Can you say "ROME?" This is exactly how Rome was governed during the time of Caesar.
Your Identification, Please
BELMONT CLUB BLOG
By wretchard
The story sounds familiar at first. Militias are fueling urban warfare -- but in Rio de Janeiro, not Baghdad. The Washington Post describes the struggle to control 100 slum districts where "militias" are simultaneously the "protectors" and the source of trouble. The men who started the militias were off-duty police officers and residents themselves. But now the militias have become a law unto themselves.
The Rio das Pedras militia, one of the oldest in the city, was formed in the late 1980s when neighbors banded together to kick out a group of local drug dealers. As the militia evolved, off-duty and retired police officers began taking over its leadership positions. Some residents say that today the militia helps to fill the gap left by the government's inattention to the neighborhood's social needs. ...
Allan Turnowski, the state director of special police operations, said the militias recruit members from a police corps that pays low-tier troopers about $450 a month. ... Leonardo Pontes, a hotel security guard in a Rio tourist district ... said residents pay the militia about $14 a month for an illegal cable television connection, whether they want it or not, and in return get a neighborhood free of drug gangs. He said he thinks it's a good bargain. ...
But their critics claim the militias supplant one kind of gang with another and official statistics claim to show no difference between militia-ruled and gang-controlled slum districts.
Commentary
One way to recognize a failing state is to examine the extent to which its cities are subdividing into gated communities. This article from Wikipedia provides an overview of the booming phenomenon of fortified villages in the modern age.
In more recent times, a much larger number of gated communities has rapidly developed in various regions throughout the world ... In 2000, eight million U.S. residents lived in gated communities ... American gated communities generally exist more for purposes of prestige than for practical security needs. In most cases, the gate is unmanned and automated and is opened by a resident from their vehicle by entering a code on an electronic keypad. ...
In Brazil, the most widespread form of gated community is called "condomínio fechado" (closed housing estate) and is the object of desire of the upper classes. Such a place is a small town with its own infrastructure (backup power supply, sanitation and security guards). Some even have schools for the children so that they will only need to leave the community after the first five years of elementary school. The purpose of such a community is to protect its residents from outside violence. ...
In post-apartheid South Africa gated communities have mushroomed in response to high levels of violent crime. South African gated communities are broadly classified as "security villages" (large-scale privately developed areas) or "enclosed neighbourhoods". Some of the newest neighborhoods being developed are virtually entirely comprised of security villages, with a few isolated malls and other essential services (such as hospitals). A common mode of development of the security villages involves staking out a large land claim, developing a high wall surrounding the entire zone, then gradually adding roads and other infrastructure. In part, property developers have adopted this response to counter squatting, which local residents fear due to associated crime, and which often results in a protracted eviction process. Crime syndicates have been known to acquire property in some of these security villages to be used as a base for their operations within them. ...
In Saudi Arabia, gated communities have existed since the discovery of oil, mainly to accommodate Westerners and their families. After threat levels raised since late 1990s against Westerners in general, and Americans in particular, gates have become armed, sometimes heavily, and all vehicles being inspected. Marksmen and SANG armored vehicles appeared in certain times, markedly after recent terrorist attacks in areas nearby, targeting Westerners.
The Wikipedia article probably understates the actual prevalance of gated communities by focusing only on the readily recognizable forms. The Poor Man's gated community is secured by creating a neighborhood watch, often manned by former military men, as happens in Baghdad. The Rio militias that the Washington Post describes are just simply one way poor people pull up the drawbridge around their patch of turf. They chose a local warlord and in some respects transfer allegiance to him, while maintaining a separate relationship to a High King in the capitol.
Nor is this the only form of enclosure of the once national common. Subdivision can also take the form of the separation of ethnic communities from the larger nation into closed societies. Mark Steyn watches it happen in England.
The flight routes from Pakistan to the United Kingdom are now the most important ideological conduit for radical Islam. The London bombers last summer were British subjects of Pakistani origin. Last week, two more were arrested in connection with the Tube bombings at Manchester Airport as they prepared to board a plane to Karachi.
Meanwhile, flying back from Karachi and Islamabad to Heathrow and Manchester are cousins, lots and lots of them. In his detailed study of the Mirpur district in Pakistan, Roger Ballard estimates that at least half and maybe up to two-thirds of those living in Britain of Mirpuri descent marry first cousins. This is a critical tool of reverse-assimilation: instead of being diluted over the generations, tribal identity is reinforced; in effect, Pakistani tribal lands are now being established in parts of northern England.
It is often forgotten that the Dark Ages were also the heyday of multiculturalism. Each valley held its petty lord and it was possible for places separated only by a few miles to speak totally different languages. But it can't happen again, can it? |
