The music for this video, created by our in house composer Tom Fox, is available on our music channel, The Music Room! Follow the link to hear this soundtrack and many more: https://youtu.be/J23MwDKXdXs

Please make a video about Armenia Azerbaijan Nagorno karabakh war. Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.

Karabakh is Azerbaijan. Can you make a video about Armenia Azerbaijan Nagorno karabakh conflict.

Make a video about the Nagorno Karabakh war. Karabakh is Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenian separatists.

Armenia occupied Azerbaijani territories in 90's. Please make a video about it.

Please make a video about Armenia Azerbaijan Nagorno karabakh conflict. Armenian forces surrendered today.

Hi Johnny, I’m a Somali living in Bari and I really appreciate your video about the Somali pirates. You did a great job of explaining the history and the context of piracy in Somalia, and how it affected the people and the region. I especially liked how you showed the map of Somalia and its disputed territories with Ethiopia and Kenya. You are one of the few journalists who tell the truth about Somalia and its challenges. Thank you for your work and your curiosity. I hope you will make more videos about Somalia and other African countries in the future. Keep up the good work! 👏👏👏

😊

In Italy?

Sorry for my people making big mistakes in the west

We do it to our own people too

​@@notmyself2533 We did nothing wrong. Don't apologize for something you didn't do, never bow to someone else for their own problems.

Love what you’re doing Johnny!

He can't get the map of Somalia right even! Stereotype uneducated American image he gives

@@theancientsancients1769okay yoda. KEKLOL

What are you doing here 😮

Johnny just dived a country into, his use of the map at 1:55 says he supports the recognition of Somaliland State as a country. Plus footages are all great but old, piracy stopped in 2015, no need to give the world a negative view of Somalia when the world gave them negative life

I was asking my dad whether pirates still existed some months ago and he mentioned Somalian pirates and how brutal they were. It was a short conversation but the topic never left my mind. I’m glad I found this video. I learned a lot so thanks for making this one.

Dude Pirates Will come back if We As somalis See Illegelal fihermans with their Forks On on our sea esidr that De deposal waste on our Coasts Meanwile am fromth region we pirates starts😂 Captan Philips Cousin

Pirates on the other side of Africa jacking oil

As a modern day officer, also working on cargo ships! I have to admit this route still scares my crew and many onboard. But this video truly represents the truth behind it all. Thank you for this.

I have a friend who planned to sail around the world. He went from San Fran to Panama to the Caribbean to Portugal then finally the the eastern Mediterranean. He got to Turkey and realized there was no direction ahead that didn’t involve pirates. He turned around and sailed home.

Did he travel to Gibraltar?

​@@hectormanuel8360THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR

Smart sailor. But if he had hired a swordsman, ranger, cook, navigator, deer medic, woman with many arms, cyborg shipbuilder and skeleton bard, he wouldve made it safely through the pirate waters

nice

Great stuff Johnny! I've actually enjoyed every video I've watched of yours. Much appreciation to you and your team for this! please keep up the good work and I know that a lot falls on your shoulders when it comes to being neutral in ones journey of journalism, but know that we appreciate your truth a whole lot. No matter what topic you cover that's really all what matters to me. So thank you for the wonderful content you and your team create

As a Somali guy who lived in Somalia specially in those regions during the pirate epidemic in the horn of Africa I can truly say you have done your research very well. Your are fair also you look both ways the good and the bad . The collapse of the central goverment in 1991 has made Somalia a placed abandoned by the help of GOD and MEN .for a long time it was a place that breeds violence ,war ,terrorism ,starvation ,drought and corruption. But I can truly say the Somali pirates at the beginning was a mission of patriotism and survival. You mention only Iraq and Yemen but it was more than that alot of European and Asian nations were also drawing in large scale the untouched sea food of the Somali territory in their huge ships . Hence living little if nothing at all for those communities . This was something that needed to be done for them to live since 95% Of their food was was coming from the see in a country scourged by drought and war. And it worked .we called them heroes but then the same people who destroyed the goverment joined in the war lord and started turning what was right to defend your territory against foreign ship into a multi million dollar crime org .the killing , the ransom and kidnapping that was not those communities but thugs who only care about money "My English is not good that best as I can try .thank you #johhny this topic was personal reminds me of home as the The MORMON video was for you. Thanks for covering this

Iyaaa😂😂😂

Sorry to hear of such tragic events. This world would be a better place if countries stopped stripping other countries resources.

Thank you for this comment 🙏

So sorry for what happened to your country. May all the best happen to you in the future.

