ELF
Read the article. It is a copybook in anarchist politics.
With its 37 ports under the control of clan warlords, Somalia is a land where "tax" is only a word in the dictionary. But its Indian Ocean coastline extends for more than 3,000km, much longer than that of South Africa. Says Mr Hussein Farah Aideed, leader of the faction that controls Mogadishu, the capital: "Historically, no Somali government has controlled more than seven ports, not even Siad Barre's military regime." He says that Somalia is only second to Iran in terms of goods shipped from the United Arab Emirates' (UAE).
Somali traders are the luckiest in the world as they unload goods at ports and hardly pay tax to the clans manning them. The goods are then sent all the way to Nairobi, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa - even as far as South Africa. Mr Aideed adds that, historically, Somalis are traders who control transport in eastern and central Africa, but it is now difficult to install a government in Somalia as Somalis have tasted freedom" in a free-market economy. |