The worst country on Earth - From The World in 2010 print edition

[Liqaye]

Middle East and Africa

The worst country on Earth

 

Nov 13th 2009

From The World in 2010 print edition

By Leo Abruzzese

Piracy, poverty and perdition: Somalia takes our unwanted prize

 

 

Fed up with awards for the best? The World in 2010 asked the analysts at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, to identify the world’s worst country in the year ahead. Previous winners of this dubious honour have included (pre-2001) Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. This time, the champion is in Africa. Plagued by civil war, grinding poverty and rampant piracy, Somalia will be the world’s worst in 2010.

 

Calling Somalia a country is a stretch. It has a president, prime minister and parliament, but with little influence outside a few strongholds in the capital, Mogadishu. What passes for a government is protected by an African Union peacekeeping force guarding the presidential palace. Most of the country is controlled by two armed, radical Islamist factions, al-Shabab (the Youth) and Hizbul Islam (Party of Islam), which regularly battle forces loyal to the government. Both demand the imposition of strict Islamic law, in what would amount to the Talibanisation of Somalia. Al-Shabab took responsibility for suicide-bombings in Mogadishu in September that killed 17 peacekeepers; America considers the group an al-Qaeda ally.

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Poor countries are often defined by their weak health, education and income measures, but conditions in Somalia are mostly too wretched to record. What little data can be gleaned are truly awful: according to the UN’s World Food Programme, more than 40% of the population need food aid to survive, and one in every five children is acutely malnourished. The constant fighting has internally displaced more than 1.5m people, with a third living in dire, makeshift camps. Aid workers have been able to supply them with less than half the daily water needed.

 

 

Somalia would be little noticed were it not for its fastest-growing industry: piracy. Somalia drapes over the tip of east Africa and into the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. More than 20,000 merchant vessels pass through the Gulf each year, an inviting target for Somali pirates, who have developed a lucrative business seizing and holding ships for ransom. The International Maritime Bureau counted around 40 successful hijackings in 2008 and another 31 in the first half of 2009. Warships from the European Union, the United States and other powers now patrol the waters, but pirates have shifted their attacks farther offshore.

 

Somalia’s future is bleak. What little income it can muster comes from its diaspora, but remittances have slowed with the global slump. International agencies have promised more aid, but lack of security stands in the way. Peacekeepers are too few in number to make a difference. Most disturbing, many young Somalis are becoming increasingly radicalised, leaving little hope that the political situation will stabilise. The world’s most failed state, regrettably, threatens to become a bigger problem for the rest of the world.

 

Leo Abruzzese: editorial director, North America, Economist Intelligence Unit

[Cara.]

Do we get a plaque? Is there an awards ceremony? Can I take a stab at the acceptance speech?

 

Somalia stands on the podium, crying, clutching the Worst Country in the World statue (an iron figurine of a man pissing on a globe):

 

"Oh thank you thank you thank you! Thank you so much for this award. But as you all know, no country can win the Worsties without tremendous help and support from others, and Somalia is no exception. So first I would like to thank the people of Somalia, who best exemplify the philosophy that if life gives you lemons, you tear off your arm and beat your children to death with it, then take the lemon juice and rub it on your wound.

 

I would like to thank my neighbors, especially Ethiopia, without whom the last three years would not have been possible. We don't like to relive the terrible memory, but peace almost broke out in 2006 and would have ruined our chances of winning this fine award. Thankfully our politicians realized that inviting our sworn enemies in at such a critical point will make the next 20 years very promising in the war on peace and stability! God bless the Transitional Federal Goverment!

 

Of course we wouldn't have gotten very far if our fine young men did not burn with the desire to liberate our nation from the twin horrors of prosperity and peace, just yesterday one of them showed his patriotism by blowing up a small shop in Mogadishu. Little Shamso has now been liberated from the horror of having to attend 2nd grade! She was really dreading long division you know. And the family of Ahmed is liberated from their father's struggle to provide for them, imagine the horror. All the other kids made fun of them because their father was still alive and working dawn to dusk to get food on the table. Thankfully that ordeal is over!

 

I would like to thank the United States, your people might not be able to find us on a map, but your drones have no such trouble, god bless their indiscriminate metal hearts. Don't worry, no US soldier was hurt in the making of this catastrophe! I'm not gonna say any more because I can hear the fine whir of a homing rocket locking into a nearby target. Shhhh!

 

The international community helped round out our candidacy, because war and poverty would not have been enough without environmental degradation. Try our sushi!"

[xiinfaniin]

^^

[ElPunto]

Cara - you forgot to thank all the diaspora members of the Somali community who go back and mess things up even more. And all the cyber analysts who advocate fiercely for outcomes that won't affect them. And lastly you have to thank the tongue-in-cheekers who somehow find amusement at the whole sad spectacle.

[Malika]

Qosol gariir..LOL@ Cara

[Cara.]

LOL @ The_Point, I did thank them! They cut the mike because the time ran out I also took veiled potshots at those who thought Somalia couldn't sink so low, those who hide behind neutral irony, the exes who moved on to bigger and better things...

[xiinfaniin]

^^Cara, you did many things in one go. Coming back to comment on it further, diminishes the especial effect.

[Cara.]

Are you afraid I would thank you next?

[ElPunto]

^LOL. You mean the oft-mentioned caravan!

[SayidSomal]

Cara - i am awaiting his response to your acceptance speech

[xiinfaniin]

Originally posted by Cara.:

Are you afraid I would thank you next?

Not really. I can never be afraid of you, dear Cara . For the Caravan did exactly what Somalia needed at the time, and still needs. It called for reconciliation through dialogue and compromise. What would any sane person have against such a noble idea?

 

I know some hated the outcome of the caravan not because it was bad, but it propelled a humble man to Somalia's throne (if there is a such thing). We have undressed those before and we shall do it again if it is warranted.

[ElPunto]

^It was a joke on my part. Quick on the draw there. No need for the talking points to come out. :cool:

[xiinfaniin]

^^

It was not 'quick on the draw'. It was rather a reaction to a developing situation.

 

Cara politicized (almost) a simple humor, threatening to repeat what she thought worked well with the gallery. I felt I was in a dangerous territory.

[General Duke]

Cara thanks, that was funny as he'll.