I keep posting about Somalia propaganda stories: here, here and elsewhere. I figured since the UN is clearly opening a new offensive on Somalia, we might as well keep a running thread on it.
Latest news: Hundreds of thousands face starvation and $1.3 billion dollars is needed - immediately - to stop it.
From the article, "over 11 million people across East Africa need food aid because of ... al-Shabab's refusal to allow many humanitarian organizations to deliver aid in areas it controls, including the U.N. World Food Program, the world's major aid provider." What they don't mention is that the US also doesn't allow food aid to go to Somalia for the same reason al-Shabab won't allow food aid in; food = money in Somalia and the food is frequently seized by thugs. In other words, the food aid is a socially de-stabilizing force. al-Shabab knows this and is actually doing the right thing (hypocritically, the UN is condemning al-Shabab while the US has exactly the same policy) in preventing food aid from entering and causing a breakdown in social order while people find their own ways to escape the food supply problems which have suddenly appeared at the same time as the UN-sponsored mafia, er, I mean government in Mogadishu is taking its first baby steps.
The news report - predictably - just makes it sound like al-Shabab are just a bunch of meanies who get their kicks by starving Somali children.
A US contractor is also training combatants in Somalia.
Clayton -
Somalia
Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan,
Iraq, Afghanistan.
We only need Lebanon, Syria, and Iran to have a real party.
"Hard-liner" takes over al-Shabab. US covert operations on the rise. Interestingly, the new guy is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. Amazing how he survived all those US bombing campaigns and the 50,000+ US troops in Afghanistan at one time. Of course, there's no chance that he is himself an asset like al-Zawahiri (another hard-to-kill) or ol' Johnny Walker Lindh aka Azzam the American.
Now al-Shabab is raping Somali women and forcing them into marriages.
In other news, al-Shabab has announced its evil plans for global domination and slavery. All women will be raped and mutilated in the new evil global Shariah regime which al-Shabab is struggling to establish starting in Somalia. It plans to annex Ethiopia and Kenya after it has control of Somalia. Then, it will conquer the rest of Africa and the Middle East when it will finally be powerful enough to topple the West and finally make those white women wear burkas as Allah has decreed.
argh... duplicate post. What the hell is up with mises.org's bandwidth???
Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and other stars are "turning out" for Somali aid. The tentacles of the Military-Industrial Complex reach even into the music industry.
Of course, I'm all for non-coercive charity (as opposed to the gun-to-the-back charity of tax-funded "aid" programs). I just find the synchronicity of the UN's final push to give birth to a government in Somalia and the sudden coverage of famine conditions in Somalia to be fortuitous for UN/US interests in Somalia.
Al-Shabab's depravity knows no bounds. Now, they are forcing children to fight for them. Cowards and dogs they are.
The tentacles of the Military-Industrial Complex reach even into the music industry.
Do you realize that the Beatles record company was owned by an electronics firm that also made guidance missles in the late 60's? I always wondered in Lennon knew that he was making money for the M/I complex. He spoke out and knew wnough to know that LSD came from the establishment...it just backfired.
"From its formation until the mid-1990s Thorn EMI was one of the United Kingdom's largest defence companies."
Look who owns EMI these days...It goes straight to the ____. There is no middle man anymore. _____ are the foundation of the M/I complex.
I was wondering if others noticed the new media interest in Somalia! Keeping an eye on this thread...
I'm worried that attacks on Somalia might be used to discredit "anarchy", although I probably shouldn't be since anarchists would see right through it and non-anarchists who respect such propaganda aren't likely to tend toward an anarchic persuasion anyways.
@hashem: Absolutely. Ultimately, that's what this is all about. You can't have a global government if there are loopholes and Somalia is a gigantic, gaping loophole. Look at the OECD. It's all about trying to align tax policies between governments to make it impossible to flee taxation. Otherwise, the one government that permits tax-free enterprise will attract all production to its shores. Imposing a government in Somalia is analogous to this. As we move into a new era where even countries like Somalia that have been plagued by destitution begin to have a tolerable standard of living in absolute terms, it is imperative that government exist at every point on the planet. Otherwise, the one territory without a government will attract all human capital to itself.
The Elites are more acutely aware of their own uselessness than anyone else. Hence, their first imperative is to ensure that a state of affairs where self-governing people enjoy a decent standard-of-living does not come about. I believe the infestation of American culture by anti-liberal cultural ideas and political conniving is driven by this - whether by design or not. 18th century and early 19th century America was a hemorrhaging wound in the airtight propaganda of the Elites regarding how absolutely necessary they are for human existence. Americans prospered quite well with very little in the way of Elites. Until the 1860's, the average American couldn't have cared one whit about the existence of the Federal government. And even until 1913/1916 - by which time the central government had become considerably more powerful - the monetary burden of the Federal government on the average American was almost nil. By this time, we had steam powered shipping, trains, logging equipment, we had express post, lumber mills, mechanized agriculture, automobiles, (gravel) paved highways, ferries, toll roads, span bridges, electricity, modern steel buildings, telegraphy, money wires and on and on and on. All without income taxes. All without a suffocating welfare-warfare state that consumed around 50% of the entire gross product of the nation. The total burden of all layers of government could not have exceeded 10% even in a time of war.
