How Somalia is changing the country after the war

[King Harlem]

I'm in Mogadishu right now. First time in my life in Somalia.

My dad started coming back in 2011. But left corporate America to start a new business with property my grandfather left him and my uncle in 2012.

I am amazed at what he's built here. It was the former Egyptian Embassy and they rented from my grandfather. My dad has made it into a business center and built more space for tenants. There's a restaurant renting from him using the roof of one of the buildings.

Mogadishu is relatively safe. I've hit the streets at night this week. Going to the beach last night to eat dinner had a bunch of checkpoints by police/soldiers. Many areas of the city have stepped up those security measures after Al-Shabaab bombed Liido Beach and other places in recent years..

If Somalia hits big with oil/gas, there is no reason why the city can't properly rebuild the roads, sanitation, plumbing, and including green spaces. They need way more sanitation engineers on the streets.

There are still areas you can see destroyed from the civil war in the 1990s. You also see high rises coming up and private businessmen are beautifying those spaces and their own private roads.

No urban planning to meld what the Italians built during colonialism, what was built post-independence, and the current era.

In terms of the people... the population is so young. But there's a lot of talented young people. They have no connection to the civil war and a lot of them don't want to migrate but build their country. I like to see that. Politicians are so corrupt though.

Dope post.

 

[FAH1223]

How are the sisters there?

A lot of them. They say they’re more educated than the brothers.

Someone like @Malcolmxxx_23 could snap his fingers and marry one tomorrow. The family wants that dowry.

One of my cousins married one here and she’s trying to get to the states but how? Trump is in office. Going to be impossible

 

[FAH1223]

You have to wonder how much of that 1 billion is actually going to making the country better. I know folks have to be hesitant to pay taxes when it's just going to be siphoned away by corruption.

It's an absolute shame that you guys aren't a shipping powerhouse similar to Singapore because of your strategic position in shipping lanes. With your only competition being janky Yemen on the other side of the sea, an ideal Somalia would be killing the game.

There’s a lot of forces that want to see this place stay in poverty.