On the 2008 Failed States Index Somalia has "the unenviable distinction of being the state most at risk of failure" scoring 5 'perfect' 10's out of the lists 12 indicators - where the lower the score the more stable the country. Somalia's 'lowest (read best) indicator is a 7.5 out of 10 for "Uneven Development".
This dubious honour combined with the potential of the country (a prime location and relatively abundant resources) makes Somalia a fine candidate for the Failed State Model.
I am going to collect and post as much relevant data as I can find. All of it will be unclassified reporting from various sources on the net. I'm going to try to keep to recognized valid sources as much as possible.
Planning: Step1.
Demographic Information
· Population density - Population density for the country is established at approximately 13 persons per sq/km*, but this factoid is not suitable for our purposes, after all the intent is not (initially at least) to take over the entire nation, but to occupy a small part of it.
The fact that this occupation will out of necessity be a covert operation means we must seek out less populated, more isolated locations within the host territory. Digging a little deeper into the WWW we come up with this map.**
**Although the data is dated from 1995 due to the nature of the territory it is the most recent estimate that I have found. Somalia had one formal census in it's entire history in 1975 and has not had another since. Even the numbers from that census are not all that reliable due to the high number of nomadic tribesmen in the country.
The colours which are of the most interest to us are white and the palest blue. This seems to indicate that there are numerous locations within the geographical boundaries of the failed state that would suit our purposes. This is obviously the first brush stroke of our planning though, and those prospects will be limited soon enough, but for now the map is an excellent resource.
In the next post I will examine in broad terms the ethnic groups within the territory.
Your comments and observations are, as always appreciated and requested...
Is there any deciduous forest or is it all desert? Is there a water table rivers? I think I have seen small power units by Capstone (http://www.capstoneturbine.com/) that are cheap and low maintenance they come in 60, 100, 150 and 300 MW power. They are Air bearings so once started they rarely have to be taken apart. I have seen the small ones on ebay for $30,000. Deciduous forest or a river under ground or otherwise could be used to power it.
ReplyDeleteMost of Somalia is desert/arid though there are some rivers they are mostly seasonal and those that last all year are not quick flowing. http://www.igcp-grownet.org/presentations/Faillace.pdf this power point presentation has lots of information on water in the region. From a casual glance it seems that the nature of the ground does not lend itself to natural water retention so other options must be considered.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there is a water table but (from the PPT above)I don't think it is suitable for power generation. In my opinion regular gas generators would have to be the first mode of power production. These might have to be used for a long time but luckily Somalia is purported to have oil reserves.