Today at the office I read the thesis of the 2010 nominated Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. Although a sensational tone is present throughout, the acting Prime Minister's thesis provides an in-depth historical overview of Somalia in relation to the cold war. The thesis points a few fingers at the US as to why Somalia has been lawless for 19 years, but colonialism and imperialism has certainly contributed to enabling the current chaotic landscape.
For those who doubt colonialism is responsible for much of Africa's demise, please take a good look at Somalia. I will be happy to send you material!
After work I met my friend Cynthia at her house after a sweet 30 minute walk trying to stay ahead of the city buses' farting exhausts. For dinner we went to Habesha Restaurant - an Ethiopian restaurant - that is so very good. They don't put teft, a sour/acid grain, into the injera which means the sour taste does not penetrate across the vegetables and meat. Joining us was a nice guy from the International Crisis Group and a woman from Human Rights Watch who immediately grilled my friend and I on what we're doing in Kenya and who we know. To her approach I told her why I did not like interning with HRW which was essentially - I wanted to do more for the world than write reports that are filed in HRW's library. To be honest, I think HRW has been doing a lot of great work in the last few years with raising awareness of human rights abuses in East Africa. It's just I get repelled by this approach of meeting new people. Her friend from the UNHCR who joined us at the end was worse - he didn't even bother addressing me when the introductions identified me as an intern not with an UN agency.
Afterward dinner we went to Brew Bistro to dance salsa with a live band. A diplomat from Venezuela joined us and grabbed the mic to sing a few songs. This made my night.
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