Given the large Somali population in Bristol, I think that there's every chance that in the not too distant future a ship will be urged to surrender, in English, in an accent resembling that of Long John Silver.
I think Jay Leno made the same joke the other day. You're getting old. Seriously, as a moderate capitalist lackey who occasionally but earnestly nods his head in agreement whenever the concept of private property rights is mentioned, I want a bit more here. Those dudes were fisherman (maybe), property rights broke down when political chaos ensued, they got fucked over, toxic waste on their shores, fish dead or scooped up by industrial trawlers, at first they just ran up to the illegal ships in their waters with guns to scare them off but then they figured out that taking a hostage or two would compensate for the fact that their livelihoods got destroyed and then we wind up with Johnny Depp jokes all over the place. I actually get depressed over it.
I read a Johann Hari piece about how Somali pirates are protecting their shoreline against illegal dumping of toxic waste by the Camorra and other Europeans, but I haven't seen any reference to it since. Has anyone seen any proper investigative journalism on this they can provide a link to? I've tried googling but to unsatisfying effect.
P.S. Martin Orwin - author of Colloquial Somali - used to live in the same cul de sac as my mum. Lovely man. Wish I was still in touch with him.
There's bits and pieces all over the place about the toxic waste dumps that spiked up off the coast of Somalia after other countries figured out that there was no authority in Somalia anymore to prevent getting rid of that crap cheaply (and illegally). It sounds like typical hippy crap except in this case it might actually not be typical hippy crap - the wolf in the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" story actually does come to eat up the shepherd (which is the moral of that story after all). Also, the political break down in the region basically meant that it was open season on fishing in Somalia's waters, including anything that was banned everywhere else. So no fish left, barrels of toxic waste in the fishes place, the local fisherman got no way to make a living anymore, at first they try to go up to these foreign ships and scare them off with a few rifle bursts, but then realize that they might as well take them for ransom. Also, as far as I can tell they've never killed anybody (except possibly in a botched hostage rescue operation carried out by the French). I am totally willing to be corrected on either of these points.
Those dudes were fisherman (maybe), property rights broke down when political chaos ensued, they got fucked over, toxic waste on their shores, fish dead or scooped up by industrial trawlers, at first they just ran up to the illegal ships in their waters with guns to scare them off but then they figured out that taking a hostage or two would compensate for the fact that their livelihoods got destroyedthis is the folk tale that people like to tell, but actually it's about as true as the Mafia being essentially a Sicilian agricultural labourers' trade union. They're criminals who rob people because it's more profitable than working and because they've learned dangerous and violent behaviours from the horrible state their country's been in for the last twenty years. Not everything is a natural resources conflict.
So no fish leftThis is the clue IMO - the Johann Hari line appears to be "the fish have all gone! and the Europeans are stealing them!". There are fish there. I also don't understand the timeline that starts with impoverished fishermen, gives them speedboats to go around harassing foreign fishing boats, then has this activity become so profitable that warlords take an interest. It seems to compete unfavourably with a timeline that has the whole thing starting as a criminal enterprise from day 1. In actual fact what seems to have happened is that in the 1990s, various warlords went into business selling fishing licences, and have been using their militias to continue to profit from the coastline.
It's certainly true that some of the pirates call themselves by various names like the Volunteer Coastguard, Somali Marines, etc etc, but then, this doesn't prove anything and fits just as well with them starting out by preying on the fishermen as it does with preying on the fish.
Also, as far as dumping toxic waste in the sea goes, it seems a long way to go when you only need to get out to international waters and shake off (or pay off) any EEZ surveillance that may be going on.
If I was the Camorra, I'd chuck it in the Med out of sight of land, pay off the Italian coastguard, and tell my customers I took it to Somalia so I could skim the extra fuel and expenses and reassure them about what might be getting into the spaghetti vongole. Or perhaps I might chuck it in my illegal dump on the edge of town and just tell everyone I dumped it off Somalia. It sounds much cheaper and somehow more like the Mafia.
