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The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World [Kindle Edition]

Jay Bahadur
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Print List Price: $15.95
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Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
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Book Description

Somalia, on the tip of the Horn of Africa, has been inhabited as far back as 9,000 BC. Its history is as rich as the country is old. Caught up in a decades-long civil war, Somalia, along with Iraq and Afghanistan, has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Getting there from North America is a forty-five-hour, five-flight voyage through Frankfurt, Dubai, Djibouti, Bossaso (on the Gulf of Aden), and, finally, Galkayo. Somalia is a place where a government has been built out of anarchy.
 
For centuries, stories of pirates have captured imaginations around the world. The recent bands of daring, ragtag pirates off the coast of Somalia, hijacking multimillion-dollar tankers owned by international shipping conglomerates, have brought the scourge of piracy into the modern era.
 
The capture of the American-crewed cargo ship Maersk Alabama in April 2009, the first United States ship to be hijacked in almost two centuries, catapulted the Somali pirates onto prime-time news. Then, with the horrific killing by Somali pirates of four Americans, two of whom had built their dream yacht and were sailing around the world (“And now on to: Angkor Wat! And Burma!” they had written to friends), the United States Navy, Special Operation Forces, FBI, Justice Department, and the world’s military forces were put on notice: the Somali seas were now the most perilous in the world.
 
Jay Bahadur, a journalist who dared to make his way into the remote pirate havens of Africa’s easternmost country and spend months infiltrating their lives, gives us the first close-up look at the hidden world of the pirates of war-ravaged Somalia.
 
Bahadur’s riveting narrative exposé—the first ever—looks at who these men are, how they live, the forces that created piracy in Somalia, how the pirates spend the ransom money, how they deal with their hostages. Bahadur makes sense of the complex and fraught regional politics, the history of Somalia and the self-governing region of Puntland (an autonomous region in northeast Somalia), and the various catastrophic occurrences that have shaped their pirate destinies. The book looks at how the unrecognized mini-state of Puntland is dealing with the rise—and increasing sophistication—of piracy and how, through legal and military action, other nations, international shippers, the United Nations, and various international bodies are attempting to cope with the present danger and growing pirate crisis.

A revelation of a world at the epicenter of political and natural disaster.




From the Hardcover edition.


Editorial Reviews

Review

"The inner workings of the world of Somali pirates are astutely explored by Bahadur. . . an engaging account, full of solid analysis. . . What’s especially impressive (aside from Bahadur’s sheer nerve in insinuating himself among these dangerous men in a lawless corner of the world) is the amassing of multiple perspectives—of pirates and policymakers—that support a rich, suspenseful account." 
Publishers Weekly
 
"A rare inside look. . . a nicely crafted, revealing report."
Kirkus Reviews


From the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Brave and exhaustively reported. . . . Bahadur has gone deep in exploring the causes of this seaborne crime wave.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Bahadur has borne witness and seen what no other journalist has seen. He has peeked behind the curtain of the pirates of Somalia in their faraway tribal homelands . . . and lived to tell about it.” —The Boston Globe
 
“A fascinating narrative that opens a hitherto largely unknown world to a wider audience.” —San Francisco Chronicle
 
"An illuminating guide. . . . Bahadur has probably spent more time with Somali pirates than just about any other Western researcher or writer.” —The New Republic

“A first-of-its kind book. . . . Takes readers through the evolution of the pirate groups from garrulous, self-proclaimed vigilantes who claim they are protecting Somalia’s waters from illegal fishing vessels to the deadly criminal gangs they are today.” —Associated Press
 
“Convincing. . . . In Bahadur’s telling, the fractured, tribal governance of Somalia’s territories is almost unbelievable in its dysfunction. And the year-by-year evolution of Somalian piracy is mesmerizing. . . . Look to The Pirates of Somalia for an aggregation
of all the news stories about this phenomenon over the past four years, with the additional, intimate layer—stories of the pirates from the pirates themselves—that no one else was reckless enough to get.” —The Plain Dealer
 
“This vivid and intelligent study of Somali pirates uncovers the reckless men behind the nation’s most lucrative business. . . . A
balanced and fascinating portrait.” —The Sunday Times (London)
 
“An insightful report. . . . Revelatory journalism and astute analysisof causes and solutions that prove far more informative than any
TV footage about the contemporary piracy problem.” —Booklist
 
“An engaging account, full of solid analysis. . . . What’s especially impressive (aside from Bahadur’s sheer nerve in insinuating himself among these dangerous men in a lawless corner of the world) is the amassing of multiple perspectives—of pirates and policymakers— that support a rich, suspenseful account.” —Publishers Weekly


