Economics: Development and the role of Future Somali State

[Paragon]

Hello Nomads, economists and non-economists alike.

 

I am starting this topic with the hope of initiating some discussion of the future of Somalia economic development and the role a future Somali state should play . Should the future Somali state wash its hands off the intricacies and forces of the free market, or mindfully structure it, nurture it and direct it in order to achieve maximum performance towords economic development? How would Somalis, having been operating in unregulate market for so many years, in nature accept even the slightest of the interventionist state's directions or guidance?

 

Below is an essay I have written on the subject some years ago on the role of the state in South Asia's 'Miracle' economic development in post-WWII. I know it is a rather long essay to some, but if you want to get some insight into this topic, maybe it is advicable you skim through it. Thanks.

 

 

.....

 

 

Confusion over the role of the state in Pacific Asia development?

 

Pacific Asian countries have experienced dramatic economic development since the end of World War II. Many attribute this success to a unique “Asian Model” of economic development (Johnson 1982, Amsden 1989, and Wade 1990). However, others other theorists such as Robert Wade, although they concede that such development could be partly due to the interplay of some international market forces, they also cite the involvement of heavy direction of the economy by ‘state industrial development planning agencies’. Even in light of the recent East Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, the latter group’s argument did not change their view that East Asia’s success has been resulted by developmental state’s economic development planning.

 

In fact, Wade (1998, 2000) attributes much of the blame for the late 1990s financial crises to some SE Asian economies’ departure from the state directed economic model. That said the other contrasting arguments that trace the success of East Asian economies in ‘the supremacy of the market’, and the minimalist interventions of the state, are still growing stronger. As a result, attempts to provide objective explanation to the ‘East Asian Miracle’ has only raised confusion over the role of the state. This essay will in the first part discuss neo-statist (of Johnson, Wade and Amsden) arguments, and in the second part, neo-classical arguments so as to shed some light on the source of this confusion. The final part will contain the concluding remarks.

 

...

 

Driving the debate over the role of the state is a ‘straightforward neo-classical claim that free market is the distinguishing feature of Pacific Asian economies, and thus the secret of their peculiar dynamism’ (Weiss and Hobson, 1995:139). In the last decade, the term ‘free market’, which is not necessarily not meant with ‘laissez faire’, has at times been called ‘export-promoting policy’ and at others times, an ‘outward-oriented strategy’. However, the World Bank has replaced these terms with ‘neutral incentive policy’ (Woo 1990: 413, cited in Weiss, 139). State neutrality, as neoclassical economists argue, was the key to East Asian success.

 

If this reasoning is employed, then, the region’s success is due to adoption of ‘neutral trade regime’. In other words, there is ‘broad neutrality between import substitution and exporting’, so that ‘sales from exports are no less profitable than sales in the domestic market’ (Lal, 1983: 46). Neutrality is of importance because of the ‘primacy liberal economists’ attribute to export-oriented industrialisation’ (Weiss: 139). Although the extent of Pacific Asia’s ‘out-ward’ orientation remains contentious (Wade 1990:19); the successful penetration of export markets with manufactured goods has, nevertheless, been fundamental to the region’s vitality. Understandably, then, the burden of neoclassical analysis is to explain why exports expanded in the NICs and the role states have played, or not played.

 

 

The neo-classical tale may therefore appear relatively straightforward. As Krueger (1986) asserts, ‘exports expanded because prices were undistorted by government measures’. To support this view, neo-classical economists contend that exports were brought into line with global prices, due to the state trade reforms, which varied from devaluation of the currency and reduction of import barriers’. Unsurprisingly, this very reforms which neo-classical dismiss as being corrective mechanism provided by the states, neo-statist writers such as Wade perceive them as being state endeavours to lead, structure or govern the market. However, as neo-classical economists argue, by introducing these reforms, states ‘got prices right’, which sent appropriate ‘market signals’ to potential exporters’ (Weiss: 134). Such appropriations were made possible to be sent by allowing imports into the economy, and by putting in place favourable exchange rates that allowed prices to reflect real scarcities. The claim is that these governments, far from governing the market, their role was restricted to the creation of a neutral trade regime that has allowed markets to work more freely than elsewhere. It is this that had therefore led to the stimulation of an ‘exceptional export drive and virtually self-sustaining development’ (Ibid.).

