During the last five years, a very old international phenomenon has been revived recently, which is the phenomenon of piracy. And it is very common especially in the Gulf of Aden and the shores around Somalia. Almost every month we hear about a trading ship which is attacked by pirates, and then they ask for a ransom. For a while the news will be circulated by the news agencies and mass media, till we finally hear that the ransom has been paid and the ship has been released.

In some cases we hear that the owner companies of the captive ships declare bravely some statements about their intentions not to pay the ransoms and their refusal to negotiate with the pirates. But gradually those statements disappear and again we hear that the ransoms have been paid and the ships have been released.

Through history, the piracy of sea and land did exist. In the past, the thieves attacked the trade caravans, stole their goods and slaves, and raped their women. On the other hand, talking about the sea piracy, the pirates worked on attacking the ships, and many of Hollywood movies embodied the details and the adventures of the pirate's life, many wonderful action movies were produced in that field.

Passing through time, the traditional means of stealing changed, and new developed means have been emerged, especially the means of piracy, may be the traditional means of piracy are not profitable any more because of the developed means of transportation. So, the means of piracy have been developed as well, now there are the economic piracy, and also the electronic piracy which is done by a click.

The pirates of Somalia had made a worldwide mess. They affected American, British, Dutch, labia, Egyptian, Saudi, Yemeni, and many other ships. They also caused huge losses to the Marine transport companies and the insurance companies. Now, the only thing that occupies the minds of the owners of any ship that sails through that area is the fear of being a prey for the pirates, and then it would turn to be a good material for the news agencies.

The pirating ships are varied according to their contents. On the board of these ships may be there are some poor fishermen whose bad luck made them sail in the territorial waters of Somalia. Another ship may be an Oil transporter, like what had happened before to the huge Saudi Oil transporter ship which had been attacked by the pirates. Also the ship may transport a huge number of cars, like what had happened to the Saudi ship which was transporting 4000 Hyundai cars to the Hyundai agent in KSA. The ship may also transport weapons, like what had happened to the Emirate ship and the Okrania one, and what is really funny is that they possess money counter machines and other machines that are used to distinguish between the true money and the false of them.

But what made the piracy back again, And especially in that place of the world? The answer is very clear: because of the disability of the security system in Somalia and the absence of a legitimate strong government that can impose its authority on its whole territory especially its territorial waters. Also the bad economic circumstances, in which the people of Somalia live in, had contributed in forming these groups of professional pirates.

There are no banks to steal, no rich businessmen to break into their homes, only there are ships, full of cars, weapons, oil and different goods, Sailing through their shores. So, piracy was the only available easy work for them. And because they know very well the geography of the place better than anyone else, they began their work of piracy, and they discovered that it is a gainful business, and the value of the goods transported on the ships was so high that it forced the owners of the ships to pay the ransom to save their ships and their goods.

When paying more attention to these events of pirating, we will find that the pirates did not try to kill any of their hostages, although they do have different kinds of weapons. Also when paying attention to the nature of those pirates, they are just of some poor Somalians, we will find that it is a different kind of piracy. Poverty is the main reason behind this piracy. We can't deny that some of those pirates are politicians and chiefs of tribes who helped to turn piracy into a kind of business. But in most cases poverty and the economic need were the first reason.

Furthermore, if we compare between the appearance of the pirate in the international movies and the Somalian pirate, we will find that the pirate of the movie is usually a well built man who lost one of his eyes, while the Somalian pirate is a very thin pale young man whose appearance makes you pity him and feel that he needs food, medicine, shelter and social care.

This economic status is proved by some incidents, like what had happened with the Saudi ship Sereyos Star in 15th November 2008, this ship is owned by one company of Aramco group. This ship was as huge as three stadiums; it carries two millions oil barrels. In the beginning, the pirates asked for 25 million dollars as a ransom, but it ended by paying only 3 million dollars.

 During the negations to release the Saudi ship, the pirates expressed their respect for KSA and its high religious rank and they added: (This is a business). So, this is the way in which the pirates work and these are their principles. Yes they are Muslims and respect the Islamic sanctuaries, but they don't refrain from pirating and asking for ransoms. And this asserts what I have mentioned about having this kind of piracy absolute economic reasons; it looks like when someone steals to bring medicine for his ill son.

And when the owner company of the ship Sereyos paid the ransom and the ship was released, the pirates divided the money between them and left the ship in small boats. Some of the pirates were on one of these boats sailing joyfully with their share which was 300,000 dollars. They sailed too fast since they were scared that there are some foreign ships were observing the whole situation. The boat sank with six pirates. This dramatic situation, even though it is funny as well, gives us a general view of the nature of these miserable thieves.

A similar situation happened when the miserable pirates attacked an Egyptian ship.  They gave the Egyptian government an appointed time to pay the ransom. The time past and the Egyptian government did noting. Then the pirates give the government an extra time to pay the ransom, and again nothing happened. For the third time, they gave the Egyptian government an extra time to pay, and again they gain nothing but failure.

The Egyptian audience witnessed a call from the captured people and the pirates who called an Egyptian TV program, (90 Minutes), they called to ask the Egyptian government to pay the ransom to release them , they were captured for months and the food supplies are about to run out.

Months later, the chief of the fishermen in an Egyptian village on the sea, where the captured people are from, finally succeeded to release the ship and its crew. We don't know exactly if it was by force, as what was heard, or by paying the ransom. Or maybe the captured fishermen could get over the pirates and escaped. Or do the pirates themselves discover that there is no use of them and no one wants to pay the ransom so they simply let them go? But what was really funny about this situation is that the fishermen, after they came back, they told that the original pirates, who attacked them at the first time, sold the ship and the crew to another group of pirates, which asserts that it is not a gainful business from the very beginning.

The extreme poverty and the hard economic circumstance are the main reasons of the Somalian piracy. So, when seeking for solutions, we should consider the economic dimension, since we are not dealing with mere thieves of the normal conceptions. This matter may resemble Robin Hood, who was a brave English knight lived during the middle Ages; he used to steal money from the rich to give them to the poor. The whole matter represents a revolution of the poor. So pity in such situation is more prominent than the crime, but we can't deny the criminal side as well.

The Somalian piracy can't come into an end by only the existence of coast guards and divisions in this spot of the world. Neither we can solve the situation by the armament of the ships that pass through this place so they many defend themselves in the case of being attacked by pirates, nor modifying the rules, to make it legal to the crew to fight any one or any group that may attack them, would solve the problem. The last point is suggested by many but it wouldn't help.

The real solution is to help this country by providing them with food and medicine supplies and aids groups, and helping their people to work and have jobs by establish huge productive projects, and working on establishing a national Somalian elected government, military forces, and an army to be able to control and achieve safety along both sea and land borders of the country. Or the situation will be worse, and the phenomenon of piracy will last forever exhausting the resources of countries and the sea-transporting companies. It is going to threaten sailing in the most important shores in the world.

Many phenomena, like terrorism, Greenhouse effect, occupation, electronic swindling and piracy, asserted that the globe is one village, and the problems of a small country in the end of the world can affect the whole world. Therefore, it is the duty of all the countries of the world to consider these phenomena and wok together to study them and exert effort to put an end for these phenomena.