A promising experiment in anarchy
Fly to Mogadishu, and find some armed guards. Do not attempt to drive into the countryside, as this will involve passing through numerous checkpoints, each run by a different militia.
Somalia is situated on the horn of Africa bordering Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with no known mineral resources and it only exports cattle and (implausibly) bananas—the latter a colonial legacy defying its parched soils. It has the longest coastline of any African country, an asset that critics say it uses mainly for dumping toxic waste. And it is the only country in the world where there is no government. The last one was toppled in 1991.
In fact, its last proper dictator was General Mohammed Barre, who likened his autocratic regime to “scientific socialism.” Under him, hospital care, schools and colleges were free. Now the only facilities are privately run. Shops selling mobile phones and Internet cafes also do good business in Mogadishu. Guns of all sizes are also available, up to and including rocket launchers of the kind that brought down the famous US Black Hawk helicopter. Ironically, in view of its fate today, at that time, the country was the most centralized in all Africa. In the 1990s, the US and the UN briefly took an interest in the country and tried to provide “humanitarian aid” by force. Opposition by the warlords led to the “confrontation” between one of the militias and the US Army.
Nowadays, there is a so-called “transitional national government” but it is dominated by Somalia's long-time enemy, Ethiopia, and looks unlikely to be able to “heal the country's divisions” as the UN piously puts it.
The first thing to see 
are the “border crossings” at which all vehicles must pay an entry fee, in cash, jewels, or CDs. Whatever the border guards want, really. If it sounds off-putting, we should remember that all customs officials extract money from travelers under threat of imprisonment. Of course, most of the time, the money goes not to the customs officials, but to the government. In Somalia, since there is no government, the money is instead spent directly by the militia on their own needs, usually “khat,” a green leaf which, when chewed for hours on end, produces intoxication. And again, better than the Western system (theoretically at least) if you travel with enough armed guards, you can barrel directly through the border controls.
The country is a kaleidoscope of fiefdoms controlled by rival barons, who occasionally fight each other for more territory. Curiously, Somalia does continue to function. It is, in its way, an endorsement of the great economist Adam Smith, who advanced the idea that it is from self-interest, not benevolence (let alone because of the government) that we find bread in the shops and beer in the bars, or rocket launchers in the market and khat in the cafés, as we should say here.
Indeed, even the famous pirates, who hijack ships regularly off the Somali coast, claim to be acting from the best possible motives. They say they are defending coastlines from foreign companies who often over-fish or who come to dump industrial toxic waste into Somalia's territorial waters. Or even to dump tourists.
Disinformation pointThe European Union is Somalia's main overseas donor, and dispenses huge amounts of euros around the country. The Union warned in a special strategy document that most of the country remained “structurally food insecure whilst social and productive services, formerly provided by state agencies, have completely collapsed.” But this, it turns out when you arrive, is top quality official disinformation.
So how bad is life in the world's only true anarchist state? According to an upbeat United Nations report, not too bad at all. The level of “extreme” poverty in Somalia today (as opposed to the normal variety) is a mere 43 percent, which is actually quite a bit less than the level of its more conventional neighbors. Since a market economy has replaced a centrally planned economy, far from abjectly collapsing as often predicted, Somalian development has been “market-driven rather than government led.” What's happened is rather that, “economic deregulation and privatization have accompanied the radical localization of governance.” What's all that then? Well, in the “new Somalia” for instance, instead of the government keeping a central land register, you show the world that you own a piece of land by building a house on it and living in it.
Under anarchy, electricity is now available in parts of the country it never reached under central government, at rates assessed by counting the number of light bulbs in the house (35 cents a lightbulb a day). One Somali businessman told The Economist: “collapse of Somalia has been good for business. In many ways it is much better off than before. Then, we had state monopolies and bureaucracy and corruption, and all the wealth was in Mogadishu.”
Somali public services might generously be called “spartan,” but they are little worse than those of their neighbors in the Horn of Africa. They share roughly the same levels of roads and transport infrastructure, and similar access to doctors and hospitals. Educationally, Somalia slumps with its 81 percent illiteracy levels, but then half of its population is nomadic and the whole country has a long-standing and deep distrust of written documents. Even large businesses there rarely keep financial records. And even without any taxes, one third of the primary schools in the country are either free or cost less than $1 a month. At the other end, for example, a decision by one town, Borama, to create a modest university was funded by locals and the income from fees, at $25 a month.
So, far from being the bleak war zone of Black Hawk Down fame, parts of the country are flourishing, with skyscrapers sprouting as part of a construction boom. All completely unregulated of course. Or rather, regulated in its own special Somali way.
Joseph Winter, visiting for the BBC, was suitably impressed to find that in Mogadishu the printing of passports had also been privatized. He noted:
For just $80 and in less than 24 hours, I became a Somali citizen, born in Mogadishu. As I had omitted to travel with any passport-sized photos, my supplier kindly left the laminate for that page intact, for me to stick down at home. For a slightly higher fee, I was offered a diplomatic passport, with my choice of posting or ministerial job.
The British Foreign Office simply warns travelers NOT TO visit the country due to the “dangerous level of criminal activity and internal insecurity.” However, if you still insist on going, it adds implausibly, you should hire armed escorts “at a cost of $4 a day or $7 per 24 hours.”