 

The argument put forth by those who advocate for the market-led approach is that the success of the economies of the Asian NICs was as a result of free market agents taking advantage of ‘liberalised’ markets, and markets freed from government controls through the right policies. Thus, the Asian NICs can be perceived as being the product of the neo-classical formula for economic success, in which the state has little role to play. That being the case, the simple formula of unrestricted markets and minimal state involvement used successfully by East Asian countries, as the World Bank purports, should be emulated by other developing countries, such as those in the sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Although liberals value ‘the primacy of the market’ in explaining economic performance, ‘it is only since the counter-revolution of the 1980s that this has gone hand in hand with an equally decisive anti-interventionist and an emphasis on the incapacity of states’ (Shapiro and Taylor 1990: 863). At best, some neo-classical writers concede the ‘activism’ of East Asian states, but then rhetorically dismiss their impact as either irrelevant or impossible to evaluate. Lal (1983: 46-7), for example, claims that ‘the effects of export-promoting policies has been achieved despite intervention’. Riedel (1988: 36) similarly concludes that ‘governments main contribution to economic success …was… principally in removing the obstacles to growth when they themselves put there in the first place’

 

As Weiss and Hobson wonder, the ‘assumption that what is difficult to evaluate must therefore be irrelevant is left undefended’. Weiss and Hobson note that some economists, will, without any evidence go as far as claiming that the ‘East Asian performance would have been superior if states had been less active, especially in encouraging particular industrial sectors’ (149). As Wade further adds, if this neo-classical assertion is employed, it would mean that:

 

Japan’s economy would now been much better off if the Governor of the Bank of Japan had been allowed to have his way in the mid-1950s, when he opposed a concentration on steel and mobiles on the grounds that Japan’s comparative advantage lay in textiles (Wade 1988a: 151-2).

 

The minimalist view of the state dominates neo-classical works, and considers Pacific Asian states to matter only for their ‘environmental’ function, in that they provide and sustain a suitable environment, in which the markets can operate freely. In this view, planning agencies of the states haven’t made any significant difference at all, since they did not govern the market, foster and channel productive investment and exports. Their only contribution was to ‘remove obstacles –for which governments are created in the first place- to the market’s otherwise spontaneous development’.

 

Contrary to Neo-classical explanations, however, neo-statist interpretations offer entirely different view of the state’s role in Pacific Asian economic development. For neo-statist economists, ‘states in the East Asian economies had not only determined the character of trade regime’, but they also facilitated and managed the industrial investment and productive profile of the whole nation. Thus, far from the neoclassical view that the states’ role in the rise of East Asia was minimal (and limited to removing the market from obstacles), neo-statist economists point to an evidence of the highly structured nature of East Asian trade regimes; an evidence that weakens neoclassical claims. As this evidence shows, Pacific Asia states were not only ‘active’ interventionist states’ – something which neo-classical economists dismiss - but were in fact ‘developmental’ states (Johnson 1982), in the sense that they had overarching priorities, anticipatory (strategic) policies, and also possessed ‘a capacity to alter economic direction of the nation’.

 

Building on the core contributions of Johnson Chalmers’ ‘developmental’ state thesis, other subsequent writers such as Alice Amsden and Robert Wade’s ‘guided market’ thesis, have come to the fore to refute the neoclassical claim of minimal government involvement in the development of Pacific Asian economies. Johnson Chalmers’ (1982) ‘developmental’ state thesis, serves the purpose of differentiating East Asian capitalism from the capitalism that prevails in Anglo-American lands. In doing so, Johnson identifies states whose major features include priority of production over consumption. States that create a mechanism that allows cooperation and communication between business groups and ministries and planning agencies, or the rationalisation of vital resources such as finances.

 

States that were also capable of resisting the demands interest groups, and were able to operate and lead the market via the implementation of strategic industrial policies. These strategic industrial policies are the ones which neoclassical economists confuse with other free market forces, enabling them to debate for the argument states’ minimal the role in economic development. Judging from this minimal state role thesis, it is no wonder that the neo-classical economists to consider the role of the state as being limited to removing obstacles, correcting market failure or offsetting existing market distortions, and creating neutrality in resource allocation. Accordingly, if state policies do neither of these things, then they simply function in support of entrepreneurial activities.

