Two news stories caught my eye today.

Firstly B.B.C. Radio 4's Today show reported that the authorities in the People's Republic of Scotland have noticed that sport is unfair - there are winners and losers and sometimes the winners win big.

To deal with this problem the local authority in Edinburgh has declared that if a team in a children's football match are winning by 5 to 0 (or more) at half time the ref should be allowed and encouraged to declare the score to be 0 - 0.

In this way the losing children can have another chance - and their self esteem will be protected.

Soon the careful minds of the Scottish authorities will work out that a better way of ensuring equality would be to declare that all matches end in the score 0 - 0.

Oh well, whilst the English taxpayers continue to fund the Scottish government (latest example - a 400 milion plus Paliament building that was supposed to cost "a maximum of 40 million") such sillyness will continue.

Also today I got to see this week's Economist... and I spotted a report on Somalia that I think will be of interest.

As is well known most of the nation of Somalia does not have a formal government. Now opponents of anarchism (or perhaps "anarchocapitalism" as "anarchism" is a word that is sometimes used to refer to some forms of collectivism) have pointed at Somalia and said "see anarchy - it really is vile, bloodsoaked chaos" and defenders of anarchy have claimed "no - Somalia does have a government (indeed it has multiple governments), the Warlords are all statists acting as warring governments".

The Economist report does not settle the dispute between anarchists and non-anarchists, but it does provide some information.

Firstly that paying the Warlords money to protect oneself and property does not work very well as (unlike the "protection agencies" of anarchist or anarcho-capitalist theory) the Warlords will take the money - but their men will tend to rob and murder you anyway.

However, hireing and organising one's own troops seems to work better (as does owning, and learning how to use, weapons oneself).

Also, as there are now about two dozen warlords and none of them (up until recently anyway) has a very well equiped force, a troop of even ten men can give one security against most road blocks and other such (the Warlord gangs just see it as just two many armed people to fight - and the armed guards tend to be fairly trustworthy).

This is clearly not much good for very small business enterprises or (POOR) private individuals. But some large companies are actually prospering in Somalia.

For example the largest mobile phone company may employ 300 armed guards on top of its 500 working staff, but neither the company or its employees have to pay taxes to anyone or obey any regualtions. They just have to respect the property of other people and keep their agreements with them (otherwise the reputation, and therefore the profits, of the company would go down the drain).

Although many of the working (or perhaps "non security workers" would be more polite - after all the armed guards are doing a job) staff consider it wise to own weapons themselves and to know how to use them (which is a cost - in both money and time), for added security.

And, the Economist (no friend of corrupt business folk)reports, the company provides charitable gifts to the local people (schools, hospials, roads and so on).

Sadly neither the American government or the "International Community" are interested in this.

The Americans are supplying favoured Warlords with money and weapons (in return for help in hunting terrorists) and the International Community is obsessed with a "peace process" in which the various crimial gang bosses, or proto governments (or whatever you want to call the Warlords) are gathered together in the hopes they will form a formal government for the area of Somalia that does not have one. In which case (of course) the Warlords would be strong enough to rob and murder as much as they liked.

Almost needless to say, the private companies are not invited to these talks. Perhaps if the private companies robbed and murdered people they would be invited.