|
by Michael
Bear
Five
reasons why Somalia is the worst place in the world, at least from a
humanitarian perspective. The beaches, tho, are quite nice:
1. Fully
half the country - roughly 3.8 million people - needs urgent
humanitarian assistance. Yet further proof that eighteen years
without a functioning government is not the most effective path to peace
and happiness.
2. Things
are still getting worse, with a prolonged
drought and increasingly vicious fighting between insurgents,
various militia and the Somalia Government.
According
to the acting UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, "this
is the worst humanitarian crisis in Somalia in the last 18 years,
since the collapse of the previous government."
3. The
fighting is also making it more
difficult to reach those most in need. A situation not helped by
the fact that insurgents often deliberately target humanitarian agencies
-- ten
aid workers have been killed in Somalia so far this year.
(Which,
granted, is fewer than the 45
aid workers killed in Somalia last year. Progress. Of a sort.)
4. And
where, you might ask, is the international community in all of this?
Well, let's see. UN
policy is completely incoherent, with some UN agencies claiming
neutrality, while others actively support the government.
Meanwhile,
AU peacekeepers in Mogadishu are dying
of malnutrition. Or at least beriberi, which is caused by
malnutrition.
That said,
a lion's
share of the blame should go to the US, seeing as how our various
anti-terrorism interventions in Somalia over the past few years made a
bad situation far, far worse.
(Tho I have
to admit I've always wanted an Alliance
for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism t-shirt.)
5. Finally,
all the misery that the twenty-first century can muster still isn't
enough, seeing as how Somalia also suffers from some wonderfully retro
woes, such as piracy.
On the plus
side -- the country is something of a libertarian
paradise.
[Photo of
Mogadishu from ctsnow's
photostream on flickr - creative commons attribution]
Source:
Humanitarion Relief, Sept 03, 2009
|