 

However, contrary to this assertion, Robert Wade and Alice Amsden posit that ‘what is significant in East Asia, with the exception of Hong Kong, is that the state has been firmly in the driving seat’ (Appelbaum and Henderson, 20-1) in achieving industrialisation. Ministries and planning agencies in Japan and NICs have ‘encouraged and directed companies - as opposed to neoclassical arguments - ‘into higher valued added, higher wage and more technology-intensive forms of production’ (Ibid. 21). These states have been able to encourage the adoption of their strategic industrial policies via ‘systems of constraints’ or in the case of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, ‘by rigging prices’. This is to serve as one example of interventionist policies, employed by East Asian states in their role of guiding the market. Similarly, other interventionist policies can be cited in order to counter the neoclassical or liberal market supremacy interpretation of the rise of East Asian economies.

 

Thus, in the context of East Asian economic development, all neo-classical arguments appear somewhat inadequate to find a way out of the confusion over the role of the state. In contrast, neo-statist arguments seem to offer a realistic approach that has the potential to minimize confusion over state role. Furthermore, neo-statist economic models delineate useful pointers in the future of effective economic development (in other developing regions) through the responsible role of developmental state. As such, neo-statist model summarises the state’s role into three parts: (1) discipline and support, which is intended to exact higher performance standards from companies invested in by the states; (2) selectivity or targeting, which is intended to select most competitive companies so as to achieve competitive advantage and; (3) aiming for market expansion with long-term horizons expectations.

 

In conclusion, the confusion over the role of the state in Pacific Asian development seems to stem from contrasting interpretations or explanations. While in general neo-classical economists accord the state a minimal role in free market economy and favours non-intervention. However, the application of this preference in explaining the economic performance of Pacific Asia or East Asian region, which has dissimilar circumstances developmentally, at best leads to oversimplification and at worse, confusion of the role of the state. The application of liberal market-supremacy approach to East Asia have since the 1980s been questioned by writers who can be referred to as neo-statist economists. Neo-statist interpretation of the rise of the successful development of East Asian economies disagrees with the neo-classical approach by believing that far from laissez faire market, East Asian markets were indeed state-led, and thus the state’s role in the rise of East Asia was paramount. Neo-statist theorists cite varying examples to evidence and support their claims of the existence of heavy state interventions in these economies. All in all, depending on which approach one employs, to explain the role of the state in the development of Pacific Asian countries, the debate over this issue continues to rage.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Johnson, C. (1982) ‘MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy’, 1925-1975 Stanford: Stanford University Press

 

Amsden, A. (1989), ‘Asia’s Next Giant: Korea and late industrialisation’, Oxford: Oxford University Press

 

Wade, R. (1991a) ‘Governing the Market: Economic theory and the role of the government in East Asian industrialisation’, Princeton: Princeton University Press

 

Weiss, Linda and Hobson, John M. (1995) ‘States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis’. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

 

Lal, D. (1983), ‘The Poverty of ‘Development Economics’, Hobart Paperback No 16, The Institute of Economic Affairs, UK

 

Robison, Beeson, Jayasuruiya and Kim (2000) ‘Politics and Markets in the Wake of the Asian Crisis’. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group

 

Jones, D. (1997) ‘Political Development of Pacific Asia’, Cambridge: Polity Press

 

Henderson, J. and Appelbaum, R, (1992) “Situating the State in the East Asian Development Process.” In States and Development in the Asian Pacific Rim, Newbury Park: Sage Publications

 

Hodder, R., (1992) ‘The West Pacific Rim: An introduction’, London: Belhaven Press

[rudy-Diiriye]

well its all good! however, economy growth requires a govt that dont shake down ppl for every penny....!

 

till then, lets figure out how we get rid of the warlords and get back to becoming a nation.

[Coloow]

Jamaalow,

Good essay. The success of the tiger economies defies alot of conventional wisdoms on development; Despite lacking natural resources we have witnessed two waves of asian ( I don't want to use the term pacific because the explainations of why Aus and NZ succeeded could be found elsewhere). The first one took place following the second world war; Here one major reason was foreign direct investments to Japan and Korea)- Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hongkong have also benefitted. Indonesia and malaysia are natural resource based industries. The second wave (which is still going on) could be attributed to different kinds of innovations (ICT in particular).

 

The catching up process (leapfroging-och flying geese) of China and Vietnam in particular is based on the issue of scale. India which has been democratic for decades (and in which there is a free market in theory) has not benefitted except in the ICT sector.

 

later... sac ayaa qoobka igu haayo

[Coloow]

What role should the state play? Waa suaal adag saaxib. Many somalis are used to the communist system where the state provided employment bu nationalising private enterprises. The state in our state of mind is one which comes with power. It is about misusing public funds, no accountability and surpression of opinions.

