A study on Somalia

[Davex]

I understand well what the paper says. Your post has essentially reduced the paper into a banality, which it is. And one that fails to provide a compelling case for Anarcho-Capitalism, which is what is being discussed in the thread.

a) That's actually not a banality.
b) If you'd initially understood it to be such, maybe we would have been spared your accusatory over-generalizations.

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[em3rgentOrdr]

Looks like gene took my bait

I've read either this document or another like it. From what I understand just from what I've read is that many regions of Somalia are doing far better under a stable clan system than African Nations ruled by a dictator. I'd expect a long and bloody struggle in any country where the philosophical frame work that makes any form of anarchism possible collides with statism. Much like when the ideas of individual liberty clashed with the concept of the divine right of monarchs as rulers in the west.

Excellent point...Any reasonable study should be comparing apples to apples.

Somalia's problems are Islam and the culture of violence that evolved there instead of business culture during the government days. Also the foreign armies and the puppet government funded by western countries. But as the report shows, living standards there are now less bad by most measures.

+1


Stefan Molyneux has a nice little video "Anarchy in Somalia".  He makes the clever point in his introduction that:

If a congregration of priests get hit by a meteor, the result is not "atheism".

[bitanarchy]

Here some video's by Ryan Faulk about Somalia in the context of anarchy or anarcho-capitalism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qri4lWpMVEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TTOsWym-dI

[Garrett Burgwardt]

I'm actually doing my thesis on the necessity of government and the viability of an anarcho-capitalist replacement. Historically Anarcho capitalism has worked well, prime examples being the American Old West (ca 1860-1900) and the Icelandic Commonwealth(930-1262), both of which were fairly successful by measurable standards.

More on topic, Somalia is a bad place to live in, obviously. Overall conditions, however, are getting better - Somalia shows improvement at a very good rate compared to it's neighboring countries, and the majority of violence is brought about by puppet governments trying to be set up by foreign governments. There has been significant investment in Somalia by many major corporations (including Dole Fruit, which seems odd to me - what fruit grows well in Somalia, anyone know?). Not only that but Somalia has some of the cheapest and best quality cell phone service in the country. Overall many schools and hospitals are being opened, and trade has greatly expanded since government collapse. The system of law they use (Xeer) is very similar to that used in the Icelandic Commonwealth, which is a fairly good system that kept bloodshed to a minimum. Overall the country is trending toward becoming one of the better, if not one of the best countries in Africa.

That isn't to say that things are good there - they are improving but certainly not good. Things do not make ridiculous improvements overnight, infrastructure takes significant time to build and things are still being disrupted by the damn governments of the world trying to institute a government there. Things are getting better, and considering the starting point Somalia had, this is good progress.