Mogadishu, a Tortured City

[Che -Guevara]

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[Somalia]

Raped, pillaged, destroyed, tortured - all by the moryaan people.

 

I'm telling you Che, moryaan ideology is only 2nd to the radicalism you adhere to.

[Kulmiye]

Mugdisho, a bloooming city and future Qadar:)

[Raamsade]

Cities have been built, destroyed and rebuilt again since time immemorial, Mogadishu is no different.

 

But please spare us the hyperbole about glorious Mogadishu. Event in its heyday Xamar was a shidhole of city despite its natural beauty. I actually lived there unlike many of you and let me tell that much of what we take for granted in the typical city in Europe, N. America, Australia, et al wasn't available in Xamar. Power was intermittent at best so generators were common place. Ditto with water, most people relied on water delivered on donkey carts or trucks. Telephone and postal system were virtually non-existent. The seaport had no cranes for unloading cargo containers and no handling and storage capacity of those containers. The airport had only 1 runway with no taxiway whatsoever, no jet bridges and of course the actually airport building looked like some kind of Mausoleum.

[Maaddeey]

^^ Xamaali Furdo maa eheyd adi?.

[Khadafi]

Maaddeey;883432 wrote:

^^ Xamaali Furdo maa eheyd adi?.

[GaraadMon]

Raamsade;883371 wrote:

Cities have been built, destroyed and rebuilt again since time immemorial, Mogadishu is no different.

 

But please spare us the hyperbole about glorious Mogadishu. Event in its heyday Xamar was a shidhole of city despite its natural beauty. I actually lived there unlike many of you and let me tell that much of what we take for granted in the typical city in Europe, N. America, Australia, et al wasn't available in Xamar. Power was intermittent at best so generators were common place. Ditto with water, most people relied on water delivered on donkey carts or trucks. Telephone and postal system were virtually non-existent. The seaport had no cranes for unloading cargo containers and no handling and storage capacity of those containers. The airport had only 1 runway with no taxiway whatsoever, no jet bridges and of course the actually airport building looked like some kind of Mausoleum.

Exactly! We should go far beyond restoration and look towards building completely different cities. The simplest of things like waste management are essential to creating a healthy, viable city. My mother told me stories of how residents would chuck their garbage in to the nearest empty lot.

[Maaddeey]

"godka qashinka" ma maqlin miyaa?. Cid kasta god bay ka hor qotaan guriga dhinaciisa.

[Chimera]

Raamsade;883371 wrote:

Cities have been built, destroyed and rebuilt again since time immemorial, Mogadishu is no different.

 

But please spare us the hyperbole about glorious Mogadishu. Event in its heyday Xamar was a shidhole of city despite its natural beauty.

You don't get a reputation as one of the cleanest and safest cities in the world by being a shidhole. Mogadishu was a beautiful piece of work for its time, and we could have bloomed it into something greater had we not retarded its progress. It was no different from celebrated cities like Casablanca, and Alexandria.

 

Pearl of the Indian Ocean!

 

I actually lived there unlike many of you and let me tell that much of what we take for granted in the typical city in Europe, N. America, Australia, et al wasn't available in Xamar.

Those typical cities had several centuries of uninterrupted development, not to mention access to immense wealth be it through colonialism or financial capital. Majority of our heavy infrastructural projects commenced post-independence, and majority of it through loans. We were just getting started.

 

Power was intermittent at best so generators were common place. Ditto with water, most people relied on water delivered on donkey carts or trucks.

You sound too entitled, your grand-parents and parents had even less than that growing up! There were no power plants at independence, the eighty Somali power-plants such as the Mogadishu Central Power station, and the Jasira Power Station, were all constructed post independence. Somalis went from candles and laterns in their houses at independence to slowly benefiting from a modern distribution system covering all the major cities of Somalia. In terms of electrification. there was a positive trend as the figure doubled between 1980 and 1985.

 

A good system was in place, only more power was needed for the national grid. Here is where the multiple planned 15MW/30MW steam and thermal power plants would have shown their worth. More importantly, a bigger project was greenlit in the form of the 105MW Bardera dam. This would have secured our energy needs well into the late 1990s, before more sizable projects would be connected to the grid.

 

As for water distribution, here too we inherited nothing of significance at independence. Several multi-million dollar water-projects were ongoing in their first phases.

 

Telephone and postal system were virtually non-existent.

This is where the government slipped. Those sectors should have been privatised, as we can see from the current success of the Telecommunication industry, the less governmental involvement the better. However, in terms of money spend and priorities, I believe the government allocated it the right way. What is more important, an undisturbed phone line between Mogadishu and Hargeisa or a massive 1000km highway connecting the 1st and 2nd cities?

 

The Telephone and postal systems were adequate for their time, considering there was no significant diaspora to speak off, nor did every Somali have the need or capital to buy a phone compared to our time.

 

The seaport had no cranes for unloading cargo containers and no handling and storage capacity of those containers.

BS, there were 3 heavy-lift cranes weighing between 30 to 90 ton. Not to forget in 1990 three state-of-the-art HMK 90 cranes were ordered to be used by the Somali Port Authority.

 

The airport had only 1 runway

LMAO, only the largest runway in Africa at the time.

 

with no taxiway whatsoever

More BS, I can't believe the more seasoned Mogadishans like MMA and Che let you get away with that nonsense. There was a taxiway, constructed by the Americans, and well-established uniform taxi-system of Red & Yellow cabs serviced the entire city.

 

no jet bridges and of course the actually airport building looked like some kind of Mausoleum.

More entitlement, how dare they make you walk a hundred meters to the entrance lol. There were no jet bridges, because the airport wasn't even equipped to handle that yet. The typical airport with such a feature is a multi-storeyed one. Considering Mogadishu's growth and relative popularity with expats and tourists, a new airport would have most likely been greenlit in the 90s or early 00s had the war not destroyed the state and the city.