 

As far fetched as it sounds, I think the somali economic solution lies in small scale enterprising. Let every village find its own way of statehood.

 

I was recently in the NFD (despite the colonial hand at work) there are two things that are workship; private entrepreneurship and conflict solutions. The people in the NFD hardly see "a state".

[stoit]

If anyone has missed the interesting debate on WHO IS IN CHARGE on the cnbc channel ,you can still watch it on thier website. It is very interesting and i think you can here some of the opinions of influential people in our world today.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22669049

 

 

On the economic developement of somalia i think that freemarket is or globalisation is a scam deviced by the west to further enslave the poor nations and should not be allowed to operate in somalia or any other developing nation.

 

My world view is of nations as entities and as such ,they must first develope themselves before they can trade with other nations. There is supposed to be a domestic market and an international market.

 

 

The domestic market must be free in the sense that people and companies be allowed to compete within the national boundary for the domestic market only with regulations based on justice for all concerned and only after that is fully served can they then export and compete for the international market with their surplus produce.

 

The idea that capitalist from developed nations should be allowed to compete on an equals basis for the only resources that these poor nations have while lacking the maturity and stamina that ought to make them formidable competitors is the biggest injustice perpetrated by the world bank and the imf and those that benefit from treachery on such a gross scale.

 

In order for a people to live within their means and at the same time to live within the ability of the ecosystem that sustains them to keep on sustaining them ,they must grow to maturity not from being pumped up with growth hormones and steroids but naturaly drawing on their experiences as well as from the experiences of others before them and apply that to the problems that are unique to them. But they must nevertheless be the ones doing the growing up.

 

The west has mesmerised the entire world by unprecedented growth that is almost a fairy tale, powered they claim by capitgalism and free market. But is that then really the case ? I dont think so ! It is true that since the industrial revolution the western world has achieved unprecedented levels of growth in almost all fields except justice and this has resulted in a world that is top heavy (that is if the top is to be the west). The world is terribly misshaped and that is by itself causing alot of misery by their ability to pull by force of gravity as well as physical alot of goods and services of which in my opinion they are not entitled to.

 

Going back to the idea that capitalism and free markets are the engines that have propelled the west to their prominence and prosperity and this can then be replicated for the rest of the world should they only but open up their resourses to the same forces is not only wrong but also misleading. The only thing that can be attributed to this madness they call capitalism and free market can be equally said to be caused by the underlying current of religious vallues of justice ,industry ,frugality and thrift and of abiding by contracts stemming from the virtues of keeping promises. Capitalism and free market have indeed then not advanced humanity but in reallity held it back.

 

What would the world have looked like then were the forces of capitalism not predominet ? They would like to scare us to even contemplate such questions but i am of a strong belief that the world would in fact have been a beautiful place to live in. The mercantile system tha preceded capitalism can arguably be said to be the cause of most of the evils of the world as we now know. The idea that money was the precious metals which settled on gold and silver as the mediums of exchange resulted in the european powers sailing around the world conquring poor unsuspecting people and subjecting them to slavery and colonization thereby killing and driving many to extinction.

 

We are told now that the world has moved on to capitalism which did away with those evils of the mercantile system only to create slavery and colonization of a different kind. Money as preciuos metals has been followed by inflationary paper money whose vallue rest on nothing more than a general consensus (a trust) in the ability of a governemnt to pay up the demanded vallue, regardless of amount as was shown by the northan rock affair ,from the future collections of tax from their citizens.

 

You would be amazed to know how many nations have got their currencies pegged to the dollar or the euro etc .This shows how this trust in ,say ,the dollar or should i say the the american government is playing to the very intentions of the game that ends up in unbalances which give advantage again to the west.

 

If mercantilism was horrible ,capitalism and free market are going to cause horrors that will dwarf any that preceeded it.

 

Unless the evolution of money moves to the next stage and fast ,we will all be in deep trouble in my opinion.

 

Free market is as fake as the idea that one people are batter than any other.

