US spends 400 million USD to impede agricultural development in Somalia

[RasCanjero-]

http://radiodalsan.com/en/amp/exclusive-us-contributed-420m-towards-drought-relief-in-somalia/

The main reason why we have a GDP per capita of $700 when the average in Africa is $4,000 is because foreign countries are paying our idle to sit on their asses all day.

Most Geeljire would drop unproductive pastoralism (livestock herding) if it wasn't for other countries keeping them fed all this time.

They call it drought or famine relief but they've been sending food Aid non stop for the past 27 years.

How are our farmers meant to compete against free food?

Not only that... It also attracts a lot of parasites that profit of the aid and are working hard to keep the current status quo.

 

[MadNomad]

It's a vicious cycle. How can it be broken?

 

[RasCanjero-]

It's a vicious cycle. How can it be broken?

By going cold turkey.

A strong government is needed.

Make a law that bans all but the most urgent humanitarian food aid within 2 years.

Educate those that live of food aid that it'll stop and that they have a year or so to find alternative ways to feed themselves.

This will push them towards urbanisation or finding other ways to make a living; overall increasing economical activity.

Food aid does some serious damage to our economic development by slowing our growth and hampering the education of a trained labour force.

The vast majority of Somalis directly or indirectly rely on livestock for their living. In that world there's no social mobility, status seeking or the need for a competitive mindset.

Get married early, pray for a lot of kids and hope the rich first world will bail them out when the rains don't come.

For every million pastoralist that joins more productive industries we add another couple billions to our GDP.

That means more money for the government to deal with stuff like preventing famines and creating more opportunities for work (education etc).

 

[MadNomad]

By going cold turkey.

A strong government is needed.

Make a law that bans all but the most urgent humanitarian food aid within 2 years.

Educate those that live of food aid that it'll stop and that they have a year or so to find alternative ways to feed themselves.

This will push them towards urbanisation or finding other ways to make a living; overall increasing economical activity.

Food aid does some serious damage to our economic development by slowing our growth and hampering the education of a trained labour force.

The vast majority of Somalis directly or indirectly rely on livestock for their living. In that world there's no social mobility, status seeking or the need for a competitive mindset.

Get married early, pray for a lot of kids and hope the rich first world will bail them out when the rains don't come.

For every million pastoralist that joins more productive industries we add another couple billions to our GDP.

That means more money for the government to deal with stuff like preventing famines and creating more opportunities for work (education etc).

Good ideas. Of course, no country sweeping laws can be enacted in our current state. Our foreign "partners" know this, and seem hellbent on keeping us dependant, weak, and fractured.

We need some kind of drastic event to push us in the right direction, things are moving way too slowly. Everyday that passes by like this we risk making the status quo permanent.

 

[RasCanjero-]

Good ideas. Of course, no country sweeping laws can be enacted in our current state. Our foreign "partners" know this, and seem hellbent on keeping us dependant, weak, and fractured.

We need some kind of drastic event to push us in the right direction, things are moving way too slowly. Everyday that passes by like this we risk making the status quo permanent.

Best method of making it permanent:

By making sure that the current generation doesn't get any exposure to long term work, training or institutions that are the foundations of a country.

Unless we act quickly to fix it; the current young generation (80% of Somalia) will be labeled as the lost generation soon enough.

This lost generation will poison the well for future generations to come.

 

[Deactivated]

You can’t just stop imports.

Somalia has a cultural mindeset problem where caajis is the norm.

When we exported bananas they costed 3x what Caribbean bananas costed in the 70s.

You need a culture of productivity and efficiency.

If your input costs are more then what an import costs then you have problems to deal with at home first.

 

[RasCanjero-]

You can’t just stop imports.

Somalia has a cultural mindeset problem where caajis is the norm.

When we exported bananas they costed 3x what Caribbean bananas costed in the 70s.

You need a culture of productivity and efficiency.

If your input costs are more then what an import costs then you have problems to deal with at home first.

