We are our Future......

[Somali Brother]

Asalamu Alaykum my brothers and sisters,

 

This topic is on behalf of our beautiful, courageous, intelligent, historical, and most of all, unified people of Somalia. (Please feel free to respond at will.)

 

I believe that we are our own future. Somalia, as most third-world nations, suffers greatly from, the simply-defined and universal, "brain drain". In order to reverse this, ex-patriots like you and I are expected to give back to our nation.....its worth, its honor, its dignity, its respect, and last and most importantly.....ITSELF. It is the least we can do for the country that gave us, our parents and our ancestors’ shelter, food, a land to call their own, and hope for their children.

 

I, myself, was born in Somalia and was there for the first 8 years of my life. I have seen first-hand the land I call "my home", and wish to give it more than it has given me.

 

So, Insha'Allah, when I finish school, Somalia will be at the receiving-end of my education and gratitude. I encourage all my Somali brothers and sisters around the world in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and the Americas to remember "our land" in its time of need, and our individual time of prosperity.

 

ma'salama

Somali Brother from Ottawa, Canada

[Baashi]

Wlc Somali Brother, Insha'allah we will save no effort to be part of the 'peace making' endeavor and we'll keep remembering our beautifull Nomadland.

[Matkey]

aslaama alaykum,

 

I completely understand your concern for our country, and hope that everyone here feels the same way. But what can we do to reverse our current situation?

[Hibo]

Dear Somali Brother,

 

I wish happiness for u and may Allah bless you. That was one of the most beautiful posts I have read in a long time. I wish all my people felt as u do about our country. You r right, we are all in debt to our somalia. your words made me think and i now realize what is expected of the youth of our generation. We should use the education we recieved abroad to help our country become what it once was..(and still is in my heart) United and strong Somalia.

 

I commend u on ur concern for our country, you are truly ahead of ur time brother. May Allah bless you.

 

Sumaya

[Thinkerman]

My sentiments excatly. If not us whom will burden themselves with rebuilding our country from its current anarchic state

 

Inshallah we will get the chance to do so in the not to distant future Somali Brother.

[LadyMo]

Insha Allah I want to go there again I went to Somaliland last summer and it was de best holiday dat money could buy, there are soo many things we take for granted in 2days society and goin there made me realise just how badly we're needed to help rebuild our land and we cud all help by simply buyin land and settin up homes for us to visit durin holidays or indeed for other family members who reside in Somalia can use!

 

There are soo many things happening there, u'd b truely amazed & sumtimes it hurts me to read when fellow Somalis say they'd neva return but I think our land is better wivout them coz they aint NOWHERE in de world were we will be truely accepted than in Somalia & I kno from 1st hand experience (even though ur born in a country-u wont necessarily b accepted as one of them)

 

The goodness our land has to offer is endless and its soo obvious dat u even see European people there makin money out of our raw materials!

WHY OOO WHY do we let this happen??

[RaMpAgE]

The way we develope our future lays in our hands.

What the older generation leave will affect us when their gone and our children.

 

so basicaly the future is in our hands, the only thing is if we want too take the opportunity. :cool:

[Somali Brother]

I thank you all for sharing your heart felt concerns regarding our great land. I know there are many of us who feel this way and want to contribute what we can.

 

And for Matkey, you asked how we as individuals can reverse the current situation? I believe Sumaya said it best Matkey:

 

We should use the education we received abroad to help our country become what it once was..(and still is in my heart) United and strong Somalia.

ExDane also brought up an interesting subject for us to speculate upon. Foreigners are making money from the raw materials they purchase from Somalis (for practically nothing) and reselling it in other markets for 20-30 times that price.

 

The lack of government in Somalia has also been an attracting factor for foreign fishing vessels to fish in Somali waters and at the same time, dump their waste. I don't knows if some of you know or not, but the Somali coast line has been rated in the top 5 best fishing waters in the world by the World Bank. That's just one more reason to protect our natural resources from misuse.

 

Shujui and Rampage, I share your sentiments completely.

 

Ma'salama

[Somali Brother]

This is an interesting article that we should all read.

