Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Massacre
An Israeli attack has killed more than 30 people mostly children inside a UN school in the Gaza Strip, and nobody condemns this barbaric act. What if these children were European? Do the Palestinian people have the right to live and protect themselves? The truth is the crimes against humanity only exist when the victims are white or non Muslims. Many people questioning the deadly silence of Arab leaders, and I believe that no one can help these innocence Palestinian people. I am totally against violence against but the Palestinian people must do whatever it takes to protect and to free themselves from this oppression government.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Ezra
Ezra is the first film to present an African perspective on the disturbing phenomenon of abducting child soldiers into the continent's recent civil wars. I watched this film at Cascade Festival of African Films.
Sierra Leone, a 6 year old boy named Ezra (Mamodou) is kidnapped, drugged, and brainwashed by rebels who seek to overthrow the Sierra Leone government, and he become a killer machine for the civil war. Seven years later, Ezra's sister (Mariame N’Diaye) comes before a truth and reconciliation tribunal with stories of her teenage brother's bloodbath, as Ezra denies any knowledge of these crimes, he claims that he was a political soldier and killing people is what soldiers do, flashbacks explain his ordeal. Ten years ago, a group of rebels invade Ezra’s schoolyard and start firing machine guns. Six-year-old Ezra, together with other children, is caught and abducted. Taken away to a distant rebel camp, they are injected with methamphetamines, brainwashed into fighting machines. They sent on a four-day killing rampage. Ezra ends up assisting the murder of his own parents, as his sister testified.
Director: Newton I. Aduaka
Producer: Gorune Aprikian and Michel Loro
Cast: Mamoudu Turay Kamara, Mariame N'Diaye, Mamusu Kallon and Richard Gant
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
A failed state that functions
I came across this article
Source: African Business magazine
Author: Nevin, Tom
Somalia has no government to speak of or functioning official institutions and it is battle scarred and chaotic but, and here is the surprise, it works remarkably well. Tom Nevin explains
Superficially and by reputation, Somalia is the quintessential failed state. Closer inspection of this African horn country's born-again economy however, reveals a unique determination to survive and the universal resilience of the entrepreneur.
More recently it has had to face the added challenge of an armed insurgency in the south, invasion by rampaging Ethiopian troops, air attacks by US fighter jets and street battles in the capital Mogadishu. But, as a nation, it still works better than many of its peers in Africa and the world is wondering why. Businesspeople there say the lack of bureaucracy helps to get things going faster and more efficiently
"After the autocratic regime of Siad Barre fell in 1991, the country collapsed into civil war. Peace has been established in some regions, but Somalia has only limited government in the northwest and no recognised government in the south. In these circumstances the private sector has been surprisingly innovative," say Tatiana Nenova and Tim Harford, both economists at the World Bank, in a report.
Competition thrives in markets where transactions are simple, such as retail and construction. In more complex sectors, such as electricity supply and telecommunications, the private solutions are flawed but impressive.
Prices are attractive compared with those in other countries. In extremely difficult circumstances the private sector has demonstrated its much-vaunted capacity to make do. To cope with the absence of the rule of law, private enterprises used foreign jurisdictions or institutions to help with some tasks, operating within networks of trust to strengthen property rights, and simplifying transactions until they need neither. This is where the Islamic courts, later to become the focus of attacks by the US, came into their own.
Somalia's private sector experience suggests that it might be easier than is commonly thought for basic systems of finance and some infrastructure services to function where government is extremely weak or absent.
Peter Davis of the US-based Ethical Corporation agrees. "Despite the chaos and the lack of any central government," he says, "Somalia has one of the most efficient telephone systems in the region. It takes just three days for a landline to be installed, compared with the waiting time of many years in neighboring Kenya where a stable, democratic system has been in place for half a century."
Businesspeople in Somalia and intrigued observers from other parts of Africa and the world have come to the consensus that it is the lack of bureaucracy and other government interventions that lets things happen quickly and efficiently.
According to the World Bank, Somalia now has 112,000 fixed lines and 50,000 mobile subscribers, up from a total of 17,000 lines in 1991. Competition between rival suppliers has resulted in some of Africa's lowest call costs. In addition, problems such as allowing calls between different networks are resolved through the Somali Telecoms Association. This body, based in Dubai, represents all the telecoms companies, as well as the International Telecommunication Union.
Creative approaches
"Only when it comes to public goods or to private goods with strong spillover effects - roads, monetary stability, a legal system, primary education, a cross-border financial system - does the state seem to be sorely missed," say Nenova and Harford. "But even here the private sector has developed creative approaches that partially substitute for effective government. As a result, Somalia boasts lower rates of extreme poverty and, in some cases, better infrastructure than richer countries in Africa.