Product Details

  • File Size: 3368 KB
  • Print Length: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (July 19, 2011)
  • Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B004SOQ0HG
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,704 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Kudos to Bahadur for a beautifully written, well researched book. kevinw9  |  9 reviewers made a similar statement
I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the subject. P. Meltzer  |  6 reviewers made a similar statement
Psshhhh, way too smart to go for that!!! Miss Anne Thrope  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative August 11, 2011
By kevinw9
Format:Hardcover
Jay Bahadur's "The Pirates of Somalia" is a incredible work of non-fiction. There are actually two stories told in this book. The first is a fascinating look into the history of what may be the most failed of "failed states" on the planet and the piracy scourge that has developed on its shores. Understanding piracy must be understood within the context of the country as a whole and Bahadur does a great job of explaining this. The inside look into pirate gangs, pirate leaders, hostages, politicians and others provides a viewpoint not available elsewhere. But the second story, and equally intriguing, is about a Canadian rookie journalist flying to Somalia on a whim, when no other reporter would do so, with a half-baked plan to embed himself with marine kidnappers for a few months - not something you hear about often.

Kudos to Bahadur for a beautifully written, well researched book. Enjoyed every page.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Daring Book August 11, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Article first published as Book Review: The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World by Jay Bahadur on Blogcritics.

Far from being a romanticized history, The Pirates of Somalia by Jay Bahadur is a new (July, 2011) and important book about the pirates themselves, giving readers a full-color view of their origin, their clannish culture, and their motives.

Bahadur explains through his bold interviews with financiers and respected leaders that the piracy we currently see in Somalia is a result of an evolutionary process.

Early on, in the mid 1990's, in absence of a coast guard, Somali fishermen vigilantes, determined to protect their livelihood, began seizing the assets of small commercial fishing boats, in essence levying on them a tax of sorts for the offender's intrusion into their national waters.

By the mid-2000's, as Bahadur explains, these same operations became big businesses. No longer a defensive measure alone pirating became profitable and drew attention from other sectors of Somali culture.

In the "third wave" opportunism matured, attracting among others "disaffected youth from the large inland nomad population." This group, while echoing the "worn-out mantra" of the legacy they inherited, has lost the "brooding introspection" possessed by the older fishermen vigilantes who chose the route of piracy as a means of forcing justice in absence of a government authority. It is this third wave that has extended their reach into the high seas targeting large commercial trade ships for multi-million dollar ransoms.

In the conclusion of his book, Bahadur proposes actions which the international community might take to offer a "pragmatic mitigation" of piracy, a term he uses instead of "elimination." Among them are measures of prevention, enforcement, and intelligence. It is a problem, he says, that must be solved on land as well as on the sea.

The Pirates of Somalia is a daring book which invites readers into a world that challenges both the romanticist as well as the view of the noncritical consumer of television news.

Read more: [...]
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great writing with an outstanding subject matter August 21, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I saw the author plugging the book on the Daily Show, and having studied the pirates and their operations while serving as an Intelligence Specialist in the Marine Corps, I can tell you that this is a great book that gives insight to the how's and why's the pirates do what they do.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars good read
a little thin on facts, but good inside account of the Somali pirate culture. entertaining. i would recommend to others interested in world affairs. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Jon S Russell
4.0 out of 5 stars Decent
I have always had a keen interest about Somilia, from afar; very, very afar. It is certainly not a place I yearn to visit, but reading about it from the confines and comforts of my... Read more
Published 13 days ago by Gordon Reiselt
4.0 out of 5 stars Really good
I really liked this book - it was interesting but moved quickly, which is essential for a historical book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Andrea Raine
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
I saw Jay Bahadur on The Daily Show talking about this book. I was extremely interested, so I bought it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. McAdams
4.0 out of 5 stars "it isn't, it isn't a glorious thing...."
Jay Bahadur took his life in his hands and went to interview the pirates of Somalia, the ones who hijack ships in a vast area off the coasts of East Africa and Arabia. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Robert S. Newman
5.0 out of 5 stars More than a book: the sheer audacity of a life-altering project from...
"Pirates of Somalia" is a stupefyingly audacious book. Actually, it brings it a far bit short to call Jay Bahadur's work simply a "book." It's more life-altering project. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Andy Orrock
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
I had been debating whether or not to get a copy of this and read it for some time. I'm glad I finally did and sorry I didn't do it sooner. Read more
Published 3 months ago by James D. Crabtree
2.0 out of 5 stars Avoid This One ..... Really Tedious
This is actually a very poorly-written, rather boring and tedious waste of time. This is one of those books that about 2 or 3 chapters in, you start looking for another book to... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dee Manding
5.0 out of 5 stars Speechless
The Pirates of Somalia was a fantastic book. The universe is truly unjust for only allowing me the ability to give this book five stars. It deserves a billion. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Miss Anne Thrope
3.0 out of 5 stars Drawn out..
The book was a bit drawn out, although interesting at times... I definitely learned a lot about Somalia and the rampant piracy that goes on there!
Published 13 months ago by Robogaijin
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