From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sat Jun 09 2001 - 15:03:08 MDT
Bill Douglass wrote:
> Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
>
> [snip]
> >>> I am guessing that there are several reasons why Singapore succeeded
> >>>where Somalia, seems to remain a backwater.
> 1) There is order in Singapore because the peoples that comprise Singapore
> desire it. Somalia hasn't gone up that hierarchy of needs yet.
> 2) There is a respect for learning in Singapore, in Somali-little. It's
> agrarian knowledge, at best. Agrarian knowledge in wonderful, but its not
> software coding.
> 3) There is the same unhappy mix of politics and religion, that has slowed
> many countries.
> 4) Somalia is more fractionalized amongst tribes and clans.
> 5) The transition of powers between regimes is not clear as it is in
> Singapore.
> Note: with Singapore, there is still the authoritarian smell of
> dictatorship.
> There is more hope that as the economy develops, the hunger for
> self-representation will occur.
> The capitalist spirit is essential, but its comparative to growing a heart
> in vitro, and claiming it as a human personality. It's important, but there
> needs to be more. Is Somalia going down the road of development? I'd need
> more evidence to be convinced.
>
> Mitch >>>
>
> These are valid points, Mitch. No quibble here. The Chinese/Confucian
> emphasis on education has, I'm sure, played a big role in Singapore's rapid
> development (Singapore's population is something like 76% ethnic Chinese).
One further bit to consider is that there is a large percent of Somalis who are
addicted to the drug khat, which is one reason why so much modern
infrastructure there has been looted, to pay off the Kenyan drug lords who fly
the khat into the country. In Singapore, drug posession is a death sentence.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:08:02 MST