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Everyone loves the story of Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws, plundering the rich to give to the poor. Well, everyone that is apart from the tyrants: King John, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and those of the wealthy who were being plundered.

Absolutely no-one, outside of those mentioned above, took the side of the tyrants. Everyone, but everyone, was a fan of Robin Hood.

The merry band of outlaws evolved, so legend has it, because the powerful barons stole the food of English peasants by levying exorbitant taxes that left the peasantry starving. Eventually, there seemed no alternative but to hit back.

There is another band of merry men presently in circulation, committing similar acts against the rich and powerful, yet this time we’re being told they’re ruthless, bloodthirsty, and engaged in the oldest maritime profession known to man. It’s enough to make you shiver your timbers, quake in your boots, or suffer nightmares of swashbuckling, plank walking, and keelhauling, sufficient to satisfy the bloodlust of even that most notorious of pirates, Captain Morgan himself.

This latest band of seagoing outlaws has chosen the Indian Ocean for their marauding. It’s not known exactly how many ships have been hijacked so far this year, but the figure is fast approaching thirty, with the most newsworthy – the huge oil tanker, Sirius Star – being the latest.

As western media does its worst to paint these matelots as bloodthirsty subhumans, armed to the teeth and set for rape and pillage, the truth as usual is somewhat different. Had King John and his trusty Nottingham sheriff been favored by access to NBC or BBC News, the picture we have today of Robin Hood may well not be so favorable. Imagine the effect of beaming into every peasant’s home the latest stagecoach hijack, or assault upon the sheriff’s treasury coffers, creating – according to the Nottinghamshire Broadcasting Service – further hardship for all poor people, being as the good sheriff was just about to distribute his excess riches amongst the peasant populace.

What price popular support for Robin Hood, champion of the poor and needy, then?

Much of the west and east coast of Africa is unproductive country. Fishing was once the principal occupation. Life was hard, but fruitful. There were plenty of fish to be had and most folk made an adequate, though peasant-style, living.

Meanwhile, among the rich and wealthy of Europe, there was consternation. Used to gorging themselves on fish and fish products, the seas around that continent were fast unable to support the huge amount of its product demanded by voracious British, German, and Spanish stomachs. The cry went out, “More fish!” But none was to be had.

Desperate to satisfy demand and top-up their dwindling coffers, European trawler owners looked further afield to fill their voluminous nets. There were fish a-plenty around Africa, but Europeans weren’t allowed to fish there. Quickly, the wealthy trawler owners turned to the European Union for assistance. They found there a champion of their cause, a veritable sheriff of Europe, one Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner.

Sheriff Mandelson soon badgered and bullied African government officials into allowing European companies to set up offices in their countries, by making them believe there would be enormous benefits for their corrupt wallets. Once EU fishery companies had set up their branch offices, they could re-register their vast bottom-trawling ships as African, and legally fish that nation’s waters.

Nothing was set in writing stating they had to market their catch in Africa, so once the ship’s holds were stuffed, they steamed with all speed to the European marketplace, their catch nicely frozen and ready to be landed for European consumption.

Before long, all the fish once abundant in Africa’s inshore waters were vacuumed up by the huge EU trawlers, which then turned their attention to deeper offshore areas where local fishermen couldn’t go with their small, fragile, boats.

The fishermen of the African coast, like the peasants of old England, had had their livelihoods stolen from them by the wealthy and powerful, and were being left to slowly starve.

Like Robin Hood and his merry men of yore, they decided to take back what had been stolen from them, and distribute it among the peasant population. Being men of the sea, they formed themselves into bands of pirates and began hijacking merchant vessels and holding them for ransom.

The plan worked wonderfully well. They made more money than they’d ever dreamed of. The western world’s ‘King John’ leaders ran around like headless chickens, demanding of their “sheriffs of Nottingham” that something be done to capture the pirates. Much was tried, but nothing succeeded.

Then the pirates pulled off their greatest ever coup. The “Sirius Star”, a supertanker owned by the oil-rich nation of Saudi Arabia was carrying over two million barrels of Saudi oil, bound for the United States, when Somali pirates boarded the vessel in the Gulf of Aden and took the crew hostage.

The great appeal of Robin Hood and his band was their humanity and righteousness. While stories abound of rogues killed in self defense, no-one suffered unnecessarily at their hands. The pirates of Africa have, so far, practiced a similar philosophy. There is no record of them killing, or hurting, anyone taken hostage. All are released unharmed once a ransom is paid. In fact, the pirates are on record as saying, “We hurt no-one. Our only interest is the money.”

No doubt, as the pirates grow richer – their wealth is already extensive, with an estimated thirty million dollars paid out in ransoms this year – the attempts to capture them will become greater. The modern day King Johns of this world can’t be seen as acquiescing to a band of marauding African fisherman. Already reports are abroad of ties to al Qaeda, and militant Muslim extremists. As yet, the evidence for that is slim to the point of non-existence. Mud sticks, however, and we will see much more mud thrown at us through our TV screens, before the last African pirate is rounded up and thrown into jail.

Meanwhile, they’re enjoying a fine lifestyle, unknown to them before EU and Japanese trawlers destroyed their fish stocks. They have big houses, new cars, and beautiful wives. Neither do they see themselves as pirates.

