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**mazabotman** · 01-05-2010, 01:49 AM

If criminal activity were contingent on poverty, rich people would not commit crimes.

No matter your economic status, you always have the choice to take what does not belong to you. While I don't disagree that serious nation building needs to be done in Somalia, the criminally inclined will always find another way.

I think your first comment is a true comment about societies definitely in the First and even Second World countries.

For example, I don't find excuses for crime in the First World ones. Ways and means exist for legitimate living, social aid exists, the countries are stable with laws and assistance, modern amenities exist, necessities of life exist, etc. By comparison, even places like American ghettos are paradises compared to what I've seen in some Third World slums with awful regimes in control where the poor there would be furious at how others in the First World don't appreciate or maximise their chances. In many Third World places, slums and poverty look like this:

In many Third World countries, options away from crime can also be found for many, but it gets much less clear in the most desperate places and desperate of cases. It all depends on the location, regime, stability, demographics, etc.

If you get a place like the Somali coast, where people are walking sticks of hunger without infrastructure and its basic amenities with surrounding violence, failed government, desert terrain with war inside the coastline, etc, the basics are already mostly missing and leave no room to spare. And if the coastal people basically live off fishing, and other nations take advantage of their plight as they have been doing by polluting their means of living and removing all the fish, people are going to be cornered on living itself. They won't choose to starve, so they'll resort to stealing. Added to that is anger over the countries of the ships they are hijacking given they rightly blame them for having robbed and trashed their means of living honestly. If someone put me into a corner by destroying my own home and way of living like that, I wouldn't lose much sleep on my conscience in grabbing ships from countries that dumped trash and took my food and means of living away where I can't feed myself and my family, etc.

Desperate people resort to desperate things. IMO, that's why nations ought to crack down on the awful abuse of their plight with the dumpings and overfishings and make attempts to give the coastal people a chance to get back on their feet if possible.

01-05-2010, 01:49 AM	#39
mazabotman Join Date Nov 2005 Posts 487 Senior Member	If criminal activity were contingent on poverty, rich people would not commit crimes. No matter your economic status, you always have the choice to take what does not belong to you. While I don't disagree that serious nation building needs to be done in Somalia, the criminally inclined will always find another way. I think your first comment is a true comment about societies definitely in the First and even Second World countries. For example, I don't find excuses for crime in the First World ones. Ways and means exist for legitimate living, social aid exists, the countries are stable with laws and assistance, modern amenities exist, necessities of life exist, etc. By comparison, even places like American ghettos are paradises compared to what I've seen in some Third World slums with awful regimes in control where the poor there would be furious at how others in the First World don't appreciate or maximise their chances. In many Third World places, slums and poverty look like this: In many Third World countries, options away from crime can also be found for many, but it gets much less clear in the most desperate places and desperate of cases. It all depends on the location, regime, stability, demographics, etc. If you get a place like the Somali coast, where people are walking sticks of hunger without infrastructure and its basic amenities with surrounding violence, failed government, desert terrain with war inside the coastline, etc, the basics are already mostly missing and leave no room to spare. And if the coastal people basically live off fishing, and other nations take advantage of their plight as they have been doing by polluting their means of living and removing all the fish, people are going to be cornered on living itself. They won't choose to starve, so they'll resort to stealing. Added to that is anger over the countries of the ships they are hijacking given they rightly blame them for having robbed and trashed their means of living honestly. If someone put me into a corner by destroying my own home and way of living like that, I wouldn't lose much sleep on my conscience in grabbing ships from countries that dumped trash and took my food and means of living away where I can't feed myself and my family, etc. Desperate people resort to desperate things. IMO, that's why nations ought to crack down on the awful abuse of their plight with the dumpings and overfishings and make attempts to give the coastal people a chance to get back on their feet if possible.
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