Why is British Somaliland Stable Compared to the Rest of Somalia?

  

(from Google AI)

Somaliland’s relative stability stems from three core factors: its unique legacy of indirect British colonial rule, a bottom-up peace process utilizing traditional clan elders, and a deliberate decision to re-establish independence along its original 1960 colonial borders. [1, 2]

Here is how these distinct elements created a functional, self-governing entity:

1. Distinct Colonial Legacy

Unlike the rest of Somalia—which endured the highly centralized, bureaucratic, and settler-focused rule of Italy—British Somaliland was administered with a light touch. Britain’s policy of indirect rule allowed local clan leaders and customary laws (known as xeer) to remain largely intact. This prevented the erosion of traditional, community-based leadership and helped establish a distinct political identity. [1, 2]

2. Grassroots, Clan-Led Reconciliation

When the military dictatorship of Siad Barre collapsed in 1991, plunging the rest of Somalia into civil war and state failure, the northwest took a different path. Through the Somaliland Grand Conferences, clan elders and the Somali National Movement (SNM) utilized traditional conflict-resolution methods to disarm militias and establish an inclusive, hybrid government that blends modern democracy with a traditional council of elders (the Guurti). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

3. Reverting to Original Borders

The territory declared its independence by dissolving the voluntary, 1960 union between the former British protectorate and Italian Somalia. Because it is largely populated by the Isaaq clan and their neighbors, it lacks the complex, localized clan rivalries and competition over central resources that have continuously destabilized the south. [1, 2, 3]

While it lacks formal international recognition, Somaliland operates as a fully functioning de facto state with its own constitution, currency, military, and history of peaceful, democratic elections. You can read more about how this divergence is viewed in discussions on the Reddit Geography or Quora forums. [1, 2]

American Renewal Project: Why is the Family Now an Enemy?

 

A leading Christian apologist and cultural theologian, Joseph Boot is the founding pastor of Westminster Chapel in Toronto and the founder of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Originally from Great Britain, he served with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries for 7 years as an apologist based in England and Canada.   “All cultural and political thought inescapably rests on a given foundation - one religious worldview or another is the frequently unacknowledged basis for all forms of political philosophy,” writes Dr. Boot. “Ultimately, from the scriptural standpoint, either Christ and His Word-revelation provides that foundation, or else the thinking of elites and their revolutionary ideals will assume the role of biblical authority.”1   There is no such thing as ‘neutrality’ in religion, because to reject God is every bit of a religious decision as it is to believe in and embrace God. The reality in America is that either secularism or Christianity - that is, the values/ideology/worldview of one or the other - is going to reign supreme in the public square. If Christians stay home on Election Day - as they unfortunately often do - then secularists will permeate culture by electing their candidates, thereby creating and passing godless legislation, and codifying into law profane values where culture becomes the public manifestation of secular religion.2   The sad fact is that American Christendom throughout the last 100 years abandoned the public square, despite such disregard being in disobedience to Jesus’ ekklesia Kingdom assignment from Matthew 16:18. This neglectful failure to comply has allowed secularism to gain control of the culture, enabling secularists to manipulate and monopolize the cultural levers of power and influence across the nation.   Dr. Boot acknowledges that nothing good could come from this: “If the true foundation of wisdom is missing, if the principal part of knowledge is neglected, then any knowledge structure built upon it is inherently unstable.”3   By making religious secularism America’s official religion in the mid-20th century, the Warren Court [1953-1969] elevated the State to divine status. Religious secularism bows to and abides by the State, while ignoring or rejecting Jehovah God. If American Christendom had maintained its involvement in the public square, the State’s self-serving aggrandizement into a godlike standing of worship and adulation could have been channeled in a direction subservient to God.   A good number of U.S. Supreme Court decisions since the 1960s have aided the State to claim its supposed supremacy over God :   Removal of prayer to Jehovah God from public education in 1962 [Engel v. Vitale]. Removal of the Bible - after 300 years of America’s meteoric rise - from public schools in 1963 [Abington School District v. Schempp]. Fabrication of the constitutional ‘right’ to kill unborn babies in 1973 [Roe v. Wade]. Removal of the Ten Commandments from public schools, courthouses, and government buildings in 1980 [Stone v. Graham]. Constitutional prevarication to exalt, normalize, and codify into law homosexual intercourse and same-sex marriage in 2015 [Obergefell v. Hodges]. Glorification and ‘special rights’ for homosexuals and transgenders in 2020 [Bostock v. Clayton County].   In Obergefell v. Hodges and Bostock v. Clayton County, homosexual intercourse and marriage was exalted and inflated by the U.S. Supreme Court as kosher and legitimate, notwithstanding or perhaps in willful defiance of its Scriptural denunciation as an abomination and wrongdoing. Justices decree by edict as good what God calls evil, thereby passing judgment upon God as they instruct Him and the nation to submit to their prescriptions laid down in law. Those commandments amount to radical idolatry.   With that as background, the Italian politician and journalist Giorgia Meloni [born 1977] is poised to make history by becoming Italy’s first female Prime Minister. The Wall Street Journal wrote of Meloni’s “more-than-hawkish stance on border security, [her] long espoused tough position on abortion, as well as traditional views on family and transgender issues.”4 As a long-awaited blessing and frontal assault on globalism, liberalism, and secularism, we might add.    The Left rushed in instantly to brand Prime Minister-Elect Meloni as “the most far-right government since World War II.” Some of the far-left news outlets even had no qualms about implying a guilty-by-association link to Benito Mussolini, the Italian founder and leader of the National Fascist Party. Tarred with the same brush!   The clash of worldviews will be quite obvious if we listen to what Prime Minister-Elect Giorgia Meloni has to say.

