Falling States and Weak Governments

Misuse can lead to violence, violence to disruption, disruption to corruption, corruption to forced migration, and forced migration to poverty! All over the world, developed countries see the approaching threat of poverty and problems in less-developed countries. While the UN worries about countries were terrorism thrives due to weak or non-existent governments, the EU sees that bordering countries that are engaged in violent conflict pose a threat. Regardless of individual worries, the overall opinion is the same; the need for immediate action.

While the main problems in these unstable countries are suffering, poverty and lack of security, the causes of these problems, such as unstable economies/governments or terrorism, are the ones to really deal with. Other questions to ask oneself are 'where are the problems?' and 'who is affected?' Robert Cooper explains the world in his book "The Breaking of Nations". In this he divides the world into three zones: pre-modern regions of chaos, areas successfully ruled by modern nation-states, and 'postmodern' co-operation (this is where national sovereignty is voluntarily dissolved). Other strategists see the 'falling states' as a particular threat, for the people living there, but since 9/11 also to the entire world. Examples of such collapsing states are Somalia, or Afghanistan.

Another issue is the weak governments within certain counties. Where a weak government doesn’t take action to issues such as smuggling of arms or drugs, more drastic problems and conflicts arise that the government is incapable of solving or dealing with. Weak civil-institutions in Sierra Leone or Liberia have helped fuel the outbreak of civil wars, alongside with the problems of 'blood diamonds'. But these countries aren't the only ones in trouble.

According to the Brooklyn Institution, which drew up a plan of weak countries, there are three 'failed states' in our world so far. These states, Somalia, DR Congo and Afghanistan, are accompanied by 20 other critically weak states that desperately need foreign help. The origins of these falling states can be drawn back to colonizers, who simply divided the country, split tribes or ethnic groups, drew up problematic borders-and then left. With no one to govern or solve the conflicts, civil wars break out. A second big origin is the end of the Cold War, which turned out quite negative for certain countries.

In our lives today, the arising issue is that the problems in these 'falling states' do not stay within the country’s borders, but also affect developed countries. Groups such as Al Qaeda might train within its countries borders, but its actions dominantly affect the USA or Europe. Certainly help from developed countries would better the situation. Not enough action has been taken, but maybe the effects of these falling states on the West will open some eyes, and lead to more action.

Failed states

Fixing a broken world

Jan 29th 2009
From The Economist print edition

The Horn of Africa- Starvation and Poverty

The Horn of Africa
The tragedy of the decade?

In 1984, 1 million people died. When a big famine struck Somalia in Africa (1984), people starved in masses. Help from richer countries only arrived after greatly publicizing the (then) current situation through NGOs and television. The UN, who has set the goal to eradicate poverty worldwide, provided aid in form of nutrition and procurement methods through the UN World Food Program (WFP). Sadly, the Horn of Africa still remains today under extreme poverty as a hunger zone. The WFP mentioned that the current drought is the worst so far, and 17.5 million people are likely to face starvation. High food prices, several attacks on workers by jihadists and assassinations combine with the drought and tense up the situation. Helpers and aid workers have improved the situation and starving, but the doctors operating in the national clinics even report children dying of side effect of malnutrition such as diarrhea. Lastly, even the worlds financial crisis is creating turmoil in Africa due to missing funds, and if nothing is done soon the situation will collapse entirely.
Oct 30th 2008 NAIROBI
From The Economist print edition
Millions of people in dire need of help

http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12517047>

Yoghurt and Cucumbers?

Poverty all around the world is and will always be a problem. Certain authors have now written books about special initiatives, either personal or external, that were introduced to defeat poverty.
One of these is Mr. Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank and Nobel Prize winner of 2006, who suggest the concept of "social business". The Danone chief executive (multinational) and he have created a business in Bangladesh which creates yoghurt with nutrients and other food for the poor. This social business is, according to Yunus, a new concept to help eradicate poverty and redeem capitalism. The two distinguishing features are that the poor are willing to pay for the products and the profits are directly reinvested in the enterprise. Mr. Yunus also sees great potential in this system, but the article's author argues that this form of enterprise is hardly new. He implies that the poor may be fed with this system, but won’t get out of poverty.
A way that is more efficient is Paul Polak's, the author of "out of Poverty" and founder of International Development Enterprise. He suggests that the way for the poor to get out of their farming equilibrium, in which they remain poor, is to teach them to set aside part of their crops for the dry season, when they'll achieve higher prices for it. Polak's system also allows the poor access to irrigation, markets and fertilizers. With this system, he supposedly ensures the poor a brighter future, since if you teach a man to fish, he'll be fed for life.
Melissa John

Feb 21st 2008
From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10717813

Measuring Poverty

"You cant solve a problem until you can measure it." This statement by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan is the basis of the federal poverty measure in New York. New Yorks major Michael Bloomberg has suggested an alternative for measuring poverty, which doesn’t measure the income based on food spending, but also on shelter, utilities, and clothing. This measurement is more exact since the average household spending on housing has increased to 30%, while the spending on food has decreased from 1/3 to 1/8 of the household spending. With this new measurement, the poverty line in New York has decreased, although the amount of working poor has increased. New York's boldness has been praised and has inspired Congress and other states to follow New York's poverty measurement.

