Help Me Learn About Somalia!

By about 1978

There was no working government and resistance groups encouraged by Ethiopia were active everywhere.Civil war probably really had started by 1990.
 
Terrorist, Terrorist, Terrorist, Terrorist,Terrorist.
I thought of quoting and listing the quotes in this thread.

not gonna do it.

you really buy into that bullshit, don't ya?
:(
 
After WW II

Somalia had Italian and British influence before the war.After the war the British had it until 1960.By 1978 , the Russians and Fidel were helping Ethiopia push back a Somalia advance into territory that had belonged to Somalia before the second world war , but had been deeded by treaty to Ethiopia by the British about 1948.
 
Eritrea

There are rumors that this country to the North is supporting groups to the South.There are also insurgents operating in the country of unknown origins.
 
conditions

djdellisanti4 said:
I mainly wanted to know if the conditions of the people had improved since the fall of their govt, which is talked about in the article from Mises.

But history is good to know too, since it can provide an understanding of their society and culture.
Click to expand...

Are the conditions better than 1978 - 1996 ? Maybe.Highly Likely though, looking at all the facts that it could rapidly decline.Is it safe ? No.
 
Summary

I tried to simply summarize the last 80 years.I have not left out anything I can think of.
 
Ethiopia

I take it you are leading into the CIA being involved with Ethiopia ?
 
oyarde, I'd recommend you do all your research and then write one comprehensive post, rather than write 20 one-para replies (including one reply to yourself). A single well-researched post makes it look like, ya know, you actually know what you're talking about. Rather than just finding random facts online.

djdellisanti4, just do a search in the forums with the word "Somalia" in the title. For starters, you could try these threads:

Article by Michael Scheuer and comments/discussion:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=253232

Thread is titled "Estonia" but it quickly veers into Somalia (before going back to Estonia), lots of info here, highly recommended thread:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=256141

Thread about terrorism and recent developments:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=255468

I've done a lot of research on this topic over the past decade, PM me if you need anything.
 
Yes,Maybe

Yes , there are known members of Al Quada there.Yes , there is a history of "screw ups" from uninteded consequences.The operation in Somalia is classified and there is no way of knowing if what they were attempting had any significance.
 
Two papers on your main question:

Somalia After State Collapse: Chaos or Improvement? | Benjamin Powell (2006)

www.independent.org/pdf/working_papers/64_somalia.pdf

Better Off Stateless: Somalia Before and After Government Collapse | Peter Leeson (2006)

www.peterleeson.com/Better_Off_Stateless.pdf

Best book on the Somali stateless common law system:

The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic
Development in the Horn of Africa | Michael van Notten (2005)

Preface: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/139t1-somalis-preface.pdf
Chapter 1: http://explorersfoundation.org/archive/139t2-somalis-ch1.pdf

Another great resource is Antiwar.com's Scott Horton's past radio interviews about Somalia.
 
oyarde said:
Yes , there are known members of Al Quada there.Yes , there is a history of "screw ups" from uninteded consequences.The operation in Somalia is classified and there is no way of knowing if what they were attempting had any significance.
Click to expand...

Classified, phitt,,

Operations in Angola and Rhodesia were likely classified,,or more likely denied.
I was approached in 76 ,,an attempted recruiting. I declined.
However I did have a good friend in the Keys, He was in Angola with the Cuban Army. We nearly met under "different" circumstances.
Some interesting discussions,,and perspectives.

None the less, CIA involvement throughout the area has been ongoing long before the invention of the "terrorist threat".
 
My apologies

I have been very busy.Just trying to get some facts out there for the origial poster.I am not sure that I have any great real interest in the place myself.I am knowledgable about the place though.Just trying to be helpful.
 
oyarde said:
Are the conditions better than 1978 - 1996 ? Maybe.Highly Likely though, looking at all the facts that it could rapidly decline.Is it safe ? No.
Click to expand...

Well is any country in Africa safe? Even the ones with strong central governments? Look at what happaned with South Africa and apartheid.

Its all about relativity and trends.
 
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djdellisanti4 said:
Well is any country in Africa safe? Even the ones with strong central governments? Look at what happaned with South Africa and apartheid.
Click to expand...

Except for foreign intervention (esp. Ethipian-backed), Somalia has been relatively safe.

What helps is a homogeneous social structure. They may be clan based but they recognize that they are one nation, so unlike other places in Africa there hasn't been racial tension, ethnic cleansing, massacres, etc.

To get a feel for their sense of nationalism, read the article on "Greater Somalia" on Wikipedia.

A good friend of my fathers had been a doctor here (Dubai) for the past 30 years, and when it came to the legal retirement age (60 years) everyone was shocked that he decided to go back home to Somalia to open a private practice. What was shocking was that he had a green card and all of his adult children are settled in the US.

He explained that he's far more likely to be prosperous in Somalia since doctors are scarce and the market is free and unregulated. He also said it's peaceful where he's from so he's not really afraid for his safety. Can people there afford his services? He says that Somali seafaring traders are doing quite well.

But then again this was several years ago, before the recent turn of events...
 
elaborate

oyarde said:
I have been very busy.Just trying to get some facts out there for the origial poster.I am not sure that I have any great real interest in the place myself.I am knowledgable about the place though.Just trying to be helpful.
Click to expand...

I guess what I meant by no great real interest in the place is that I have few places remaining on my " to see" list and Somalia is not one of them.I would like to see a couple of places in Ethiopia and a place in Camaroon.Thats probably about it for that continent for me.
 
We'll I think I'm going to write a little book report based on the info i've learned from this thread.
 
Chuckle

Well there is definately enough info for maybe even a big report.If you are a student , Good Luck to you ! If you put all of this together you deserve an A.
 
Oh, im just doing the "book report" to inform, not for school...yet. I might take some sort of econ class on developing countries in a few years.
 
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