Hi again Mike Thanks for the links.
>OK...Somalia. > >...a place where no industrialized country has recognized a coherent >government in 13 years and where these countries usually have no >hesitation in calling it "anarchy". I don't totally disagree. Perhaps even several different kinds of "anarchy". >What makes Somalia so interesting (IMO) is that they've managed to >form a fiefdom whereby protection comes from the tribal elders >and so called "warlords" and skirmishes between tribes happen >regularly as a way of re-establishing territorial borders. Within >each of those borders, there seems to be relative calm (if not >destitution). Barring the technologies that give us civil services >and health care, I wonder if the number of homicides are comparable >to an inner city community in the US (i.e. Watts/LA, CA) -- >Different culture, different societal infrastructure but, similar >results (not including environmental impacts and lack of medical >care). I think that, once if ever you could factor out the effects of what's happened there in the last 13 years, leaving you with what's really Somali, you might find something with little comparison with an inner city community in the US. In other words I'd guess that the bedrock of Somali society is not only still there but it's what's holding everything together. Because it is still together. Life goes on, in spite of everything, as Human Rights Watch implies in your ref below, and the Atlantic Monthly piece too, in a different sort of way, "Ayn Rand" notwithstanding. >In the middle of all this, is a thriving telecommunications industry >that apparently requires a consensus from the various tribes in >order to exist. This would indicate some sort of confederation with >the potential to participate in a world market without following any >of the conventional wisdom of what we think is necessary for the >survival of a society. Definitely. It's one of the major problems - our conventional wisdom blinds us and leads us to impose "solutions", no matter how generously, that can have disastrous consequences, which we then call unforeseen side-effects. Agenda 21 has a lot to say about this. So does this: http://journeytoforever.org/community2.html Community development - The Questions I should add that arguably the major victims of this are the industrialised-nation societies themselves. >The fact that all the members of these tribes seem to be as fiercely >independent as they were over a decade ago, would also indicate that >the meddling of outside influences is still seen as unwelcome. Definitely again. But again I'd argue that a genuine, humble approach made in the right way to the right people at the right time offering true cooperation might not go amiss. Look at what they say: "They give us food and they shoot us." Maybe they're not dumb. Aidid said: "We do not want to become a new colony." I'm sure they still say that. What other than a new colony might be the likes of the WTO, "free" trade, the IMF and the World Bank, and the predatory corporatism unleashed by neo-liberal economics that we're still fast-asleep enough to think means progress and freedom? Maybe we're dumber than they are. >I can't speak for anyone else in this list but, I'm very interested >in how this works and wonder if there is something important to be >learned here. I'm sure there is, and it might be more starkly apparent in Somalia, more diffuse in other situations, because the Somalis are so strange. Actually I think they're quite fabulous people, despite all indications of recent events. Best wishes Keith >Mike > >______________________________ > >Sources: > >Human Rights Watch: > >Grassroots efforts, led by a broad variety of activists and elders, >offer an alternative to the cycle of violence, although law and >order remains an issue dominated by clan discrimination and kinship >status, and the warleaders engage in reprisals against key elders to >counter their efforts at negotiation. The greatest danger to the >broad-based efforts at reconstruction could come from the >international community-if any nation chose to interfere now by >backing one or more warleader. > ><http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/somalia/>http://www.hrw.org/reports/ >1995/somalia/ > >The Atlantic Monthly | May 2001 >Ayn Rand Comes to Somalia >In the absence of government bureaucracy and foreign aid, business >is starting to boom >by Peter Maass > ><http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200105/maass>http://www.theatlan >tic.com/doc/prem/200105/maass > >CIA World Fact Book > >general assessment: the public telecommunications system was almost >completely destroyed or dismantled by the civil war factions; >private wireless companies offer service in most major cities and >charge the lowest international rates on the continent > >domestic: local cellular telephone systems have been established in >Mogadishu and in several other population centers >international: country code - 252; international connections are >available from Mogadishu by satellite (This page was last updated on >9 August, 2005) > ><http://www.vinsmano.info/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2124.html> >http://www.vinsmano.info/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2124.html > >The Phones Keep Ringing In World's Poorest Country >By Harun Hassan 22/07/2003 > >MOGADISHU (PANOS) Somalia is a country in ruins. With 70% of the >population living below the poverty line and international relief >largely cut-off by civil war, its a place where survival is a >full-time occupation. > >Yet, in an anarchic country divided into vague fiefdoms subject to >the whims of roaming warlords and freelance militias, one thing is >strangely in order: telephone services. > >Under the shadow of ruined buildings and in the middle of dusty >streets, large numbers of Somalis walk about with a mobile phone in >their hand. For a country that does not even have its own >government, Somalia has an amazingly developed telecoms industry. > ><http://www.panos.org.uk/newsfeatures/featuredetails.asp?id=1125>http >://www.panos.org.uk/newsfeatures/featuredetails.asp?id=1125 > >Africans rush for mobile phones ><http://newsblaster.cs.columbia.edu/dev/archives/2004-05-09-11-16-29/ >web/summaries/2004-05-09-11-16-29-113-comp-115.html>http://newsblaster >.cs.columbia.edu/dev/archives/2004-05-09-11-16-29/web/summaries/2004-0 >5-09-11-16-29-113-comp-115.html _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
