What's Going on in Somalia

Felicia Whatley

Somalia

Development and Globalization

Intro

            Somalia is thought to be a stateless region known for its lawlessness and lack of government control of the region. Somalia is ranked as the number 1 in the 2010 Failed State Index, for their inability to provide public goods and services, instability in the government, and the violence, insurgency, and piracy that continues. It perplexes social scientists with its chaos, hunger, anarchy and yet a “free wheeling stateless capitalism” according to Peter D. Little’s Somalia: Economy Without State. The economic trends are difficult to track because the nation is very archaic and backwards, and yet it still surprises many because there is some agricultural economic growth and its desire to survive. Historians remember Somalia for the modern genocide that was overlooked for too long by the international communities. How did this happen and what were the ramifications for development and globalization?  “Many observers hoped that the rescue of Somalia could be an example of a new type of internationalism with the collapse of old cold-war animosities. While the multilateral efforts of UNOSOM and the U.S. led Operation Restore Hope started with such spectacular optimism and helped to reduce the famine  in Somalia, they bore few tangible outcomes in long run…Somalia did so much to shatter the hopes of the new world order,” (Little, 162).

Politics, Government and Background

Somalia is hot and arid in temperature where droughts are frequent. The country is thought to be geographically significant, because of its strategic location on the horn of Africa. The country is poor and has been through a coup. They have their own Somali language and modern education began to be offered free for all levels in the 1970s. By 1976 there was a 60 percent literacy level, but now Somalia is known as one of the poorest of nations with the lowest literacy levels (http://www.mapsofworld.com/somalia/information/facts.html). It is a war torn underdeveloped country that is in need of aid, development, and infrastructure. Only 2% of the population can afford a TV or a radio.

Islam is the national religion and the country is on a terrorist watch. Economic and cultural globalization is the defining characteristic in the 21^st century. The Global economic and cultural dimensions of self-determination are far more important than previously recognized and cannot be reduced to greed, stated FitzGerald, Stewart and Venugopal, 1. Globalization and war has had a profound impact on Somalia. Often on the news there are Somalia pirates that attack foreign ships that are in international water. National Geographic writes “Mogadishu is ground zero for the failed state of Somalia, a place where pirates and terrorists rule. Yet to the north, the breakaway region of Somaliland is stable and at peace. What happened?”(Drapier, 2009.)

If you walk around the capital you can see the remains of the former American Embassy, the al Uruba Hotel, and the Shangaani district, which once teamed with life but is now blown away. And the homes are more of the same. This article is a case study of one 18-year-old who is forced to be a fisherman to bring some money to his family. His father was killed by mortar fire and if he is lucky he will get 3 or 4 dollars for his catch, so his family can eat that day.  Most of his school friends have joined the Islamic extremist militia called al Shabaab. The al Shabaab is a militia that is backed by the United Nations and the Transitional Federal Governance. “For young males like Mohammed, al Shabaab is a tempting exit strategy from powerlessness. Then again, many of his former playmates are now dead,” (Drapier).

            On Somalia's northern coastline one can see the Gulf of Aden into the Indian Ocean. This is where pirates prey on sea traffic between Europe and the East. Even though that is the most publicized lately, often the inner part of the country can be seen as more violent and scary because the insurgents and the government troops continue to fight there. The Ethiopian troops had invaded Somalia late in 2006 to oust a short-lived Islamic government and prop up the TFG, and then they pulled out in January 2009.” The chaos has invited a fresh flow of foreign fighters to Somalia, which has become a haven for terrorists who see themselves engaged in a global jihad. The Fund for Peace has ranked Somalia number one on its index of failed states for the past two years,” (Drapier).

                   The history of the country was shown in how Britain withdrew from their colony part of Somaliland in 1960 and this chance at sovereignty spurred the breakdown of the nation. The British intended to allow that area to join with Italian Somaliland and to form the new nation of Somalia. Then in 1969, a coup headed by Mr. Mohamed Siad Barre brought in an authoritarian socialist rule. There was some stability for Somalia, but when the regime collapsed in 1991, the country spun into turmoil. There was fighting and anarchy among factions.  In May 1991, northern clans declared an independent Republic of Somaliland which included Awdal, Woqooyi Galbeed, Togdheer, Sanaag, and Sool areas. Although not recognized by any government, this entity has maintained a stable existence and continues efforts to establish a constitutional democracy, including holding municipal, parliamentary, and presidential elections,      

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/so-somalia. 

Although Somalia was without a single central government throughout the 1990s,

politics, economics and development still existed despite the statelessness. In the early 1990s state fragmentation and a localization of political authority existed. Within the violence a variety of governance and authority emerged at community, district, and regional levels to create a makeshift centralized government. Then in 1998, the state came together in a way that was less violent with a broader base of political alliances than before.  “Together they built polities—state like authorities –outside the old framework of decolonization and have done so amidst all of the international economic forces…in order to create places like Somalia,” (FitzGerald, Stewart, and Venugopal 148). There was differing political governance in Somaliland verses Puntland. The Rahanweyn Resistance Army (RRA) then established an administration in the two southern regions of

Bay and Bakol; both been very insecure for most of the past decade. The Transitional National Government (TNG) in the capital of Mogadishu was the most profound political development of the decade. “Some of the politics ...especially the distribution of social control over violence and markets, unintentionally left some northern leaders with more social  raw material to reconstruct a single polity after 1991—to self determine –compared with southern counterparts,” (FitzGerald, 148). Though, the lengthy peace process has the TNG crimpling southern Somalia for over a decade, The TNG’s acceptance in the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, and the former Organization of African Unity has given Somalia formal representation in these international bodies for the first time in a decade.

