If Somalia was peaceful would you return?

[Beenaale_No1]

^ Agree.

If Somalia get some resemblance of a semi-decent nation, there will be a huge gap between the rich [Somali diaspora returning home] and the dirt poor [the natives] and in the long term that will cause unrest.

You cant live in a big villa with your 2 maids and your SUV whilst the natives are barely getting by. Not gonna happen on their watch.

[Beenaale_No1]

I will end up living in an African or Muslim country in the near future. I cannot see myself getting old in qurbaha. Never.

[Samatar10]

NO! In five years--i will age to the years of BRAS MUST BE USED, to avoid gravity pull, and since al shabaab banned bras-- i think not! Purely stragetic decision.

B+ cup ?

[Beenaale_No1]

Basra is flat chested. Yaa been uu sheegeysa nayaa?

[OliveOil]

Gotta agree with Union...but I will go back one day inshAllah

[Xamud.]

I would, but never to Mogadishu.

[shiniile9]

Yes,as a Tourist for few weeks.

[AhmedBoqor]

Somalia lacks even the most basic luxuries that folks from Western nations are used to. There are power outages every few hours, indoor plumbing is a rarity, emergency services and medical facilities are less than ideal, and the region is still very volatile from years of civil war.

What worries me the most, however, is the gulf that will develop between the haves (diaspora) and the havenots (natives) when Somalia returns to some semblance of peace. Originally the civil war was started because the peasantry were angry with the gentry because of our higher quality of life, so what makes you think the poors will allow the diaspora to live in luxuriant villas with maids and SUVs while they bear the heat of the sun in ramshackle shelters?

I hope all these problems are solved sometime in the future. I'm not in any big rush. I probably won't return to Somalia for another 30 or so years.

Its a problem that can easily be solved if we developed a western style of standard of living, the country's resources should be used to help the people instead of a certain clan leaders profiting from it, the higher class should pay more taxes then the middle class, etc. but alas, its much easier said then done.

[Mckuus]

^ Agree.

If Somalia get some resemblance of a semi-decent nation, there will be a huge gap between the rich [Somali diaspora returning home] and the dirt poor [the natives] and in the long term that will cause unrest.

You cant live in a big villa with your 2 maids and your SUV whilst the natives are barely getting by. Not gonna happen on their watch.

This is already happening in Somaliland and Puntland, there are a few thousand former diasporans living there. There are hardly any problems between them and the locals. But those ex-diasporans usually live in the big cities (like Hargeisa/Bosaso/Burco/Garowe etc) and not among reer badiye rural folks.

[DropkickMurphy]

Are the Somalis in Nairobi part of the diaspora because the richest Somalis are based here and most of them if not all have never set foot in the Western world unless it was for a business trip.

[Monk-of-Mogadishu]

Somalia lacks even the most basic luxuries that folks from Western nations are used to. There are power outages every few hours, indoor plumbing is a rarity, emergency services and medical facilities are less than ideal, and the region is still very volatile from years of civil war.

What worries me the most, however, is the gulf that will develop between the haves (diaspora) and the havenots (natives) when Somalia returns to some semblance of peace. Originally the civil war was started because the peasantry were angry with the gentry because of our higher quality of life, so what makes you think the poors will allow the diaspora to live in luxuriant villas with maids and SUVs while they bear the heat of the sun in ramshackle shelters?

I hope all these problems are solved sometime in the future. I'm not in any big rush. I probably won't return to Somalia for another 30 or so years.

Not likely. The diaspora, especially in PL, are largely part of the development process. Its like those Jews that left the West for Israel - when they reached their homeland they uplifted the entire quality of life in the land. That's the effect the diaspora will have back home - perhaps not in SL where people live in delusion, but in PL the diaspora understands the underlying social problems back home.

[Murax]

Paidmonk,

The Jews who return home are usually all successful entrepenuers or at the very least have very strong skills/professions where they can come in and provide employment, training and a infusement of knowledge recourses. As for the Somali diaspora My biggest fear is that most of them will go back with 50k here, 50k there that they saved probably from Welfare systems and they just wanna build one house and live off that for the rest of their life. I've actually seen people with this mentality. The sad thing is these folks really will not enhance the lives of the locals in the least bit. Sure they might live decent/lavish in comparison to the rest of them, but they do not pass along any skills, tips to the locals to be able to have success here other then find a ticket to America and collect welfare. On the flip side the Jew who worked in Wall Street for 40 years is able to pass something onto a ethnic israeli jew about the financial industry. The Jewish Engineer is able to provide insight to a Israeili Engineers to be able to have success in that. Only EDUCATED, successful disasporas can improve the quality of life and raise the bar for a severely undereveloped Country like Somalia. Similar thing happened in Yemen. Yemeni refugees in New York City came, and would work nonstop 100 hours a week, save tens of thousands of money and go back and buy a house in Sanaa, Yemen. This would continue until there was a neighborhood called "Little Manhantan" in Sanaa. Sadly though these Guys have no skills they were able to impart to the locals other then they were lucky enough to come to America.