Also, as far as dumping toxic waste in the sea goes, it seems a long way to go when you only need to get out to international waters and shake off (or pay off) any EEZ surveillance that may be going on. How easy would that be in the Med?
(I don't say that to back up the Somalia story about which I know nothing, but it just strikes me as something possibly more easily written than done.)
We're talking about southern Italian organised crime, operating on its home ground, in one of its core businesses. What makes you think the Italian government or anyone else would see anything, any more than they see huge illegal dumps of toxic waste on land in the suburbs of Naples?
Well the 'dumping the toxic waste' stuff comes from UNEP (http://www.unep.org/cpi/briefs/Brief16Mar05.doc) so that part seems to hold water. I don't really know what the relative costs of illegal toxic waste disposals off the coast of Sicily vs. HoA are, but it's happening. The illegal fishing thing appears in some news outlets (AP, BBC) but the source seems to be the pirates themselves. And I don't think the explanation that they're "criminals who rob people because it's more profitable than working" really contradicts the "they're doing it cuz of the waste and the lack of fish" (which would imply that 'working' isn't very profitable) explanation. The thing about these folks tales (Robin Hood, Joaquin Murrieta, Salvatore Giuliano, Janosik, etc.) is that usually there's some truth to them. Maybe you could apply that production function approach, which worked brilliantly in the past: you need labor (the newly impoverished fisherman) and capital (the speed boats, provided by the warlords). In that way the two explanations become complements rather than substitutes.
you need labor (the newly impoverished fisherman)a great example of why input/output models are better than production functions - surely if you weren't blinded by your Cobb-Douglas affliction you'd surely have assumed that availability of poor people with guns was a slack factor rather than a constraint in the Somali economy.
FWIW, the Somali fishing industry was brought to us by Big Development - they don't really eat much fish in Somalia, it was meant to be an export earner.
But I don't accept the initial premis. The Somali waters aren't even close to being fished out, and although there are toxins there, the fish aren't all dead.
This guy (although I have no way of judging the authenticity of his credentials as an expert) seems to pour cold water on the impoverished fishermen theory.
Input/output models are also production functions just of a particular type. And I didn't say anything about Cobb Douglas. But surely there's some room for substitution here - lots of people with little guns or fewer people with bigger guns (and faster boats).
The WP is sort of more of what I was looking for (though he did get the end game wrong).
Input/output models are also production functions not necessarily; any aggreagate production function has an associated IO table but not vice versa IIRC.
I'm afraid Hari has previous for bogus extermination claims, in a rather more serious context. He wrote an appalling article a few years back, when he was still a pre-recantation Decent, announcing that there was no more genocide in Darfur because all the natives of the region had been killed.
Hari hasn't managed to square this with the continuing reports of massacres in the region. Hitchens lauded Hari's piece to the skies in one of his awful Slate columns- the Decents versus the Facts, part 92.
That is the basic problem with Johan Hari - his heart is always in the right place, but his head is usually stuck in a familiar warm and dark place, and when he extracts it to have a look around (and chwara teg to the lad, he does actually visit some dangerous places), he has this terrible habit of believing everything he's told (his original Decent period sprung from a time when he made friends with an Iraqi expat group who turned out to be not very well informed).
The problem with him is that he's such a good writer that people are always offering him really good jobs, and as a result he's never had to learn good journalistic habits - he's sloppy rather than deceitful.
the problem with him is that he's such a good writer that people are always offering him really good jobsHow does this work again? The people, I mean, and the offering.
The choice of set text on p.236 is...revealing.
ReplyDelete(Not that I've read it, natch, just flicking through.)
Given the large Somali population in Bristol, I think that there's every chance that in the not too distant future a ship will be urged to surrender, in English, in an accent resembling that of Long John Silver.