            The political and economic decentralization that has taken place in Somalia over the last decade is unlikely to be totally reversed and the political entities are still fragile and evolving. Nevertheless, there are economic and social needs in Somalia that appear to demand more regulation and order like the cities of Hargeisa, Garowe, Bosasso, and Baidoa, that beg for a process of consolidation. The decrease in humanitarian needs since 1999 has shown a good level of growth because of improved security conditions and shows a positive change in Somalia.

The regions of Bari, Nugaal, and northern Mudug create of Puntland, which has been self-governing since 1998, but does not want independence.  A two-year UN humanitarian effort in 1993 helped to sooth famine conditions in the southern tip of Somalia, but when the UN withdrew in 1995 after suffering many casualties, the Somalia’s government was still in shambles. After a two-year peace process, led by the Government of Kenya and the help of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) ending in October 2004, the Somalis had elected Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia. This interim government was the Somalia Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) s. Somalia’s government had a 275-member parliamentary body, a transitional Prime Minister, and a 90-member cabinet.  “He [Siad Barre] destroyed the civil and social structures—in fact laid the basis for what’s happening now—and according to Africa Watch probably killed fifty or sixty thousand people.,” (Chomsky, 31).  We must not forget that the troops of Somalia committed genocide ordered by the President to annihilate their own, and it was more than just thousands of people who were systematically murdered. The world was criticized for not acting quick enough to intervene.

Globalization and Economy

           

Somalia has dealt with a long period of statelessness, perhaps longer than any other society in the world. Globalization is not just something that brings together nations but it can also be a divider. “Globalization creates differences. The unevenness of the process is creating inequalities within nations, regions, and communities; disparity and insecurity of incomes; rapid transmission of financial and political crises between different areas of the planet; the spread of crime, health threats and environmental degradation on a previously unknown scale,” (Marchal, R., Mubarak, J.A., Del Buono, M., Manzolillo, D.L.) The collapse of Somali and its civil war can be said to have impacts that are a consequence of globalization. In this country the global “interactions” were limited in the 20^th century but then globalization became a dominate force with technology more so in the 21^st century.

            Globalization made a divide between the East and West in Somalia, but the competition between the two sides helped the economy. But the President Siad Barre was not aware of the changing international situation and the possibility that the country could miss out on strategic importance on the Horn of Africa and that they would soon lose some military aid. Many Somali leaders still today believe that if they Somalia have international recognition or a profound political structure then they can expound on international funding will increase. “The IMF (International Monetary Fund) could not ignore the existence of unemployment...Though some of the these models might provide some amusement within academia, they seemed particularly ill suited to understanding the problems of a country like South Africa, which has been plagued with unemployment rates in excess of 25 percent,” (Stiglitz, 35).

The United Nations intervention in 1992 through 1995 brought in many foreigners with their values, money, and a new type of globalization. For many who felt contempt for Westerners, soon found there were now jobs that weren’t there before. Another way that the UN tried to aid Somalia was to create local authorities and districts to bring order.  This current trend of globalization shifted the political culture. “One symptom of globalization is a retreat of sovereignty in a market-driven global environment. Sovereignty operates in the context of political solutions to problems, but the market imposes economic realities that often assume primacy over national laws and wishes of the citizens,” (Marchal, R., Mubarak, J.A., Del Buono, M., Manzolillo, D.L.) UN tried to create order in a stateless state.

            The main source of economy in Somalia is livestock and agriculture: cattle, sheep, goats, bananas, sorghum, corn, coconuts, rice, sugarcane, mangoes, sesame seeds, beans; fish.  Regardless of the fact that the government is thought to be a failed state, Somalia has maintained a healthy informal economy most driven by agriculture, with money transfer companies, and telecommunications. Agriculture was the biggest sector, with livestock normally accounting for about 40% of GDP and about 65% of export earnings. The GDP or purchasing power parity in 2009 is estimated to be $5.665 billion, in 2008 to be $5.524 billion, and in 2007 to be $5.387--showing an upward trend.

This is the gross domestic product (GDP) or value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year. A nation's GDP at purchasing power parity is meant to be the (PPP) exchange rates of the sum value of all goods and services products per-capita welfare and when comparing living conditions and use of resources around the world. Whereas the PPP estimates for some countries can be based on a different set of goods and services. For many developing countries like Somalia, PPP-based GDP measures are multiples of the official exchange rate (OER) measure. The difference between the OER- and PPP-denominated GDP values for most of the wealthy industrialized countries were generally much smaller and should be considered differently than GDP.