500 'Tokyo' cities in one Somalia!

[Chimera]

A megacity of 30 million people could fit five hundred times in a country the size of Somalia, whose entire population is less than half than that of the Japanese capital. It's impressive to see how a divisive people like the Japanese that used to be pirates, riddled with civil-wars and were the biggest clannists in Asia evolved above their clan-system and destroyed it.

 

They build a magnificent country afterwards in a small geographic part of their world, while we have been blessed with a country three times the size of Japan, with countless rich resources and no earth-quakes, but can't seem to reach above the village mentality and are perpetual slaves to illiterate clan chieftains.

 

A sad state of affairs.

[Somalina]

We will get there IA.

[Carafaat]

Indeed, we will get there inshallah.

[xiimaaya]

Explain that to the narrow minded SOMALILANDERS:)

[wyre]

Chimera;806596 wrote:

A megacity of 30 million people could fit five hundred times in a country the size of Somalia, whose entire population is less than half than that of the Japanese capital. It's impressive to see how a divisive people like the Japanese that used to be pirates, riddled with civil-wars and were the biggest clannists in Asia evolved above their clan-system and destroyed it.

 

They build a magnificent country afterwards in a small geographic part of their world, while we have been blessed with a country three times the size of Japan, with countless rich resources and no earth-quakes, but can't seem to reach above the village mentality and are perpetual slaves to illiterate clan chieftains.

 

A sad state of affairs.

Words from a real wadani, thanks ugaas

 

We should have faith we will be better in the future Insha allah

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

will will never get there, what wth? The Japanese represent one end of the development or advancement of the human being and we represent the other. completely crazy to even compare the two. I was watching rachel madow today and guess what she said, we are a somalia lol. can we work on being like kenya and ethiopia before we go and compare ourselves to places like japan

[Valenteenah.]

This is an important period in our history and it has to change us at a fundamental level if we are to overcome current obstacles and prosper. We have to document it and learn from it.

[Chimera]

Naxar Nugaaleed;806904 wrote:

will will never get there, what wth? The Japanese represent one end of the development or advancement of the human being and we represent the other. completely crazy to even compare the two.

While I'm absolutely furious and saddened by our current situation, I reject your dismissal of our potential to transform ourselves into an African Japan, indeed there was a period in time when that country was mocked for being pirates, for being raiders, for being riddled with Samurai militia's, for suffering famines, yet they managed to rise above that with lesser resources than us. It's all about momentum and having a nation wide mentality wishing to succeed. History has shown that when Somalis did have a rudimentary national wide conscience to succeed and progress, it resulted in amazing achievements, remember that there was a time when:

- Somalia was hailed as one of the greatest democratic countries in Africa in the 1960s, and President Aden Abdulle was the first head of state to step down peacefully in an African election year.

 

- Somalia made the greatest advance in literacy history, outshining the much hailed Cuban literacy campaign.

 

- Somalia maintained a military complex considered in the top five militaries of Africa, a continent of 50+ countries. It send troops to Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and trained the South Africans and the Eritreans during their independence struggles.

 

- Somalia was one of the few self-sufficient countries in Africa, and the breadbasket of the Middle East, and even exported food to Europe. A single Somali crop like 'bananas' was the biggest employer of people in East Africa.

 

- Somalia was the first muslim country to grant equal rights to women through the 1975 Family Law, and the participation of women in the work-force was higher in Somalia than the percentages of Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco put together.

 

- Somalia in peace was building more deepsea ports than any country in East Africa.

 

- Somalia was building more highways and roads than its larger neighbour Ethiopia. Even today Somalia's paved road-network remains larger than the road-networks of Uganda and DR Congo put together whose combined territory size is five times larger than Somalia.

 

Somalia's aviation sector maintained Africa's largest runway at the Berbera Airport, whose record was only broken by the 4500m runway expansion at Mogadishu Airport.

 

- Somalia's 1000 year old city of Mogadishu was one of the cleanest and safest cities in Africa, and a major political and cultural capital hosting fashion shows, sport-events, major political conventions and annually presided over two of the four largest African Film Festivals, and had the region's largest Museum.

 

- Somalia was the only country in Africa with whom the Soviet Union signed a friendship-treaty, and the first African country to be visited by a Soviet Head of State.

 

- Somalia in 1974 became the first non-Arab country to join a traditionally exclusive organisation like the Arab League.

 

- Somalia maintained the largest commercial Merchant fleet in the Muslim world; larger than seafaring nations like Turkey, Pakistan and Morocco.

 

- Somalia's national carrier 'Somali Airlines' was the only national airlines in Africa to have in its work-force exclusively 'African pilots and technicians' (all professional Somalis) and had one of the largest networks flying to the Middle-East, Europe and other parts of Africa.

 

- Somalia was in the process of constructing Africa's second largest Dam (after the Aswan dam) in the form of the Bardera dam project.

