How thankful are you of your current life situation

[Hawdgirl]

I know that the title of the topic doesn't resemble about the title of this article, but where I am trying to get with this is the fact that many of us who live in a peaceful life here in the diaspora aren't that thankful of what they have, so my question to you solers is how thankful can you get when read these kind article, coz it could be you or me who is going through this..

I'll start with myself

Alxamdulilah Yaa Rabi for the life that you have bestowed on me, the one that I don't have to worry about what I'll eat tomorrow or if I get sick where I should be able to attain the necessary med attention

Again Alaxmduliah

its your turn sister or brother

Hawd G

 

a risky way out of Somalia

 

For the desperate, a risky way out of Somalia

Smugglers cram boats with Africans hoping to escape war and privation and find a better life across the Gulf of Aden.

 

By Shashank Bengali, McClatchy News Service

 

BOSSASSO, SOMALIA

 

This is where Africa ends.

 

In this decrepit port city at the easternmost tip of the continent, thousands of Africans are waiting to get out -- to escape from the unrelenting war of Somalia and the hopeless privation of Ethiopia for the glimmer of a better life, 200 miles away across a roiling, shark-infested sea.

 

Their destination is Yemen, gateway to the rich countries of the Persian Gulf, where they dream of jobs and security. But getting there requires a journey in many ways more harrowing than what they left behind.

 

Putting their lives in the hands of smugglers who cram them by the scores into small, motorized fishing boats ill-equipped for the high seas, hundreds of migrants each year don't survive the illegal crossing. Many die of dehydration during the two-night journey, their bodies thrown overboard by smugglers to lighten the load. Others are weak swimmers who drown if their boat fails or while trying to swim the last few hundred yards to shore.

 

The reward for making it? It's rarely better than a $2-a-day job at a car wash or factory in Yemen or Saudi Arabia and the constant threat of deportation -- a familiar kind of poverty and fear in a new and unfamiliar land.

 

Still, the sandy streets and alleys of Bossasso are lined with people who are ready to trade one hellish struggle for another. Last year, at least 29,000 made the journey across the Gulf of Aden, according to the U.N. refugee agency, which calls this one of the world's biggest and most neglected illegal migration routes.

 

A similar number are expected to cross this year, including many repeat travelers who know the risks. They'll pay between $50 and $100 to the smugglers, whose boats leave far from town and under the cover of night, easily evading local authorities.

 

Safe passage isn't assured.

 

"Imagine somebody who hates himself, who puts himself on a path leading to his own death, but he can do nothing about it," said Kasahoun Gorabat, a migrant from the harsh desert of eastern Ethiopia, describing a journey he's made five times in six years.

 

The rail-thin 26-year-old was still a teenager when he left his family and set out for the Persian Gulf for the first time. Each time he crossed, he found work for a few months, only to be discovered and deported.

 

On his third trip, Gorabat recalled, smugglers forced him and about 100 other passengers at gunpoint into the heaving sea more than a half-mile from the Yemeni shore, where the coast guard is notorious for firing on the boats. In the dark he swam for his life, and when he reached the beach, he collapsed on the sand, exhausted, with a few dozen others.

 

When they woke at dawn, they found that the tide had crawled up the beach and dragged 21 weary travelers, mostly women, back into the shallow water, where they drowned.

 

"That was the worst thing I have seen," he said. "You always see a few dead bodies floating in the water when you're going across. When you say it's a very good journey, it means only five or six people died."

 

Last year, according to U.N. figures, at least 328 people died making the crossing. Another 310 went missing and are presumed dead.

 

Traditionally, the migrants are unmarried Ethiopian and Somali men in their 20s and 30s. This year, aid workers for the first time found Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians making the trip, a sign that the transit route is growing more established.

 

"The young people are desperate. They know the dangers, and they're willing to risk everything," said Santiago Perez Crespo of the Danish Refugee Council, an aid agency working in Bossasso.

 

For the dozens of smugglers operating here, demand is booming, so there's little incentive to carry fewer passengers or invest in sturdier boats.

