{"id":26964,"date":"2017-09-29T16:39:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T16:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themint.kinsta.cloud\/?p=26964"},"modified":"2020-10-29T16:50:27","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T16:50:27","slug":"a-future-secured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themintmagazine.com\/a-future-secured\/","title":{"rendered":"A future secured"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Mohamed Omar <\/b>fled the threats that came with the insurgency in Somalia, a lot came with him. The Min<\/i>t heard his story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

M<\/em>ohamed Omar took a flight from his hometown in Somalia in the summer of 1990 to attend a training course for his job. He\u2019s never been back.<\/p>\n

Soon after his arrival in Frankfurt where the course was being held, he called his father to tell him he would not be returning. Omar says his father understood but also would have preferred to have his\u00a0son at home. And memories of that conversation clearly still cause Omar some pain: \u201cI phoned him and I say: Dad, I think the country\u2019s condition is not really good. I am not sure, if I come back, what future will lie. At least I will able to assist you when I\u2019m here in Europe. I decided not to come back, what do you think? \u201c<\/p>\n

He says, \u2018That\u2019s fine by me ifyou think you can make some contribution or even if you think you can get a future in your own country, it\u2019s okay by me.But I always prefer if you stay in your own country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And that was Omar\u2019s last conversation with his father. Three months later a heart attack took his father\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Omar was 19 and he had hurled himself into the unknown in the hope of finding a more assured and prosperousfuture. And very early in his venture he had to face up to how distance can intervene in our experiences of life\u2019s pivotalmoments \u2013 like the loss of a parent. In this instance, the final such loss as his mother was already dead. \u201cYou know you have to become an adult practically when you are outside where you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omar didn\u2019t stay long in Germany. He came to the UK before the end of 1990 to begin his new life. But what had driven\u00a0 him away from his homeland in the \u201cbreadbasket of Somalia\u201d where his family were farmers? Omar\u2019s answer is emphatic: \u201cThere are no economic prospects, no jobs, no health service, no public service at all, no freedom of speech. The people they have no clear future. There is not any future for the young people when they finish their education.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 military\u00a0 government,\u00a0 Omar reminds us, received international advice to make changes around the beginning of 1989. \u201cThe IMF and the World Bank together, I think, advised Somalia that things have to be changed on a political level and also in the economic direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wages were bad, sometimes they\u2019re not on time, the hospitals started collapsing and the education is becoming stagnated. And the IMF says, \u2018Okay, everything is in freefall \u2013 you have to spend only what you can afford.\u2019 \u201d Following the introduction of these austerity measures, Somalia sought international loans, but Omar says they\u00a0 had little of no effect and a rebellion emerged. Neighbouring Ethiopia trained and armed Somali rebels who captured the barracks of the, by then, demoralised Somali military. At the time Omar was an officer in the army \u2013 a compelling option he says when he left school at about 16.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201cBeing part<\/strong> of the military<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>was seen<\/strong> as the way<\/strong> to success<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0While Somalia may have been on a downward trajectory in almost every sense, Omar had for some time been in a relatively good position.<\/p>\n

After two years in officer training he emerged at 18 as a first lieutenant. But his father \u2013 who had held a senior post in the Somali government before the military administration of Siad Barre took control in a coup in 1969 \u2013 was not entirely happy with his son\u2019s membership of the military.<\/p>\n

At the time \u2013 in the mid 1980s \u2013 Omar says that despite the military control, the leaning of the Barre administration was socialist and the economy was largely run by often Western-educated, qualified people.<\/p>\n

And the army was well paid and it opened doors Omar says: \u201c[I joined the army] first of all on economic reasons, the second point was also those close to the military or who have a military background were the dominant sector to the government. Being part of the military was seen as the way to success. The core elite who ruled the country most of them have a\u00a0military background, they are either military or they have a military background.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201cSecurity<\/strong> in general I think it has a special<\/strong> clout<\/strong>, because it\u2019s essential<\/strong> for any development<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0His father however favoured democracy and had never welcomed Barre\u2019s military dictatorship. \u201cI have to admit my dad was against the government but not in public. He cannot speak on public because the government, if they discover that, they will arrest him straight away. However, he encouraged me to go, if I wanted, to the military. The reason for that is he himself was an old patriot during the colonial era. At one time he saw the military as an asset. But later he wanted the old western multiparty system and freedom of expression including the public criticism of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unusually Omar\u2019s father had been educated in Italy (much of what is now Somalia had been partly under Italian jurisdiction). He had been invited to go to Italy says Omar to be part of the preparations for independence. \u201cAccording to my father they were preparing people who will be able to run the government you know,\u201d says Omar. And he had a significant role in the Somali government before Barre.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a senior person in the government before the military come to power. The military took over the country in 1969 \u2013 before that he was the first minister for the Ministry of Agriculture.\u00a0Then later he was become a first minister for the Transport section as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omar says that after the coup his father left government and lived under the threat of arrest were he to be in any way outspoken against the government. \u201cHe could have been in danger if he did not become silent.\u201d Nevertheless Omar says his father remained a critic of the government in private. He was however in favour of a secular regime says Omar and considered the military regime to be better than an Islamist one. And Omar too favoured secularity and supported the government in its suppression of the Islamists even though it was at times \u201cvery, very harsh\u201d and\u00a0 drew condemnation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I go back now historically, the way the government were, I think they\u2019ve done an excellent job to be honest with you,\u201d says Omar.<\/p>\n

