Thank you! gentlemen pirates

(BRUXELLES2) Yes, we must say thank you to the pirates.
Thank you for being there, every day, at sea, for braving the oceans, to risk your life (and ours) to capture ships, take hostages… All with minimal bloodshed. Without you, Somalia would still be unknown to our political leaders, to our media. We would hardly talk about it. However, this country has been at war, in civil war for almost twenty years, as the Somalian ambassador to France recalled, during a very interesting hearing held in the European Parliament on Thursday, to the general indifference of my colleagues (1): 900.000 Somalis have died, 1,5 million are displaced, and 3,5 million depend on food aid from the United Nations (nearly half the population). As Pierre Lellouche, our Secretary of State for European Affairs, puts it: “ The world is interested in Somalia only because there is an attack on maritime trade, we even have to wonder if we should not thank the pirates for having attracted our attention. The people we see at one end of the chain in our Parisian stations, or its Maltese coasts, we see them in the refugee camps in Djibouti ».

Thank you also for respecting the principle of non-discrimination in your abductions. French, Spaniards, British, Romanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Chinese,... for you there is no difference of nationality and you have only one geopolitics in view: that of the size of the boat, its " sustainability" (slow, low on water...), and its profitability (for your ransom). Thus, you have created an international coalition as few would dare to dream of. You have also given rise to a feeling of urgency among Europeans, a need to act which has overcome many reluctances, political and/or budgetary, and made it possible to give birth in a few months to a naval air operation of police at sea, to innovative legal instruments (even if they are sometimes a little wobbly or unstable), and above all implemented the famous global approach, which had often remained a theory and is in the process of becoming a reality.

Last thing... If you had a little energy to spare, don't hesitate. Our mission in Uganda to train Somali troops is not quite solid yet. And some states are a little hesitant (read the British unknown). If you have an idea to help them pass the course, do not hesitate
(1) All occupied at the European summit to glean some final information on the future face of Europe.