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Somali piracy: reflections of a troubled world
You know we’re in trouble when much public sentiment in the Arab world probably backs the Somali pirates who last week captured a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million of crude oil. If there is a single incident that captures the strange dynamics that have defined this region for the past 50 years or so, this is it: The lawless brigands of a collapsed, poverty-stricken and often violent state grab the paramount symbol of the modern Arab world — an oil tanker heading for the West — and the rest of the Arab world remains mostly silent and indifferent.
The global response to Somali piracy has been a colossal failure to understand what all this really means. The deeper symbolism and lessons to be grasped in the whole Somali piracy phenomenon reflect the modern history of the two poles of this latest incident — Somalia and Saudi Arabia. They nicely capture three dominant trends that have defined the modern Arab world in the past 50 years or so:
Wealthy oil-producing states and their Arab security-state allies that have spent trillions of dollars on state-building, without credibly achieving sustainability, security or global respect and influence.
The sad history of low-income Arab countries that were born distorted due to the European colonialism, and then suffered decades-on-end of incompetent governance, leading to total state collapse.
The erratic performance of world powers in such cases, whether alternately supporting and attacking regimes, willfully sending in foreign troops or ignoring the consequences of such foreign intervention when the state collapses into chaos and criminality.
Piracy, like terrorism, is an acquired habit; it mirrors a deeper malaise that is usually captured in the broad swaths of public opinion among ordinary people who reject the criminal deeds — but share the resentments, anger and fear — that abound in their societies. The most important thing about the Somali pirates is not the loss of a few million dollars in ransom. The really frightening thing about Somali pirates is what they reveal about the disenchantment and despair in much of the Arab world.
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of The Daily Star and his column is syndicated by Agence Global.
You know we’re in trouble when much public sentiment in the Arab world probably backs the Somali pirates who last week captured a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million of crude oil. If there is a single incident that captures the strange dynamics that have defined this region for the past 50 years or so, this is it: The lawless brigands of a collapsed, poverty-stricken and often violent state grab the paramount symbol of the modern Arab world — an oil tanker heading for the West — and the rest of the Arab world remains mostly silent and indifferent.
The global response to Somali piracy has been a colossal failure to understand what all this really means. The deeper symbolism and lessons to be grasped in the whole Somali piracy phenomenon reflect the modern history of the two poles of this latest incident — Somalia and Saudi Arabia. They nicely capture three dominant trends that have defined the modern Arab world in the past 50 years or so:
Wealthy oil-producing states and their Arab security-state allies that have spent trillions of dollars on state-building, without credibly achieving sustainability, security or global respect and influence.
The sad history of low-income Arab countries that were born distorted due to the European colonialism, and then suffered decades-on-end of incompetent governance, leading to total state collapse.
The erratic performance of world powers in such cases, whether alternately supporting and attacking regimes, willfully sending in foreign troops or ignoring the consequences of such foreign intervention when the state collapses into chaos and criminality.
Piracy, like terrorism, is an acquired habit; it mirrors a deeper malaise that is usually captured in the broad swaths of public opinion among ordinary people who reject the criminal deeds — but share the resentments, anger and fear — that abound in their societies. The most important thing about the Somali pirates is not the loss of a few million dollars in ransom. The really frightening thing about Somali pirates is what they reveal about the disenchantment and despair in much of the Arab world.
Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of The Daily Star and his column is syndicated by Agence Global.