Are we better off in Qurbe than we were back home?

[Gediid]

Prior to the civil war in Somalia, there were only a small number of Somalis living abroad of which at least 90% of those were in the Gulf region,12 years later the largest diaspora are in North America.To add to that the diaspora we had were predominately male expatriates working abroad but with wife and kids back home.Having travelled extensively throughout North America,seen the transformations that Qurbe has had on our culture I have asked myself the question above but I could never quite say whether we are better off than when we're back home.Please let me know how yall feel about this.

 

Gracias

[SCORPION_SISTA]

To me everything that happens in life has a negative and positive effect...So i guess the question is wether all the positive results outweights the negative effects?...I can't answer for everyone in that, it all depends how everyone views their own progress...I really can't imagine how my life back in somali would be like and since i didn't live that life i personally can't compare how it could been or might have been to what it really it is today...There are things that i have lost with the civil war, being close to my family and the opportunity to might have been someone else...But at the same time, i gained education and self-knowledge i might have not if constricted by the social structures back home...So at the end for me, my life now is nice and i am happy with it(except during finals like now ) As a final thought, regardless of where one might end up, there are basic things about the individuals that wouldn't change with different society, so if one doesn't try to improve their life here they wouldn't do so even back home...So those people who don't put effort in achieving something, they will never do in any country...Bee bye!!!Sorry for rambling my cell brains are fried with microbiology now :mad: :mad:

 

Oh yeah i had one more comment, better off than what really????

[Baashi]

I would say: better off. Especially in areas of Health Care and Education, and Entreprenuership. There are side effects but positive outweighs that.

[Matkey]

Asalaama alykum,

 

The answer to your question depends upon one's circumstance...As for me i would say that i am better off in back home if the political situation would have been more stable than it is now. Ilaah baa mahat leh, I am doing well in terms of my school and other things in life. However, despite how much money you have or how well educated you are, you will still be considered as a foreigner or immigrant. In other words, you won’t have sense of belonging in this society (North America, Europe and so on) the same way you do when you are in back home. Moreover, you won’t have the same privilege or accessiblity as the Anglo-Canadian, Anglo-american or European person does. We will only function within structural constraints. That is we will never influence or challenge the existing system even if it is detrimental to our own religion and cultural practices. my answer to this question is based on the religion and cultural aspect, rather material aspect.

 

wa alaykuma salaam

[codetalker]

An excellent question!

 

I think that - like the above people have stated - everything to life has its ups and downs. Culturally and religiously, we're 100% better off back in Somalia. But in the matters of education, healthcare, safety, etc, - i.e. the things a majority of Somalia today doesn't have - we're better of here, in the Diaspora.

 

HOWEVER, the Diaspora is what each and every individual make it to be. The strength of one's Iman and ties to his/her culture determines the outcome of one's coping in a foreign/Christian environment. May Allah bless us all!

[-KIWI]

Asalaamu Caleykum Waraxmatullahi Wabarakatuh!

 

I fervently beleive we would be a whole better in our country for starts education wise and not to mention morality wise.

 

Its horrendous to see some of us dont have the intention of going back and rebuilding our war torn country, i think someone has already pointed out that we will also be seen as immigrants and nothing more.

 

Just keep in mind dib baa loo noqonayaa wala noqonayaa ( there goes my impeccable somali lol). :rolleyes:

[LadyMo]

I believe we'd b better off home.

 

U kno wat they say there's no place like home howeva Im tryin to think how my life wud b if I was born in Somalia although my mum joined my dad in Europe 21years ago way b4 the war and everythin but suppose my dad neva came to Europe in 1969 but stayed in the Gulf and travelled to and from Somalia (where my mum wud b).

 

Hmmm dats kinda hard I cant even think dat way.

Howeva I often wish I was born in Somalia coz then I'd b able to join in when they talk about de wonderful past most Somalis in the Western world enjoyed prior to de war.

 

Somalia was a country deemed for sucess howeva sum evil people took dat chance away from us but Insha Allah we shall rise and rise like no other nation has ever done b4.

 

I went to Somaliland last summer & I was soo impressed I neva thought our land could be dat beautiful and wheneva I saw destroyed buildings I cud imagine how they must've looked b4 they were destroyed like the big theatre in Hargeysa and some big German built school in Burco and de university of Sheikh and so on.

 

Our country is de most beautiful place I've ever been, u c beauty is not just in fine polished marble floors and sky scrapers. But little things u mite not notice straight away is de wonderful weather, the most beautiful beaches

(longest coast line in Africa), de immaculate sky at nite filled wiv de whites and purest stars u'd eva seen, even the difference of colour in de sand!

 

U guys probably havent heard of dis place but Xaji Salah ('miyiga' a place which borders Ethiopia) has de most stunning sand colour, it is soo red it looks like chilli powder!

 

Anyways being surrounded by all dat beauty for 4 weeks was a real eye-opener 4 me & I treasured every moment dat was de only place where I truely felt at home (although Id neva been there) and despite wat de lil Somali kids say about me in de streets it doesnt account or even come close to de racism I experienced in de country of which I was born.

 

I definetely would have been a different person if I'd grown up in Somalia but wats better than being buried in de country of which u were born especially if dat country is a Islamic country. Where will I be buried-I pray to Allah dat it aint de country of which I was born nor any other non-Islamic country! Ameen

[SkyWalker]

Soomaalia…wow cant even thing a place that I can compare to! Yo know u can get much better educations in our high schools than in western countries even some of our universities were much better than the once here believe it or not.