As a nigerian, I feel bad about our situation. Corruption has really eaten into our youths, its quite sad

What is hapening

@@vanillaicespice 6:42

You should be more concerned with the damage Muslims are doing to your country.

​@@iloveyoushima4953Shhhhh! My violent Fulani captors might here you, just look at what they did to my village

I remember back in 2008-2010 when I was studying in uni, I was reading about Somali pirates every week. I totally forgot about them until this video. Nice to see there was a solution to the piracy problems there - stories of people being abducted was really sad during those times.

There wasnt. ☠️☠️☠️

This was such a great episode man! And you're not just a great journalist, but a great story teller as well.

Excellent Video Johnny. This really puts a new light on the why. So many people look at this topic and see it in the news and just think they are just criminals exploiting. The background of the country and the unfortunate events that OTHERS have done to exploit Samalia and the people in the country shines a very VERY different light on the "why". My view of these "pirates" have shifted completely.

I am based in Seychelles and was here when Piracy was at its highpoint, the US military was a huge factor in getting it under control.They had multiple reaper drones here patrolling the ocean. There were also loads of private security firms and navy's from all over the world in the area surrounding the islands. We were always on high alert when we went fishing.

I will never forget how a Belgian film director, in collaboration with the authorities, managed to lure a Somali pirate to Belgium under the pretext of being an expert in a film about his own life. When the pirate landed in Brussels, he was promptly arrested and trialed for hijacking a Belgian ship. He is still in prison to this day.

really sounds like a waste of taxpayer money

Congratulations.🎉

@@taylorgriffith94 stealing? It’s a cargo ship transporting goods through international waters. That’s not illegal.

It is sad what happened to Somalia and the Somali people. I hope the good people of that nation can turn things around for the better. ❤

Thank you we have overcome many of these things, today there is functioning government there is no more warlords and the remaining challenge is little compared to beginning of the century.

Thank you brother ❤

They cant, whole society is messed up.

Thank you, we need to do better and unite

I am a big fan of your work. It's interesting how you tell your stories in a relaxing way. I watch your videos from start to finish and it seems like a 1 minute video. I currently work as a craft editor and your work is just the right inspiration in need.

Great video! On a similar topic, a video idea would be on global shipping. An estimated 90% of everything we have in our homes has been, or has components, that were once shipped on the oceans. A good book for research is “90% of Everything”. Thank you for your hard work!

Dude, whoever does your music in both the old school videos and the ones since you went Independent are amazing. I have always wanted a soundtrack of all the music that are in videos Johnny Harris has been a part of. Edit: Like with any group of people the ones in charge got too greedy and pillaged and took too much, instead of just taking a small amount and allowing everyone to get rich long term, they took too much in a short period which made the world take notice and they cut off their supply of money. Smart dumb people.

Love your insightful, researched, thought provoking content Keep up the awesome work!

As a Somali pirate, I can confirm this is true.

As this guy's gun, I can confirm this is true

As this gun's bullet, I can confirm this is true

As bullet's gunpowder, I can confirm this is true

As this guys gitch, I can confirm this is true.

yo, where can I get in on this pirate stock market

This is one of the first of your videos I've watched in a while, so loving the deeper dives into this sort of topic. Would love to hear about the Nigerian pirates but I'm guessing that's maybe too complicated for this channel to cover accurately

My cousin was a submariner in the Navy during the mid 00’s. His vessel frequently patrolled the waters off the coast of east Africa. Whenever they found a vessel that had been abandoned due to a Pirate they usually tried to contact the owner of the ship. If the owner didn’t respond it was my cousins job to fire the torpedo that would sink it. He said there were even a few occasions where his CO let him sink the vessel without contacting the owner.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

free target practice huh??

Why they sink it? And why USA(I guess) Navy doing duty on East Africa?

@@yothigaUSA imperialism

You should do a video on the stateless city in Cherån, Mexico. In 2011 after a huge spout of criminal logging in their forests they kicked out all of the politicians, all the police, and the cartels then set up a voluntarily funded and heavily armed community defense force. To this day it remains a thriving and lovely example of what some would call a "free society".

