My school has our Honor Society accept donations towards helping to ease the Somali famine.
Pointing out that Somalia is more free and can prosper becomes tough when you have famines going on… What’s the situation here?
Famine, in itself, is neither here nor there. Agriculture in almost every part of the world is subject to wild swings in productivity from season to season. What is crucial is how society is structured to handle unexpected events such as drought or famine. In the case of Somalia, I speculate that we have a situation where the expectation of a new, food-dispensing government (TNG) has lured many people into neglecting the other precautions they would ordinarily have taken against drought and famine. As a result, they are now dependent on receiving the expected food-dispensation from the government. Just want to reiterate that this is speculation.
Clayton -
The situation is that Ethiopia continues to interfere militarily in the border areas of Somalia even after its end of occupation of southern Somalia in 2009. 9,000 African Union troops financed by the United States contest the control of Mogadishu leading to endless battles. Meanwhile direct US involvement consists of regular cruise missile and drone attacks, with secret CIA prisons to go. Additionally Washington will finance any warlord willing to throw his lot with the internationals’ clients in the ‘Transitional Federal Government’.
Somalia has been going downhill for several years now, ever since the US involved itself with the country again and begun backing the warlords leading to the eventual rise of the ICU. Your school would do better to campaign against American interferance in Somalia.
BTW, there were famine conditions in Ethiopia as well, owing to a drout that hit the region, but situation is worse in Somalia due to disruptions caused by warfare, which is mostly the result of outside interferance. I suggest that you listen to some of the Somalia themed interviews at Antiwar Radio.