Stealing from the poor The rich is embracing a new religion, GREED! festivaldelleterre.it/en/schede/stealing-from-the-poor The ever-rising demand for fish in the international market has driven European and Asian fishing fleets towards the coasts of West Africa. Hundreds of industrial pirate ships are fishing illegally in the territorial waters of the nations of the area, devastating all forms of life in the ocean and condemning millions of Africans to poverty and hunger. The new Exandas documentary “Stealing from the Poor” was filmed in Senegal, where pirate fishing perpetrated by huge ships belonging to developed countries is depriving the inhabitants of this West African country of their main source of subsistence. “We are poor, we cannot compete with the big ships, we are in the hands of God”, says Mr. Ibrahim. At the age of 57, he must still go fishing in order to provide for his family. His means are a traditional pirogue and a fishing net. He takes his two sons, aged 12 and 14, along with him at sea. In Senegal’s St. Louis, the “African Venice”, this is expected. As babies, children begin playing with small tin pirogues in the river waters, then they go on to help their fathers, until they finally grow up and become true captains of the ocean. The broader fishing sector in Senegal employs 600,000 natives, meaning 15% of the labour force. However, the invasion of foreign fishing vessels has disturbed traditional working methods. With the so-called noble fish being overfished by industrial vessels and ending up in foreign markets, conditions are getting harder for the native population. Fish provide the area’s inhabitants with approximately 75% of the animal protein they need for their proper nourishment. “That is why we project the ironic slogan, Africa is feeding Europe!” says Fara Obaitoula, member of the Greenpeace international sector. They come with their bellies full and steal the food from the mouths of the poor… The looting of the African seas is costing the States of the area an estimated 1 billion dollars! The overall turnover of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing (IUUF), as pirate fishing is officially called, was recently estimated at over 10 billion euro. That places the area as the second biggest fishing producer globally, right after China! The European Union is the biggest market, as it is the main importer of fishing products in the world. Modest estimates mention 500,000 tons of illegally fished products being illicitly imported to Europe, with a total value of 1.1 billion euro.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 15:11:25 +0000
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