Facing Reality in Somalia

World Defense Review ^ | May 11, 2006 | J. Peter Pham

[SuzyQ2]

Imagine a country within the greater Middle East ambit that has successfully made the transition to electoral democracy with multiparty municipal, presidential, and, most recently, parliamentary polls. Moreover, imagine that despite virtually all of its citizens being Sunni Muslims, the country's national elections commission designates a progressive, foreign-based Christian non-governmental organization to coordinate the international monitoring of its parliamentary elections. And imagine that the incumbent president's party takes a drubbing at the polls, winning barely a third of the seats. Most audiences, if I were to tell them that I was not conjuring up Utopia, but describing a real life country, would probably question whether I was hallucinating, perhaps under the influence of the ubiquitous qat leaf popular in southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa.

[agere_contra]

Terrific article. Thaks for posting.

[marron]

Quoting:

"Since the disintegration of the Siad Barre's oppressive Somali regime into Hobbesian anarchy and warlordism, the international community has staunchly defended the phantasmal existence of the fictitious entity known as "Somalia." Now, however, is the time for the United States to break ranks and let realism triumph over wishful thinking, not only recognizing, but actively supporting Somaliland, a brave little land whose people's quest for freedom and security mirrors America's values as well as her strategic interests."

[bondjamesbond]

Before I moved to Somalia back in 1985, I pulled out my dog-eared National Geographic Atlas to look it up, and they forgot it. The map of Sub Saharan Africa ended at Lamu, Kenya and the map of Saharan Africa ended a Djibouti. Somaliland is the lesser known part of the country that National Geographic forgot.