Who are the Real Robbers?

There has been a huge uproar over the rise in hijacking activities by Somali pirates. I found this video on YouTube, and I found it’s content really disturbing. It uses very strong language against the pirates, describing them to be “urinating in the world’s face”.

 

International coverage

This video highlights how international news has covered the story. The news reports shown are from various sources, including BBC, U.K.; Al Jazeera, Qatar; NTV, Kenya; TV 5 France; CNN, U.S.; ABC, U.S.; NBC, U.S., and Hindustan Times.  The combined resources support the idea of our modern day world as the global world.

Questions for thought

Here are the questions we came up with in class today about the Somalian Pirates:
1. Who has the rights to the guns/tanks intercepted?
2. Why are the Pirates used by the Somalian goverment? How does the “Pirate” title create ambiguity for line of duties?
3. How does the water, an area no country has claims to, allow [...]

“… how do you negotiate and deliver a pirate ransom in the 21st Century?”

Slightly older article framing Somali piracy in terms of pop culture piracy/modernity/Hollywood. Goes into a fair amount of detail about the negotiation process.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7752813.stm
“The talks are by telephone, mostly satellite phone but sometimes even SMS/text messages are sent. The pirates do not negotiate themselves. They hire someone and often this person is a relative; someone they [...]