This was a gigantic egg on the face of all royals, nobility and other Elites in Britain, Europe (and America) and around the globe. To think these useless eaters would sit idly by while American culture made a fool of them is to be naive in the extreme. And nothing is different today than it was 100 years ago. Somalia is a destitute country but it works without government. The absence of government does not lead to a breakdown of the social order in Somalia. In fact, quite the opposite. This is a huge embarrassment to the Elites. They need everybody to believe that the world will end (look at the London riots) if there is not a smothering, suffocating, all-embracing, all-raping welfare-warfare State yoked to everyone's back from cradle to grave. If Somalia were to continue on the course it's been on for the last two decades since the fall of the Barre regime and the US/UN withdrawal in the wake of Black Hawk Down, we could be looking at a country that in another two or three decades would be about as prosperous as Cuba, which is still very poor but is actually pretty decent by African standards. But this would come about, damningly, with a complete absence of government. If a country with no government at all can achieve from destitution standards of living comparable to a poor quasi-communist country like Cuba, what does that say about communist governments or any government, for that matter? Maybe the Haitians might ask themselves "Hell, if the Somalis can do it, why can't we?" Then the US would have one less slave colony.
Predictably, famine aid is being stolen. Note that it is "the market" and "unscrupulous businessmen" who are supposedly responsible for the thefts. Of course, the answer is government.
Now, the "ex-President" of Somalia (a one-time member of the old Siad Barre regime and leader of the last sock puppet 'government' in Mogadishu, the Transitional National Government) is calling this government (the so-called Transitional Federal Government) corrupt. The deposed lackey is jealous of the new favorite ("President" Sharif Ahmed) and wants to move in and get a piece of the action again. Boo hoo hoo.
The UN is predicting cholera outbreak in Somalia. I'm not sure what to make of this but the author of the article knows the answer to the problem: government, of course!
The parts of Mogadishu ceded by al-Shabab have been declared to be in a state of emergency by the TFG.
And, of course, we also need a government in Mogadishu to rebuild Somalia's football team. This is of paramount importance and should receive global attention immediately.
Haven't had a chance to read it, yet, but Human Rights Watch has released a report on war crimes committed by all sides to the Somali conflict. I don't understand how the media gives the annointed armed groups (TFG, AMISOM, Kenyan/Ethiopian armed forces) a carte blanche while they are committing the same or worse atrocities as the designated "bad guys" (al-Shabab).
The famine is definitely contributing to a weakening of popular support (tolerance? apathy?) for al-Shabab. Cui bono.
The refugees from insurgent-held areas are mostly farmers and herders who were a major source of income to fuel al-Shabaab’s operations against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the African Union’s peacekeeping force, AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia). The al-Shabaab extremists used to take the people’s hard-earned income to pay for their arms and ammunition as well as salaries for their fighters. These depredations became too much to bear when combined with a devastating drought.
Emphasis mine.
Pretty ironic, huh?
Elsewhere in the report they reference al-Shabab's "enforced contributions, and forcible recruitment into the militia" as human rights violations - funny how the very same actions are A-OK when labeled "taxes and the draft" and performed by an annointed organization, such as the TFG.
My ambivalence towards HRW's and the media's characterization of al-Shabab as the embodiment of evil is not out of a desire to defend al-Shabab - they're clearly a criminal, aggressive, proto-governmental organization that is not consistent with peaceful Somali clan society and its traditional legal system, Xeer. Shabab bears a striking resemblance to Taliban in many respects and the more conspiracy-theoretic side of my brain wonders if both could be examples of managed dissent. Present the populace with an older, more brutal form of government based on religious fanaticism and covert external support on the one hand or a modern, "compassionate", democratic form of government on the other hand and let them "choose." Besides the fact that Islam is the predominant form of religious worship in Somalia and Afghanistan, there is no identifiable reason I can see or have been given why people in those countries should be particularly disposed to extremism or the toleration of governance by extremists. In fact, when you look at the indigenous culture and law in each region (Pashtunwali and Xeer, respectively), you find that these peoples are fiercely independent and - besides a few cultural anachronisms - pretty normal.
For example, Taliban clearly has Pakistani ties. How odd that we should be at war with the people of Afghanistan when there doesn't seem to be a popular uprising clamoring for the return of the Taliban in the first place, when Taliban's holdout is in a region controlled by one of our so-called allies and which had a direct and material interest in exerting control over Afghanistan. I don't understand how it's unthinkable that Taliban was a covertly funded proxy of Pakistani ISI. Foreign policy orthodoxy today asserts that Taliban was/is evil incarnate hell-bent on world domination through Sharia law. You don't think Kenya or Ethiopia - which just invaded Somalia at the behest of the UN/US just two years ago - have an interest in funding/directing groups within Somalia? CIA is there today and, presumably, has been there for a long time. If I had to guess, I would guess that we've never fully extracted. And yet the media is feeding us this story of a country torn by "clan warfare" "civil strife" and other purely endogenous factors as if all the foreign influence is a negligible variable.
