Somalia: Mogadishu vs Jowhar what's the difference

[Camel Mlik]

Somalia: Mogadishu vs Jowhar

Tue. October 11, 2005 08:58 am.

 

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Jowhar

Southern Somalia has been plagued by the worst imaginable public disorder for a long time. American western movies look like a Child’s play when you see the reality in southern Somalia. One of Mogadishu’s local websites (midnimo.com) covered a very disturbing rape stories that took place last week. The more disturbing one is about a gang of 30 men who raped a sixteen year old girl and left her bleeding and powerless. A few days before that senseless gang-rape, four other young girls were brutally raped in the same area. What bothered the reporter was that the men who commit these crimes regularly are known in the area and nobody seems to be bothered by their actions. Another site, ruunkinet.com went further and said wives and daughters are often raped in front of their husbands and children in Mogadishu.

 

 

Mogadishu politicians, from more respected former presidents Ali Mahdi and Abdiqasim Salad Hassan to today’s tribal faction leaders and Islamic courts seldom talk this taboo let alone try to curb it. The city has a hierarchal tribal system of which all armed men and politicians belong to the top class whose people feel more secure. Women from this broader tribe are safe from rape as long as they do not venture into the dark at night. The most unfortunate people in Mogadishu are members of unarmed tribes who are not allowed to bear weapons. These people go through unimaginable humiliations including rape and killing, writes ruunkinet.com

 

Jowhar

From outside, the city is striving vibrantly and business is booming. Although business owners spend a bulk of their revenues for security, there are no regulations, government taxes or licensing fees, making the city the capital of the capitalist world. For instance, there are ten times more telecommunications and wireless companies than most African cities including Nairobi, Kenya. However, Mogadishu still remains the most dangerous city in the world today. People get killed in their homes, streets and place of businesses. Mogadishu warlords have the audacity to go on air and say we are defenders of your freedom to the people they suffocate day in and day out.

 

Ninety Kms northeast of Mogadishu lies much smaller Jowhar town where the president and the prime minister currently operate. They chose this small and dusty town over the capital for security and safely. When the average Mogadishu household is armed, Jowhar visitors tell us they were surprised by the law and order Jowhar authority exercises. To their surprise, there were no guns to bee seen anywhere except the ones used by security forces. There is no fear of any kind and violent crimes don’t happen in this town at all.

 

 

Jowhar

Just last week, President Abdulahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Gedi along with an Italian envoy were seen walking downtown Jowhar without battlewagons or anything in that nature. They surprised a coffee shop employees and customers when they went in like other customers. In this month of Holly Ramadan, most men in Somalia go out for a drink after evening break-fast, and the president and the prime minister were not different. They walked through dusty streets of Jowhar and sat in one of the coffee shops, chatting with other customers and employees. This kind of atmosphere boosts the morale of Somali people all over the world and gives them a glimpse of hope .

 

On the one hand, Mogadishu residents have all the technological toys in the world but death is in every one’s mind constantly. People lose their lives for something like $20 Nokia handset On the other hand, Jowhar is underdeveloped, with a lot of mosquitoes from the river that goes through the city. However, unlike its larger and more advanced neighbor, human life has value.

[Camel Mlik]

This article was unlike any I have ever read it touch my heart and I thought I should share it with your guys. Sense many of you ask every single day Why the government is in Jowhar and not in Mogadishu. I hope it answers your qestions, and see the difference between those two cities are so close to each other but so different in other ways.

 

 

"Mogadishu still remains the most dangerous city in the world today. People get killed in their homes, streets and place of businesses. Mogadishu warlords have the audacity to go on air and say we are defenders of your freedom to the people they suffocate day in and day out".