African countries dominate failed states list

African nations dominate the list of failed states index released today by Foreign Policy magazine.

Somalia topped with 114.9 points, followed by Sudan (109.4), Chad (107.6) and Zimbabwe (106.3).

Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, Iraq and Central African Republic were also rated among the top 10 failed states by the magazine.

Pakistan with 101.6 points, the magazine said, is ranked 13, a slight improvement from the previous two years.The report said that the country is run by civilian elite that steals all it can and pays almost no taxes.

The report said that some countries fail spectacularly, with a total collapse of all state institutions, as in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal and the hanging of President Mohammad Najibullah from a lamppost, or during the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, where the government ceased to exist altogether.

Most countries that fall apart, however, do so not with a bang but with a whimper. They fail not in an explosion of war and violence but by being utterly unable to take advantage of their society's huge potential for growth, condemning their citizens to a lifetime of poverty. This type of slow, grinding failure leaves many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America with living standards far, far below those in the West.

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