ROASTED BOY (Somalia)

Member Name: Aang

Product:	Somalia
Date:	13/12/01 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: beaches and exotic towns

Disadvantages: civil war

A. is for Attractions.

(I wrote all this out this morning. It took hours and hours and then a dooyoo sign came up saying 'there has been an error'. The entire text vanished with the words 'timed out.' This version will be very much shorter!)

Somalia has miles and miles of white sand beaches. If Somalia is to rival other resorts in the Indian Ocean, money needs to be spent on cafes, trees and pools protected from sharks.

Somalia has exotic coastal Arab towns, with domes and dhows, and sheep and souks, and flowing robes and fishy smells.... Merca, near Mogadishu, used to be worth a visit. (Civil war has caused much damage to towns and cities).

Somalia's people are like models on a cat-walk in Monte Carlo. They are tall, slim, beautiful and dignified. And some speak English.

B. is for buses. Take a taxi. Roads get difficult in the rainy season.

B. is for Barre. Barre was the 'left-wing' dictator who ruled Somalia from 1969-1991. When he fled, civil war among the clans was begun.

F. is for flights. Fly from Nairobi, North West to Magadishu, with Somali Air or Kenya Air.

F. is for food. The South of Somalia was an Italian colony so the food tends to be pasta and rice. However you may be lucky and get camel liver. Qat is a stimulant you chew.

G. is for geography. Somalia is like the number '7' and it forms the horn of Africa. It is strategically important to the USA and others. The North of Somalia, which used to be British, suffers from droughts and famines. The flatter, greener South is where you find the capital, coastal Mogadishu.

I. is for Italians. Italian politicians wasted lots of money on Somalia. $250 million was spent on a road through the desert that is only used by nomads on foot. $40 million plus was wasted on a hospital that the Somalis found too sophisticated and expensive to run. The hospital fell to bits. $95 million was wasted
on a fertiliser plant that never opened. Millions were spent on armaments. The Italian politicians grew rich on kickbacks.

U. is for the United Nations. US marines arrived in 1992 to help distribute aid. The UN took over in 1993 but fled in 1994.

Are the Westerners going to return to Somalia?

Back in 1993 the UN troops (Canadians, Belgians, Italians...) did not have a good reputation!

Wwww.whatreallyhappened.com has a photo of a little Somali boy being roasted over a fire by two Belgian soldiers. Torture took many forms.

Village Voice published photos of various tortures of various Somali children. One child was "forced by Belgian troops into a metal container where he died from heat and thirst."

"Canadian troops tied the hands of a Somali child called Shidane Arone and then beat him to death." Photos show the Canadians grinning.

"Italian troops held down a Somali boy while he was sodomised by their officer. The Somali boy was then strangled to death."

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