 

"We take care to minimize the risk of death. But it does happen," said Mohammed, a boyish 34-year-old who's run a smuggling business for five years and agreed to be interviewed on the condition that his last name be withheld to shield him from local authorities.

 

During a clandestine meeting in his car, far from the center of town, Mohammed's cell phone rang at least 20 times in a half-hour. It was a few days into peak season and his two boats were filling up fast.

 

"The customers are so many, especially when there is conflict," Mohammed said. "But we don't take pleasure in that. We see it as our job to take people to a place where they can live, eat and survive. We are kind of rescuing them."

 

Authorities in Bossasso say they want the smuggling to stop but complain that their forces are too small to compete with the many well-armed boat owners.

 

But the real reason that smuggling thrives, Mohammed said, is that some police officers take a cut of the receipts.

[Jacaylbaro]

I'm really really Thankful of my current life situation ,,, Alxamdulillah

[Hawdgirl]

J.C. it is great, that you are very thankful about the current situation of your life, that is great.

walahi this is just a reminder, I mean this could have been anyone of us destiny, you know

we are not better than them. I know life in the qurboland isn't easy either, but alxamdulilah if you are not going through what hundreds or perhaps thousands of our Somali sisters and brothers go through everyday.

lets pray for all of them whether they live back home or on the hand of smugglers trying to cross some oceans while the journey seems very couldy and un-promising.

Allah Yarxam

[Jacaylbaro]

I usually recall when i was a refugee at one of those camps in Ethiopia and can picture how the media displayed our pictures all over the world. Couldn't find one but i take an example of those in Darfur and other areas in Somalia for example.

 

It was not that long ,, to me it is just yesterday and today i'm totally a different person ,,, totally ,,,, Alxamdulillah

[grasshopper]

thanks for this article, it's good to get some proper perspective. when I remember how hard life is for so many other people I can't help but feel guilty for not being happy enough with my life

[chubacka]

^^^

it seems an simple thing to be grateful but it is quite difficult.

 

When something happens to you, even something minor...do you think to yourself..."bismillah why was I not happy before, everything was perfect!"

 

Anyway jazakallah for the reminder...May Allah make us of those who are truly grateful for his favours.Ameen

[Hawdgirl]

Thanks Chubacka, and you know what you are right, and we just being human beings for that

but on the other hand it's always a good deed to be grateful to Allah- Subxaanahu Watacaalee

starting with your health-

[umu zakaria]

Am thankful, though i dont thank Allah as much often as I should, am genuinely thankful. Alxamdulilaah.

 

HG. Thank you sister for the reminder. And may Allah reward you.

[Hawdgirl]

Thanks Umu Zakaria,

May Allah reward us all for the good deeds that we do and forgive us for the bad deeds that we do as well.

[Kool_Kat]

I am thankful for never seeing a day of 'qaxid'...I am thankful for never seeing/feeling a day of real 'qaxootinimo'...I am thankful to have all my family - my mother, brothers and sisters here with me in Canada...

 

As Umu said, although I don't thank Allah as much or as often as I should, I am genuinely Thankful...Alhamdulilaah...

 

Allaha u fududeeyo walaaleheen dhibaateysan...

 

Hawdgirl, thank you for the article, I sure needed the reminder...

[rudy-Diiriye]

thankful for wat! to be without a country, hell no. my lifes empty, wheres country and gacal ...w/o them i am nothing.

 

all the richness in this here refugee land wont cure my heart-aches for my beloved country. till then i will bleed inside.

[Hawdgirl]

Waraa Rudy, or rude! whatever your name is nac-nac baa haysaa walahi

For the sake of God's mercy you can start by thanking Allah for the healthy that he has bestowed on you because without it you wouldn't be able to come to the comp or to the solers site and write down your comment on this

Besides that are we all(Somalis) missing our beloved home country? you bet we are

everyday I pray to the Almighty Allah for the safe return of mindnimo, is jecli, walaaltinimo and peace to that chaos land of ours.

So istaaqfurulah dheh huuno, as my sole purpose of this topic wasn't about thanking the life of here in the diaspora ok

you are very very slow man

work on that brian of yours harder!