 

 

Monday October 20, 1997 Edition

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Post-US, Somalia Finds Many Cash In on Chaos

 

Ilene R. Prusher, Special to The Christian Science Monitor

 

BOSSASO, SOMALIA -- It's just after noon at the port in Bossaso, and there has been another shooting by a militiaman of a rival sub-sub-clan member. Now a major point of entry for goods into Somalia, Bossaso has been targeted by the United Nations as a place worth cleaning up because it's the region's biggest potential source of income.

 

The disorder that ensues is typical of a place where there is no law, and no police to enforce it. But one afternoon's tumult is just a blip compared with the lawlessness that is exploited by those who have managed to capitalize on what may be the world's most unregulated economy.

 

Since the UN left in 1995, a year after American troops pulled out, the civil war has dwindled to battles among rival warlords in the capital, Mogadishu.

 

 

LESSONS: Girls study in Hargeisa, Somaliland, the breakaway portion of Somalia. As the civil war staggers on in the capital Mogadishu, other regions have found a measure of stability. In Bossaso, business is booming, but the unprotected coast has led to looting of country's scarce resources.

(JEAN-MARC BOUJU/AP)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The beneficiaries of Somalia's stateless state include local players as well as foreign looters. Some here argue that what most hampers efforts toward peace and the re-formation of a central government in Somalia - which collapsed in 1991 - are those who profit from the chaos.

 

Domestically, there are a number of Somalis who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. These include militia members who get paid to provide security, khat importers who don't have to pay duties on the narcotic leaf, and various other businessmen who are happy to operate without regulations and without taxes.

 

In fact, in the free-for-all atmosphere, the private sector has boomed. Independent businesses, nationalized during the 1970s by the former Socialist regime of President Mohamed Siad Barre, have sprouted up again.

 

In Bossaso, many services that were public before the war again exist, but only for those who can afford them. During the civil war's height, for example, looters stripped phone lines for the copper and left the nation out of order. Now, entrepreneurs have opened a communications center.

 

But this tax-free environment is not exactly a supply-sider's dream. Virtually nothing trickles down to the overwhelming majority living in slums, where goats feed on garbage heaps that no one is paid to clean up. Clinics, schools, and even a post office are in operation, but cost so much that the most basic services are available only to people of means.

 

Yet, in a way almost unimaginable to Westerners, Somalia functions even in its statelessness. The marketplace here in Bossaso does a brisk business. Sectors such as fishing and livestock have grown throughout the relatively stable northeast. Before the war, there was one aviation firm with three aircraft; now there are 14 companies with 62 airplanes.

 

Some might consider this to be an impressive example of the survivalism that has played itself out in other war-torn African states, where the traditional trade filled many of the functions of an official economy. In Somalia, there was almost no history of state institutions before Siad Barre seized power in 1969.

 

"They have a society based on clan lineages, and the government was never really imposing itself on Somali society," says Hagai Erlich, an expert in East African politics at Israel's Tel Aviv University. Somalis are "much more individualistic and less tribalistic, and in paradoxical way, that may help fuel a free economy," he says.

 

 

(TOM BROWN - STAFF)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

But can a society be too free to be fair? Roland Marchal, a researcher from Paris's Center d'Études et de Récherches Internationales, says that Somalia's "free" economy often means that traders from weaker clans are prohibited from competing with traders from the strongest clans.

 

The fact that many Somalis remember Siad Barre's regime as thoroughly corrupt may further hinder attempts to recreate a central government. "Many new traders have little knowledge about [corruption in] the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s; nevertheless, they may legitimately fear the development of a state apparatus that will bring new regulations, taxation, and patronage," Mr. Marchal wrote in a recent report for the UN. "So the antistate culture is very strong amongst the new business people...."

 

Even if many Somalis are managing to feed their children and eke out a living, anarchy has other consequences. The world knows that there is still no one in charge in Somalia, and most importantly, no one guarding its coastline. Somalis and UN officials say ships from places such as China and Taiwan have been dumping toxic waste in the unprotected waters off the coast. Ships from around the world also have been illegally fishing the seafood-rich waters. "This is one of the five best fishing areas in the world according to World Bank studies, but it's being looted by pirates who are taking advantage of our national tragedy because we can't protect our coastline," says Gen. Mohammed Abshir, a top official in the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), the leading political faction here.

