I think noone is saying with "failed state", that there are no parts of the state where organization has resulted in quite a livable situation. But that seems to be not due to, but sometimes (in the case of Somaliland) despite the fact that there is no permanent central government who has an ligitimate monopoly on power. The fact that there are promising things happening in Somalia outside the central government is a good thing, but that only stresses that the state as such at this moment can be characterized a failed state. If definitions for Somalia have been used differently, please provide a source...   

Environment
Just read through the environment section. Apart from the nuclear waste issue down, the problems seem to be not mentioned explicitly (only the solutions -planting tree campaigns etc- and their actors -the first env org., prize winning people etc). Could someone knowledgeble on the subject make an introduction to that paragraph in which the main problems are discussed (and maybe also reduce the env. activism part)?