Background: A well-placed Somali businessperson sent
me this letter via e-mail. It is poignant and bold, straddling between hope and
despair, frustration and relief, boom and bust. It is also a testament to the
miracles taking place in the capital as well as the maladies it is suffering.
***
Dear Hassan:
Mogadishu, your beloved city, is in
great turmoil, politically and security-wise, and more than at any other time, there
is a lack of cash and capital movement within the capital’s business
community. A general sentiment of hopelessness and despair are palpable
in the eyes of city dwellers
My child suddenly fell sick, and
I had no choice but to take him abroad for medical treatment. Why did I
do that? Mogadishu has two good working hospitals run by a Turkish medical
team, but despite their good will, communication difficulties render their
selfless services inadequate for medical treatment and, more importantly,
psychological healing. The doctors only speak Turkish, which leads to confusion
among the Somali translators about the medical terminology and means that the
medicine instructions are written only in Turkish. Consequently, the patients
feel miserable because they cannot understand their doctor. Because they do not understand their doctor,
patients do not know the source of their illness or how the doctors are
treating it. Even so, we are a hundred times better off than before.
Despite the sophisticated medical
instruments and well-prepared doctors, patients in the Turkish hospitals are
confused and hopeless. In short, the Turkish doctors are unable to heal
the Somali patients’ illness by inspiring, explaining, and convincing them that
everything will be fine. In addition, no one believes in their medicine, which
is much better and more effective than that of the Somali doctors. When I
assessed the problems of Mogadishu’s best hospitals, I tried to explain their
weaknesses to a senior Turkish diplomat. He promised to take the
necessary steps; hopefully, he will actually do something.
Let me tell you about Mogadishu’s
health system. Three are three profitable businesses in Mogadishu. The
first is hotels—but not anymore. Because al-Shabaab has targeted more than
ten big hotels in the capital, people prefer to rent houses. As a result,
Mogadishu’s hotels are empty and almost bankrupt. The second is medicine. Mogadishu has more than forty small hospitals
run by Somali doctors. These hospitals have their own pharmacies and labs,
which are the source of their profit because the cost for a visit is only ten
dollars and sometimes less than that. Doctors gain profit from their
businesses by selling a lot of medicine to patients, many of which are
unnecessary for their illness. Unfortunately, 500 mg. of antibiotics may contain
only 50 mg—sometimes less than that. The patients enter the Somali-owned
medical office and go home with 10 to 12 types of medicine that will not cure their
sickness. Their only hope is that the doctor is Somali, and he or she can
explain and give assurance that they will see a good result within a week,
which does happen sometimes. The third and final business is universities.
Every month a new university springs up. Thousands of people enroll
in these institutions without having received the necessary secondary
education. Every year these schools are producing medical doctors, engineers,
computer science experts, nurses, and lawyers whose education is equal to a high
school standard.
Let me go back to the political
turmoil. There are a few months [this letter was written in April, 2016]
left in this government’s term. There is a lot to be done in this short time.
I don't know if we can make it, but no one has the courage to say that
the plan of getting a parliament, president, prime minister and ministers in
place by October 2016 is extremely ambitious. Every one of us, in business and
politics alike, seems drunk or, more precisely, shamelessly indifferent about
the final result and deadlines.
I am worried about Somalia’s
future. What is happening now reminds me of what happened in 1992. We
have too many international contenders who are competing to exploit Somalia’s
economic opportunities and strategic location. Between us, we are just
contending clans, and clans cannot be a nation.
By the grace of Allah, everything
will work perfectly, and by the end of the year, we will have a better government
for our beloved country.
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