0:16: 🚢 The video discusses the danger of piracy at sea and the potential consequences for those who are targeted. 4:23: 🔒 Incogni is a great tool to protect your privacy and keep your data off exploitative lists on the internet. 8:47: 🏴‍☠ Somali fishermen formed an ocean militia to defend their livelihood from foreign fishing vessels, leading to the rise of piracy. 13:18: 🏴‍☠ Piracy in Somalia escalated due to the profitability of ransom demands, attracting warlords and investment. 17:52: 💰 Pirate groups in Somalia transformed into lucrative organized crime, with clan leaders and warlords getting rich through illegal activities. 22:28: 💥 The Tom Hanks movie 'Captain Phillips' highlighted the dramatic events of a hostage situation involving snipers and Navy Seals, which brought attention to the issue of Somali piracy. 26:20: 🌊 The Gulf of Guinea has become the new piracy hotspot, with Nigerian pirates targeting oil tankers. Recap by Tammy AI

Thank you for reporting on this subject. Have been following this since before 9-11... you covered all the main points and I learned new things because of your team's in-depth reporting. Thank you.

Hi Iz & Johnny! A big (long time) fan of you two over here. It's been a long time that I've thought of writing this and today I found the courage. I'm finishing my master's in refugee protection and forced migration at the University of London and something that I have found to be very interesting in the field of forced migration is how refugees arriving in the global north get way more attention in the media/policy spheres/even research! HOWEVER, most of the refugees worldwide are hosted in the global south (disclaimer: this may change due to the refugees coming from Ukraine to Europe, but still). AND. **Much more importantly.** Did you know that the largest amount of forced migrants never get to cross an international border? Yes, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are the largest population of forcibly displaced people on earth. I'm writing my master's thesis on IDPs affected by criminal violence, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The IDP definition under the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement allows for so much (compared to the restricted statutory definition for refugees under the 1951 Convention). It would be amazing if you could explore this idea with your team. There is a growing set of research on the immobility nature of displacement as well; meaning that many people affected by violence, conflict, climate change, natural disasters often times are immobile due to many factors. It is a shame that only the few refugees who are able to pay thousands of dollars and get to the coasts of Italy get to be in the news. PLEASE, this is in no regard to be taken as an argument against asylum/refuge as it is a well-established universal human right (Article 14 of the UDHR/1951 Convention/etc.). One of my professors (Dr. Bríd Ní Ghráinne) actually wrote on this extensively and addressing Internal Displacement shouldn't jeopardize asylum. Thanks for reading!

Hey, this is really interesting. Is there a possibility that I could have a sneak peek into your masters thesis once its complete, if it's okay with you? I know I'm not Johnny or Iz but this seems like something I would really like to learn about as an immigrant myself who lives in the global north. It's rare to find people who research such subjects, I'm aspiring to pursue my first undergraduate degree in history within a year and things like this always prick my interest to see how people who are technically professionals in a certain subject view things. Especially because of the amount of sources they go through.

Appreciate the backstory on this. I knew it was a dire situation in Somalia -- but didn't understand the gross fleecing of the country by its colonial owners and how they were the proverbial international doormats that they were.

As a Nigerian i can totally relate to all Johnny said from 25:18 to the end of this video.. a lot of politics going on in the pirate economy of Nigeria. I hope we can work to get things right and give people better opportunities of career paths and not have to resolve to chaos in guise of activism..

nigeria is an insignificant place.

Says who??? Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, it is also the strongest in terms of power. Trust me we matter to any serious world leader. Nothing can happen without our involvement in the second largest continent on earth.

@@SuperKillerdog haha nothing can happen without your involvement? you are delusional, you were just colonized until less than 100 years ago. South Africa is even in the G20 but you guys are not... so funny.

@@RP-pu3urur South African, makes sense. Get a life.

Okay, I have fallen in love with this channel. You prepare and put really relevant topics. Learning a lot from you, and so I'm hoping you keep this up. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Great video. I noticed that I wasn't hearing as much about piracy in the past few years compared to over a decade ago. Great to finally understand why.

if I had more time in my day I would’ve binged your whole YouTube channel. Damn this is good. Love the music choice and structure, as well as glorification without being misleading or cheesy.

I would be interested in a "best practices" series from around the world. How other countries have developed processes and/or perhaps technologies to address issues such as waste (plastics, nuclear), education, health, living off grid, politics, health "insurance"🙄 and economy. I believe democracy is a must like we have in the US however, I believe greed will ruin it eventually. I would love to see a series on how other societies and cultures have developed "best practices" that have successfully addressed issues that translate universally. Two quick examples are how the Japanese look at and apply education to their children and how the Amish have seriously low health issues in their populations probably because they are more physically active and grow, harvest, and eat only foods they have raised. I would love to chat more if this is an idea you feel has some merit.

Democracy is not a must, see China. It's arguable whether it's actually even a better system for stability.

Capitalism is a problem, namely, laissez-faire capitalism. There need to be regulations everywhere to rein in greed.

@@drrocketman7794 Capitalism isn't an issue... but laissez-faire capitalism is.

