Muammar Al Khadafi

"At least 3.7 million people – about half of Somalia's population – need food, and around 3.2 million people are in extreme need of immediate, lifesaving aid because of drought and years of conflict."

That's copied verbatim from the Guardian.

The around half the population may be a little wrong and alarmist in the way papers love to be - World Bank figures for 2009 put Somalias population at a little over 9 million people, DFID figures say 8.7 million - but who really knows, it's not the most stable of regions.

Whichever figure is accurate, it's fair to say that if we have to feed 3.7 million people there then foreign aid from all donors is needed to support somewhere between a third and a half of Somalias entire population.

For a country with a small population, we in the UK throw a lot of money at Somalia.

The Department for International Development informs us that "We will spend an average of £63 million per year in Somalia until 2015".

Hardly a day goes by lately when we're not announcing some new aid there as well.

17 August saw International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announce yet more money, an extra £25 million this time.

The appeals for money, and the amounts given by the British people, whether via foreign aid in which we have no say, or charity donations which at least we do get a say on, is staggering.

Figures from Global Humanitarian Assistance show Somalia receiving a total of $683 million (£414 million approx) in global aid for the 2009 period. We know that 2011 will be much, much higher when all sources of foreign aid are considered.

It also informs us that humanitarian aid to Somalia has been rising steadily since the late 1990s - a trend which shows no sign of abating.

And, despite all the problems which beset Somalia, problems which require massive amounts of Western aid, the population is still growing at an estimated 2.4%.

We see the worse of all situations. A country in ruins which cannot support itself, entirely dependant on foreign aid, and a country in which the population continues to grow.

In fact, we see an entire country which is supported only by vast injections of overseas aid, and a country whose problems will only get worse as its population increases.

Our support and aid may lessen the impact of some disasters and crises there, but it is nothing save for a delaying action - what we put off today will be a far bigger disaster tomorrow.

Somalia is the archetypal state for where foreign aid dependence ends, existing in perpetual disaster only kept in some kind of limited check by foreign money, and growing towards even greater disaster to come.

We overseas are, quite literally, supporting an entire country as it staggers towards catastrophe.