 

However Mogadishu was a glorious cosmopolitan city, culturally, and architecturally. If we had not retarded the water-projects, the upwards electrification drive, and instead maintained the cleanliness and stability of the city, it would be on par with other similar cities like Algiers, Casablance and Alexandria today and I most likely would be dissecting a whole different entitled post of yours, only one about 'Mogadishu being a shidhole' because the city is only building 30 floors-highrises instead of 70 floors-skyscrapers.

 

Man, this was one sexy city!

[Raamsade]

Maaddeey;883432 wrote:

^^ Xamaali Furdo maa eheyd adi?.

Sidee furda kaga mid noqon karaa haddi goortii Xamar igu dambeysey aa ahaay cunug oo wili qaangaarin? Ninyahow ma is tiri taageerashada Alshabaab gaaraadka ee xooga wax u dhimaan?

[Abwaan]

Lol@Raamsade, garaad badan hadday leeyihiin ma iyagaaba taageeri lahaa, kuwii shalayna moor yaanta, ji rrida iyo day dayga u horreeyey maantana carruurta laynaya. Maaddeey, intee ku dhuumaneysey beryahaan? Xaalku waa sidee?

[Raamsade]

Chimera;883504 wrote:

Those typical cities had several centuries of uninterrupted development, not to mention access to immense wealth be it through colonialism or financial capital. Majority of our heavy infrastructural projects commenced post-independence, and majority of it through loans. We were just getting started.

Agreed. Then perhaps we should hold-off all the accolades for Xamar UNTIL Xamar reaches the developmental stage of those cities, don't you agree with me? I agree Xamar has the potential to be special city, a great city, one that can rival other world capitals but it is not there yet. And it won't get there for the next 50 or so years at the very least. In the meantime we should refrain from hyperbole and concentrate on how we can rebuild this city into something greater than it ever was.

 

 

 

Chimera;883504 wrote:

In terms of electrification. there was a positive trend as the figure doubled between 1980 and 1985.

 

A good system was in place, only more power was needed for the national grid. Here is where the multiple planned 15MW/30MW steam and thermal power plants would have shown their worth. More importantly, a bigger project was greenlit in the form of the 105MW Bardera dam. This would have secured our energy needs well into the late 1990s, before more sizable projects would be connected to the grid.

 

My memories of Somalia/Xamar date back to only mid-to-late 1980s as I was too young to remember anything before that. I succinctly remember more nights without any lighting than nights with lighting. If power supply was that bad in the late 1980s, I don't know how you can say it was improving. And 105 MW is paltry sum for a national capital with more than a million people, assuming the infrastructure was ever developed to get the power from Baardheere all the way to Xamar. I know there were many extenuating circumstances such as development of the city outpacing the capacity of the government to provide services but at the very least I expect more for the claims being made.

 

 

 

Chimera;883504 wrote:

BS, there were 3 heavy-lift cranes weighing between 30 to 90 ton. Not to forget in 1990 three state-of-the-art HMK 90 cranes were ordered to be used by the Somali Port Authority.

 

Are you talking about improvised cranes that you find in small ports or traditional cranes specifically designed to off-load cargo containers? If the latter, have any pictures?

 

 

 

Chimera;883504 wrote:

More entitlement, how dare they make you walk a hundred meters to the entrance lol. There were no jet bridges, because the airport wasn't even equipped to handle that yet. The typical airport with such a feature is a multi-storeyed one. Considering Mogadishu's growth and relative popularity with expats and tourists, a new airport would have most likely been greenlit in the 90s or early 00s had the war not destroyed the state and the city.

I want Xamar with decent sewage system, storm drain system so that streets and neighborhoods aren't flooded after heavy rains, sewage and water treatment plants, garbage collection and disposal system, well lit streets with names and numbered houses/buildings so that when I want to visit my grandma Ceebla' Goodir I can input her address into GPS system, I want reliable and steady supply of electricity and water, I want parks, museums, art galleries and other cultural attractions, I want to see an actual plan for Xamar's development rather than allowing everyone to build where they like... these expectations are reasonable with not a whiff of entitlement. If we settle for mediocrity that is what we'll get.

[Abwaan]

Yes, Xamar magaalo bilicsan way ahaan jirtey taasna lama dafiri karo, balse what some people do not want to say in part of Xamar lagu dhisay booli badan oo dalka iyo dadka laga boobay although dad badanoo xalaal-quuteyaal ahna ay jireen. Markii dagaalladu ay dheceenna kuwa wax boobay waxay ahaayeen xaaraan-uuteyaal kale dad xalaal-quudato ahna waa joraan oo aan waxba boobin. Marka aan dad leeyahay qabiil ulama jeedo, dadka aan ka hadlayana qabiil kasta ayay ka soo jeedaan. Waxaan xasuustaa 88-90 in diyaarado hargeysa loo raaci jirey Xamarna laga tegi jirey si loo soo bililiqaysto...Soomaalidu weligoodba bililiqo iyo boob dhaqan bay u lahaayeen, xitaa nolosha miyoga oo xoolaha ayaa la kala dhici jirey xilliga dagaallada lana qaybsan jirey, waana tan illaa maanta kii xil loo dhiiboba uu moodo xoolihiiisii. Qofkii u maleeya in dad gaar ah ay ku kooban tahayna waa riyoonayaa.

[Che -Guevara]

Abwaan.....You have managed to turn an entire into ******** iyo jiris.

 

I think most of you miss the point.

[Abwaan]

Che, I haven't. I just clarified thing. Did you miss what Somalia said.? Mise waa is yeelyeeleysaa?