Unfortunately I do not think Somalis in general have a educated, successful diaspora. Many of the Somalis I observed, I am not seeing the coming generation evolve from the refugee status of their parents to middle class. I've seen Indians, Vietnamese and others make that leep but with Somalis I am seeing so many Somali youth who are moving out of Government Housing of their Parents and getting Government Housing of their own, when they were supposed to only use that as a Spring Board. What You say makes sense but I think Union's theory is more likely. You will see nothing but arrogant Somalis from the diaspora come buy huge houses and live like kings in the middle of crap, and still brag about it to the locals.

[union]

Somalia lacks even the most basic luxuries that folks from Western nations are used to. There are power outages every few hours, indoor plumbing is a rarity, emergency services and medical facilities are less than ideal, and the region is still very volatile from years of civil war.

What worries me the most, however, is the gulf that will develop between the haves (diaspora) and the havenots (natives) when Somalia returns to some semblance of peace. Originally the civil war was started because the peasantry were angry with the gentry because of our higher quality of life, so what makes you think the poors will allow the diaspora to live in luxuriant villas with maids and SUVs while they bear the heat of the sun in ramshackle shelters?

I hope all these problems are solved sometime in the future. I'm not in any big rush. I probably won't return to Somalia for another 30 or so years.

Not likely. The diaspora, especially in PL, are largely part of the development process. Its like those Jews that left the West for Israel - when they reached their homeland they uplifted the entire quality of life in the land. That's the effect the diaspora will have back home - perhaps not in SL where people live in delusion, but in PL the diaspora understands the underlying social problems back home.

I don't think there's a good comparison between the Jews who made aliyah to Israel and returning diaspora Somalis, as Murax said. Those Jews were heavily involved in value creating industries, and they transferred those skills over to their co ethnics in Israel. That's why Israel is now one of the leading technology producing nations. How many Somalis create something of value? Very little. And certainly not enough to change the reality in Puntland or elsewhere. Somalis are mostly involved in small scale import/export and businesses which transfer value rather than create value. Businesses that transfer value, like shops, employ much less people than businesses that create value like factories, tech corporations, research facilities, etc etc of which Somalia has very little. And unfortunately I don't see the diaspora changing that now or in the future. Most diaspora Somalis are either taxi drivers, small shop owners, or zero income salehs on welfare...

So we are going to have a situation wherein the diaspora will move in and use their life savings to lead relatively opulent lives, while by international standards the natives will be living in abject poverty. Right now people are still in the honey moon period, happy to be finally back in their own nation and to be ontop of the socio-economic pyramid instead of the bottom like they were in the West (taxi driver to president?).

But then reality is going to set in. Jobs are very scarce in Somalia. I read an article saying 95% of the people in Burco are unemployed. After their savings run out, what are the diaspora going to live on? Sure they can try to create a business, but how many import/export stores will the market have room for? That's why it's increasingly becoming common for diaspora families to be mostly women and children living off a spouse working in the west. The West is where the $$$ is at, Somalia is where the big villa and easy life is at.

I can't see a system like this working for very long. I am having visions of villas being robbed by disgruntled peasants. History always repeats itself.

[union]

Personally, if i haven't mentioned this, I won't be able to return to Somalia anytime soon. Once I graduate I'll have to go to grad school, then I'll have to work to pay off grad school debts, and then I'll try to have children. And If I have children I have to stay here so they can get a better education. And then I'll have to work even longer to secure my retirement. At the end of my working life I'll probably have earned 2 million from whatever miserable cubicle job I'm destined to work. Then I'll probably travel to see the world, because Americans don't get very much vacation during our working years. By then I'll probably only have 1 million left, blowing most of the rest on drugs and women in Budapest and Macau . Perhaps then I'll move to Somalia and purchase a small seaside compound where I'll marry a virgin co- wife and lord over a small army of locals who will attend to my every need (cook, gardener, personal driver, etc etc). A few years later I'll die and whatever is left of my estate I'll bequeath to a small secular school intended to educate orphans who otherwise would have been brainwashed by wahabis. Good plan isn't it.

[AhmedBoqor]

Personally, if i haven't mentioned this, I won't be able to return to Somalia anytime soon. Once I graduate I'll have to go to grad school, then I'll have to work to pay off grad school debts, and then I'll try to have children. And If I have children I have to stay here so they can get a better education. And then I'll have to work even longer to secure my retirement. At the end of my working life I'll probably have earned 2 million from whatever miserable cubicle job I'm destined to work. Then I'll probably travel to see the world, because Americans don't get very much vacation during our working years. By then I'll probably only have 1 million left, blowing most of the rest on drugs and women in Budapest and Macau . Perhaps then I'll move to Somalia and purchase a small seaside compound where I'll marry a virgin co- wife and lord over a small army of locals who will attend to my every need (cook, gardener, personal driver, etc etc). A few years later I'll die and whatever is left of my estate I'll bequeath to a small secular school intended to educate orphans who otherwise would have been brainwashed by wahabis. Good plan isn't it.

2 million dollars off retirement savings???! in America???! Bull $#!T!!! You couldn't get that in Canada, what makes you think the yearly cuts phenomenon that is your government is going to get you that money? you'll be lucky if you get a 6 digit figure

By the way, that's one sad life I would never want to live.....