Dustyn Winder

U.N. Criticizes U.S. Restrictions on Aid for Somalia

I would spend more time policy bashing, but this is my first foray into blogging in some time, so I'm going be brief with my rant. Very brief.

With moves that include aid policies based on ungrounded "facts" and using peace keepers to traffic arms to an unstable "government", the U.S. is hardly accomplishing anything in Somalia, other than Shabab recruitment. Well, there's that and the abandonment of the innocent collateral in our... um... "war on terror"... or whatever we're calling it these days -- you know the underwear bomber had Washington questioning dropping that phrase -- but I guess they go hand in hand.

Good job, guys.

For the second time in two days, I'm going to save myself sometime thanks to the great posting over at Texas in Africa.

Today, she posted suggestions given to Secretary Clinton on her visit to the DRC by local Congolese leaders. That's a breath of fresh air in and of itself. But aside from the wealth of good advice by those that do know best -- advice with tangible goals -- maybe the most powerful "suggestion" came from Christine Schuler-DeSchryver: Take Real Action.

We have received many, many visitors, each more important than the one before. We have received many, many celebrities, too. At the end, we have the impression that people only came to consume human poverty, human misery. And, in the end, all that we got was a pile of business cards.

"A pile of business cards" and Western sympathy don't really amount to much when they aren't backed by real action. I know that, sometimes, I might just be too critical of the actions of the U.S. or Europe or civil society or whom or whatever, but I see no way that anyone could truly believe that celebrity gawking, sensationalized media, pats on the head and the entire "save the African" idea serves anyone but those attempting to do the "saving".

Though I'm constantly aware, it still devastates me to see the idea of poverty and suffering being just another notch in the belt and autograph in the book.

I won't take the time to stress myself out with a long, drawn-out explanation of the story -- mainly because Texas in Africa did a great job already and partly because I don't want to ruin my day.

You see, it appears that the weapons that the United States have been providing to the transitional government in Somalia -- you know to fight the terrorists -- are being sold in Mogadishu markets. And lions and tigers and bears oh my am I surprised. 

I mean really, did we expect anything differently? When you give weapons to a government that can't even control its own capital city, how do you expect that to turn out.

Forget the fact that the U.S. has a policy of non-intervention in Somalia. I guess that only applies to when people need help. But let the former president say that Somalia could be a hotbed for terrorist activity (a self-fulfilling prophecy) and take actions that effect non-militant Islamic communities that succeed only in pissing them and the diaspora off and making the madrassas and jihad seem like a far superior option to secular schooling and peace (more self-fulfillment) and it's time for non-interventionist intervention in the Horn.

The part of it all that gets me the most, and I'll stop after this, is that we used Ugandan peacekeepers to distribute the weapons. Peace. Keepers. Keepers of the peace dealing arms.

But yeah, we expected it to end well.