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Hope is forever
By Shalaka Paradkar, Staff Writer
Friday Magazine (Gulfnews)
Art & Culture
Published: 05/18/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)
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Somalia. What the world gets to hear most about this country is of its war and the destruction. But the Somalis are tremendously resilient. Few other peoples could have endured so much and thrived against the odds in such a spectacular fashion. Shalaka Paradkar meets some Somalis in Dubai

It's a sensory challenge trying to find Gold Oasis. Your eyes are dazzled by the auric radiance blazing of every storefront, and your mind is befuddled by the host of similarly named establishments. But stop for directions every few steps and you will get there eventually.

Gold Oasis is a clutch of jewellery shops wedged into the interstitial spaces between Gold Land, Gold Centre and Golden Star in the Al Ras district of Deira, Dubai.

You couldn't tell from the crush of buyers here that gold is retailing at a dizzyingly high rate. Most of the customers are women, blooming in their bright colourful clothes and elaborate African headdresses. What's unique about Gold Oasis is that the majority of shop owners are women and all are from Somalia.

Customers come here to pick up ethnic African jewellery designs: featuring gems, the size and assorted colours of gumballs, exquisite combs and exaggeratedly-designed necklaces that are more like breastplates. The constant buzz makes you forget all the bad news about Somalia.

The Somalis seem to have cornered this niche market for West African jewellery: half a dozen of them are doing brisk business here. "My customers come from Senegal, Mali, Ghana, The Gambia, and from the east of Africa as well," says shop owner Farhia Islow Adam.

Farhia was the first Somali woman to set up her shop at Gold Oasis. She arrived in Dubai in 1997 from Toronto, Canada, where she had previously run a gold business.

"As Somali women, we are born into business," she says, "After my shop opened here, many more Somali women entered the jewellery trade and there are now about 20 of us running our own stores all over Dubai, selling gold jewellery."

Apart from the jewellery trade, Somali women also run a slew of textile shops in the same Al Ras neighbourhood, now known as the Somali market.

Some, like Dubai-based Somali author and poet Safi Abdi, believe her countrywomen have weathered their national crisis better than the men, and emerged stronger for the experience.

"Seeing how Somali women have suffered, following the destruction of their nation, I used to honestly believe that to function at all, a woman needed stability and governance more than her male counterpart. The years of instability have proved me wrong.

"The sheer strength Somali women have displayed as they struggled to keep the family together, feed the household and devote themselves to their kith and kin, has shown the world that the Somali woman can stand her ground and take care of her own, with or without government," she says.

It's not just the women who are doing well though. Somalis are the largest and oldest expatriate community from Africa in the UAE.

A walk through Deira's Al Ras gives ample evidence of their grit and entrepreneurial skills. Three Somali airlines are headquartered in Dubai, as are the telecom companies and a host of smaller businesses: restaurants, hotels, money changers, internet cafes, textile and typing shops.

Sharif Ahmad Ba'alawi, chairman of the Somali Business Council in Dubai, explains, "Somalia had no government for the past 15 years, there are no bank facilities and no security. That's why so many Somali businesses run their operations from Dubai and Nairobi."

Dubai's proximity, economic climate and infrastructure has served Somali business well. The Somali Business Council in Dubai has a membership of about 200 companies. (Unofficial numbers could be much higher, though.)

Ba'alawi's story is a typical one.

A Yemeni who identifies himself as a Somali, since he was born and raised in Mogadishu, Ba'alawi left Somalia with his family when the war broke out in 1991 and has been in Dubai since.

In the past decade and a half, he has invested heavily in his homeland. His commodities business involves exporting sugar, rice, cement and other staples to Somalia. He also owns a Coca-Cola bottling plant and a telecom company in Somalia.

I ask him about his robust appetite for risk. He replies, "To you as an outsider, the situation seems terrible - your opinion is based on what you see on television or read in the newspapers. But to us, it's really not so bad. We know the people we are dealing with and are familiar with the culture of the place. It would probably be more risky for me to do business in another African country."

An accepted fact of doing business in Somalia that is militiamen must be paid off at various points: at checkposts all over the country, at private air strips where cargo planes land, at the docks where ships unload. Doesn't that send the overheads into stratosphere numbers?

