Julian+-+ASID+-+SP13


 * Topic: Piracy in Somalia **


 * My name is Korfa and I am a Somali pirate. Somalia is located in the northwestern part of Africa and is bordered by the Indian ocean. A majority of the people that live there don’t know how to read(38% literacy rate), which leads to a very low GDP, which is at a mere $600. There are 9,118,773 people that occupy this 627,339 sq. km space. The northwest section of the country is relatively mountainous, consisting of the Ogo and the Migiurtinia mountain ranges. **


 * Before I was a pirate, I was a normal person. I had a job working in the mines, looking for rare earth minerals and things of that nature(no pun intended). You could say I had it “good” because the amount of money I had was fairly decent compared to some of the other people in my community. I have a wife and 3 kids, all of which I could support very well and still have money left over to save. Then, I got laid off and was not able to put food on the table for my family. That’s when I started to partake in the field of piracy. Pretty much, what we do is hijack cargo ships or other vessels with expensive stuff on it, like oil, and collect a ransom for the goods. **


 * Most people are generally against piracy because it affects them, probably due to the fact that it costs many countries, all together, about $6.6 billion to $6.9 billion. However, there are a few groups that are for piracy. Some of them include insurance companies make a considerable amount of money off of these ship raids, so why wouldn’t they be for it if it’s making them money? Terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are also for piracy because they can retrieve weapons and money stolen by us pirates. **

** Works Cited **
 * "Piracy in Somalia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. **
 * "Selected Works of Milena Sterio." "Fighting Piracy in Somalia (and Elsewhere): Why More Is Needed" by Milena Sterio. N.p., 2009. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. **
 * "Somalia." Gale Global Issues in Context. Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2013. **