Somalia: Poor Little Orphan Pirate "State"

Naruto: the ultimate orphan archetype
 being bullied by his community
 who sees him as an irreparable trouble maker. 

We have all been exposed to the orphan archetype in movies and other kinds of media. The child with no one to look after her interests, who ends up having to protect herself against everything else. For the sake of argument let’s generalize a bit on how the orphan child’s story usually develops: the orphan kid is considered fair game to be picked on by other kids, they suffer in the hands of evil adults, and they eventually grow up to a life of crime. Replace “orphan” with “failed state” and the archetype could work as a model of reference in international relations. Failed states, like Somalia, who have weak, decentralized, or nonexistent governments, are at the mercy of neighboring countries and international community to do with as they please. Having the orphan-failed state comparison in mind, let’s look at what is wrong with the way we are looking at the piracy issue off the coast of Somalia.

Somalia has for a long time been the image of all the nasty evils associated with high seas piracy. These pirates are often seen as inherently evil people; an international extension of the “criminal complex” that plagues so many societies in the western world. This “criminal complex” is what I will use to refer to the idea that permeates in societies that those who have committed crimes, especially crimes of a more heinous nature, are subverted into a different kind of being, a subspecies of sorts. This socially constructed second-class (international) citizen image has devastating effects on how we think about issues and how we deal with problems. By labeling Somali pirates as vicious, lawless, and deliberately criminal people who deserve to be cracked down on mercilessly by international powers, we not only undermine Somalia's problems as a state, we also dehumanize its people.

Anti-Semitic Cane
 in exhibition in the Austrian Museum
 of Jewish History.

The construction of the “other” is hardly a new notion. Nazi Germany used its powerful propaganda machine to build the image of their “other” – the Jew. Americans during the Spanish-American war used yellow journalism to paint the “other” image of the “Spanish Brute”. The modern day terrorist can be seen as an example of the construction of the “other”; the image invoked by the word terrorist is: a person with brown skin, who has a beard and uses violence in the name of Islam. This construction of “otherness” is what allows countries to take measures that would otherwise be considered out of the norm, or even illegal. The “other” is used to unite people under the common goal of defending themselves. This is exactly what has been happening in Somalia right now; the international community has built the image of the “other” in the Gulf of Aden – the Somali pirate. Under the pretense of protecting the region from the criminal actions of Somali pirates, the

Offensive depiction
of Spanish during
Spanish-American War.

international community excuses itself from any of the responsibilities it carries in creating the problems in Somalia that caused the emergence of piracy to begin with. The problems cited in this week’s articles (overfishing in Somali fisheries by illegal foreign vessels, dumping of waste in Somali waters, etc.) can all be attributed to foreign nations with more stable governments that see in Somalia the opportunity for exploitation. The international community has bullied Somalia into piracy, and now holds it responsible for all the problems in the region, and that is incredibly disturbing to realize.

To be sure, Somali pirates are criminals and they do need to be stopped, there is no questioning that. However, the international community must look deep into the causes of the problem and not simply the products. The first step is for the international community to acknowledge its responsibility in creating the problem in the first place, and aim for solutions that reflect that acknowledgment.