Help Me Learn About Somalia!

oyarde said:
The meat is cheap.It is all raised there and they export alot.Rice , wheat flour and cereals are all imported.Two dollars is more than average earnings of one day.
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Well , I guess I should not say cheap.The 3 dollar Ramadan special for 2.2 pounds of meat is equivelent to two days pay.
 
9/08/10 . Fighting in the Somalia Capital . al- Shabab . 230 killed , 400 wounded ,23,000 displaced in the past two weeks . 200,000 displaced this year .
 
9/16/10 Mortar fire and attacks today in Mogadishu . Death toll at 15 so far .
 
Just back from Namaje, Zambia...woo hoo!

What a paradise...

Not really...smelled like shit most-of-the time...
 
UN planning on sending 2000 more , for total of 8,000 . Al - Shabab now owns the place .
 
Somalia: Ok, here is the very short class: it is all about the oil that is 1000km from the shore...

Infrastructure is the key, but hard to maintain.

Adverse conditions, civil unrest, fomented discord,

Exxon maybe the winner just like Angola...
 
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lucius said:
Ok, here is the very short class: it is about the oil that is 1000km from the shore...

Infrastructure is the key, but hard to maintain.

Adverse conditions, civil unrest, fomented discord,

Exxon maybe the winner...
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I will be impressed if there are any winners . 1000 klicks is 620 miles , anybody off shore there is just kidnap / ransom matl. . Likely the terror training camps will be going up soon getting ready for the new Somali export .
 
oyarde said:
I will be impressed if there are any winners . 1000 klicks is 620 miles , anybody off shore there is just kidnap / ransom matl. . Likely the terror training camps will be going up soon getting ready for the new Somali export .
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Naw, 6-months could make it all happy valley...just have to be willing to break a few eggs...and go in force... ;)
 
Austrian Econ Disciple said:
Are you knowledgable enough to know that Somalia, in general is vastly better off under the current system than their State system? Almost all categories depicting standard of living have risen, and risen dramatically since the State collapsed. In fact, I would like to see Somali sailors seastead and have property rights on the ocean. They are heading that way. They even have a stock market for their sailors "pirates" there. It is no different than say, me going out to Wyoming in 1780 homesteading a property, and having cattle drivers run their cattle through my property because it is "public property" and me defending my property and myself and being called a criminal, or thief if I expropriate some of their cattle to recoup expense.

I would like to see these property owners issue edicts to all vessels that they must pay to travel through the waters. Of course, you would call that "tribute", etc. but it is no different than paying for a sticker for your car to drive on private turnpikes, or paying for a toll on a private road.

Southern Somalia though isn't doing as well as Northern Somalia because they don't have the basis for a legal system that actually works --- a libertarian one like the Xeer, that the North has (Somaliland). In fact, I was watching a video the other day where farmers in the North said their property and areas have become much more secure since private security has been instituted (REAL private Free Market PDAs).

Did you know all of that?
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How much time have you spent in Somalia?
 
I am not sure that extremist groups who intentionally target civilians are comparable to national militaries.
 
SomaliaMuslimcontrol.gif


Leftist snark blogger Matt Yglesias thinks Islamist Hell-hole Somalia good example of Libertarians' Paradise

From Eric Dondero:

Well over 60% of Somalia is now controlled by the Radical Islamist, Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabab. The main enterprise of these Muslim extremists is piracy in the Gulf of Aden. On land, they pursue an ultra-extreme version of Islam, stripping women's rights, and enforcing strict curfews, and even bans on all forms of music. There is virtually nothing free entperprise or remotely libertarian about Muslim-controlled Somalia.

But this hasn't stopped well-known Leftist blogger Matthew Iglesias from calling Somalia on the whole a Libertarian Paradise.

In his Sept. 9th post, Iglesias compares economic growth statistics for communist Cuba versus Islamist-controlled Somalia. He defends Cuba's economy by snarkily noting that it's not nearly as bad as the no taxation "anarchy" of Somalia.

ThinkProgress.org:
I think this mostly illustrates the difficulty of having a rational conversation with Cato Institute employees about economic policy in the developed world. Cuba is poor, but it’s much richer than Somalia.
Getting Libertopias all mixed-up

He then goes on to bash libertarian economist Dan Mitchell of Cato in a sardonic manner, for blindly defending the market.
You see, the American economic system isn’t really free market, we have all these taxes and regulations and subsidies.
He finally defends America's mixed economy in contrast to the "libertopia" of Somalia:
The US public policy status quo doesn’t 100 percent reflect progressive ideas, but it’s not libertopia or a country where history stopped in 1955 either. And guess what? By global or historical terms, Americans alive today are some of the best-off people ever. And it’s not a coincidence.
Somalia vs. Somaliland

What Iglesias fails to mention in his entire piece is that Somaliland is an entirely different and distinct country from the authoritarian Islamist Al-Shabab state of Somalia. Somaliland in the northwest, has been independent and virtually completely autonomous since 1993. (Though, not officially recognized as a separate nation by the UN). And to some extent, Somaliland has had a generally laissez-faire, pro-business government, that has led many to deem it "libertarian."

He's hoping of course, that nobody will know the difference between Muslim extremist dominated Somalia, and the new emerging free enterprise-friendly peaceful Republic of Somaliland. But now you know.
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http://www.libertarianrepublican.net/2010/09/leftist-snark-blogger-matt-yglesias.html


See map to understand the political situation of modern day Somalia:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Somalia_map_states_regions_districts.png
 
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