GWOT Veteran and prior PMC goon here. For 25 minutes you had me on the edge of my seat waiting for you to mention the "armed security guards" that these companies were paying VERY good money to 'stand guard' on their ships. These guys were much more than armed security guards, a lot of them were/are former military, swat and or special forces. I was in Baghdad at the time contracting but had some friends switch to maritime protection work as it was less IDF and generally "safer" for the same if not more money ($400-$1200 a day). Regardless what reasons pushed these fishermen into a life of crime, it's rather interesting how this problem essentially stopped once the boats started shooting back and probably provides some valuable lessons to be applied elsewhere about the importance of psychological deterrents - aka it's easy to steal from a victim you know won't be armed and thus most likely won't defend themselves - but the introduction of responsible merchant ships using armed guards suddenly and immediately caused a massive reduction in pirating incidents in that area. That is called 'the juice not being worth the squeeze'. I'd love to see your unbiased reporting style do a deep dive on how this could correlate to problems in the USA - as 26:48 sounds like you might have been referencing the United States, albeit symbolically. Reported by ABC and confirmed by the DoS, "There have been no successful pirate attacks on ships protected by armed guards." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJcG0cPtJO8 Really been enjoying your channel, as you cover a lot of stuff from my generation's (I think we're around the same age) time, so it's very relevant. Kinda crazy to look back on it: I enlisted not long after 9/11 for "patriotism/honor". Honorably separated to go do PMC work for "greed/money". But then found my wife and started a family out of "love/hope". I guess we each have our own character arcs and stories to tell, but for the sake of the world and our youth, I hope we can all get our collective shit together. Unfortunately, me telling you to keep up the great work means reporting on not so pleasant things but take solace in the fact that you connect dots in a way that lets the average viewer reflect more on the world around them, helping promote more free thinking and less sheep-ing. There is something to be said about living blissfully unaware, but life is about survival; and we survive by staying educated, not influenced. So, in that regard, please keep up the great work. Sorry for the rant. I'm still trying to back process all the changes to world since 1999.

Appreciate the backstory on this

Nice 🙂🙂

Good 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

👍

Very nice

Nice

From an international relations perspective, if you want to get some insight into whether the actions of the somali pirates were justified, i recommend using the just war theory. It's a really useful framework which gives an ethical insight into this issue. Nevertheless, I'd love to see a video on the rise of putschist-populist politics in West Africa and how it is one of the major drivers behind the rise in military coups there

Johnny, your ending statements gave me goosebumps. In life, we can point our fingers at what’s wrong and right, but we often forget to question and humanize the why behind these criminals.

Thank you! And thank you, to all your team! Your journalism and editing are excellence!

It would be amazing if you made a video on how Sri Lanka, an economy that was growing so rapidly that it was expected to overtake Japan, suddenly stagnated and then fell.

That is boring. The war that saw the fall of the Tamil Tigers would be much better.

corrupt government and inaction of locals to stop corruption ?

expected to overtake Japan🤣🤣

You mean Singapore?

Hi Johnny, I really love your videos. They're so well edited, enjoyable to watch and at the same time really informative.  I would love to see a deep dive on how the Catholic church became so influential and what kind of secrets they hold down at the Vatican. I can also watch endless more videos about the history of Europe in combination with your amazing maps or about the cyber war between China and the US.

Of all your excellent videos, this one may just be the most nuanced and cleverly composed of the lot. Thank, Johnny. (Also, when are you coming to Australia? You'd have packed-out stage shows!)

In response to Johnny repeatedly referring to piracy as a historically male-driven phenomenon, one piece of interesting historical context is that debatably the most succesful pirate of all time was a woman named Zheng Yi Sao who operated in the South China Sea at the beginning of the 1800's and commanded a fleet of 10s of thousands so powerful it challenged the British East India Company, the Portuguese Empire, and the Qing Dynasty itself. This isn't to harangue the work Johnny is doing, just wanted to add another piece to a fascinatingly complex puzzle!

True but then again she was the wife of a pirate (Zheng yi) who died. That's why we refer to her not by her birth name surname of Shi but as Zheng yisao. She tookover her husbands craftand expanded it. The name literally means the wife (sao) of Zhengyi. So even the famed female pirate came to be after his husband. Something that was quite common in East Asia.

The Somali warlords are missing a trick by not getting their wives involved in the action.

@@canchero724😂😂😂

also Grace O'Malley ..awesome Irish pirate!