[Chimera]

Good topic Isseh, if you look at the history of every East Asian mega-corporation you will notice they have their origins in complete different sectors from the ones they are well known for today. Samsung is one of the largest conglemerates in East Asia and it too started as a small insignificant store in Korea selling sugar, it then proceeded to enter the insurance-business and years later as the brand became bigger and wealthier it entered the electronics world(which is the sector the brand today is famous for). The South Korean government carefully nurtured the steady rise of this company by giving it funds which enabled Samsung to enter the construction world(Today Samsung is also the largest Shipbuilding company in the world and has real estate projects all over Asia and UAE) and now Samsung is a significant pillar of the South Korean Economy

 

I think this Korean succes story could be turned into a Somali succes story. There have been several Somali companies that have flourished after the collapse of central governance, telecommunication,money transfer and Airline companies being the most prominent. It's difficult to estimate what they are worth but since Somali money-transfering is a billion dollar bussiness i estimate the bigger ones to be worth between 50-100 million$ and the smaller ones 10 million$, same with the other sectors. If these companies emulate the East Asian companies by investing in different sectors they could be hitting gold and soon Dahabshiil electronics or Netco-Daryeel heavy construction could be a reality.

 

A future Somali government should leave the private sector as it is today(of course with taxation for public projects) protect the positive changes in the economy and not impose restrictions as it's predecessor did. They should provide security which today is the main obstacle for an atomic Somali economic boom.

 

One area the transparent government(Insha-allah) has to intervene in is the rescource-sector by nationalizing the future Oil&Gas-industry and prevent a Chad-scenario by establishing Somali drill-exploration companies which will exclude the foreign middlemen.

 

The large diaspora has also enabled Somali traders to export their products to new markets in every continent, if as i said before the prominent companies start investing in other sectors like electronics(as in making their own kind of mobiles like Nokia) or the car industry(like Nigeria and Sudan) these new brands could become popular with other Africans and middle Easterners. Example: today most of the electronic hardware in East Africa comes from Somali traders this would not change if Somali electronic companies began supplying their own products

 

Basically my point is Somali companies need to become household names in Africa by expanding into different non traditional sectors and since Somali entrepreneurs allready have a foothold in most of these economies the foundation is there. These ventures if succesfull will also enable the companies to withstand any possible strangulation by the future government since their fate is tied with our economy hence the government can not replay the same mistakes as the old government as this will have a devastating effect on their popularity among the masses and unlike the old government which was dealing with small traders, the future one will be dealing with Tycoons.

 

Peace!.

[Paragon]

Oday, Aduunyo & Adam, I will insha-allaah reply to you when I am feeling a little creative .

[Thierry.]

Interesting topic I will contribute soon Inshallah

 

But in Summary I am in favour of a open and liberal market economy, because I believe it will suit Somalia better than the coordinated markets where the government has tight controls.

 

Isse I think you remember when the Accountant said in that talk that the Somali economy was stronger in the era of civil war than it was under the socialist Siad Regime.

The government should regulate and assist but it needs to stay away from the economy.

[Paragon]

^I do remember the accountant bro; his story was very interesting.

 

You should contribute to this topic since you're now officially our in-house economist .

[stoit]

My thoughts on the developement of somalia. I recommend skipping the first three paragraphs. They are only meant to draw a picture of the reality of the word in order to strenghten the need to work together as opossed to defending the boundaries of personal spaces etc

 

Since time immemorial ,man has had to struggle to survive. Everywhere man turns ,dangers awaited him. Man has not only had to defend himself from nature, other animals, ignorance and his own base instincts but also his fellow citizens -HIS brothers and sisters. It is truly amazing and miraculous, if you ask me, that man has even managed to come this far.

 

Like all other living things man has had to change, as it were , to survive in his ever changing environment. What is even sad now is that ,in my opinion ,the changing circumstances are changing so fast that those like us who have not been keeping pace with change will have a bumpy road a head and a very steep hill to climb.

 

Furthermore, those that keep pace with change have emerged superior in many ways than one and sadly they have chosen to use this as an advantage to command ever-increasing share of the necessities of life. Whether this is just or not ,fair or not ,right or not is here not the question but the failure to see that things could be different for everyone and that access to is more important than acquisition and that most of the wealth that the world has to offer is getting buried even deeper by our ways rather than it being liberated.

 

Among the different ways Somalis live are. First those that were lucky enough to have come to the west.

 

One , those that have given up on it and chosen to leave responsibility for their upkeep to the state.

 

Two ,those that have not accepted defeat and have decided to do something about it ,only to find out to their shock that they are at disadvantage . This is because most of us have joined into a highway ill-equipped and badly designed (not by ALLAH ,I mean by environment) We neither have the knowledge or skills nor the discipline for this high speed life. We are like old cars on this highway ;we cannot keep up with the speeds and our drivers don’t have the skills or knowledge to manoeuvre safely ,so we get crushed either way.

