Norway Helps African Nations

I found an article discussing a very humane issue that has not received much attention yet. Here is the article:

Here

The issue on hand here is the assistance from a wealthy, developed nation going out of their way to assist not just one African nation, but six. Norway used to be a poor nation who became wealthy through its use of its natural resources. Now they are going to teach the same methods they once used to create much needed wealth in the African nations. The six countries agreed to get rid of their coastal borders to allow the Norwegian company "Accord" to map the continental shelf. The Atlantic shelf that borders these six countries is thought to be filled with rich natural gas and other various resources.

I love reading about situations like these when a big brother country goes out of its way to help out a smaller one. We hardly hear of Norway on the news and it bothered me that this has gone unnoticed. Maybe its just me but Im tired of Lindsey Lohan being arrested on every channel. I hope other countries including our own can use its advantages and knowledge to help bring Africa towards modernization.

Somalia - An Unrecognized Government

Since taking the Comparative Government Course last year with Dr. Cole, I have always been interested in the government situation currently in Somalia. As we compared different government systems against each other, Somalia was the only country in the world that showed up as "No Government." We hear much about Somalia on todays news as they are involved with many different hijackings of various countries ships. Which in return involves our own US Marines and other various Special Forces Teams to help handle the dangerous threat. Here is an article I found which is quite a clever way for the German Crew to get through such a dangerous situation:

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/German-ship-crew-tricked-pirates-20100910

I started searching the web to find out why so many textbooks declare Somalia as a country without a government. What I learned was quite surprising. The current attempt to establish a controlled state is the 17th attempt at doing so since 1991. This attempt is by the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia. The year 1991 also marked the year in which the former British colony of Somaliland declared independence. The reason the government is still not recognized is because the country is divided into controlled regions by various groups. As I tried to learn which regions were controlled by who, it seemed to be an almost daily changing predicament. Different warlords are always fighting over these zones.