Thank you for giving us context and a reality check. Every bad behavior is a symptom of a bad situation. People turn to crime often because they have nowhere else to turn. Somalia has been one of the poorest nations in the world, and this was at first their attempt to scrabble some of that stolen wealth back. But then it gets weird, and after all that, they are back to being poor and vulnerable. So many African countries seem to be in this same plight. Thanks for giving us nuance and truth. Oh, and I love the map so much I bought one.

Thanks Jonny for the great documentary video, this because your honesty request from your viewers to give their insights prior to making this video and that too taking my Somali prespectives towards piracy how it initially started, Kudos 👏

Great work! I’d love to see this kind of reporting on the US auto / oil industry’s history of influence of transportation infrastructure, how it still influences and lobbies for car domination.

Thing is i "understan" how/why people resort to crime, however the moment you try and justify it (even if some cases "are" justified) It will quickly just b monitised by, like you said "warlords". There is always someone bigger and nastier than the next person. Even street level gangs in the US started mostly by kids trying to protect their community and ended up in a multi genarational bloodbath.

This.

My favorite video of yours is The Greatest Mapping Mistake of All Time. I think it would be great if you would talk more about large brilliant unusual or old maps, perhaps show people where to buy them too. Also I really enjoyed your series about how America stole X, but also I just like in depth looks at what's really going on the world, there's just too little international news in California...

Great subject. I have been a Merchant Marine since 1987. The first thing I would do when accepting a new post is find out it's vulnerability. And I only ended up in a raft twice and never held hostage or fired a shot. It ain't easy...

It’s also just interesting because this exact same idea has existed in almost every civilization in different forms, but we never get to the root of the problem. From Somali pirates to gangsters and thugs in the US to mafias in Europe and also terrorists from war torn countries in the Middle East. All of them stem from poor young men living in slums who have zero opportunities in life and have no way to improve their circumstances except through crime and revenge against people or countries that they feel have wronged them.

Great work Johnny. Really enlightening. You should do a deep dive on the Nigerian situation. The endemic corruption and impunity in the polity is sickening. Especially of the incumbent president. He needs to be really exposed. Thanks.

I live in Malaysia and even I don’t know about the piracy going on in the Straits of Malacca. This is really a topic that really hasn’t been brought up to the community more often…

It's probably because of two big reasons we don't hear much about SE Asia piracy... First, it doesn't affect the West, so there's little in the way of news or reporting about it. And Second, a lot of that piracy is on smaller or medium-sized enterprises like international fishing companies, and small local fishermen. Sure, it's tragic for a small community if their boating enterprise is pirated, but oftentimes it's only the locals and local government that knows about it and they are simply powerless to do anything about it. If Western companies were affected, or if ransoms started to become a thing in SE Asia, then I'm sure we'd start hearing more about it. Somalia was able to get away with ransoms due to their location and the types of vessels and shipmen that were going through the area. In SE Asia, ransoming probably isn't very profitable.

@@GravitoRaize yeah that make sense :)

Yeah me too, as an Indonesian i never heard about piracy in our teritory, we know about ilegal fishing conflict, but piracy i never know about that.

Those indonesian pirates aren't that effective, maybe because they're all 4ft tall and built like a pencil

this was incredibly interesting and sad at the same time. about your request for suggestions at the end, it would be interesting to hear more about human trafficking, notably in Libya, but also in the north east of china near liaonin and jilin.

Absolutely brilliant releasing this with the hype of one peace. I'm on a pirate phase and binging as much content related to it as possible.

I am Somali and i live in a coastal city called Mogadishu this depiction of the events that happened and the way you visualize it is madly accurate and hats off to u broski ❤🇸🇴🇸🇴🇸🇴

He can't get the Somali map right this fool

I understand both perspectives, here is my take on the “ethical question.” A lot of these pirates, their relatives, and their land was basically “graped” and left with nothing. Just as little as other countries cared about them, they should be able to do the same to the people on the ships. But here is the flip side. With choices, come consequences. They can pirate, but they shouldn’t be mad if they get shot, burned, kidnapped, etc. basically, if they want to take this huge risk with huge rewards, they should accept that huge chance of death/anything else

As someone who took journalism in college after seeing your vox videos and as an Indian and a avid fan of your works I would love if you make a video upon the current situation of manipur and its origin

Hello Johnny and team! Thanks for another video. Here in Colombia there's a lot of history about pirates, especially Morgan who had a special presence. Nowadays pirates are equally cruel. Seems like crime is something authorities don't want to deal with. Sad 😔

What a coincidence the same warlord behind the Somali piracy was named morgan too 😂

I am Somali and I approve of this video. Only thing you could have added is that the fishing vessels where from many more places than just Iran and Yemen.

