there is no state in smalley and hasn't been since january 91. the story of smalley and a nutshell is there is a socialist coup in somalia in a socialist coup in ethiopia. the cubans and russians were trying to build unity between these two governments and supporting them. but there were local agendas and the finale ticked teeters, say ari was among many things a smalley irredentist nationalists who wanted to reunite the wholesome only homeland, part of which et by this area to a greater smalley lace inacio pia, the austin region the war is still going on. he launches a covert war in ethiopia. this covert war spins out of control, and becomes a conventional conflict. once he realizes cubans are helping ethiopians as well as himself, he switches sides in the u.s. and saudi arabia and pakistan start supporting them and poor russians into somalia by the cubans and russians pour into ethiopia. the net result is the collapse of somalia and he refuses to let go until his army has disintegrated in somalia collapses and there's no government there. neith

smalley, the way with so many different dynamics, islamic dynamics, there's the official transitional federal government in the south, just a collection of ex-warlords awarded by the international community. it's really one of the most interesting countries in the world. >> first of all, teacher parents, girlfriend and that they say this is a totally crazy thing to do. you have no idea what it's going to be late to work in a place like that. to not do it. >> guest: actually know. a lot of my friends were toymaker from the talk me out of it. they were trying to get to meet her. she never did. i don't know why. my parents as were very supportive. they were sort of taciturn about it. they didn't overly encourage me, but they never said anything to dissuade me or even threatened to pull the purse strings from under me because i need you to borrow money from them. >> host: i assume you try to get somebody to give you an assignment to go there so you would know you have somebody to write for and it got there. >> i actually didn't because i went originally with the intent of writing the book

so there's no way to any port facilities in smalley that would be capable of offloading the tanks.but there's this idea that shabaab was after the tanks. ascertains coupons we'd even be in use in somalia, like these soviet tanks and decades ago are not going to be much help to islamist group fighting insurgents. it's not how modern war is fought. but there's a neatly this idea that the pirates are in deep with shabaab and are trying to get them think that i think those are two events that stuck in endless lines and were used as fodder for why the piracy needed to be treated like terrorism. and other than that, there's really very little evidence to suggest there's any sort of real linkages between the two groups. now, recently, that does look like an epidemic of reprieve in the book how that may be changing the effort very good reasons. because shabaab has pushed north into areas that the pirates operate out of. so then we can start thinking that maybe pirates might have to pay protection money. it's logical, right? >> host: it's got to get money from somewhere. >> guest: sure. shi

mortality surveys, data verified at the cdc and on that basis, we estimate in the last 90 days, 29,000 smalley children have died. this is nearly 4% of the children in southern amalia. our fear and the feared the international community and in the horn of africa is those conditions will spread to encompass the entire beat regions of southern somalia. the next dream there's the timbre, october. even if they are good, we could bear with us to another wave of mortality in the south due to waterborne diseases. >> in his book, "pinched," don peck looks at social change brought on by the current recession and compares it to past economic downturns. he recently spoke at the politics & prose books are in washington d.c. this is an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> okay, good evening. we will get started. welcome to politics & prose bookstore. i am mike giarratano. a schedule events here and i welcome you this evening on behalf of art owners who we are excited to have on board here and on behalf of the booksellers. so welcome to politics & prose and thank you for being here for supporting the spokes t