I'm in disbelief, I cannot believe it.
After years of staunch and often violent opposition to resource exploration in their territories, citing excuses from environmentalism to political misrepresentation, the native community of Maakhir region has turned a new leaf. To summarize the story, some of their community in Dubai met with Faroole and requested - yes, requested - that he extend the exploration mandate to their territories. Galgalanews, which just a few months ago was the most staunch anti-exploration voice on the web, referred to the exploration companies in this article as "Shirkadu Horumarineed" ---
---they no longer see these endeavors as "taking" something from them, but rather "giving" them new opportunities. The whole Somali collective priorities have been realigned by this new resource-driven reality.Its unfortunate that it took damn 6 years for them to see the light but at least its happening now, and I much applaud Faroole's latest publicity stunt, absolutely f-king brilliant, it is exactly the wake-up call the people needed. I said it a while back, when the scent of a ready meal is on the horizon, everyone will drop their egos and previously-held claims and begin accord themselves in a manner in which they can eat without a fight. Just unbelievable how accurate my earlier vision was; I knew the day the first well went in that it would have a strong (positive) effect on the Somali collective psyche.
You gotta love the Maakhirians approach to their problems; they want to use their own resources to alleviate poverty as opposed to requesting another dead-end aid mission.
A new age is on the horizon, an age of abundance, and this is just the first step.