 

- Somalia constructed the largest Fish production factory in East Africa, the biggest meat processing factory. The SNAI sugar factory was the largest in the region, and Somaltex manufactured more textiles than any country in Africa, with so much produced that one could stretch it from Mogadishu to New York according to an 1980s journalist.

 

Somalis have what it takes to succeed and flourish, to do record breaking engineering projects and social advancement campaigns! There are plenty of historic examples to support that, some of which I have highlighted above. However political blunders, lack of statemanship, myopia, conventional wars and civil-strife has prevented a continued age of forward development that could have cemented the progress that was made by successive Somali governments and the citizens.

 

I was watching rachel madow today and guess what she said, we are a somalia lol.

Pop culture references like that are irrelevant, Somalia is in conflict hence there is no point in getting worked up about that. I remember a decade ago Martin Lawrence was yelling "This place looks like Beirut'' in the first Bad Boys movie in reference to a destroyed mansion, yet Beirut today is the financial/fashion capital of the Middle East, so things can easily be turned around through a strong 'branding' campaign once the situation settles back home.

 

can we work on being like kenya and ethiopia before we go and compare ourselves to places like japan

Outside of the disintergrated political and security situation Somalia is economically more advanced and inclusive than the majority of East Africa and has far greater potential, remember that:

 

- Somalia is more urbanised than any of its neighbours outside of the city-state that is Djibouti.

 

- Somalia has more deepsea ports than any of its neighbours and the wider East Africa.

 

- Somalia is the most strategic located country in Africa.

 

- Somalia is no longer a city-state country like Nairobi-Kenya or Addis-Ethiopia, but instead multiple regional centers have emerged that with a bit of urban planning put us in a comfortable situation of spread-out and universal development.

 

- Somalia is more attractive to rising powers like China and Turkey.

 

- Somalia has a sizable population that can be uplifted quite easily with a good economic plan. Ethiopia and Kenya are major disasters waiting to happen with their estimated populations of 100+ million people in the future, which only means more mouths to feed.

 

- Somalia's export earnings from livestock alone are greater than the entire export earnings of Ethiopia, a country of 90 million people that's supposed to be in an 'economic boom', yet earns less than a collapsed country like Somalia. If the agricultural and marine industries of Somalia were to be resuscitated, we would be in the 5 to 10 billion annual export earnings category.

 

- Somalia has more universities in the top 100 of the continent than any country in the Horn of Africa.

 

- Somalia teledensity rate is higher than Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti put together.

 

- Somalia's people are highly entrepreneurial, for example, Somalis have a significant foothold in all of the economies of East Africa that no other country can boast, we are the owners of major real-estate companies, major malls, major banks, major construction companies, major truck companies, major factories, and this we achieved in a age of division and war, imagine if this economic dominance was actually carefully nurtured and patronised by an inclusive and forward thinking Somali government?

 

- Somalia is estimated to have the 20th largest or the 7th largest Oil reserves in the world, a quarter of the Uranium reserves in the world, and an unknown quantity of gas reserves along its Indian Ocean coast. This is something neither Kenya or Ethiopia have, but we do!

 

The ingredients are there; the sizable population, the economic infrastructure assets, the vast natural resources, the strategic location, the diaspora network of funds and skills, the educational institutions, and many more. We just need a progressive crop of men and women to take the helm that will unite our people instead of divide in to weak factions, who initiate sound economic policies that does not interfere with the natural Somali entrepreneurial spirit, who are savvy diplomats that know to work the world in Somalia's advantage.

 

It's not even a monumental task, just a simple case of common sense; you want to succeed in life, then you must learn to compromise and work together!

[NGONGE]

In Japan's case, one warlord was given 'western' weapons and he managed to beat all the other warlord and central the rule of his country, which in trun allowed for ideas of clans and diamos to disappear. AMISOM anyone?

 

p.s.

Your head is a nice place, Adam. Shame that the rest of us keep having to open our eyes.

[Chimera]

The major reason behind the decline of the Japanese clan-system was the social and economic change that was initiated by the Meji government, the average Japanese no longer needed the protection or support of their clans, the state became the ultimate clan. It's too late however to do a 'Meji' today, that should have been done during the Dervish Age, here too the brilliant Sayyid Abdullah Hassan had plenty of western weapons but he lacked the important statemanship needed to unite the entire Somali peninsula by failing to establish the ''Kingdom of Somalia'', and then not kidnapping an Afar prince and princess to become the new monarchs of this kingdom. This is how modern European Kingdoms bypassed their ancient clans and traditional attitudes towards someone from clan A or B becoming ruler, they simply imported a German prince or princess and everybody from the Mccallisters to the Vasojevićis went to bed with a reassured heart.

 

A strong Kingdom of Somalia supported by all Somalis would have extended its reach over all of the Somali peninsula, and the major money draining wars like the O-gaden War would have never occurred because that territory would be in our possession. In today's reality I'm hoping for a major economic boom and social progression that will render the clan-system obsolete and ingrain the Somali State in the people's mind as the ultimate clan.

[Chimera]

The choice is simple:

[Carafaat]

Chimera;807019 wrote:

The major reason behind the decline of the Japanese clan-system was the social and economic change that was initiated by the Meji government, the average Japanese no longer needed the protection or support of their clans, the state became the ultimate clan. It's too late however to do a 'Meji' today, that should have been done during the Dervish Age, here too the brilliant Sayyid Abdullah Hassan had plenty of western weapons but he lacked the important statemanship needed to unite the entire Somali peninsula by failing to establish the ''Kingdom of Somalia'', and then not kidnapping an Afar prince and princess to become the new monarchs of this kingdom. This is how modern European Kingdoms bypassed their ancient clans and traditional attitudes towards someone from clan A or B becoming ruler, they simply imported a German prince or princess and everybody from the Mccallisters to the Vasojevićis went to bed with a reassured heart.

 

A strong Kingdom of Somalia supported by all Somalis would have extended its reach over all of the Somali peninsula, and the major money draining wars like the O-gaden War would have never occurred because that territory would be in our possession.

In today's reality I'm hoping for a major economic boom and social progression that will render the clan-system obsolete and ingrain the Somali State in the people's mind as the ultimate clan.

Chimera, interesting thread. I think this idea is stimulating, realistic and achievable. But for Somali to unite an see the Somali state as the ultimate clan, one needs to formulate a common greater goal. Like clans unite for a bigger goal, power, political domination or conquering cities also Somali's could unite as a clan against the world or Africa. But for this to happen our goal has to be a bigger ambition, bigger vision andwith a Somali message what ever this might be,

 

I think we could learn something from Rwanda and its neo pan African message of development by and for Africans.

[Archdemos]

Great post Chimera , as usual you’re emitting positivism. The potential for Somalia to succeed and surpass its neighbours has always been there it’s just that we are severely lacking on the human capital front. For every skilled 'Abdi' that decides to go back and invest there are countless more who will opt for the easier option of staying put. The future success of Somalia will largely depend on being able to convince the large diaspora to uproot. However when peace and a semblance of order returns it will remain to be seen if Somalis will indeed vote with their feet. There is a constant buzz at the moment with a narrative around grandiose restoration ideas, which have unfortunately become banal as they are severely lacking in any kind of foresight and strategy as to how to bring to fruition their ideas. This can be most disheartening, it seems we have a lot of talkers but not many doers.

 

To a certain extent the economic revival of the country is not as crucial as the building of the institutional capacity of a government. For this to work you need a single monopoly over violence and a multi generational investment in education to instill the psychological and physical impression of the state in the psyche of the ordinary currently stateless Somali. This is a monumental task that will overwhelm even the largest of established bureaucracies. There are also questions around how areas like Somaliland can be incentivised back into a union without having to resort to force. With the latter a pragmatic approach must be taken and a working relationship between a SOM gov and the administration in Hargeisa needs to be established. No solutions should be off the table and ideological politics should play second fiddle to the realties of the past two decades.

 

Moreover we may be best served in the immediate by directing our efforts towards coming up with real and tangible solutions to the everyday problems a future Somali government will encounter in the post war space. The relocation of IDP’s, again another herculean effort is needed here and many more problems.

 

The first two decades will be about laying the foundations of a strong government with checks and balances that is built on a social contract with its citizens. We must win back the trust of everyday citizens, and I’m yet to see a detailed manifesto on how this can be achieved. It’s as if all this will materialise once peace returns.

 

To return to your original premise, I don’t doubt Somalia can rebrand itself and who knows maybe in 40 years we will be talking about Somalia as a regional and possibly continental leader. For this to occur we need to put an end to the lethal lack of leadership that has served to maintain the wretched status quo.

[SayidSomal]

In Japan's case' date=' one warlord was given 'western' weapons and he managed to beat all the other warlord and central the rule of his country, which in trun allowed for ideas of clans and diamos to disappear. AMISOM anyone?

 

p.s.

Your head is a nice place, Adam. Shame that the rest of us keep having to open our eyes.[/QUOTE']

 

:D

 

Glass half full of hope - any one?

 

Two boys who one beautiful day were exploring their neighbor’s farm and came upon an empty barn that smelled of manure – the first boy said, “we got to get out of here, this smells horrible“, but the second boy said “Oh boy, this is great – there must be horses around!“. Yes, true optimists can even find a silver lining from manure!

 

"A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all – he’s walking on them" – Levinson

Which one were you again, Ngonge?

.

[NGONGE]

^^ Nothing about being an optimist or a pessimist, saaxib. All to do with being a realist. As for your story about the two boys, one must have the manure smell first and then the decision must be made (for your information, I'm with the second one here).