ReplyDeleteI think Jay Leno made the same joke the other day. You're getting old. Seriously, as a moderate capitalist lackey who occasionally but earnestly nods his head in agreement whenever the concept of private property rights is mentioned, I want a bit more here. Those dudes were fisherman (maybe), property rights broke down when political chaos ensued, they got fucked over, toxic waste on their shores, fish dead or scooped up by industrial trawlers, at first they just ran up to the illegal ships in their waters with guns to scare them off but then they figured out that taking a hostage or two would compensate for the fact that their livelihoods got destroyed and then we wind up with Johnny Depp jokes all over the place.
ReplyDeleteI actually get depressed over it.
I read a Johann Hari piece about how Somali pirates are protecting their shoreline against illegal dumping of toxic waste by the Camorra and other Europeans, but I haven't seen any reference to it since. Has anyone seen any proper investigative journalism on this they can provide a link to? I've tried googling but to unsatisfying effect.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Martin Orwin - author of Colloquial Somali - used to live in the same cul de sac as my mum. Lovely man. Wish I was still in touch with him.
There's bits and pieces all over the place about the toxic waste dumps that spiked up off the coast of Somalia after other countries figured out that there was no authority in Somalia anymore to prevent getting rid of that crap cheaply (and illegally). It sounds like typical hippy crap except in this case it might actually not be typical hippy crap - the wolf in the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" story actually does come to eat up the shepherd (which is the moral of that story after all).
ReplyDeleteAlso, the political break down in the region basically meant that it was open season on fishing in Somalia's waters, including anything that was banned everywhere else.
So no fish left, barrels of toxic waste in the fishes place, the local fisherman got no way to make a living anymore, at first they try to go up to these foreign ships and scare them off with a few rifle bursts, but then realize that they might as well take them for ransom.
Also, as far as I can tell they've never killed anybody (except possibly in a botched hostage rescue operation carried out by the French).
I am totally willing to be corrected on either of these points.
Those dudes were fisherman (maybe), property rights broke down when political chaos ensued, they got fucked over, toxic waste on their shores, fish dead or scooped up by industrial trawlers, at first they just ran up to the illegal ships in their waters with guns to scare them off but then they figured out that taking a hostage or two would compensate for the fact that their livelihoods got destroyedthis is the folk tale that people like to tell, but actually it's about as true as the Mafia being essentially a Sicilian agricultural labourers' trade union. They're criminals who rob people because it's more profitable than working and because they've learned dangerous and violent behaviours from the horrible state their country's been in for the last twenty years. Not everything is a natural resources conflict.
ReplyDeleteSo no fish leftThis is the clue IMO - the Johann Hari line appears to be "the fish have all gone! and the Europeans are stealing them!". There are fish there. I also don't understand the timeline that starts with impoverished fishermen, gives them speedboats to go around harassing foreign fishing boats, then has this activity become so profitable that warlords take an interest. It seems to compete unfavourably with a timeline that has the whole thing starting as a criminal enterprise from day 1. In actual fact what seems to have happened is that in the 1990s, various warlords went into business selling fishing licences, and have been using their militias to continue to profit from the coastline.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly true that some of the pirates call themselves by various names like the Volunteer Coastguard, Somali Marines, etc etc, but then, this doesn't prove anything and fits just as well with them starting out by preying on the fishermen as it does with preying on the fish.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as far as dumping toxic waste in the sea goes, it seems a long way to go when you only need to get out to international waters and shake off (or pay off) any EEZ surveillance that may be going on.
If I was the Camorra, I'd chuck it in the Med out of sight of land, pay off the Italian coastguard, and tell my customers I took it to Somalia so I could skim the extra fuel and expenses and reassure them about what might be getting into the spaghetti vongole. Or perhaps I might chuck it in my illegal dump on the edge of town and just tell everyone I dumped it off Somalia. It sounds much cheaper and somehow more like the Mafia.
Also, as far as dumping toxic waste in the sea goes, it seems a long way to go when you only need to get out to international waters and shake off (or pay off) any EEZ surveillance that may be going on. How easy would that be in the Med?
