The first story started out by saying how courntries can fall apart. They used the saying it can happen after one event or it can eat you like cancer. Wich i think is very true becasue having countries in trouble is bad for the whole world. The article says that thease troubles can casue terrorism, and criminal organizations. It talkes about how every country has its troubles even if they are have an abbundence of one thing they may be lacking another but that does not mean the country has failed. A very strong point that they made was that you can look and see if the countries are failing by looking at the people.
The story of shattered somalia starts out with about a boy mahamoud who starts out by saying he goes to the light house every day and looks at the ruined city but most of the time he tries to look at the ocean. His father was killed and he has been supporting his family since he was 14. He goes out to the ocean to fish everyday and takes it to the market for money and if the weather is good when he is fishing he will make 3 or 4 dollars. That is enought to feed his family for the day.He lives in a country that has collapsed. He can't pay the 10 dollar fee to go to school but he has leanred other things like how he can hear certian boms and know what kind they are. Their president was a dictator who was overhrown and then the country went into sustained anarchy, and for the past two years Somalia has been number one on the index of failed states.They talk about a city called Mogadishu and how it now looks like any other city in Africa with markets and old cars and muels and goats roaming the streets, but Mogadishu used to be nothing like any other city. It used to be beautiful, but now after 5 at night everything stops and if you are out side at night you are looking for trouble. There are two photographers there and they go and talk to Mahomoud at the light house right before they leave. He tells them that he doesnt want to leave and he is ready to die in this country.
It talks about how the clan system held Slomalia together and drove it apart. When the Europeans came the clans began to fall apart. When the left in 1960 the nationalism took over, but clan divisions messed that up to. Then came Mohamed Siad Barre in 1969. He was a dictator. He outlawed clans and practiced a divide-and-rule wich made the clans very angry. Barre was chased down in 1991. Then they waited to see what goverment would come next. It was been 18 years and they are still waiting.Now how does this relate to Mahamoud it tells us next. He was a baby when the civil war in 1991. There was four months of fighting right were he lived. When his neighbors had been invaded debree flew into his house and hit his father wich damaged his neck and rib cage. He would not be able to work anymore. Friends took them to Hargeysa. They stayed there for three months. When they came back there was not much left to his house.Mahamoud started off by shining shoes until his mother told him he needed to be going to school. They got their money from a aunt in sadi Saudi Arabia. He says that his friend was killed on day while walking down the street that is why he quit school and is now a fisherman. Two weeks before the man who is writing this story came mahamoud's dad woke up with a normal headach and went to work (he works on a road side to clean up where most women work so in return they get food) an hour late and as he got there he herd the bombing 44 women were taken to the hospital and half were dead.The man that is writing says that one morning he woke up one morning and herd a bombing and that day went to the hospital like eveyday but people were eveywhere. Mahamoud got told that he would recieve $150 a month if he joined al Shabaab. At first he did not say yes or no he went home and talked about it with his family. Him and his family both decieded it would be better not to go becasue the people that went did not come back so he would continue on fishing.At the end of the story they talk about how two other jouranalist have been captured and they will be released for 1 million dollars. They have to stay where they are for a night and and pay 500 dollars for certain protection to get back to their hotel. I believe his is a very shocking story and i am glad that we read it. I can't imagian how it would feel to live there and go through that every day of my life.
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