“This is about what we are doing here today. Why is the family an enemy? Why is the family so frightening? There is a single answer to all these questions. Because it defines us. Because it is our identity. Because everything that defines us is now an enemy for those who would like us to no longer have an identity and simply be perfect consumer slaves.   “And so they attack national identity, they attack religious identity, they attack gender identity, they attack family identity. I can’t define myself as Italian, Christian, woman, mother ... No. I must be citizen x, gender x, parent 1, parent 2. I must be a number.   “Because when I am a number, when I no longer have an identity or roots, then I will be the perfect slave at the mercy of financial speculators: the perfect consumer. That’s the reason why ... that’s why we inspire so much fear. That’s why this event inspires so much fear because we do not want to be [just] numbers.   “We will defend the value of the human being ... of every single human being. Because each of us has a unique genetic code that is unrepeatable. And, like it or not, that is sacred. We will defend it, we will defend God, country, and family. Those things that disgust [these] people so much.   “We will defend our freedom because we will never be slaves and simple consumers at the mercy of financial speculators, that is our mission, [and] that is why I came here today.   “Chesterton wrote more than a century ago, ‘Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer.’ The time has arrived, we are ready. Grazie [thank you].”   When was the last time that an American politician so perfectly highlighted the all mighty secular powers American Christendom is up against? President Ronald Reagan, perhaps, some 40 years ago?   As to bringing the revolt closer to home, historian William J. Federer spoke at our Missouri pastors’ luncheon last week. He noted how President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the Nazi assault on Christian civilization in the mid-20th century by passing out Gideon New Testaments and Psalms to each WW II U.S. soldier.   Federer argues that the ideological Left is now demanding a change of the definition of ‘patriotism’, replacing it with the more sinister sounding ‘nationalism’. By contrast, however, ‘nationalism’ in America entails preserving the nation, guaranteeing that every citizen has God-given rights and allowing each individual the freedom to determine his or her own destiny. We might formulate it as Christian citizenship.   The Left has instituted totalitarianism aka absolutism in America, particularly in its despotic Covid censorship and its all-out assault on and abuse of First Amendment rights. The latter includes the denial of human rights and the intensification of killing preborn babies, the collusion with cultural Marxism’s prominence in pitting race against race in America, and the compulsive obsession with their version of ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’.   Enough is enough. Let’s pray that Prime Minister-Elect Giorgia Meloni represents a step forward for freedom, and that she will be a Rahab taking God’s side against the profane culture of secularism.   We continue to pray as Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.   David Lane American Renewal Project

Italy's Birthrate Plummets, and Yet Gay Civil Unions?

It is a well-known in Italy that the birth rate is plummeting, and fast.

Adults are not getting married, or not having children.

Many adults live at home, and the culture seems to encourage this.

"Mama's Boy" is not a derogatory term in Italy at all. Far from it.

Men can stay at home with their parents well into their thirties.

Men and women are not stepping out on their own to start their families.

One rural village actually celebrated the birth of a child to a young couple, the first birth in the city in decades!

And yet ...

The Italian parliament just passed legislation to permit homosexual civil unions.

Italian "Equality" (Religionnews.com)

How does Italy intend to restore life and vitality to its culture if the state continues to erode respect and honor for the most venerable and fundamental of institutions: the family?

Mammia Mia!

Questo è pazzesco! (That's Crazy!)

The new pope, despite his liberal leanings in rhetoric, has affirmed the power and necessity of the family.

He even went so far as to declare that not having children is an act of selfishness.

One this is certain: a culture dies to the extent that men and women refuse to have children, or encourage an idle, selfish childless lifestyle.

How does Italy intend to overcome the childlessness in its culture? One proposal has offered subsidizing couples to have children. This is no joke. The state is now offering to pay people to have kids. They are even doubling this pay!

Interestingly enough, though, more Americans are retiring to Italy, where a lot of the homes, many in ancient or medieval areas, are uite inexpensive. Life is pretty easy going in these villages. The commerce and development of village life is very appealing to American retirees.

Many of them are of Italian descent, too, so they see themselves returning to their roots.

Still, a country which delays adulthood, which prizes the man-child mentality of adults living at home, and now has degraded marriage to include meaning two men, or two women, or just about anything else.