Number 1, and least consequential, it makes me feel old. When I lived in Somalia, they had an effective central Government. Not fair, not just, but effective. Number 2: WTF? The last time the Somalis had an effective government, the Cold War was still on. Younger folk (like
K'Na'an, an amazing hiphop artist), don't even remember a time when Somalia had a government, and have lived their whole lives in conditions too atrocious to comprehend.
My mother worked there a few years back, as a Red Cross hospital administrator. When she saw two people shot in a hospital Mogadishu, she asked what happened, and the local administrator said: "They were just walking down the street, and got caught in a gun battle, it happens every day"
Every day. 17 years. Damnit.
BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Pirates release French yacht crew
Somalia has not had an effective central government for more than 17 years and is plagued by insecurity.