The Big Apple gets poorer
Jul 17th 2008 NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
The federal definition of poverty is challenged by local government

Poverty and Economy

Poverty and Economy
Kiyoshi is Japanese and has been homeless for six years. He and hundreds of others in Tokyo live on the street and earn less than 10 dollars per day. Due to the financial collapse that occurred in the 1990s, many people lost their jobs and live in parks or tents in the middle of the city. Japans situation is an important example of how financial crisis can destroy a country and how difficult it is to recover from it.
The loose lending that occurred in 1990 was followed by collapse of property and shared prices. The banks started to go bust and only the 400 dollars that were spend on a governmental bail-out helped the economy to stabilize in 2003. Although the economy started to recover, the situation in Japan had changed. The income inequality increased, the long term jobs were replaced by part time jobs and the street crime spread. In the year of 2003, 25,000 homeless were counted, and although the government tried to build temporary houses, this only caused more problems. Today, Japan is in a better economic situation, but Kyoshi is still homeless, and so are many others.
Melissa John
The legacy of depression
L-shaped poverty lines
Oct 16th 2008 TOKYO
From The Economist print edition

Pasted from <http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12437739>

The Theory of Poverty

Air-conditioning, cold freezers and electronic scanning: when we go shopping, we take all of those things for granted, since we are used to them. But facing the truth, all those factors are luxuries, at least compared to the 986 million people (in 2007) in the world who live in poverty. This number has already decreased since 2005, when the poverty rate was 1.4 billion, but this is not due to more food or money, but because the subject of poverty is better understood in the world.
According to the World Bank, the cost of living was underestimated in many countries, since it was much steeper than expected. After the "poor" were recounted in the world, the poverty line was drawn equivalent to someone living on 1.25 dollars a day in America in 2005. Critics of this approach argued that the cost of living estimates are based on the a normal representative household, but according to critics, the poor are not representative. After this, the Asian Development Bank made a study of the prices in many Asian countries, and the results showed that the poor in 9/16 countries pay less. Therefore, the theory of poverty has to be reviewed. Now the World Bank hopes for an even lower poverty rate in the next years.

The Economist
The bottom 1.4 billion
Aug 28th 2008 DELHIFrom The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12010733

Poverty in Somalia

Somalia
Hunger and terror
Sep 4th 2008 NAIROBI
From The Economist print edition

There has been no pause in the country’s relentless downward spiral
IT HAS been a long, dreadful summer for Somalia. The UN says that 3.2m Somalis (out of about 8m) now need aid just to stay alive: a 77% rise on last year. A sixth of Somali infants are at risk of starving to death. Due to what aid organisations call “intolerable insecurity”, almost all international charity workers have left. Offshore, Somali pirates are as bold as ever. They are holding around ten vessels, including three large tankers with 130 crewmen captured this week.
Foreign governments still wrangle over Africa’s worst humanitarian and political crisis. UN people working for a deal between Islamist insurgents and the weak Somali government want 8,000 peacekeeping troops to replace the few thousand beleaguered African Union and Ethiopian soldiers. But more senior people in the UN’s peacekeeping office, already failing to get enough troops into Darfur, rule that out. A multinational force would be the next best thing, but who would pay? Mooted Saudi cash has not materialised.
Optimists point out that Somalia’s transitional government has at least not collapsed altogether. The prime minister, Nur Adde Hussein, survived a vote of no confidence from the parliament this week. The president, Abdullahi Yusuf, is apparently no longer standing in the way of national reconciliation. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Meles Zenawi, whose forces invaded Somalia with American backing in 2006, has hinted he may withdraw them. Hardline Islamists of the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) have joined with the more moderate Islamists of the Islamic Courts Union at peace negotiations in Djibouti. The rump of the ARS, led by the former Somali army colonel, Hassan Dahir Aweys, says it will sign a ceasefire only if the Ethiopians go.
Even then, the Islamic Courts’ former military wing, known as the Shabab (meaning Youth), would fight on. Its men have been radicalised by the insurgency and have grown in confidence (or fatalism) since being classified as a terrorist group by the American administration. One of its commanders, Mukhtar Robow, wants to merge it with al-Qaeda. Together with local clan factions, the Shabab took control of the southern port of Kismayo on August 24th. A video released on jihadist websites shows Saleh Ali Nabhan, an al-Qaeda man believed to responsible for the bombing of the American embassy in Nairobi in 1998 and now sheltered by the Shabab, appealing for African Muslims to fight a holy war in Somalia. Foreign fighters are unlikely to sway a new battle for Mogadishu, the capital. But a flow of Somalis into al-Qaeda would be bad news for global counter-terrorists.

Pasted from <http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12059342>

The Death of Somalia
In the past year, poverty has increased in Somalia by 77%. Due to "intolerable insecurity", as it is described by aid organizations, all international charity workers leave the country, and the Somalis are left to themselves. This humanitarian crisis that is causing the deaths of many people seems to be directly linked to the political problems in the country, causing more negative than positive aspects.
UN plans like the exchanging of African Union soldiers in Somalia by 8000 peacekeeping troops, and the establishment of a multinational force are turned down due to expenses and failure of similar plans in Darfur. There are a few positive factors, such as that the transitional government is still standing and that the Ethiopian forces invading the land might withdraw. Moderate and hardline Islamists also try to establish peace treaties in Djibouti. But the shadow of all these "positive" events is that the military wing "Shabab" fights on. Classified by the American administration as terrorists, the fear of counter- terrorists is that they’ll merge with al-Qaeda. This tenses up the situation for the Somalis, and increase the poverty and killing in the country. The politics in Somalia are surely not the only reason why men, women and children die, but it is an influential contributor.

Melissa John