Talk:Somalia

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Somalia may actually be starting to get its shit together

The past couple years, a new government has begun to consolidate power in Somalia in ways not seen since before the country tore itself apart after the Cold War. Promisingly, they aren't fundamentalists, either. In 2012, the administration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came to power after defeating the incumbent, Islamist and former ICU leader Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, in an election. Mind you, he was elected by an appointed parliament rather than the general population, but it's likely there isn't enough security or electoral infrastructure to hold a popular vote yet in Somalia, anyway. Still, rather than pick up a gun and declare Mohamud illegitimate, Ahmed accepted the results of the election and stepped down. Mohamud's party, the Peace and Development Party, is not Islamist, and its ideology includes social democracy, social liberalism, and humanism. While the country is still rife with poverty and violence, Mohamud's efforts to improve things are notable. The UN was also impressed and decided it trusted Mohamud enough to lift the arms embargo on a trial basis so the new government can better equip itself to fight Al-Shabab and work toward securing a firmer monopoly on the legitimate use of force. For further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mohamud The One They Call Mars (talk) 00:34, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Impediments to investment

Were there any regulatory impediments to first world countries' companies engaging in foreign direct investment in Somalia? For example, would a U.S. mining company have been allowed to send workers, equipment, money, etc. to Somalia and hire private security to protect the mines and their employees? Fleet (talk) 17:25, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

The Somali flag

It maybe interesting to know (and good to put into the article) that the Somali flag basically represents a nationalist, irredentist claim to territory that isn't (currently) theirs. The five points of the star signify the five areas where Somalis live. British and Italian Somaliland (Somalia in its current de jure border), Djibouti, The Northern Frontier district in Kenya and Ogaden in Ethiopia. For one of these irredentist claims (that in Ogaden) Somali dictator Siad Barre was willing to fight a costly disastrous and ultimately futile war... So it is more than just folklore 141.30.210.129 (talk) 13:47, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Statelssness in Somalia

@AIDS Skrillex Somalia improved under statelessness because foreign investors piled in like a pack of dogs seeing an opportunity to turn a quick buck in the chaos, like here. It was not because of anarchy, but because of people trying to make a quick buck off of a huge civil war. Bubba41102^{Is reaching a breaking point} 02:47, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

Your article doesn't really say anywhere that Somalia improved only because of outside forces. Even if that's true, it stills shows that the absence of an authoritarian government allowed Somalia to become better, whether it be from outside forces or not. AIDS Skrillex (talk) 03:12, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

About the joke about north Korea

I feel like the joke comparing anarchist not moving to Somalia with communist not moving to North Korea is not that good of a comparison. a much better one would be communists not moving to Cuba. I will change it if no one objects. ^{— Unsigned, by: Rollen73 / talk / contribs 15:14, 3 November 2019‎}

Given there's a note concerning this, and given there are indeed problems with the ideologies in question, (hence the jokes) I'm inclined to lean towards leaving it be. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 16:27, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

Considering that Cuba has increasingly followed “the Chinese path” (basically, a sort of state guided, authoritarian capitalism with one-party rule), leaving North Korea as the closest parallel to a totalitarian, Stalinist state, I think the current version makes more sense as a joking rebuke. ScepticWombat (talk) 16:33, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

@ScepticWombat Just being slightly pedantic, but I'd argue North Korea is closer to theocratic fascism than Soviet style communism. Just my opinion though, no disrespect intended. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 16:39, 3 November 2019 (UTC)

@GrammarCommie I agree to some extent, hence why I hedged by calling North Korea ”the closest parallel” to a current, Stalinist state. North Korean Juche has basically toned down Stalinism’s Marxism-Leninism while dialling up economic autarchy, nationalism and the cult of personality to 11. But I do see Juche as originating more from Stalinism than from the other variants of Marxism-Leninism, as both the cult of personality and the socialism in one country perspectives were hallmarks of Stalinism, while Juche lacks, say, Maoism’s emphasis on the peasantry as a revolutionary force. That said, Juche’s embrace of nationalist mysticism and myth making is completely alien to any form of Marxism, even if other variants do have quasi religious aspects (especially in their cults of personality and celebratory/veneration rituals).

Still, I consider the socio-economic model in North Korea to be the closest in current existence to “classic” communism, as other formally communist states (e.g. China, Cuba, Vietnam) all tend to follow the aforementioned “Chinese path”, rather than the old state run command economy that was at the heart of “classic” communism in the former Eastern Bloc. ScepticWombat (talk) 03:42, 4 November 2019 (UTC)