 

Among those that were unfortunate enough to get stuck in the war zone.

 

Well the children have neither had schooling not good parenting ,so most of them know only one way and that is to act on base instincts in order to survive. Their elders are no different. Whatever they learnt from their scanty knowledge of diin and of dunya has probably by now been eroded by constantly being tense and on defence and by having to repeatedly act against their conscience. The instinct to survive is more powerful than you would imagine.

 

What of those youngsters who were brought up abroad ?

 

Are our youngsters going to follow our lead ?

 

So far they seem to have done just that and not only them but also those that are still coming have got to have superman qualities in order to break off from the grooves or trenches that we (the earlier generations) have created for them. I am here on about mental grooves that are constantly being created or deepened every time we continue or choose not to counter the very mores (accepted customs-social conventions) that have probably single headedly devised our demise .

 

 

How to get over our problems

 

 

1

 

WORK

 

We have not yet realised or come to accept the virtues of work. We of course refers to the majority in case one should choose to jump up and refute me. Working for a living is in accordance with justice; in order to live justly one has to exchange something (a product or a service) for what one needs and out of this arrangement everybody is truly better of. Specialisation takes hold thereby multiplying the range of goods that are available to us and their quality and quantity as well. Naturally a reduction in prices follows and the buying power shops up thus lifting the majority of Somalis our of poverty. This will then create a society that is on the move up up and up. Their morale is lifted ,their health is better, their wealth is better ;they might as well grow wings and fly for growth will then be almost perpendicular. No more growth rate graphs that are either steep slopes or zigzags or at best show a gradual increase over a millennium.

 

 

Work is also a great builder of character. So an entire nation can move forward rather than stagnate and deteriorate because rather than each acting as an anchor that holds his brothers and sisters down and the entire nation as well in due time, each is contributing his worth and accruing any just claims gotten there from. We must not only cultivate this ethic in us but also work to instil it into our offsprings so it will be as natural to them as is walking. Walking is only natural because the will has learnt to overcome our natural tendency to rest and seek the easy way out. Every step forward is the result of labour ours is to turn that labour into effort I.e. a consciously exerted labour. For our sake the subconscious mind has taken over the task of propulsion and we thus come to believe that we walk without effortlessly. Likewise by instilling a work ethic ,the subconscious mind will take over this task in time and all will get done effortlessly insha ALLAH.

 

 

 

2

 

RULE OF LAW

 

Rule of law is then the next in line on our road to prosperity. No nation can be governed arbitrarily by whims. In nature we learn the value of regularity and constancy. These lead to predictability and thus the freedom to plan ahead, to organise your resources (including your time and effort ) in such a way that they may serve you better in the betterment of your life ,lifestyle and living conditions as well as your opportunities. Laws then must not favour any particular individual or individuals, be they organisations , tribes or even religions.

 

You have to accept that here on earth we are all free as long as we wont infringe on the equal freedoms of the others. It is not an accident that that those lands that practice political and economic freedoms also enjoy better health ,have more choices in products and services and at a lower price as well as at a lower cost to the society as a whole and thus find themselves at the top of the food chain.

 

So in short to all of you cry out for liberty, fraternity and equality of opportunity and look to prosperity with an admiring eye and at the same time shout death to people like Ayan hirsi ,this is probably an opportunity for you to think things through and I am certain that as you dig deep into your souls you shall find that you were wrong. Being wrong is human ,being stubborn is inhumane.

 

In case some of us failed to put 2 and 2 together, rule of law necessarily means the surrender of our self defence to an organisation and this we call a government. We have to either put our faith in our ability to govern ourselves and delegate tasks and responsibilities to our own institutions and trust them to do it properly or we choose chaos and the resulting deaths and destructions. Ultimately it will boil down to faith and our word. Faith in the ability of GOD swt to guide and rescuer us and in the ability that HE has already granted us to better our lives. Our word means our agency. This simply means our freedom to choose in combination with our will to act on our choices. We promise to do things and we therefore have the obligation to fulfil that promise. We have to focus and direct our energy in order to do that.

