In Christian Parenti’s “Tropic of Chaos”, Multiple chapters talk about Failed states and how they contribute to Climate Change whether we know it or not. The failed state I chose to talk about today is Somalia. Somalia is the “Horn of Africa” extending from Ethiopia out into the Indian Ocean. In Tropics of Chaos, Parenti writes about how Somalia is “the textbook failed state. Somalia was deemed a failed state after a military coup left the country’s newly electoral democracy to fall in 1969 (Parenti 83). The country would continue to struggle when the ruler of Somalia in the 1960s and 70s, Siad Barre, sought to control a small land mass known as Ogaden (Parenti 83). This land was primarily poor, dry and rugged with a large population of Somali people. This land mass was occupied and jetted into Ethiopia, making it a desirable piece of land for Ethiopians as well (Parenti 84). Siad Barre “started” the war for Ogaden by arming Ethiopian-based Somali clans who eventually caused the war to become out of control. While all this was going on Cold war tensions between the Superpowers made things even worse as the US and Soviet Union sought to gain control of the Horn of Africa. The War of Ogaden only lasted one year from 1977 to 1978 in which tens of thousands died and more than doubled the total debt of the country (Parenti 84). This would later lead to economic collapse and in 1990, their debt exceeded 1.9 billion to western lenders, crushing it's small agricultural economy (Parenti 85).
As Somalia’s economy collapsed, the military lost control of their arsenals allowing militia groups and freedom fighters to steal many types of weaponry from the government and use it to gain power within the failed state.
The reason failed states are so important to Climate Change is that they are the “Bioindicators” of Climate Change essentially. A Bioindicator is normally a species of animal or insect that is used to determine the current overall quality of life within an environment. Failed States act as Bioindicators because as the Global temperature continues to rise, droughts will increase in their severity and how often they appear, and failed states will no longer be able to contain anyone (Parenti 87). As we see these populations can no longer be sustained in areas where the temperature has gotten too warm to grow most crops or find enough fresh water, these populations will then move into countries such as the U.S. and Canada and put more strain on their economies and overall resource consumption. We are seeing this now in failed states such as Somalia, Kenya and Haiti in 2021.
As of 2020, Somalia has a form of central government that has back and forth battles with militant groups such as Al-Shabab. These groups in modern time, are displacing local civilians and due to COVID-19, has halted most humanitarian efforts in Somalia. Currently, over 2.6 million people are displaced as a result of both groups such as Al-Shabab and Climate change (hrw).
Parenti, Christian. Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. New York: Nation Books, 2011
World Report 2021: Rights trends in Somalia. Human Rights Watch. (2021, January 13). Retrieved October 4, 2021, from https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/somalia.
After reading Parenti's book I also found his section on Somalia to be interesting too. I was happy to see that Somalia is somewhat starting to get better (despite COVID and militant groups holding them down). I hope things improve in Somalia and flourish one day. Great post.
ReplyDeleteIt seems terrifying to live under this type of corrupt and violent government. I also was happy to see that living conditions here were improving.
ReplyDeleteCorrupt government is a very scary thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's shocking how over 2.6 million became refugees because of this conflict! With this many people left without homes it's so sad what all those people would have to go through
ReplyDeleteIt is sad to see that Somalia's situation has only gotten worse. Your point about COVID-19 dampening support to innocent civilians is also incredibly important and can easily be overlooked.
ReplyDeleteCorrupt governments have been around as long as time, but it still continues to amaze me that people can exploit a whole country like this. It completely appalls me. I hope that once COVID calms down there will be more efforts to aid these people.
ReplyDeleteThey way you describe failed states and there relation with the climate crisis makes the reader think about how this problem isn't going away anytime soon. I really like how you wrapped up your blog post with this connection.
ReplyDeleteI thought the bioindicator passage was very interesting. We can tell what countries are going to fail based on a number of factors. Soon, most countries will have trouble getting by, as food scarcity increases and more areas of the world become inhabitable.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was an interesting thing that a failed state could be considered a bioindicator in the same way a type of wildlife would be. Especially interesting because it reminds us of our place in the world. In that we're basically just animals like any other, adherents to nature. That being said, foreign superpowers using you and your neighbors for a proxy war never helped anyone in the Ogaden.
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