Despite the chaos and the absence of a state structure, other sectors are also operating successfully. In supplying electricity, enterprising companies are bridging the governance gap.
"There is no functioning national grid so entrepreneurs have divided cities into manageable sectors and provide electricity on a local basis using generators bought overseas," reports Davis. "These providers offer households a menu of choices, including daytime, evening or 24-hour supply, and charge per light bulb."
He says local businesspeople find it easier to do business in a country where there is no government. "There is no need to obtain licences and, in contrast with many other parts of Africa, there is no state-run monopoly that prevents new competitors setting up. Keeping prices low is helped by the absence of any need to pay taxes."
Competition keeps prices low
Somali entrepreneurs have used three methods to compensate for the lack of effective government regulation. "First," say Nenova and Harford, "importing governance by relying on foreign institutions - for example, for airline safety, currency stability and company law. Second, using clans and other local networks of trust to help with contract enforcement, payment and transmission of funds; and third, simplifying transactions until they can be carried out without help from either the clan or the international economy."
Many local companies have teamed up with such international giants as Sprint of the US and Norway's Telenor providing mobile phones and building new landlines. Keen competition has forced prices down to well below typical levels in Africa. Public water supply is limited to urban areas, but a private system extends to all parts of the country as entrepreneurs build concrete catchments, drill private boreholes or ship water in from the cities.
In 1989 the national air carrier operated just one airplane and one international route. Today the sector comprises 15 firms, more than 60 aircraft, six international destinations, more domestic routes and many more flights. "But safety is a concern," report Nenova and Harford. "Airports lack trained air traffic controllers, fire services, runway lights and a sealed perimeter against stray animals; and checks on aircraft are inadequate." Carriers operate out of Djibouti, Dubai and Nairobi using the facilities there to check aircraft safety.
Generally speaking, commercial enterprises are able to satisfy consumer demands unencumbered by government interference.
"The government post and telecoms company used to have a monopoly," says a spokesman for one telephone company, Telcom Somalia, "but after the regime was toppled, we were free to set up our own businesses. We saw a huge gap in the market, as all previous services had been destroyed. There was a massive demand."
While Somalia exists in a law-and-order vacuum in the western sense, there is a functional court system that ensures that bills are paid and contracts are enforced through the thread of justice that binds the country's traditional clan system. Disputes are commonly settled at the clan level, by traditional systems run by elders and with the clan collecting damages. Such legal measures are free and fast, and sometimes the justice can be rough and unfair. Security is a neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood watch that keeps order in the patchwork of hundreds of fiefdoms run by rival warlords.
The hawala system, a trust-based money transfer structure used in many Muslim countries, moves around $1bn into Somalia each year, and it works surprisingly well allowing Somalis working abroad to send money to family members in even small and remote towns.
Social welfare today, as it has been for generations, is a clan matter. Clan members look after each other and the saying goes that an injury to one clan member is an injury to all. The strength of the clan system can also become the cause of conflict as various clans fight for scare resources, or to carve out territories for themselves.
Source: African Business magazine
Author: Nevin, Tom
Somalia has no government to speak of or functioning official institutions and it is battle scarred and chaotic but, and here is the surprise, it works remarkably well. Tom Nevin explains
Superficially and by reputation, Somalia is the quintessential failed state. Closer inspection of this African horn country's born-again economy however, reveals a unique determination to survive and the universal resilience of the entrepreneur.
More recently it has had to face the added challenge of an armed insurgency in the south, invasion by rampaging Ethiopian troops, air attacks by US fighter jets and street battles in the capital Mogadishu. But, as a nation, it still works better than many of its peers in Africa and the world is wondering why. Businesspeople there say the lack of bureaucracy helps to get things going faster and more efficiently
"After the autocratic regime of Siad Barre fell in 1991, the country collapsed into civil war. Peace has been established in some regions, but Somalia has only limited government in the northwest and no recognised government in the south. In these circumstances the private sector has been surprisingly innovative," say Tatiana Nenova and Tim Harford, both economists at the World Bank, in a report.
Competition thrives in markets where transactions are simple, such as retail and construction. In more complex sectors, such as electricity supply and telecommunications, the private solutions are flawed but impressive.
Prices are attractive compared with those in other countries. In extremely difficult circumstances the private sector has demonstrated its much-vaunted capacity to make do. To cope with the absence of the rule of law, private enterprises used foreign jurisdictions or institutions to help with some tasks, operating within networks of trust to strengthen property rights, and simplifying transactions until they need neither. This is where the Islamic courts, later to become the focus of attacks by the US, came into their own.
