggle for daily survival.
The area is littered with debris and waste brief periods of hope and prosperity, that triggered the corruption and violence. People live in huts made of garbage and the majority of the nation survives on their unique resource - the ocean.
latter part of 1990, Somali people began ill. E 'was first isolated cases - skin rashes, hair loss, bleeding gums, diarrhea ... and came and went. Some people thought it might be the fish or the water, but in reality no one could discover the cause. Then, on Christmas day of 2004 , everything became clear.
The great earthquake in Indonesia caused a deadly tsunami that has moved west, killing hundreds of thousands of people along his way, and ended up pushing the ocean waters along the coast of Somalia. Soon, the Somalis have found dozens of huge, strange metal cylinders on their banks.
Poor, but rich in resources, the locals have begun to open the cylinders to retrieve the contents. Maybe there was something of value within ... something that could be used to buy or sell in exchange for food. Some cylinders containing what appeared to be rocks or dirt, plastic and other waste glass. Soon, the beaches were full of the same debris, probably came from cylinders that had broken under water.
Within a few weeks, hundreds of people fell ill and 300 people died. Why? What was happening? What you have to do with pirates?
In one school, bullies usually hit the most vulnerable children. In the school overall, a country without a government to protect its citizens, such as Somalia, is an invitation for abuse. And when the abuse is abundant source of earnings, it is a done deal.
The easiest way to commit an abuse on the people of Somalia was to steal them a great resource - the food.
According Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy for Somalia,
" European ships have plundered the seas of Somalia over their great resource: the seafood. We have destroyed our fish stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have gone to consume them. More than $ 300 million of tuna, shrimp, lobster and seafood are stolen every year from the big fishing trawlers illegally practiced in Somalia, in the absence of protection of its seas .
The most valuable prey Somali seas is the yellowfin tuna yellow, but these fish have been found surprisingly high traces of toxic chemicals such as cadmium, mercury and radioactive uranium. However, these fish are sold throughout Europe, without the obligation to disclose the products chemical contents or their country of origin.
But this is not the worst.
In the second part of the twentieth century, a growing expense for private companies and governments has been for the disposal of biological waste from hospitals and labs, toxic waste from factories and industry nuclear waste, medical and military use. Even the least expensive disposal of these toxic materials can cost $ 250 per tonne.
But what happens if a company offers to dispose of toxic waste for only $ 2 50 per ton? You can see that this story is heading.
In the mid-90s, a Swiss company, Achair Partners, and an Italian company, Progress, offered a quick service for the disposal of toxic waste in several European countries. The waste was loaded on their ships and sailed away. Oh yes, there was talk and plans for giant incinerators have been designed to neutralize the poison. It is all supposed to happen in an environmentally friendly disposal. But none of the contractors - the majority of European nations - has given too much to be done to verify that they did end the waste. It was enough that the waste was loaded onto ships and taken via ... But just to be dumped at sea off the coast of Somalia.
After the 2005 tsunami, most of the submerged waste have become popular for its beaches, with the toxic debris and broken containers inside them. Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program, said there are reports of inhabitants of coastal villages affected by a wide range of medical problems such as bleeding in the mouth, abdominal haemorrhages, unusual skin disorders and breathing difficulties in many Somali villages in the north, and regions and Hobbie Benadir .
How? Not have you ever heard this before?
Men are a unique species. We are capable of the best and the worst. At best we are able to survive and to struggle against almost everything to ensure our survival. The Somali people did. With no government to protect him from the pollution of the sea, and the exhaustion of its only source of food, he organized against robbery and landfill operations organized. We are locally organized into tribes and clans. In the absence of the Coast Guard, the Somali fishermen have tried to counter the large ships unloaded uranium, mercury, lead, medical waste and other toxins on their food supplies and livelihoods. They knew that their small effort would have little effect on large corporations dumping ... but maybe if the world had known ... maybe the world would know how to stop them.