Omar quit the military when insurgency began to escalate and approach civil war. \u201cThat is where it started \u2013 the disintegration of the government. Luckily I was able to leave the military and work for the finance ministry, even though my role was not an economist. But I was able at least to get some work.\u201d And that was when he took up the opportunity to go to Germany to attend two weeks of training in income tax. That was when he decided to not return toSomalia.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201cHis father<\/strong> left<\/strong> government<\/strong> and lived under<\/strong> the threat\u00a0<\/strong>of arrest<\/strong> were he to be outspoken<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0He says he maintains a sense of guilt over leaving his father. He believes his father didn\u2019t fully approve of his departure at least in part out of worry that he was embarking on a risky venture. Nevertheless Omar senses still that his dad was measuring his words to not make things still more difficult for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember he says: \u2018I would prefer you\u00a0stay your country rather than living in a difficult condition. But if you find yourself you will be okay and that\u2019s fine. Youhave my agreement with you.\u201d It was a diplomatic language but I knew he was saying indirectly to me, \u2018It\u2019s better youstay where you belong to.\u2019 \u201cHe offered me some advice:\u2018The Europeans they are very sophisticated countries, they werevery educated countries. There will be lot of challenges to you. It won\u2019t be easy but you will be able to do it.\u2019That\u2019s what hewas roughly telling me.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so Omar arrived in the UK looking for opportunity and security. And he has worked in security since his arrival. \u201cI\u2019m studying at the moment for a masters degree on intelligence and security which soon will go to dissertation. My ambition is to join the United Nations in Africa in the security field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omar is clearly proud of his work in the security sector and he accepts that pride is a reflection of his experiences of the collapse of stability in Somalia. \u201cLet\u2019s say the social aspect, for example, or economic development; what is the driving engine? The driving engine obviously is\u00a0 stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity in general I think it has a special clout, because it\u2019s essential for any development. Whether it\u2019s economy, whether it\u2019s infrastructure, whether it\u2019s personal ownership, the society as a whole. The security is highly connected to the wellbeing of any society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201cI have to admit<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>my\u00a0dad<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>was against<\/strong> the government<\/strong> but not<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>in public<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0He is also palpably moved by the greater horizon of experiences and encounters life in the UK has brought him:
\n\u201cI think I was lucky to have such nice\u00a0 people in a different multinational society. It was English, it was Hindu, it \u00a0was African, it was Arab, it was South American\u2026 So diverse. I would never have been able to learn or develop such skills if\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I were back. Today what I experience is extensively different on theoretical, on practical on every level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u201cMy ambition<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>is to join<\/strong> the\u00a0 United<\/strong> Nations<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>in\u00a0 Africa<\/strong> in the security<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>field<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And through his life in the UK, Omar has, as he had hoped to do for his father, been able to help his family in Somalia albeit through tragic circumstances.<\/p>\n

He lives in London with his wife and his brother\u2019s three children. He arranged for the children to be brought to England some 15 years ago after his brother died in Mogadishu in a mortar attack by Islamist rebels.<\/p>\n

He says he was able to get the children into the UK by sending money to get them into Ethiopia where he was able toexplain the situation to the British Embassy in Addis Ababa and acquire a visa to bring them to the UK.<\/p>\n

He has raised the children with the support of his wife who is Somali by birth and an American citizen. \u201cShe assistedme although often she is with family in America. But she assists me very greatly. We adopted and now they are well established so everything is in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow the older one, he\u2019s in the sixth form and soon he will go to university. So he will be in a success story.\u201d<\/p>\n

A success story, we surely hope, like Omar\u2019s own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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