![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If catching a cab so often feels like robbery, now you know why. One such outfit, called the Somali-Canadian Coast Guard, “was headed by a former Toronto taxi driver named Abdiweli Ali Taar,” Badahur writes. He spent weeks meeting with pirates and government officials. Indeed, piracy was at first conflated with ad hoc “coast guard” patrols that would confront, and occasionally commandeer, illegal fishing boats in Somali waters. Jay Bahadur wanted to know firsthand how modern pirates live and operate, so he traveled to Somalia. “In the ever-shifting world of pirates, coast guards and fishermen, the movement amongst the three professions has never been in only one direction,” Bahadur notes. We meet the pirates, chew khat with them, search out commandeered vessels and generally make ourselves at home. Based in the city of Garowe, where pirates are easy enough to spot - swap in gleaming Toyota 4x4s for parrots and peg legs - and hosted by a man with connections, Bahadur goes about the dogged work of collecting local testimony, and assembles what amounts to a definitive history of piracy in the region. This is one of several fascinating insights that Bahadur digs up over the course of his research. Territory - it’s nowhere near as restive as, say, Mogadishu - and its relative stability, combined with vast gaps in governance, have allowed piracy to flourish. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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