edit: You added an edit for everything beyond "Can you provide any of these statistics?"

My response to the rest is below ----

See Spencer Heath MacCallum's The Rule of Law without the State here: http://mises.org/daily/2701

>Imagine any part of the globe not being dominated by a central government and the people there surviving, even prospering. If such were to happen and the idea spread to other parts of Africa or other parts of the world, the mystique of the necessity of the state might be irreparably damaged, and many politicians and bureaucrats might find themselves walking about looking for work.

>If the expectation was that Somalia would plunge into an abyss of chaos, what is the reality? A number of recent studies address this question, including one by economist Peter Leeson drawing on statistical data from the United Nations Development Project, World Bank, CIA, and World Health Organization. Comparing the last five years under the central government (1985–1990) with the most recent five years of anarchy (2000–2005), Leeson finds these welfare changes:

- Life expectancy increased from 46 to 48.5 years. This is a poor expectancy as compared with developed countries. But in any measurement of welfare, what is important to observe is not where a population stands at a given time, but what is the trend. Is the trend positive, or is it the reverse?

- Number of one-year-olds fully immunized against measles rose from 30 to 40 percent.

- Number of physicians per 100,000 population rose from 3.4 to 4.

- Number of infants with low birth weight fell from 16 per thousand to 0.3 — almost none.

- Infant mortality per 1,000 births fell from 152 to 114.9.

- Maternal mortality per 100,000 births fell from 1,600 to 1,100.

- Percent of population with access to sanitation rose from 18 to 26.

- Percent of population with access to at least one health facility rose from 28 to 54.8.

- Percent of population in extreme poverty (i.e., less than $1 per day) fell from 60 to 43.2.

- Radios per thousand population rose from 4 to 98.5.

- Telephones per thousand population rose from 1.9 to 14.9.

- TVs per 1,000 population rose from 1.2 to 3.7.

- Fatalities due to measles fell from 8,000 to 5,600.

You can verify any of these statistics yourself through sources like the mentioned CIA Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

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>I am genuinely interested in seeing these statistics because the picture you paint of Somalia is much rosier than the picture painted by the people at the Somali-Bantu Community Center in my county. I am trying to keep an open mind but I have to admit my skepticism about the situation in somalia meant that I read your comment as:

>"All of the core metrics [except education but everyone knows education is a useless metric for judging living conditions] in Somalia have increased [from zero] because it has been hellish in Somalia for twenty years.

>There is a functioning economy and rule of law in Somalia [if you exclude the south where there is not a lot of positive things to talk about except that the government official targeted in yesterdays car bombing was not among the 11 people killed]."

Bantu in Somalia are part of the chaotic southwest. The southwestern provinces such as Bay and Bakool have recently either declared autonomy from Mogadishu or have started to discuss it.

The port city of Kismayo had been a pivotal stronghold for al-Shabaab who held it for the past few years. Al-Shabaab has lost a ton of ground in the past year whereas it had controlled the majority of south Somalia for the three years or so prior.

There was a shit ton of military action and natural disasters such as the drought affecting this area, so certainly this part of the country is no utopia.

The other parts of the country is like another world. As al-Shabaab has lost ground in the south, they have moved some operations to the divided city of Galkayo. 1/3 of the city is controlled by the south and whatever Transitional Government is ruling now while the other 2/3 of the city is part of Puntland. This is about the extent of violence in Somalia. Coincidentally, the 2/3 of the geographical area of Somalia besides south of Galkayo.. the Horn and Somaliland, are relatively peaceful with only a dash of violence spreading from the UN conflict zone.

Education matters, I was just mentioning the truth that all metrics have improved besides schools. You can make of that what you want. There was no real widespread schooling system before and there isn't one still. The UN-backed Transitional Government is having a hard time keeping terrorist bombings out of Mogadishu, so it isn't anywhere near spreading schools around the country.