Thank you for being up to date on important topics & covering up to date real time events

Hey Johnny, you describe pirates a s 'poor men' but you completely skip over Zheng Yi Sao, the Pirate Queen, who was probably the most powerful pirate to ever exist. I bet you could do a really really cool video on her!

Thanks for this history lesson, learned some important things here!

THIS IS CRAZY! I’VE BEEN WATCHING JOHNY FOR A WHILE! I AM SOMALI MYSELF AND IT’S SO INTERESTING TO WATCH THIS VIDEO FROM A PERSPECTIVE OF SOMEONE WHO GREW UP IN SOMALIA. 95% OF SOMALIS HAVE NEVER EVEN MET A PIRATE THOUGH I WANNA MAKE IT CLEAR WE AREN’T PIRATES

yeah, piracy has basically been non-existent in the horn after 2011. the only reason ppl still associate piracy with us is due to the Tom Hanks film Captain Philips. I appreciate Johnny for being honest and mentioning how piracy started in our country as a way of retaliation against these disgusting countries who illegally fished in our waters and dumped toxic waste on our shores damaging the health of local communities. people much more frequently look at piracy in somalia in it's later stages where it became an actual lucrative business but they forget that this problem would have never existed if these countries didnt exploit the local population

We just wanna sit and take live easily

that's what a pirate would say! yarr

@@Semtexoutdidn’t he say it’s not really about fishing anymore—it’s about greedy warlords

Wealth, fame, power. Gold Roger the king of the pirates obtained this and everything else the World had to offer. And his dying words drove countless souls to the seas. “You want my treasure? You can have it! I left everything I gathered Together in one place. Now you just have to find it! ” These words lured men to the grand line, pursuing dreams greater than they Ever dared to imagine. This is the time known as the great pirate era

BlackBeard zezezezehaha🏴‍☠️

If anyone is interested, Michael Scott Moore wrote a book on his experience being held captive by Somali pirates. It's a fantastic read.

Out of all the video formats that you've been trying lately, this is still my absolute favorite ❤ As a beginner YouTuber myself, your videos are great inspiration for me and my work. Keep doing these beautiful videos.

Fascinating and excellent video as always. Thank you Johnny and team!

I didn’t know there was a huge concentration of piracy in South-East Asia and South Asia. I’m very curious about the Bangladeshi Pirates. I’ve heard of reusing shipbuilding equipment but this is interesting.

Well consider the difference in population

The straight of malacca is a hot bed

try to search Filipino Muslim Pirates the Abu Sayyaf best at beheading foreigners..

They deserve it

thank you for providing the context, never knew about it. We all just hear from the news about the Somali pirates being bad guys, kidnapping, killing and demanding ransoms. We need more journalism that reports the full truth with 0 bias. I hope this video isn't bias as well.

I watch your videos because honestly I learned nothing in school, they didn’t teach us most of the things you talk about. I’ve seen some videos criticizing you and whatever merit they may have, please continue to do the videos your way. You truly are educating me and if I am so ignorant that you are the only person I learn from, thus get some of your politics, that’s my fault. I just appreciate your research and level of care.

Where did you go to school?

Hi, watched your video till the end where you asked what videos we’d be interested in seeing. I’m writing from Peru where there is a big history coming from a past deeply routed in terrorism. I believe terrorism could be a cool series on understanding where it comes from and why it existed or exists in many countries. Every country is different, however if you look at the terrorism here in Peru, it’s so interesting and unhinged in many ways.

Johnny and his crew as always does not disappoint :)

I’ll never forget in 7th grade I did a report on these pirates in front of the class. I worked really hard on it just to have my teacher laugh and say pirates don’t exist in 2011. The rest of the class laughed at me as well. I came home and my dad was furious. He knew I didn’t work hard on much of my schoolwork so when I did he was upset to hear the teacher laughed. Rip dad I’ll never forget that

You know, I don't watch every video on this channel, but when I do, and I mean, when the topic is interesting for me, its just so satisfying, the story telling, the images, the sounds, the way im hook every minute. It's amazing what you do. Im hoping you keep growing as big as you can. Blessings.

I dont watch every video on this channel, but when i do. I prefer dos equis!

The beginning scene of Captain Phillips really captured their situation…it showed an older brother looking around his house with no food, his sisters are sick, mom is sick, he looks outside people killing each other with guns…what choice does he have other than to rob ships…that was an eye opening scene…

Totally don't mind the longer videos. Your production is so excellent!

