Somali militant group Al-Shabab bans single-use plastic bags | Hacker News Reader

Somali militant group Al-Shabab bans single-use plastic bags

globalnews.ca

20 pointsforkLding9 comments

If you've ever spent time in places where trash is dumped in the open, the need to ban plastic bags is totally obvious. I mean, they're everywhere. On trees, fences, and anything else that snags them from the wind.

Also, I gotta say, the definition of "terrorist group" is pretty damn arbitrary. Basically it means "some group that we don't recognize and/or like".

I'm trying to work out if this is an example of something politicised in the west, but obvious to most of the rest of the world. Or if they're just blindly ripping off legitimate government policies to make them look legitimate.

African countries like Kenya have adopted the no plastic bag policy (you can get 4 years jail in Kenya for using plastic bags: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/25/nairobi-clean-...) so I think Al-Shahab just adopted it from neighbouring countries to make themselves more legitimate but also because it is necessary.

More legitimate? Even more?

I'm not the GP, but "more" and "even more" do not have the same connotation. Having zero of some attribute does not preclude trying to get more (than zero) of it.

They are by de facto rule, the legitimate authority/govt/ruler of certain parts of Somalia (largely due to the fact that every part of Somalia is split up or fighting each other)

I mentioned "more" legitimate as they want to be seen as the de jure govt and not just de facto through doing things normal govts would or might do.

You can check out Somalia's territory map here which includes Al-Shabaab: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shabaab_(militant_group)#/m...

Most terrorist groups have a humanitarian wing that was established to fill a vacuum of power left by the local government.

People have to be pretty desperate to strap bombs to themselves, and they usually start with more immediately productive actions, like smuggling medical supplies and food past (sadly, often western) blockades.

You have to keep in mind that most people are the 'good guys' from their point of view. And while some actions may be despicable they engage in such actions because they think it will lead to a better world. This can lead to some interesting contrast in behaviors. As another particularly visible example of this, consider that while Hitler was okay with certain races' genocide, he vehemently opposed cruelty to animals and was a 'militant vegetarian' who would try to guilt his colleagues away from meat. [1] One of his post war plans involved a mandatory conversion of Nazi Germany to vegetarianism!

As always this is in no way a mitigation of the behaviors of Hitler, Al-Qaeda, or whomever else. I am just emphasizing that the world isn't black and white. Something I think is especially important in modern times as people grow increasingly divided over far less serious matters.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler_and_vegetarianism

> legitimate government policies

Many 'legitimate governments' in the US don't even have this policy.

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