Somali Piracy Quotes

The Tears of Dark Water is not really “about” Somali piracy. It is about the multi-dimensional fallout of Somalia’s disintegration over the past two decades. Piracy offered me a narrative framework to explore not only how a hijacking and hostage crisis could end in tragedy but also how the breakdown of social order on land could inspire young Somalis to take to the ocean.

America’s decision to green-light Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia and overthrow a popular, grassroots, and surprisingly effective Islamist administration led, over the next five years, to the explosion of chaos, high-seas piracy, terrorism spreading across East Africa, and ultimately the next Somali famine, in which more than 250,000 people died. That policy decision was one of the most questionable in recent history—right behind Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2, if measured in lives lost, although I’m not sure what else you’d measure it in.

Yet his proposals to deter Somali pirates by going after their financiers’ money met with only limited success. The shipping industry seemed to be more interested in talking about piracy than confronting it.