Unfortunately, most of what happened in Africa's countries right now and in the past few decades was planned by European countries to take advantage of Africa's treasure, and that led to and caused far more problems for everyone, especially in Africa. These events even affected Egypt and the Suez Canal's revenue, and ships started to take longer but were safer.

Always liked your point of veiw on things, well done johnny 👏 keep up the hard work, love watching your videos !

Great storytellers make you interested in things you weren’t previously.

Being in a pirate situation on a merchant ship is terrifying. From off Venezuela, East and West Africa, and many places in the islands of the Pacific piracy is prolific. I've sailed with many whom have their own terrifying stories.

Quick question If All were armed and trained in these weapons, do you think that would have helped your situation?

@@longtime239 obviously.

@longtime239  the problem is one of the greatest problems of spending life at sea is the mental pressures that come along. Some people cannot handle it, and crack. You do not want firearms on ships because the dynamics of life are completely different confined on a small moving prison cell

It was interesting to see the Bangladeshi name on your video. I am a Bangladeshi, and I can say yes, we used to have pirates in the past. Still, they have become extinct, not exactly extinct; they surrendered, and One journalist called Mohsin ul Hakim helped these pirates to come back to normal life. Also, our government supported them. Mostly, the pirates were from the Sundarban area, and they used to hide in the Sundarban forest. The pirates of Bangladesh used to hijack and kidnap poor fishermen and fishing boats, and they had to pay ransom to get released. Also, to fish on the sea around Sundarban, fishermen must have to pay the pirates. There were so many big groups who were controlling all of this, like Master Bahini and all. And they were very organized; they used to have all the tracks which they had already got ransom and the ones who paid them money to do fishing. So they could target new boats, and fishermen had to pay the cash yearly to them. There were a lot of other things. But now there is no big group or any group in the Bangladeshi sea, Thanks to Mohsin ul Hakim and RAB ( Rapid Action Battalion ) The government promised the pirates that if they surrendered and handed over all their weapons, the government would be soft on them and help them to get a normal life. It took almost 12 years, and I guess in 2018, the last pirate group surrendered, and this is how the pirates in Bangladesh got to end. There still can be some small groups who are doing this kind of thing, but the government is very active now so no other big group can form now. This is a very long and interesting story about how Bangladeshi pirates were surrendered and how one man can change the lives of millions. This could be a whole video.

I was looking at the background map as Johnny was talking about all the shipping routes. Love the 'glowing' globe in front as it actually illuminates the wall map. Anyway, this was so interesting and look forward to more.

Great research and great presentation as always! Could add a follow up on how “anti-piracy” fuelled Chinese ambitions of a pan Indian Ocean presence and they are joined by the US,France and others in Djibouti!

I hope one day you'll make a video about "Japanese pirates" (倭寇). Despite the name, they were multiethnic and active from the 13th to 16th century. They're mentioned a lot in Chinese history but there's almost no English-language information about them.

20:15 I think what Johnny meant to say is "countries care about things when events affect them". Doesn't sound as surprising when you put it like that. Was he expecting the US or Europe to go police the waters around Africa even though it had nothing to do with them? Once the pirates threatened the countries' citizens, they have the right to defend the citizens.

I know a relative of mine who was a part of the pirates in Somalia and he worked for quite some years until he had enough money to leave Somalia and start new life in Minnesota US. And that is pretty much is how a lot of them end up leaving Somalia when they have enough money to start again in other countries.

That dad lore is about to be crazy

I lived in Minnesota for many years. It is the state with the largest amount of somalians. Not sure why but there are a lot!

​​@@philtrusomalis* just like dear born has a lot of arabs, la has a lot of Iranians, Boston has a lot of irish ect

so Dad Lore ain't capin

FBI & Interpol is looking for your pops

Thank you and every person of the team, making this beautiful videos possible ✨

Hi johny, I'm Somali in Hobyo, the somali pirate hub, your fact-based explanation made me increase believing your documents . Somalis pirates work for clan elders and mercinery politicians who masquarade inocents defending their sea water. It make me buzz seeing them getting rid-off

Keep up your videos Johnny. The content quality is superb👏

Excellent work Johnny. This planet could use a few more like you

To be honest I don’t know where I’ve been looking for good informative videos🎉 because I can’t stop watching these videos

My uncle worked as a security guard in cargo ships. He told us that it is like war sometimes and stressful and 2 men of his team never returned. One of them had kids. At the funeral of my grandma,he came with a bandage on his arm. He blocked a knife of a pirate who invaded the ship. When asked if he killed someone,he remained silent.

Your doing something very wrong if they could climb the side of a moving ship from a small boat . They are absolute sitting ducks at that moment . They were not being paid to watch a person climb the side of the ship .

