Off the coast of Somalia, former fishermen, robbed of their livelihood by commercial trawlers operating illegally in their waters, have banded with ex-militia and tech-geeks, and taken to acts dubbed by the world media as "piracy."

International cargo ships traveling off the Somali coast are often intercepted and hijacked by small boats and held for ransom.

The hijacked crews are usually well taken care of for the duration of their capture until an agreement can be reached between the so-called pirates and the shipping companies.

While the general media refer to the small bands of Somalis as "pirates," they refer to themselves as "Coast Guards."

The capital city of Mogadishu is practically a ghost town - devastated by war. The population is all but starving. There has been no stable government in almost 17 years. In the presence of this kind of despair, the international community has taken advantage of this country's inability to protect its maritime boundaries.

Enter the fishermen.

In the absence of formal authority and diplomatic power, the fishermen have taken matters into their own hands, using what is available to them to eek out a living. While affected companies and interested media may catalog Somali acts as criminal, advocates for national sovereignty might consider such acts justified and within the context of the defense of Somali national security.

In-fighting has been replaced with co-operation between clans. The "ransoms" they excise from various governments aren't much different than tariffs other countries impose (usually associated with protectionism), its just that there is no formal authority to regulate the amount.

In an era of malfeasance and greed dominating corporate interests, to the tune of exploiting those who cannot or do not know how to protect themselves, it is refreshing to see African patriots putting their foot down and calling the giants of global commerce to task.

Some may refer to them as "pirates" but they sound like Coast Guards to me.