What a pile of crap.
My contribution, some bs on the Daily Show:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-august-9-2011/jay-bahadur
Freedom has always been the only route to progress.
What would you recommend as a good primer on Somalia?
What about this: http://fringeelements.info/post/321641660/stateless-in-somalia
Also, is there a particular news source which you use to filter the information, or are you providing the context. How do you know what is and isn't state propaganda?
is there a particular news source which you use to filter the information, or are you providing the context. How do you know what is and isn't state propaganda?
I just go to Bing and search "Somalia" "Mogadishu" "TFG" "Shabaab" and then maybe search other terms that come up in the news articles.
As for the propaganda aspect, I don't know precisely what/how much is propaganda and what/how much is truth but it doesn't really matter - the point is that there is obviously a push underway. There had been almost total silence about Somalia for years and years until 2007 when Ethiopia invaded at the behest of the UN/US. Then, everything went silent again until just about a year ago when the TFG started trying to take over Mogadishu. The body count started rising, etc. and then all the bleeding heart articles about the misery of Somalis started coming out. The general tenor of all the coverage is along the lines that "Somalia needs a government". It's a "failed state" and this is the reason most often cited for the suffering of Somalis in this current famine. The possibility that foreign involvement (urging the Ethiopians to invade and now occupying Mogadishu with a rag-tag band of many foreign troops under the management of a "Somali" civil government) could be the explanation for why Somalis were doing more or less OK from 1993 when the US withdrew until 2007 when Ethiopia invaded. Even after Ethiopia withdrew, things went pretty much back to normal. Then the news came out with this crap about "Somali piracy", a major misnomer as the interviewee in your link to the Daily Show notes. The pirates largely came from Puntland which - except for a common culture, language and common law (Xeer) - is completely autonomous from Mogadishu and Southern Somalia. Yet the "Somali piracy problem" set the stage for the new push for support of a baby Somali government in Mogadishu called the "Transitional Federal Government" as opposed to the old "Transitional National Government" which had been a dismal failure. Pirates from Puntland helped bolster international support for setting up a government in Mogadishu.
What is propaganda if that is not propaganda?
I'm slapping and pinching myself to be sure I'm not dreaming... the Miami Herald has published a piece exposing the political origins of Somalia's famine. "The callous uses of military and political power against poor people have produced a catastrophic famine." Of course, without skipping a beat, the author goes on to diagnose Somalia's problem: lack of a government.
Governments causing famine in Somalia proves that a government is needed in Somalia. And people say that statism is not a religion.
I haven't been following Somali news as closely for the last month since I've been pretty busy (and frustrated with the forums)... but today we have a suicide car bomb in Mogadishu.
It is my view that this is the signature MO of the largely secret, imperialistic Establishment whose operational arm resides in an international network of intelligence agencies (CIA, MI6, Mossad, etc. and their subsidiaries). I haven't yet figured out how they induce people to commit suicide (I think it's mostly young desperates who are promised large cash payment to surviving family members) but this is the fingerprint of fake conflict pioneered by the state of Israel's policy of apartheid and recently deployed in Baghdad, Kabul, Bali, Jakarta, Mumbai, Delhi, Islamabad (etc.) and now Mogadishu.
A Shebab official who did want to be named said one of their fighters carried out the attack.
"One of our Mujahidin made the sacrifice to kill TFG officials, the African Union troops and other informers who were in the compound," he said.
He didn't want to be named because he's a plant.
"The scene looks like something from World War II. This was total devastation," said Abdullahi Aptidon, a resident at K4.
"It was a powerful explosion and at first I thought it was a landmine, but the magnitude of the explosion made me imagine something different. This is the worst tragedy since civil war began in 1991."
Just follow the timeline, it's so plain a child could understand it:
1991-1993: collapse of Barre regime, withdrawal of US from Somalia
1993-2011: various attempts of UN to establish a "proper" government in Somalia fizzle, Somalia remains poor but mostly peaceful and orderly while improving on most measures relative to its poor, African neighbors
Aug 2011, Sep 2011: UN-established government with "teeth" finally captures Mogadishu
Oct 2011: Worst tragedy in Somalia since 1991
Here's the basic recipe: UN establishes modern, secular, democratic government in lawless country rife with poverty and suffering (resulting from lack of governance, of course) but global network of Islamist extremists who hate modernism, secularism and especially democracy send their maniacal converts brainwashed from childhood in madrassas and trained to be cold-blooded killers in secret al-Qaeda camps spread throughout the Muslim world to infiltrate the country and begin hurling themselves - strapped to two or three tons of explosives - at the hapless, legitimate and beloved UN-established government. Scores of innocent bystanders are murdered while the UN-established government wrings its hands and begs for more CIA agents, money from DC and Predator drones to patrol its skies.
The Somali famine is now turning into a celebrity production, complete with hard rock soundtrack...
^How dare they exploit the Stooges "I just wanna be your dog" for their own views!