Somalia's President Mohammed Farmajo Gives up the Country's Fishing Rights to China
In an attempt to cut down illegal fishing from foreign boats, the Somalian president gave up the country's fishing rights to China.
Somalian President Mohammed Farmajo gave up his country's fishing rights to China, in a move the government has said is meant to protect the country's fishing industry. The Somalian government conceded 31 fishing licenses to China.
The new development will see the China Overseas Fisheries Association, which represents 150 companies, being allowed to fish for tuna in Somalian waters.
The battle and the aim is to ensure the legal exploitation of the country's water resources, something which the country has struggled with due to the breakdown of the rule of law caused by the intense and unending conflict.
The Somalian fisheries ministry is teeming with the full hope that by giving the fishing rights to China, there will be more of legal exploitation of these resources.
Somalian waters have been prey to the large, foreign boats, and the local fishermen and coastal communities whose dependence and survival is premised on fishing have pleaded for assistance from the government to keep these foreign boats away from Somalian territorial waters.
The disintegration of Somalia into clan-based fiefdoms after the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991 led to a massive breakdown of the rule of law in Somalia, and this negatively affected the fishing industry in epic proportions. Illegal fishing gained traction, fostered by the lawlessness that prevailed. Due to the lack of an organized central government, foreign ships took advantage and began using prohibited methods like drifts, dynamiting, breaking coral reefs and destroying the coral habitats where lobsters and other coralfish live.
The implications were palpable. The local people suffered. There was massive depletion of seafood resources, lack of jobs and environmental degradation. The foreign vessels made enormous amounts of profits at the expense of the local people. The foreign vessels were mostly from India, Yemen, Spain, Japan, and Pakistan.
These large boats have been flouting Somalian fishing laws regarding fishing licenses, and many of them do not have licenses.
Corruption also fuels this menace, as some of the unlicensed boat operators buy permits from Somalian officials.
At one point, a TIME magazine article in 2009 said that Somali waters have become a "free-for-all" fishing site, where international fleets illegally collected more than $300 million worth of seafood.
Is giving China the fishing rights the right decision?
China's activities in Africa have raised a lot of eyebrows and an overflow of skepticism, especially in the wake of the "debt-trap" diplomacy.
So, in the light of all the difficulties that Somalia has faced with its fishing industry, is this the right decision made by the president?
The fisheries minister, Abdirahman Ahmed, assured that all is well, that the local fishermen will not suffer from this new development.
According to him, up to 24 nautical miles (44km) off the coast are reserved for local fishermen and per the license agreement, his outfit can call the ships to the port anytime for inspections.
From the looks of it, the president has made an opportunity cost. Leave the waters unregulated, more trouble. Invite China, the risk of more trouble. Whatever the way it is, what is of primary consideration is that for those whose lives depend on fishing, the benefit must be accorded to them. They must not suffer.
https://www.africanexponent.com/post/9566-mohammed-farmajo-gave-up-the-countrys-fishing-rights-to-china
James Comey: ‘There’s No Deep State’
NEW YORK — In testimony, former FBI Director James Comey exclaimed “there’s no deep state” before going on to suggest that workers risk their jobs by “speaking out” –purportedly against President Donald Trump.
During testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees last week, Comey was asked by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) for suggestions on how the nation should get back “on track” after the “storm” it is currently weathering – a clear reference to Trump’s presidency.
Comey responded by launching into mini-speech about the resilience of America, while insisting there is no “deep state” and urging people to speak out:
We are going to be okay. I’m asked all over the country that question, and people ask it with fear in their voice, “Are we going to be okay?” Republicans, Democrats, and independents. The answer is: We’re going to be okay.
Because the culture of this nation, the culture of an institution like the FBI there’s no deep state. There’s a deep culture, in the military, in the intelligence community, in the FBI — those three I know very well — a commitment to integrity and the rule of law. No president serves long enough to screw that up. So the damage, by definition, will be short-term. Still important, but short-term. How short that term is depends upon the rest of us and whether we have the courage to risk our jobs and votes against us by standing up and saying this is not who we are and speaking out.
Still clearly addressing Trump’s presidency, Comey went on to state that the “giant,” as he described it, should wake up in response:
That will cabin the damage and reduce it, but, in the long term, this will be another one of those jags in American’s line that we look at and say, look at the progress we made after this. Every time there’s great change in this country, we retreat. Right? Our upward line is an upward line, but it’s jagged. Right? And every so often, we go down, then we go back up. The key to going back up is, in my view, awakening the giant. Right? That great lump in the middle of America is where our values sit. We are a center-right, center-left country. And every so often, the giant stirs.
And I’m going to get emotional if I say this. No one on this Earth knows this better than you, but when little girls were killed in Sunday school at the 16th Street Baptist Church, the giant stirred, and we got a Voting Rights Act and a Civil Rights Act and our line started up again.
It’s up and down with us, up and down with us. The inflection back up depends upon the giant waking up. And that’s not a Republican statement or a Democratic statement; that’s a values statement. And then we’ll get back to disagreeing about immigration and taxes and all of those important things, but this nonnegotiable thing, everyone should speak up about it.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/12/23/james-comey-theres-no-deep-state/