Somalia's private sector experience suggests that it might be easier than is commonly thought for basic systems of finance and some infrastructure services to function where government is extremely weak or absent.
Peter Davis of the US-based Ethical Corporation agrees. "Despite the chaos and the lack of any central government," he says, "Somalia has one of the most efficient telephone systems in the region. It takes just three days for a landline to be installed, compared with the waiting time of many years in neighboring Kenya where a stable, democratic system has been in place for half a century."
Businesspeople in Somalia and intrigued observers from other parts of Africa and the world have come to the consensus that it is the lack of bureaucracy and other government interventions that lets things happen quickly and efficiently.
According to the World Bank, Somalia now has 112,000 fixed lines and 50,000 mobile subscribers, up from a total of 17,000 lines in 1991. Competition between rival suppliers has resulted in some of Africa's lowest call costs. In addition, problems such as allowing calls between different networks are resolved through the Somali Telecoms Association. This body, based in Dubai, represents all the telecoms companies, as well as the International Telecommunication Union.
Creative approaches
"Only when it comes to public goods or to private goods with strong spillover effects - roads, monetary stability, a legal system, primary education, a cross-border financial system - does the state seem to be sorely missed," say Nenova and Harford. "But even here the private sector has developed creative approaches that partially substitute for effective government. As a result, Somalia boasts lower rates of extreme poverty and, in some cases, better infrastructure than richer countries in Africa.
Despite the chaos and the absence of a state structure, other sectors are also operating successfully. In supplying electricity, enterprising companies are bridging the governance gap.
"There is no functioning national grid so entrepreneurs have divided cities into manageable sectors and provide electricity on a local basis using generators bought overseas," reports Davis. "These providers offer households a menu of choices, including daytime, evening or 24-hour supply, and charge per light bulb."
He says local businesspeople find it easier to do business in a country where there is no government. "There is no need to obtain licences and, in contrast with many other parts of Africa, there is no state-run monopoly that prevents new competitors setting up. Keeping prices low is helped by the absence of any need to pay taxes."
Competition keeps prices low
Somali entrepreneurs have used three methods to compensate for the lack of effective government regulation. "First," say Nenova and Harford, "importing governance by relying on foreign institutions - for example, for airline safety, currency stability and company law. Second, using clans and other local networks of trust to help with contract enforcement, payment and transmission of funds; and third, simplifying transactions until they can be carried out without help from either the clan or the international economy."
Many local companies have teamed up with such international giants as Sprint of the US and Norway's Telenor providing mobile phones and building new landlines. Keen competition has forced prices down to well below typical levels in Africa. Public water supply is limited to urban areas, but a private system extends to all parts of the country as entrepreneurs build concrete catchments, drill private boreholes or ship water in from the cities.
In 1989 the national air carrier operated just one airplane and one international route. Today the sector comprises 15 firms, more than 60 aircraft, six international destinations, more domestic routes and many more flights. "But safety is a concern," report Nenova and Harford. "Airports lack trained air traffic controllers, fire services, runway lights and a sealed perimeter against stray animals; and checks on aircraft are inadequate." Carriers operate out of Djibouti, Dubai and Nairobi using the facilities there to check aircraft safety.
Generally speaking, commercial enterprises are able to satisfy consumer demands unencumbered by government interference.
"The government post and telecoms company used to have a monopoly," says a spokesman for one telephone company, Telcom Somalia, "but after the regime was toppled, we were free to set up our own businesses. We saw a huge gap in the market, as all previous services had been destroyed. There was a massive demand."
While Somalia exists in a law-and-order vacuum in the western sense, there is a functional court system that ensures that bills are paid and contracts are enforced through the thread of justice that binds the country's traditional clan system. Disputes are commonly settled at the clan level, by traditional systems run by elders and with the clan collecting damages. Such legal measures are free and fast, and sometimes the justice can be rough and unfair. Security is a neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood watch that keeps order in the patchwork of hundreds of fiefdoms run by rival warlords.
The hawala system, a trust-based money transfer structure used in many Muslim countries, moves around $1bn into Somalia each year, and it works surprisingly well allowing Somalis working abroad to send money to family members in even small and remote towns.
Social welfare today, as it has been for generations, is a clan matter. Clan members look after each other and the saying goes that an injury to one clan member is an injury to all. The strength of the clan system can also become the cause of conflict as various clans fight for scare resources, or to carve out territories for themselves.
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