​@@Crashed131963 Those 2 men were killed in different circumstances. He doesn't talk much about these 3 years of this job

@@Crashed131963 The cargo ships are huge, and the shipping companies don't want to hire dozens of guards to properly cover the whole hull. They don't really want to hire 1 guard.

@@Septimus_ii These ships seem to be attack by one or two small boats, with 4 people bunched up in one boat . You can see them coming from a mile away it not like they can surprise attack a high walled ship . The small boat is bouncing around in the waves shooting up while the ship is stable with the guards shooting down. Its would be a Turkey shoot . Toss one hand grenade when the small boat comes alongside. Try and get on a parked ship let alone a ship moving at 16 knots making a wake .

Since the initiative of the Government of Bangladesh (mostly after 2009), the pirates have been added to the regular society by submitting their arms and they are leading a very normal life as they have been given so many opportunities by the Government.

It's a very complicated issue. I think the problem is that who caused the problem is not punished but who is punished is always who doesn't relate directly with the problem (everyone is a bit related indirectly).

I'd love to see a similar video or series of videos on gangs. Street Gangs, Prison Gangs, Straight Edge Crews, Motorcycle 1%er gangs, white nationalist gangs, there's a lot of area you could cover. Also, on that same tip, I've heard the Yakuza, which is the biggest gang in Japan and one of the biggest in the world, has deep ties with NJPW, which is the biggest pro wrestling company in the east. I can't find a whole lot about it so a Johnny Harris explainer video on it would be awesome.

I found it really interesting to see the "defending themselves argument" which I can completely understand as we all know there are incredibly greedy people in the world who have exploited people for decades even centuries. But then like all ?rebellions? There's a few who then take it to the extreme and the dynamic shifts from self defense to terrorism

Loved the video! Please make more such videos focusing on grey areas of the world

The ethical argument is hard to make because these pirates aren’t a political or ideological monolith. While there still might be subsistence pirates, there’s no one enforcing any piracy law in the region, so anyone with a boat and some weapons can do what they want. And when even one incident pierces the ethical boundary, it immediately applies to everyone in the eyes of the world.

That is an easy argument to make when live in a function country, where life gives you choices. I wanted to see your "moral dillema" had you been born in a country where poverty is rampant, and you know nothing else than misery. Piracy just grew into something that no one could control, because there was no one to control. Of course this would become a business, or an organised crime. Humans are pretty good at that, look at the slave trade in previous centuries, or drug cartels in more recent times.

Self-organized militia running offensive actions never end well, that's why we should condemn them from very beginning​​⁠

I see pirate groups the same way I see governments around the world. Some are corrupt, exploitative, and belligerent; others are disciplined, accountable, and reasonable. Either way, none are a monolith. The only major difference between the two is the political spectrum of order to anarchy.

@@kingace6186 can you give an example of pirates who would keep the values for a longer period of time not being corrupted or immoral? From what I know, to have a stable, law-abiding country, it should be supervised by civil authorities and ideally have several safety mechanisms. If it's run by an army, it won't go well

​@@kingace6186yes

Johnny great work man, u literally told both perspectives of the argument❤

Correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure someone will) as I'm only repeating what little I know from minimal exposure to the topic, but isn't Africa relatively rich in various natural resources (oil, diamonds, cobalt, etc)? As long as the more developed parts of the world exploit this, I imagine there will be no end to the vengeful feelings of locals who feel they've been taken advantage of, like the oil pirates of the West coast mentioned at the end of the video.

Since the collapse in Somalia, there was no governmental agencies to protect the waters. Since it has the longest coastline in Africa, corporations/wealthier countries were mass fishing or dumping chemicals in the water. First, it was fisherman defending their waters then it turned into a lucrative, criminal organization where the expanded. Of course, even regular people were participating because of the huge economic issue created because of the civil war. However, Somalia was not stripped of its natural resources. It resisted colonization multiple times over hundreds of years and even when it was “colonized”, it was basically a protectorate. They had a very long anti-colonial war so the European powers basically gave up trying to get total domination. Britain literally had to bomb the northern capital to “win”. Italy didnt even bother with the part they “claimed”. It’s hilarious to read the writings of British or Italian people who were trying to subjugate them.

Really appreciated the nuance you brought to the topic. Next topic: Rhino poaching in Southern Africa.

I'd like to hear about what Costa Rica has done differently from other Central American Nations, seeing as they've abolished their military, are much happier and healthier, and have a relatively sustainable economy. Always appreciate the insight.

Different video dude

Sck American Ds basically 😅