According to one Somali resident, Abdulkadil Mohamed, “Illegal fishing is the root cause of the piracy problem,” he says, “They call themselves coastguards.”^[1]

^{[1] “Somali pirates living the high life” BBC, October 28th 2008}

Further reading on the background to this issue:

^{“Manufactured Famine” Monbiot, August 26th 2008}

^{“Protect and Survive” Monbiot, September 9th 2008}

^{“Foreign fields: Rich states look beyond their borders for fertile soil” Financial Times, August 19th 2008 (Free registration required)}

Filed under: Pieces of eight

Earlier this year, the world was shocked by pictures out of Tibet, of Buddhist monks and members of the Tibetan people being brutally assaulted by Chinese military forces, for daring to protest the sixty year occupation of their country.

The response from western governments was, to say the least, cowardly. Beijing was preparing to host the Olympic Games. No-one wanted to upset the applecart by risking criticism, and only a few politicians quietly whispered of the possibility of Olympic boycott.

Even they caved before the International Olympic Committee, and a swift diplomatic message from the Chinese government regarding future trade deals. All must be spic and span, clean and politically tidy, for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. The Chinese promised openness and honesty for all, and reneged on both counts, but the Beijing games were an outstanding success – at least for China.

Meanwhile, Tibet was casually dropped from western media attention, and, along with the hopes and aspirations of a few million Tibetans, allowed to slide into obscurity.

That is, until now, and a global recession that threatens to bankrupt the western world. China has become an important player in the efforts to prevent the global economy nosediving further, and Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, is spearheading talks to introduce a new global order, in which he sees China’s involvement as crucial.

So crucial, in fact, he’s publicly sold the Tibetan people down the river, in order to get it.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the British government quietly announced its decision to recognize China’s sovereignty over Tibet. So quietly, that hardly any foreign media carried the story. And that’s hardly surprising, given that other western nations have, apparently, already decided to back the Chinese communist government’s occupation of Tibet, and have done so with such stealth that nobody knew about it -until now.

This week, one of the BBC’s greatest journalists, John Simpson, secured an interview with a senior Chinese official, Zhu Weiqun, an expert on Tibet, who said the UK’s move had brought it “in line with the universal position in today’s world”.^[1]

The BBC also reported that:

In a little publicised parliamentary statement on 29 October, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband…….asserted, “Like every other EU member state, and the United States, we regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China.”^[2]

Around thirteen hundred years ago, Tibet was first unified as a kingdom by Songtsän Gampo, the founder of the Tibetan empire. Just seven hundred years prior to that, or so the Bible tells us, one Judas Iscariot was paid forty pieces of silver to betray the Son of God.

Since that time, the teachings of Jesus have come under assault and betrayal by priests and politicians prepared to re-enact the Judas Iscariot story to further their own selfish ends. It goes on to this day.

The betrayal of Tibet by western leaders is not just the abandoning of a nation, but the ditching of everything we hold sacred in our society: honor, trust, duty, the need to do what is right whatever the cost.

It is an abandonment of those qualities our fathers and grandfathers were told they were sacrificing their lives in two world wars to uphold.

This time, the blood money comes not in Roman silver, but Chinese gold.

^{[1] “China minister speaks on Tibet (video)” BBC, November 14th 2008}

^{[2] “China welcomes UK Tibet decision” BBC, November 15th 2008}

Filed under: Tibet and the kiss of Judas

News today of Ann Dunwoody, who has become a four-star US general, the first four-star female general in the US military.^[1]

Sparrow Chat is a champion of equality between all human beings of either sex, and all points in between, but I found the story of Ann Dunwoody vaguely disturbing.

It’s not the first time I’ve experienced that feeling while living in America.

If sexual equality means women doing men’s work, then America is way ahead of Europe. I still experience qualms whenever I approach roadworks to find a heavily clad, hard-hatted, and often quite pretty young woman holding the “STOP/GO” pole and directing traffic. I’m not sure why I find it disturbing, just that I do. I’d probably feel the same way if I walked into a corporate office and discovered the CEO’s secretary was a boy.

When I took up driving a school bus to do my bit for society, I could never quite come to terms with the mechanic who tore out half the engine to repair a serious oil leak. Her name was Cindy.

I’m not suggesting there are no female road workers in Europe, or lady bus mechanics. It’s just that if there are, they’re very rare. I have never seen any.

To me, equality has nothing to do with women doing men’s work, or vice versa. To allow a woman to work on the roads, or in a bus service depot, is presumably acceptable provided they’re paid the same wages and benefits as a man.

Personally, it’s not something I would encourage. Having had the youthful experience of working on the roads with a group of somewhat crass, foul-mouthed, illiterate males, it would be a career I’d strongly dissuade my own daughter from considering.

While many jobs are suited to either sex, there are a few that of their nature should preclude both sexes from applying. In my opinion, the military is one such career. While there are some woman who seem to consider equality as the right to turn themselves into males in all but the physical attributes, the idea of women soldiers shouldering guns and engaging the enemy is anathema to me. It’s a personal viewpoint, but one I strongly adhere to.

Why do I feel this way?

For millenia, the male of the species has fought and butchered and slaughtered, and been slaughtered in return. As we gradually became more ‘civilized’ the grossness of warfare had to be made more acceptable, so we created honor, and heroism, and eventually video games. It was all achieved by males for the purpose of glorifying and legitimizing war.

Generally, the female of the species remained subservient to the males’ demand for blood, but the expectation was always that one day the subservience would disappear, women would demand an end to this barbaric male pastime, and the world would become a place of peace, if not ruled by women then certainly influenced strongly by them.

Today, on behalf of women everywhere, four-star general Ann Dunwoody, shattered that expectation.

^{[1] “Woman reaches US army’s top rank” BBC, November 14th 2008}

Filed under: Female warriors