Price doesn't really play into it when it's $0 vs market prices for food in Somalia atm.

Even large economies of scale won't lower the prize to zero.

I agree though that it doesn't hurt to have a competitive/productive economy and that the culture needs changing.

However it all comes down to demand.

With more people working; there is a bigger demand for food and other goods.

With a bigger demand ; it makes sense to invest to meet it and go down the route of more efficient and productive markets.

Caajisnimo wouldn't be as bad as people will start to focus on improving their social status like most other developing countries.

However food aid is killing that demand by keeping our pastoralist within the same status quo.

Geeljire have been struggling within the first level of Maslow's hierarchy for the past few centuries.

As long as they don't starve they're content.

However now that our population is at least 5x what it was a century ago and with limited grazing lands to go around; we would've mostly dropped pastoralism by now if it wasn't for the free food bailing us out at every drought.

 

[Deactivated]

Price doesn't really play into it when it's $0 vs market prices for food in Somalia atm.

Even large economies of scale won't lower the prize to zero.

I agree though that it doesn't hurt to have a competitive/productive economy and that the culture needs changing.

However it all comes down to demand.

With more people working; there is a bigger demand for food and other goods.

With a bigger demand ; it makes sense to invest to meet it and go down the route of more efficient and productive markets.

Caajisnimo wouldn't be as bad as people will start to focus on improving their social status like most other developing countries.

However food aid is killing that demand by keeping our pastoralist within the same status quo.

Geeljire have been struggling within the first level of Maslow's hierarchy for the past few centuries.

As long as they don't starve they're content.

However now that our population is at least 5x what it was a century ago and with limited grazing lands to go around; we would've mostly dropped pastoralism by now if it wasn't for the free food bailing us out at every drought.

We need a drastic cultural overhaul.

It won’t happen until Somaliland reunites with Somalia.

Either that or an Astroid from Illahi to wake us up.

 

[TheAnswer]

Urbanization will make no diffirence if the "urban" areas have no infrastructure or public services. It may even facilitate the spread of disease and other problems.

Western aid is needed, but it should be redirected to jump starting the economy. Somalia needs something similar to the Marshall Plan.

But the big problem is, Western interests are served by the current arrangement. America needs a place to dump excess corn from Iowa, which is heavily subsidized by the US government.

 

[RasCanjero-]

Urbanization will make no diffirence if the "urban" areas have no infrastructure or public services. It may even facilitate the spread of disease and other problems.

Western aid is needed, but it should be redirected to jump starting the economy. Somalia needs something similar to the Marshall Plan.

But the big problem is, Western interests are served by the current arrangement. America needs a place to dump excess corn from Iowa, which is heavily subsidized by the US government.

More aid?

Saxib don't underestimate the adaptivity of our people.

Those problems relating to urbanisation are minor problems and furthermore good ones to have.

Just a fraction of them have to be able to contribute to the economy and they'll be enough resources scrapped together to fund the basic infrastructure.

Worst comes, they'll just put up huts on the perimeter of the city.

A water treatment plant for a city of a million households would only cost 10-20 million with the pipelines only costing a couple thousands per mile.

A million productive Geeljire in a city would bring in more than 10-20 billion in economic output initially. (Without local governments c****blocking development like in today's Somalia).

They don't even need a high paying job to start with.

However just their entrance into the city will grow the economy and attract more investment.

Only once we developed the basics ourselves would a Marshall plan actually be worth anything.

A basic economy would help fund a functioning government and decrease corruption as there are more stakeholders (businesses) that would want to maintain the rule of law.

It's the answer to the chicken or egg problem.

First comes the economy and then you have a government. Africa did it the wrong way round; hence the massive inefficiencies in governance (corruption).

Only then would a Marshall plan be of any use.

Japan, South Korea, Turkey etc didn't get any developments loans or aid until they actually proofed they were worth the investment.

Any money now would just attract more parasites and feed the current limbo we're in.