Somali Pirates

A friend recently sent this article to me. I find these views enlightening and,
as such, am passing it along to the A2K community:


"In addition to being one of the world’s foremost authorities on
shamanism, Perkins has become a leading advocate for the rights of
people in the developing world, as exemplified in his New York Times
bestselling books 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' and
'The Secret History of the American Empire', and in the following
piece regarding the so-called Somali pirates."


Dear Friends,

We’ve been hearing a lot about terrorists and pirates for many years
now; but reports about why they do what they do are just starting to
filter through.

A pirate who goes by the name Abshir Abdullahi Abdi explained his
reasons on NPR’s Morning Edition, on May 6, 2006. "We understand what
we're doing is wrong. But hunger is more important than any other
thing," he said.

NPR’s Gwen Thompkins followed up with this: “Fishing villages in the
area have been devastated by illegal trawlers and waste dumping from
industrialized nations. Coral reefs are reportedly dead. Lobster and
tuna have vanished. Malnutrition is high.”

Amy Goodman introduced Mohamed Abshir Waldo on the April 14, 2009
edition of DemocracyNow! The author of “The Two Piracies in Somalia:
Why the World Ignores the Other?” he said:

Well, the two piracies are the original one, which was foreign fishing
piracy by foreign trawlers and vessels, who at the same time were
dumping industrial waste, toxic waste and, it also has been reported,
nuclear waste (author’s note: from US navel vessels patrolling the oil
lanes off the Somali coast). . .

And the other piracy is the shipping piracy. When the marine resource
of Somalia was pillaged, when the waters were poisoned, when the fish
was stolen, and in a poverty situation in the whole country, the

fishermen felt that they had no other possibilities or other recourse
but to fight with, you know, the properties and the shipping of the
same countries that have been doing and carrying on the fishing piracy
and toxic dumping.

Hearing these reports about the Somali situation took me back to a
morning in Nicaragua about a year ago. “Terrorism is not really an
‘ism’,” Miguel d’Escoto, the former Sandanista priest and current
president of the UN General Assembly told me. “There’s no connection
between the guerrillas who fought the Contras and Al Qaeda, or
Colombia’s FARC and Somali pirates. That’s just a convenient way for
your government to convince the world that there is another enemy ‘ism’
out there, like communism used to be.”

He and I talked about fanatics. We agreed that there would always be a
lunatic fringe in the world " just as there would always be clinically
insane people. “Perhaps Bin Laden is one of them,” I said. “But
fanatics don’t get people to follow them unless those people are
miserable, desperate.” Then I added, “I’ve often wondered about Robin
Hood. He may have been a fanatic for all we know. But the Saxons had
been invaded by the Normans and were abused horribly. They couldn’t
even hunt deer in their own forests to feed their starving children.
They would h
ave flocked to anyone who defied the Normans and offered
them hope.”

Father Miguel smiled. “And when the Normans sent the Sheriff of
Nottingham to ferret Robin Hood out and destroy his band, all it did
was rally the opposition. Hatred escalated.”

It seems that, in the long-run, no one benefits from attacking people
who have been treated in ways they consider unjust. Violence, in such
cases, begets violence. With one exception.

Those Eisenhower identified as the military-industrial complex, today’s
corporatocracy, reap huge benefits. Those who build ships, missiles,
and armored vehicles; make guns, uniforms and bulletproof vests;
distribute food, soft drinks, and ammunition; provide insurance,
medicines, and toilet paper; construct ports, airstrips, and housing;
and reconstruct devastated villages, factories, schools, and hospitals
" they, and only they, are the big winners.

" John Perkins


www.JohnPerkins.org
www.DreamChange.org

Trained since 1968 to bring ancient wisdom to the contemporary world,
JOHN PERKINS will be leading our December expedition to Palenque and
Guatemala. He is also founder of Dream Change, a worldwide grassroots
movement of people from diverse cultures and backgrounds dedicated to
shifting consciousness and promoting sustainable lifestyles.

Perkins was chief economist of the international consulting firm Chas.
T. Main and founder and chief executive officer of Independent Pow
er
Systems, a United States energy company committed to producing
electricity with environmentally beneficial technologies. He also
served as a consultant to the World Bank, the United Nations, and
Fortune 500 corporations; lived and worked in Asia, Africa, Europe,
Latin America, and the Middle East; studied with indigenous prophets
and shamans; and taught at universities and learning centers on four
continents. A graduate of Boston University’s School of Business
Administration, he served in the Peace Corps in the late 1960s and as
United States Representative to the United Nations’ International
Atomic Energy Agency in the 1970s.

Perkins is author of several books on shamanism, including
Shapeshifting; The World Is As You Dream It; Psychonavigation; and
Spirit of the Shuar, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His
latest books, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Secret History
of the American Empire, are New York Times best-sellers. He has been
featured on ABC Television and the A&E and History networks, and in
Time, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many other publications.

Authors John Perkins and Llyn Roberts, M.A., will guide us on an
amazing journey to the ancient Mayan sites of Palenque, Tikal, Antiqua,
and Lake Atitlan, using ancient shamanic shapeshifting approaches to
propel us to higher states of consciousness " and to experience how
expanding our own awareness can help us transform not only ourselves,
but the world around us.

For full information please visit
www.greatmystery.org/events/maya09.html