The head pirate Somali Januna Ali Jama, has clearly stated that their actions against foreign cargo ships are designed to stop the dumping of toxic wastes. He said:
" We are reacting to the devastation caused by toxic waste that has been continually dumped on the beaches of our country for nearly twenty years. The coast of Somalia has been destroyed. We believe that the money earned from these transactions is nothing compared to the devastation we saw on our seas .
The former Somali army colonel Mohammed Nureh Abdulle lives in Haradh - the city at the center of the community of pirates. In a BBC interview he said:
" The town's residents are more concerned about the discharge of toxic waste that is not piracy ... this dumping has been going on for a long time. In 1991 the government collapsed in this African nation and some large companies have taken advantage of this situation. European ships began to appear off the coast of Somalia, to download thousands of barrels of toxic waste into the ocean. The coastal population has started to get sick. At first they suffered strange skin rashes, nausea and malformed babies and many other symptoms, but due to lack of proper medical attention the phenomenon has been much neglected. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of barrels of waste, including broken, have come down to earth. People started to suffer from disease and radiation and more than 300 died.
A few nights ago, some tanks have left the sea and broke, and now the waste is leaking and have spread in water and air.
The first people became ill yesterday afternoon. People point to a mysterious disease, but talk about it as if it was chicken pox - but not exactly say that it is. Their skin is tanned poorly. They are victims of sneezing, coughing and vomiting.
This is the first time was so that these people have taken such a bad disease. People who have these symptoms are those that soon followed, before the light, their herds of cattle grazing, until the seashore. The animals are sick to drink the water and the people who are washed in water are now suffering .
In the month August 2008, a group of about 40 Somalis attacked and seized an Iranian cargo ship, the Dyanat, and brought to the port of Eyl. There he was put under custody by a larger group of 100 Somalis. In the days of seizure of the ship, the Somalis who were on board and inspect the load began to develop unusual health problems. They had strange skin burns, hair loss, nausea ... and a number of men died. The cargo containers were sealed and the crew said it did not have the access codes to open it. At first the captain said that the containers were full of "crude oil" but later admitted carrying "minerals." After a settimana è stato pagato il riscatto e la nave ha continuato. Molti credono che contenesse rifiuti radioattivi che avrebbe scaricato in mare, se i somali non fossero intervenuti.
Ma l'uomo è capace anche di peggio. Nonostante l'annuncio di Greenpeace italiana che nel 1992 questa attività era ancora in corso, nonostante l'avvertimento delle Nazioni Unite in quello stesso anno, nonostante il riconoscimento da parte del Parlamento italiano di queste attività nel 2000, le migliaia di Somali che sono malati, le mutazioni e le centinaia di morti e pesce contaminato, ancora oggi, questi fatti sono trascurati.
Le nazioni europee che hanno sottoscritto contratti con Achair e Progresso non potrebbero curarsi di meno di un paese povero con persone dalla pelle scura. Nello spettro di colore dell'avidità, i biglietti verdi sopprimono ogni altro colore. E' molto più facile fomentare l'odio per i "pirati" di pelle marrone o nera che non ammettere il vero motivo che causa questi atti disperati. E' molto più facile, semplicemente, "ucciderli tutti" che provare a mettersi nei loro panni (o nella loro mancanza di scarpe e di panni) e vedere quali opzioni è loro possibile scegliere.
Proprio di recente, il ministro degli Esteri britannico David Miliband si è vantato del fatto che la Gran Bretagna potrebbe take the initiative to "hit" the pirates. The Royal Navy has established a special operation called "Operation Atalanta." The objective will be the Somalis - not ships of toxic waste! So now, ships in Europe and the United States will continue to discharge their toxic loads with the protection of large Navy ships, and the misery of the Somali people will continue unabated. Oh, I could write about this more. I could tell you the names of offenders who have allowed this to happen, or how the Somali warlords have been given weapons in exchange for their complicity. Or the brave journalists like Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin , who were murdered in Somalia, following their meeting with a high-level informer ... But for now, try opening your eyes and look for the truth behind the high-sounding titles.
E 'much more interesting to think in black and white, good and bad. But too often the truth is revealed to have only one color, the green of money.
Source: ANTUKITERA of February 12, 2011
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