tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17149992.post2935383916540873505..comments2023-11-05T12:34:12.796+01:00Comments on Conflict and Compromise: The price of ignoring SomalilandWim Roffelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05950733237377413606noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17149992.post-49858626528692806622009-01-04T13:21:00.000+01:002009-01-04T13:21:00.000+01:00Hi Rationalitate,Thanks for your article. I also l...Hi Rationalitate,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your article. I also liked the <A HREF="http://mises.org/story/2701" REL="nofollow">article about the Xeer traditional law</A> that you refer to.<BR/><BR/>I disagree with you that Somalia would be an area where a modern state won't work. I think many Westerners who try to impose a modern state in Africa don't understand how a modern state in the West works. <BR/><BR/>A modern state is always a balance of powers. Many Western democracies started as an organized balance of power between the kind and the nobility. Later rich merchants and industrialists formed a third pillar. <BR/><BR/>Modern Western states have many of such balances. We have the "trias politica" (government, parliament and the judicial system). Many countries have a parliament and a Senate, and often there is a prime minister or president with his own special powers. <BR/><BR/>One of the tragedies of Africa is that we didn't give them a similar system that would have balanced the interests of the tribes and the modern sector of the economy. You can see something similar in the case of Bosnia where for a long time many Western diplomats claimed that the system needed reform because the conflicts between the Serbs and the Muslims paralyzed the country. <BR/><BR/>Yet this occasional paralysis is a functional part of the process. In essence it is not different from the legislational paralysis in the US during the Monica Lewinsky crisis. Democracy works because in the end most people will conclude that they have nothing to win with hot-headedness and they should better work on a compromise. Unfortunately that point is delayed in the case of Bosnia because some Western diplomats keep promising support for one of the parties - making compromise less attractive for it.<BR/><BR/>As for Somalia, I think we should work with what is available on local leaders until they find a formula to work together in a national government. It will very probably be a complicated formula that leaves lots of powers with the clans.Wim Roffelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05950733237377413606noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17149992.post-74962322300926846912009-01-04T02:04:00.000+01:002009-01-04T02:04:00.000+01:00Thanks for the link. You might also be interested...Thanks for the link. You might also be interested in an article that I wrote for antiwar.com a few days ago about foreign intervention in Somalia and the real cause of Somalia's violence.<BR/><BR/>http://www.antiwar.com/orig/ssmith.php?articleid=13972Stephen Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12118017106106571684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17149992.post-69524293884543473282008-11-27T11:50:00.000+01:002008-11-27T11:50:00.000+01:00Thank you for your concern. There is a mistake in ...Thank you for your concern. <BR/><BR/>There is a mistake in your article that Somaliland has nothing to do with the pirates in the Somalia's water. You must be mistaken with the Puntland region of Somalia which is the main and major host of the Somali pirates. <BR/><BR/>Last week, Somaliland offered to the International community to tackle the pirate activities in the sea if it is recognized. <BR/><BR/>Piracy has not been happening along the sea where Somaliland controls. <BR/><BR/>That is my clarification and thanks for supporting the Somaliland's cause.Rooble Mohamedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05818625406239137104noreply@blogger.com