Mogadishu

Yesterday when buying the tickets to Djibouti, I had considered going to Mogadishu. The Turkish Airline flight that goes to Djibouti goes on to Mogadishu and back again from Djibouti. It would have been nice to go to Somalia even if for a day and stop on the way back in Djibouti. But I need someone to look after me in Somalia. So I decided I may need to wait some more until I find such a person or postpone it in the expectation that one day Mogadishu might become a safe place for me to visit by myself.

You see, I have read the book “The Mayor of Mogadishu” by Andrew Harding (“...immensely insightful read.” I agree with the comment of the “U.S. Current History Magazine”) and I now definitely want to go there. I mean I wouldn't mind going to Hargeissa, Somaliland and considering it as I've been to Somalia for the sake of the Mission to Every Country; but the point is not that. I want to see Mogadishu. I want to go and imagine how nice a place it was once upon a time, what lives were lived there. Harding says “I wanted to reach back to the years when Mogadishu was one of Africa's loveliest cities...” I wish to see that lovely city. Even though it is no longer so. I want to go see the Lido Beach, I want to go see the waterfront. I want to witness the places I read about in the book. I want to be a part of the history of what it was. I want to inhale that “once upon a time...”

I fell in love with the photo on this cover

And today there was a bombing in Mogadishu. In the Guardian article “Mogadishu truck bomb: 500 casualties in Somalia’s worst terrorist attack” by Jason Burke, it says:

Alinur Abdi, a local businessman, said: “There is nothing resilient about this. How can you say ‘we are resilient’ when people are being killed in their hundreds? We need to get our act together and find a solution for this madness.”

Yes, not only the Somalis, -even though they certainly should have a priority to get their act together and find a solution for this madness- the whole world, or rather the leaders of the whole world really need to get their act together and find a way to end this madness. We really need leaders, enough of misleaders.

Perhaps even the leader itself is a misguided term, perhaps it's actually impossible for anyone to lead a crowd of people. Yet I know one thing for sure: The rules of this world game we're playing need to be changed. We will never have total peace in this world, that's not possible. It's not possible even for two people let alone billions; it's not possible even for those who supposedly or supposed to love each other, let alone those whom we do not like. It's not possible even if we all had everything we wanted. I know how conflicts can arise even when there is no scarcity of resources or anything. We do not need a serious reason to hold a grudge, a hill of beans is enough. No, we won't ever have peace; not in this world. But we sure can make this world a better place to live in for more people by making changes to the rules of the game. I state the most important number 1 rule of the game:
    If men want to play soldiers, they play soldiers. But they play only with those who wish to play. Please keep those of us who do not wish to get involved in your war game out.