 

In this case we choose to live by the law and we direct our energy only after consultation with the requirements of the law so that each may get the necessary space to grow in which ever direction he/she chooses. And that is more brotherly than empty hugs and rhetoric. Who is my brother or sister ? It is he/she who upholds justice and seeks to trade with me fairly and squarely, it is he/she who boggles their minds and strains their muscles in order to produce things that may be of interest to me and I the same in order that we may be both better off, and finally it he/she that understands the boundaries of competition and compassion and embarks on either according in a spirit that is life affirming rather than life destroying.

The words of our national anthem come to mind here and this is how it goes, “somaliyay toosa oo isku tiirsada hadba kiinii taag daran taageera waligiin.” I mean competition in health and cooperation against weakness.

 

 

3

 

 

GIVING WAY TO EFFICIENCY

 

Between life and death lies efficiency. The more efficient anything is the less wear and tear ,the less the waste and thus the longer the lifespan and so is the opposite also true. The best way to efficiency in the provision of the lifesaving necessities that I know of, is standardisation. If we all agree that the most necessary things to life are shelter, water and food followed closely by healthcare and education( you may choose a different order of precedence if should so prefer) then in order that we may all benefit from these things at an affordable cost to us as individuals and as a society as a whole ,we have then no choice but to sit and discuss ,debate and deliberate on the best way to do this. Before you get aroused and suspicious that I have a communistic agenda up my sleeve, I shall remind you nothing good can come out of absolute chaos and that everywhere you look especially in the developed world the thing that will strike you most is that almost everything here in the west has in fact been planed. Look at the streets ,the parks , the motorways ,the railway lines ,the airports etc etc.

 

In planning, one has to take away freedoms in order that greater freedoms or more important freedoms may be attained. Take for instance the motorways. In order that all may get the opportunity to transport either their selves or their goods at significantly faster speeds , they must also give up the freedom to use that allocated land for other purposes e.g. walking , grazing, building houses on or even recreational purposes. Life is all about giving and taking after all and how better to live than to give up the small or insignificant for the big or the profoundly significant. Remember in most cases one is not really giving up anything for whatever could be done with that piece of land could also be done with a different piece of land . Its just a matter of exchanging one for another and as a bonus getting a lot more.

 

So in short ,in order to organise ourselves in such a way that we may live well and in a sustainable manner ,we must then build our houses ,our streets and our highways ,our water supplies and our farms in such a way that will simplify the processes and cut down the costs. Streets should be as straight as possible and as wide as possible. This is in order to facilitate an easy and fast installation of services such as cables and pipes that will bring us necessities and take away from us waste. Houses must be build only upon receipt of a planning permission. The government should have the permission to plan farms and work on a plan to empower the citizens by enabling the acquisition of skills and it must also accumulate and seek to provide them with the necessary knowledge. Because of the dire need of capital and the fact that the west have nothing to offer other than deception, rip-off loans and outright exploitation ,we ought to turn to china for capital as in loans and machinery as far as is possible. To supplement that we ought to give up on external defence and if and when possible we ought to sign treaties and declare unconditional peace to all and place ourselves under the un if that is even possible.

 

Since capital is not as usually thought money but the ability to execute tasks efficiently, empowerment of the people should be the goal rather than favourable exchanges or the acquisition of foreign currencies. Before anybody reminds me that capital is also land and everything from the land ,let me remind you that many of the richest nations have either not been blessed with any such or have long depleted their’s so should they then not have been severely handicapped by poverty.

 

If all capital does for somebody is to enable them ,this is to mean that they have accumulated enough energy and skills that they may be able to execute with efficiency any task at hand, capital then need not be money. Money is only capital when the real capital is lacking-the ability to do execute with efficiency.

 

In order to get that ability firstly as I explained above we shall seek to trade with china for the bare necessities and secondly we shall create soldiers not to defend from foreign powers but from our internal weaknesses resulting from nature be it ours or our environment. They will be the enablers-our capital-for now. Our capital will then grow to full empowerment of the citizens to get them to maturity I.e. educated, skilled ,civilised, brotherly towards each other, to have mastered the delicate balance of competition and cooperation and finally to the formation of institutions.

 

Our soldiers will then be the hero’s that will defend us and broaden our opportunities. They will be the ones that will build our nation from the bottom up. They will build our roads ,our railways ,our Power Stations, they will forest our land by planning and planting trees , they will build our schools and universities and our public houses ,they will come to the aid of any farmer who is ailing and help put him/her back on track to efficiency and profitability and much more insha ALLAH.

They ,like the soldiers of today will receive maintenance for as long as they are in this service but their rewards will be honour and we shall honour them and

 

 

Where are we then leading ?