Talk about stress in the USA..now that is big it can be a whole book.

 

Raising a family, you have any idea how hard that is in here you got have 2 to 4 kids more than that you got get another job or the wife have to be working (getting financial support from the gov. is another case, who is gona raise your own kids gov. or your self)

 

The smallest family in Somali was five children do you know the average family could be up to 10 children, you know why

 

Health: thing about for all the disease that you know in this country how many did we had in Somalia even better can you change some of them in to (luqada af soomaaliga) start with “cancer”

 

Nature: my gosh when was the last time you have grabbed a fruit from a tree and start eating without worrying about chemical or disease .

Talk about the acid rain, have you tried drinking rain water in usa or Canada? How many times did you drink ( biyo xareed in soomaaliya) or (ku khuweysatey)

 

I could go on and on guys…but all this comparison only one matters ( dhulkaage hooyo wax kafiican majidho) your land your country SOOMAALI WEYN hanoo laato  I miss that damn place

[Gediid]

Scorpion Sister & Baashi

I know in terms of personal gains most if not all in here would concur that they are better off, but I was looking in terms of the larger populace in the diaspora.You both mentioned education as an area where we are better off, now that makes me wanna ask you What % of Somalis living in the diaspora would you think go to school or have businesses?

 

 

Matkey

That was the area that I was most concerned about.Morally Somalis especially the youth have changed tremendously,they have become too Westernised to the point where they talk,think and act like the "locals".To some that might be seen as development but I think thats the worst thing that could happen to us after the war.Having a generation of Somalis who don't know right from wrong is indeeed a sad story.

 

Raaliyah, Buzhfamily & Ex Dane

I fully agree with yall.We are simply better off back home.

 

Tagane

I asked myself this question a lot.Maybe you can help....You know how in the west they mix remains of dead animals with the animal feed to increase the size and milk production of animals,well I ask myself if a person eats meat here in ths US,isn't that eating Haram.

[SkyWalker]

I haven’t heard about feeding dead animals to a cow or goat by increasing their milk, however I am sure they do inject some kind of chemical to make the cow to produce more milk or even to help the chicken lay more eggs. As this being haram or not I can’t comment that…but I can tell you this, we didn’t have to worry about all this in back home, and this is one big reason why we are not better off in Somalia “we” never were and never will be!!!!!!!enjoy life

[Che -Guevara]

Gediid.....Good question!

I think we are better off in our country in the long whole, but the in the short term, we are better off living here in diaspora. Of coarse there are better healthcare system, education and security here in the west, but being an immigrant is not easy as immigrants are ones who get blamed when things go bad. And there is always this sense of feeling that no matter how long yu lived here, yu will never be one of them(natives).You will never be english, american, canadian,etc. You will always be somali american, somali canadian,etc. So , i guess eventually , we have to go back and hopefully use our experiences abroad to rebuild the nation.

Living back home won't easy though as we somalis don't have any sense of nationhood. We are more loyal to our tribes than to the nation of somalia. Somali leadership made mistake not investing in the people after the independence. Somalinimo was used and abused terribilly for all the wrong reasons. Those who believed in the somali nationhood lost faith. N somalinimo didn't benefit any body. If we are to survive as unit and want to compete with 60 million ethopians and 20 million or so kenyans, we must invest in our people and also find leaders sincere enough to fight for the somali nationhood and somalinimo which leaves no somali behind and perhaps one day unite all somalis in da horn. We must move forward and somalis must understand, we are no longer seperate independent nomadic tribes who only come together when there is foriegn aggression.

[SCORPION_SISTA]

"you What % of Somalis living in the diaspora would you think go to school or have businesses?"

 

 

I don't know an accurate % of how many people had taken advantage of the opportunities offered to them in diaspora world...But i look it this way, at least we have option in terms of going to school or business...Because really, back home, i remember all the women who worked either were school teachers or owned a little shop somewhere...But now you see so many more women being doctors, enigneers, psychologist, computer science majors, and the list goes on...How many of them do you think would have had that option avaliable...The knowledge that we choose to abtain in these foreign countries allows us to compete on the world market, which i don't think would have be either possible or encourged by society structure back Somalia. And as to those people that aren't taking advantage of the type of education offered in some countries, then it's unlikely for them even back home to be interested in acquiring higher education...So really the education part(percentage wise)has to do with one's hunger to learn and ambition...But foreign countries are better, in my opinion, because they offer so many options and diversity in educational fields, which i wouldn't think would have been avaliable back home.

 

At least that's my take on it...GOODBYE

[MD]

As most nomads have said, it really depends on the person and how hard he/she works..they do have more opportunites, as S_S said back home they had very little options compare to now.

Well looking at myself and where i am today Alhamdulilah i think i'm better off in qurbe then back home, looking at it from an educational point of view.

[Goodir]

Regardless of Education, money or any kind of opportunity that one would have here in the western world. I think home is always the best place n we will have better life at home.

 

However, considering the situation n lack of the security back home, at the moment we are better off in this qurbo.

 

To conclude, I believe If the situation back home would have been stable then no doubt that we r much better off in home than Qubajoog. I think the only reason of why we favor now the diapora over our homeland is the ongoing civil war.

 

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME..

[Miskin]

Brothers and sisters, there is no place like home.

that is a sad fact, sad because we have no home to go back to.

 

regardless of what i have learned or what i have to day, that fact that i am an elien kills me.