International Somalia has 99% of $2bn debt cancelled in major boost to fragile recovery

this is more of an accounting hygiene operation done by the lender states than anything.
you get to clear some of that debt overhang that looks bad on your books, like it forces you to "do something" about it, which means contact with the somali authorities, which is a fucking drag nobody wants, and it wouldn't lead to anything anyway, and you get to look good like you're helping some poor shmucks.
 
panamaican said:
I didn't say they should pay off the debt. It's more a comment on the relative wealth of individuals to small nations. That an individual can be wealthy enough to handle the sovereign debt of a nation without any real impact on his/her life is indicative of a level of wealth that is hard for people to accurately envision.

For another example, I read somewhere that if Bill Gates had never donated his money or gotten divorced, he'd be worth more than $1 trillion dollars. That's not to say Bill shouldn't have donated, it's just crazy to think about that level of wealth controlled by a single individual.
Click to expand...

Elon Musk is worth 200 billion. If we divide 200 Billion by 1,262,304,000 - which is the number of seconds there are in 40 years, we come to a loose approximation of the value of each seconds of Elon's adult, working-age life, which is about 160 dollars per second.

If he were to accidentally drop 500 dollars on the ground, it wouldn't be worth his time to bend over and pick up the money and put it back in his pocket unless he could pull that off in less than 6 and a half seconds or so. This is for him DROPPING (losing) the 500. If he just saw 500 bucks on the ground, he'd have to pick it up, put in his pocket and carry on in less than 3 seconds for it to be worth his time.

That's fucking absurd. The obscene wealth the super wealthy have is absolutely ridiculous.
 
LangfordBarrow said:
They should have to take that Kick streamer Joey Somali back as part of the deal. He can stream from a pirate boat until the rest of the crew grows tired of his antics and chuck him off the boat.
Click to expand...
Turns out he wasn't actually somali, he was half ethiopian and half eritrean or something.
 
Madmick said:
I suspect the reason they have so much money is because they understand this is a flawed perspective. The way they apply their money is a more efficient way to help people, and do good, than to unscrupulously squander it on lost cause charity cases that will ultimately almost always just end up right back where they began.
Click to expand...
Applying their money more efficiently to help people? Give me a break. There is absolutely no evidence for this. If billionaires truly wanted to help people they would donate their money without insisting on full decision making control, but thats not what they do. People like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have so much money that investing that money to get a profit return has less utility for them than creating a charitable organization that they control which garners them influence, prestige, tax benefits, etc. One example of this is how deeply Bill Gates was involved in the covid vaccine process, there was absolutely NO reason a private citizen should've had that much say in a once in a hundred year global crisis, but he had that leverage due to his charitable foundations (which have the added benefit of getting him tax savings). Billionaire charity is a huge racket, it's just another power lever for them it has nothing to do with charity.
 
moosaev said:
Whats the point of this comment? Genuinely? It seems like so many westerners love kicking down on troubled nations, maybe it makes you feel better.
Click to expand...
Kicking down? Nope
Love kicking down? Nope

Just tired of all the excuses and false theories from Western libs, academics, leftists, and SJW’s that are used to explain certain situations/patterns.
 
Scerpi said:
Who would lend that country any money?
Click to expand...
It is strategically located. Lots of shipping and fossil fuels go through the Horn of Africa. Lots of maritime traffic that goes to Israel and passes through the Suez. It's why a lot of countries have bases in Djibouti. The West and China both want influence there.

Al Qaeda has a branch there (Al Shabab), which the US views as a threat. The Biden admin is spending millions supporting forces in Somalia opposed to Al Qaeda.
www.foreignaffairs.com

America Needs a New Strategy in Somalia

Counterterrorism alone will never bring peace.
www.foreignaffairs.com www.foreignaffairs.com

Here is a paper by USAF Major Ryan Hess on the straregic importance of the US maintaing a presense in Somalia, of mitigating Chinese and Russian attempts to gain influence there.

NOTE : The below link is a PDF from the Dept of Defense. If you click on it it will automatically download the PDF.

Loading…

www.google.com

And here we have Neoconservatives pushing for US engagement with and influence in the Horn of Africa.

China Makes a Move on the Horn of Africa

Traditionally, Africa holds a low priority for most American administrations. Perhaps once in an administration, the president will visit the continent. The secretary of State does not visit sub-Saharan Africa much more. Visits beyond South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Senegal are even rarer...
www.aei.org www.aei.org
 
tenniswhiz said:
Kicking down? Nope
Love kicking down? Nope

Just tired of all the excuses and false theories from Western libs, academics, leftists, and SJW’s that are used to explain certain situations/patterns.
Click to expand...
What excuses? The story was about debt relief,..nobody made a single excuse about the situation in Somalia. You just went way out of your way to shit on them.
 
panamaican said:
That was exactly what I was thinking. Guys like Buffett, Musk, etc. could literally pay off that debt and it wouldn't affect their lives in the slightest.
Click to expand...
Or the United States, but they tend to only be interested in shipping off billions only towards war.
 
I thought this was intresting regarding Africa
 
moosaev said:
What excuses? The story was about debt relief,..nobody made a single excuse about the situation in Somalia. You just went way out of your way to shit on them.
Click to expand...
And I posted that without the debt Somalia would succeed magnificently. And that really bothers you, you define that as shitting on them, your college did a good job on you.
 
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