Ba'alawi replies, "Since there is no government, there are no licences, fees or taxes to be paid. Instead we pay protection money."

Although Ba'alawi describes it as another form of taxation, the big difference is that taxes paid to a government are used for public spending: in building schools, universities, hospitals and roads.

Militiamen spend the money on qat, a narcotic leaf that is fast becoming an epidemic in Somalia and destroying its men. (Qat is illegal in the UAE.)

Yet the situation isn't so bleak across the country. Somalia's northwestern region broke away to form the Republic of Somaliland with its capital at Hargeisa; but that 'country' has yet to gain international recognition, even though Somaliland has a democratically elected government and is well administered.

Then the northeastern region broke away to form Puntland. Again, an autonomous region, not an independent country.

The south of Somalia continues to be devastated by rival warlords and fighting.

As a stateless state, Somalia is also unique in becoming the world's purest free market. Money can buy you anything, and the currency is US dollars.

Mogadishu's main market offers a variety of goods - from food to the newest electronic gadgets. Security, electricity and water are all in the hands of private business. The absence of regulation and licensing has allowed the private telecom companies to flourish, while the competition forces operators to keep prices low.

Telecommunication firms in Somalia offer the lowest international call rates anywhere in the world. Staying connected to the rest of the world is crucial, because remittances from the Somali diaspora abroad run into millions of dollars.

After the telecom infrastructure was destroyed in the first outbreak of war, VSAT was installed by private operators and international companies such as AT&T and Telia entered as carriers for incoming and outgoing calls.

One of the leading operators is the Somali Telecom Group (STG), an umbrella organisation for a number of companies. Its offices are a spartan aerie high above the din of Nasr Square.

The walls are decorated with laminated newspaper articles describing the kind of challenges STG must overcome to do business in Somalia and a giant map of landmines in the region, prepared by a Danish aid agency.

(The absence of clutter, and the near paperless office, must be due to the absence of a formal banking system in Somalia, I surmise. After all, the wheels of the Somali economy are oiled on trust and credit and not
much else.)

One of those laminated stories informs me that telecom operators were first to take advantage of the lack of regulations in an ungoverned state. Operators moved in with cheap equipment and were off and running.

With so many players in the field, the competitive bloodletting ensures call rates are at the cheapest anywhere in the world. The telecommunications story is perhaps the only silver lining to emerge from the years of war and famine.

The next time you think about complaining about a government, think about the alternative. Somalia has lived without a government for more than a decade in its history - the only country in the world to have this dubious distinction. Sure there are bad governments and corrupt ones, but Somalis are unanimous in the opinion that the alternative - a state of anarchy - is much worse.

Few other people could have endured so much and thrived against the odds in such a spectacular fashion. Somalis' fierce loyalties to family and clans, has caused much bloodshed over the years, but it has also helped them survive and flourish in expatriate enclaves all over the world. Living in a nomadic society and a harsh environment, Somalis have learnt the language of cooperation and community.

As Ibrahim of STG says, "I am proud to be a Somali because we help each other. Our family bonds are very strong, like no other." So much so that families in Somalia look for sustenance from better-off cousins, aunts, uncles and others, and they are not disappointed.

Somalia's money exchange services handle between $500 million (about Dh1.84 billion) and $1 billion (about Dh3.68 billion) in remittances annually.

 And even though Dubai is one of the unofficial capitals of the country (the other being
Nairobi), every Somali dreams of returning home one day to a peaceful, well-governed state. Those who come from Somalia in search of a better life may not always get lucky.

The biggest challenge facing Somalis who arrive here is, still, finding work. "I was lucky to be able to get a good job. Other young men are not so lucky. Often they may have to go back home and take to trading goods sourced from Dubai. The situation is improving, but slowly," says Hassan.

Like other Somalis, Ba'alawi too awaits the day he could return to Mogadishu. "We love our country and want to do business there. With the new government being elected in Nairobi, things will improve, and who knows, many businesses will relocate to Somalia." Farhia too cherishes the hope of eventually going back. "Somalia is my home after all," she says.