 

With the above formula I believe we shall all be heading for prosperity . This is not all that can be done and I am sure some of you can come up with better plans to not only be a nation again but a great nation.

 

All criticisms are very welcome except name calling and cursing I know we can all do better than that. Before I go I have to confess that I have not the backing of an orderly formal education although I read as many books as I can. So this is just simply my opinions guided by the need to find lasting solutions to our problems.

[Yaabka-Yaabkiis]

God it is too long ...

[stoit]

Originally posted by MyOwnBoss:

God it is too long ...

And it is crazy as well saxiib. Radical .You are doing yourself a favor by not reading it but if you do you can do me a favor and correct me where i go wrong ?

[Yaabka-Yaabkiis]

And it is crazy as well saxiib. Radical .You are doing yourself a favor by not reading it but if you do you can do me a favor and correct me where i go wrong ?

Waa usoo noqonaa

[Coloow]

Aduun iyo aakhiro,

 

KUDOS to thee!

 

Sincerely, I don't think Somalis are mature enough to engage in nation building; accept the rule of the law and appreciate the importance of hard work.

 

Our people are undergoing a transistion period; Many of us are still having the mindset of earning a living by having an office of power ( corruption, making easy money, shaxaad and af minshaarnimo). This is the legacy of turning camel herders, peasant farmers int urbanised elitism ( communism).

 

Reer miyinimadii waan ka soo dhaqaaqnay reer magaalna maba gaarin.

 

The future somali state should be started from zero. We may need a revolution to accomplish this.

 

I am just back from an overseas trip and the somalis I meet everywhere appear to have abandoned WORK, the rule of law and morality (Moral decay).

 

Even the somali clergy, intellectia are engaged in enhancing our moral decay.

[stoit]

Odey waan kusalaamay and thanks for the comment

 

How so true, we are not mature enough and we are in transition, however saxiib the direction and/or the destination of is not certain yet. We do know that our mores have greatly contributed to our downfall and that we must change in order that we may even survive but for the change to be favourable to us (for it to be for the good of all) we have to actively participate in the shaping of the future somalia.

 

ps saxiib what is kudos

 

We fail this and the transition may be from very bad to worse. We succeed and it may go the other way; from very bad to better.

 

There are of course plenty of ways to affect change either in oneself or in others around him/her. Before any action can be taken we must first come to a general consensus(in other words incorporate it into our culture) as to what the good is for us and what the bad. By good i simply mean that which supports life and makes it worth living and by bad i mean that which destroys it. Unfortunately if we dont try to steer our culture its derection and destination can never be guaranteed.

 

Like i said what we each do as individuals and as a society can be changed.

 

Two ways to affect change that i like are preaching and playing the role model.

 

To preach ,i simply mean that we actively seek to furthur our ideas by word of mouth ,blogging ,in forum discussions and at our local neighbourhoods.

 

Playing the role model is in my opinion more effective for you will also carry with you the aura and it will speak for you louder than you can imagine. When one is playing the role model one is commanding respect and when one is just telling one is in fact wasting their time for their must be a unity of action and intention for any message to carry any weight and thus pull others by the force of gravity.

 

You have probably witnessed either on tv or in real life how those dysfunctional families live like. Say the parents smoke drink and may even be on drugs and they wish their children not to venture into that territory. Since they have themselves lost all will power to change their course they then resort to merely yelling at their children to make them comply with their wishes. But the child not only will not get the intended message i.e. that drugs etc are bad ,but the wrong message i.e. that it is ok to be devided within. Its ok to have a disunity of action and intension. They are here not bringing up a human being but breeding a beast because the child will have to heads.

 

In short saxiib odey we can change the direction of this juggernout. To do that all we have to do is stand up for what we believe is right for us as somalis. We shun tribalism ,lazziness ,we encourage our younsters to get educated and skilled ,we tell them that they must hold the institution of marriage as sacred and be responsible parents ,we ask them to identify themselves with decency and abide by the law and we have to somehow drive the message home that we have everything in common and almost no difference and we thus must see each other as brothers and sisters. Finally we have to get them to appreciate diversity for it was ALLAH that made us all different and besides imagine if all was the same ....its so scary that one will kiss the wild beast just get away from such a world. It will will mean no women ,no children ,no plants ,no anything to be precise for there will only be one thing. I'll personally take differences any day as compared to everything being similar.