Blog of the month

The blog of the month for this month is Ranting Stan

This blog gets 8 out of 10.

One particularly good post is this post on foreign aid or the lack of it in Somaliland

Here are some extracts:

What happens when you stop giving aid to African states?

They prosper.

At least they do if Somaliland is anything to go by. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I read this today.

Since declaring independence The Republic Of Somaliland has not been offically recognised by any other country. Consequently, it does not qualify to receive any aid, but that does not appear to have bothered it too much.

According to this article in Somaliland "tar roads cover much of its 137000km², children are in school, hospitals have been set up, towns bombed by the late Said Barré have been rebuilt and, last year, Somaliland held the kind of general elections one would hope will come one day to Zimbabwe, Swaziland and even Somalia. Parties campaigned without hindrance, most of the media is in private hands and there was no intimidation of voters. "