The 245 M.P.s shuffled in, got as comfortable as they could in the white plastic chairs and began discussing the appointment of ministers. A problem arose. Ministers had been sworn in before parliament had approved them. The process would have to begin again. But safe is a relative term in Somalia.
Visitors travel in convoys with half a dozen Kalashnikov-toting young men riding shotgun.
Power has shifted from the warlords to business leaders, who support and bank- roll the new government, and to the Islamic courts. Still, the warlords remain strong enough to be spoilers. In a rare display of unity a group of them recently announced they would stop the government from reopening Mogadishu's main seaport. The gun is loaded. The government ignores such threats in the hope that its own increasing strength will render the warlords irrelevant.