How do you explain the improvements that have occurred since the collapse of Barre's regime? That seems to indicate that anarchy cannot be blamed for the poor conditions in Somalia compared to, say, wealthy Western nations.

I'm not defending the hypothesis that any government is better than no government. So sure, having a really really bad government could be worse for Somalia than having none at all.

That's not an explanation, that's restating the fact.

Your comment was ambiguous. I thought you were asking me for the basis of my claim that Somalia lacks a strong government. If you think the civil war doesn't have anything to do with Somalia's current problems, I'm open to being persuaded.

The civil war and the lack of a strong government are not the same. It's the former, and not the latter, which maintains them in poverty.

A civil war happens precisely because there is no strong government. It's completely bizarre to claim that there's no link between the two.