ReplyDelete(I don't say that to back up the Somalia story about which I know nothing, but it just strikes me as something possibly more easily written than done.)
We're talking about southern Italian organised crime, operating on its home ground, in one of its core businesses. What makes you think the Italian government or anyone else would see anything, any more than they see huge illegal dumps of toxic waste on land in the suburbs of Naples?
ReplyDeleteWell the 'dumping the toxic waste' stuff comes from UNEP (http://www.unep.org/cpi/briefs/Brief16Mar05.doc) so that part seems to hold water. I don't really know what the relative costs of illegal toxic waste disposals off the coast of Sicily vs. HoA are, but it's happening. The illegal fishing thing appears in some news outlets (AP, BBC) but the source seems to be the pirates themselves.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't think the explanation that they're "criminals who rob people because it's more profitable than working" really contradicts the "they're doing it cuz of the waste and the lack of fish" (which would imply that 'working' isn't very profitable) explanation.
The thing about these folks tales (Robin Hood, Joaquin Murrieta, Salvatore Giuliano, Janosik, etc.) is that usually there's some truth to them.
Maybe you could apply that production function approach, which worked brilliantly in the past: you need labor (the newly impoverished fisherman) and capital (the speed boats, provided by the warlords). In that way the two explanations become complements rather than substitutes.
Hey, stop badmouthing La Cosa Nostra, will ya? Italian organized crime is not like that; they are just like an agricultural labourers' trade union.
ReplyDeleteThey have strong business ethics; if they say Somalia, Somalia it'll be.
you need labor (the newly impoverished fisherman)a great example of why input/output models are better than production functions - surely if you weren't blinded by your Cobb-Douglas affliction you'd surely have assumed that availability of poor people with guns was a slack factor rather than a constraint in the Somali economy.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, the Somali fishing industry was brought to us by Big Development - they don't really eat much fish in Somalia, it was meant to be an export earner.
But I don't accept the initial premis. The Somali waters aren't even close to being fished out, and although there are toxins there, the fish aren't all dead.
This guy (although I have no way of judging the authenticity of his credentials as an expert) seems to pour cold water on the impoverished fishermen theory.
ReplyDeleteInput/output models are also production functions just of a particular type. And I didn't say anything about Cobb Douglas. But surely there's some room for substitution here - lots of people with little guns or fewer people with bigger guns (and faster boats).
ReplyDeleteThe WP is sort of more of what I was looking for (though he did get the end game wrong).
Ahem. (clears throat)
ReplyDelete"If you ever want to see the Tower Bridge again, gimme $1,000,000.00."
How'd I do? Oh yeah, "Arrrrggghhhh".
vachon
Input/output models are also production functions not necessarily; any aggreagate production function has an associated IO table but not vice versa IIRC.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid Hari has previous for bogus extermination claims, in a rather more serious context. He wrote an appalling article a few years back, when he was still a pre-recantation Decent, announcing that there was no more genocide in Darfur because all the natives of the region had been killed.
ReplyDeleteHari hasn't managed to square this with the continuing reports of massacres in the region. Hitchens lauded Hari's piece to the skies in one of his awful Slate columns- the Decents versus the Facts, part 92.
That is the basic problem with Johan Hari - his heart is always in the right place, but his head is usually stuck in a familiar warm and dark place, and when he extracts it to have a look around (and chwara teg to the lad, he does actually visit some dangerous places), he has this terrible habit of believing everything he's told (his original Decent period sprung from a time when he made friends with an Iraqi expat group who turned out to be not very well informed).
ReplyDeleteThe problem with him is that he's such a good writer that people are always offering him really good jobs, and as a result he's never had to learn good journalistic habits - he's sloppy rather than deceitful.
Yea, that's why I used the plural form and I didn't use the word aggregate.
ReplyDeletethe problem with him is that he's such a good writer that people are always offering him really good jobsHow does this work again? The people, I mean, and the offering.
ReplyDelete