Mogadishu – One of my earliest childhood memories is of swimming in a small gully near my grandmother’s home in Yaaq Bari Wayne, a dusty collection of tin-roofed adobe buildings huddled together in the plains of southern Somalia’s Bay region. After the Gu rains, the gully became a deep triangular cleft cut into the ground, …
WITH A LITTLE HELP, SOCIAL ENTERPRISES CAN HELP REBUILD COUNTRIES OVERRUN BY CONFLICT The desire of the disenfranchised for change and sustainable markets is at the heart of conflict. The Arab spring in Tunisia was triggered by a street vendor setting himself on fire in protest at unfair working conditions. Mass demonstrations usually demand increased …
OVERZEALOUS WESTERN BANKS THREATEN TO CHOKE OFF SOMALIA’S STRUGGLING RECOVER BY TARGETING THE HAWALA TRANSFER SYSTEM. Columbus, Ohio – Every month I visit a small grocery store in a non-descript building in Columbus, Ohio, where I live, to use a service that keeps Somalia alive: "Hawala", the traditional money transfer system used throughout the Middle-East, …
By Mohamed Ali, Founder, Iftiin Foundation and New Voices Fellow, The Aspen Institute I recently participated in a conference on fighting piracy in Somalia. The topic: how to combat the thousands of men, AK47’s strapped to their backs, that were taking skiffs into the azure blue waters of the Indian Ocean to hijack and loot …
INTERVIEW By Rohita Javangula Somalia’s reputation as a failed state often overshadows the country’s potential, but Aspen Institute 2013 New Voices Fellow Mohamed Ali, a former Somali refugee, represents a new generation of entrepreneurs working to rewrite the country’s story. After fleeing during Somalia’s conflict, Ali chose to devote his life to fighting for immigrant …