A Land of Camel Milk and Honey: NICHOLAS KRISTOF - Somaliland(?)

THE COMPLETE ARTICLE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
OP-ED COLUMNIST

A Land of Camel Milk and Honey

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: February 27, 2007

In the north of the carcass of Somalia is the breakaway would-be nation of Somaliland, and it is a remarkable success — for a country that doesn’t exist.

HARGEISA, Somaliland(?)

Here’s the ethos of Somalia, as a former Mogadishu resident explained it to me: “If I use a dollar to buy food, then tomorrow I have nothing. If I use a dollar to buy a bullet, then I can eat every day.”

That enterprising can-do spirit has turned most of Somalia into the poster child of a failed state, where you feel underdressed without an assault rifle. But wait! Here in the north of the carcass of Somalia is the breakaway would-be nation of Somaliland, and it is a remarkable success — for a country that doesn’t exist.

The U.S. and other governments don’t recognize Somaliland, so the people here get next to zero foreign aid. And when the “country” was formed in 1991, it had been mostly obliterated in a civil war and was a collection of ruins and land mines.

--MORE--