 

UN officials verify ships from China, the Philippines, Spain, and Russia have been heavily fishing the area. Somali leaders in the northeast region say that 300 to 500 vessels appear along their 800-mile section of coast during a season, and that the fleets also include trawlers from other European countries, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Yemen, and Pakistan.

 

"That's a pretty barren coast, there's 2,000 miles of it, and someone can get away with it pretty easily," says a security official in charge of UN operations here. "You can see them fishing when you fly over the country."

 

The UN, the International Maritime Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization are beginning a fisheries project to measure the extent of the problem and help Somalis protect and make use of the resource.

 

Included in the environmental pillaging, large tracts of land in Somalia have been burned and made into charcoal. SSDF leaders say that during the last two years, at least a million bags of charcoal have been made and shipped off to the Arab Gulf states, though the faction has begun to crack down on such activities.

 

Somalis say they know the lawlessness keeps the international community away. But without its assistance, says port manager Said Jibril Aris, there isn't enough money to do what's necessary: "We cannot build a watch tower. We need a hand from the donor community, otherwise things will remain as they are.

[Instinct.Poet]

Thank You ,somali Brother.

Me and you kinda share the same views of life i guess

Same as you i only lived in somali for the first 8yrs of my life, and i do have the same goal as you, if in allahs will i live long i will continue to give my country what it deserves a young open minded person who'z well civilized and also can see past the clan devide.I'm in school for one reason to help my self and others in my country

where my help is really needed.Is kinda nice to see many young nomad who you can relate with.

Thank god for that..

 

Lets not forget where we came from.

We are a people who have a land called somalia

It belongs to us. me,you,,him,her lets build our home together.

 

 

Our future is in our hands.....

[BN]

Originally posted by Shujui-1:

If not us whom will burden themselves with rebuilding our country from its current anarchic state

Well said.

 

InshaAllah, I will be going back after I finish school as well

[BN]

For anyone looking to help Somalia NOW, here is an organization called Global Nation Building which list jobs in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan and requirements. It lists hundreds of positions in Somalia alone, looks legitimate but I'll try to find out more. Let me know what you guys think

 

 

http://sites.browsermanaged.com/folder10630/index.cfm?id=666&fuseaction=browse&pageid=24

 

I saw the link on http://www.puntlandpost.com/News.php?id=348

[Matkey]

Originally posted by Instinct-Poet:

I'm in school for one reason to help my self and others in my country where my help is really needed.Is kinda nice to see many young nomad who you can relate with.

Thank god for that..

 

Lets not forget where we came from.

We are a people who have a land called somalia

It belongs to us. me,you,,him,her lets build our home together.

 

 

Our future is in our hands.....

Asalaama Alaykum my bro/sis

 

Instinct-Poet, this is a good intention, and may Allah (swt) be with you and your family all the way. Just to know that there is someone like you makes me question my purpose of doing what i do in this life. Insha Allah you will be a true role model for today's generation and the coming ones.

[Baashi]

Bari_nomad, I just checked the company whose website u posted. I called them...they only have a voice mail. Which basically tells callers that they are recieving too many phone calls...tells the caller to check their website www.globalnationbuilding.com It didn't sound right so I checked it with Better Business Bureau www.bbb.org it said that there is no such company. I filled a complaint against them and in due time they will email me back the result of their investigation. They may be a legitimate organization but I have my doubts especially when a company asks me $300.00 up front to apply a position which they have no control over. Check this link and read it carefully http://sites.browsermanaged.com/folder10630/index.cfm?id=666&fuseaction=browse&pageid=35. Look this:

Our client is very stringent in their requirements. They expect to review the applicant's resume; review the result of the security clearance and review a written translation sample [Translators], and then invite interview - before we can hire any individual.

 

My $300.00 is gone before they check my credentials or they check my resume along with security clearance result...Before they hire me. There is wild world out there...be careful nomads.

[Gabbal]

Baashi are you serious? If I hadn't seen your post, I would've taken it as a legit organization. :eek: