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#Somalia under Farmaajo is moving closer and closer to loose confederation at best, #Yugoslavia-style split of the nation at worst!! It seems N&N are totally opposed to the very idea of federalism and prefer a return to the dictatorship days! Nostalgia for doomed days is madness!
30 years of brutal civil war, recurring droughts/famine, serious corruption, high levels of unemployment, and short sighted/very selfish politicians - with no solution in sight is pushing some of us to consider the unimaginable: to save Somalis #Somalia might have to be split-up!
Last December I worked on a 'resilience' research in #Kismayo, #Baidoa, and #Beledweyn. My team and I interviewed nearly 500 people in these cities on how they cope with displacement, conflict, climate change. The answers were heartbreaking! Their living conditions traumatizing!!
Yet you have politicians who are wasting precious time and resources bickering over extremely poor and traumatized population for petty personal differences and power struggle!! This is because these politicians & decision-makers are very removed from realities on the ground.
Men who came to power through foreign money and by buying the 'votes', who live in ACed houses, move around in bullet-proof cars and have roads opened for them privately while the elderly walk in extreme heat is not governance but colonization of Somalis by small bought elite!!!
This is not sustainable, and we are headed to much darker place if a big shift doesn't take place in Somalia. The shift will have to start with genuine dialogue by few men holding us all hostage!! Otherwise we are going to split up and in a violent way where no one wins, no one!!
A combination of a culture that avoids addressing uncomfortable truth (deny it and it will go away), trauma, and ego-based politics has pushed us to live in suspended horror for 30 years!!! We are losing people fast but have become zombie to the pain!! We have to face the facts.
Lack of empathy for the suffering majority of the population, inflated egos, a culture of non-compromise seen as 'rag rag dhalay', and increasingly delusional interpretation of 'strong government' - (read violent dictatorship) - has derailed #Somalia from the achievements made!!!
