Crow’s Nest

the

Issue - 1

Research: Gymnasium Oberalster / Event Profile: Regiovillage

Special File: Women‘s DayVirtual Pirates / Current Affairs: Hugo Chavez

#ThroughTheLens

Presidential InterviewEU - Russian Trade Relations / 21st Century real Pirates

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editorial We are all on a ship together. This ship is sailing us to new shores and the only thing it relies on is the effort of every single crew member. Our captain, Miss Bradfield, has aptly named our boat the B.B.B.- Bradfield Banter Boat- in our exclusive interview with her. The passengers on this boat, our esteemed delegates, may experience the open seas of the EYP world. We sail on the decks of a boat constructed and maintained by the hard-working, reliable and ever-helpful shipwrights, our organisers. The deck-hands and the sailors guide the passengers on their trip, in our scenario we are of course referring to the chairs of the session.

So where are we, the journalists and Editors? We are up in the crow’s nest. For those that aren’t boat aficionados, the crow’s nest is located at the very top of any great ship on the mast. From up there, we see everything, we hear everything and we know everthing that is happening on the deck. We can foresee dangers in the distance and commu-nicate a warning to the other crew-members. There may be a skull and bones flag fastly approaching, as is addressed by George, on a virtual level regarding online piracy, and by Thomas and Jannis, on a physical level in relation to the Somalian pirates.

From up there we can keep up to date with current affairs all around the world, from Russia to Venezuela as Gonzalo and Alyona show us in their contributions to our issue. We must also be able to look back, so Teresa has taken a look at our venue’s unnerving history. From our point of view we must also look at ourselves today, on Women’s Day, as Anna does in her engaging piece on Mukhtar Mai, the Indian feminist.

We celebrated with a feast at Eurovillage, enjoying cuisine from all over Europe whilst getting to know many new fresh faces. Sorcha was at the scene and realised that by eating at Eurovillage we are in our own way helping to save the world. Intrigued? You should be.

On this ship we must be wary of storms, pirates and James Cameron movies, as to avoid sinking, but with enough effort and teamwork we are sure that even the biggest iceberg could not sink us. So enjoy the cruise and all the on-board entertainment while it lasts!

Theodor Hall (CH) & Berkok Yüksel (TR)

Editorial

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Brought to you by Hamburg Media Team;

Alyona Vyshnevska (UA), Teresa Kerkhoff (DE), George Ross (UK), Sorcha Foster (UK), Gonzalo Sola Rodriguez (ES), Jannis Kühlencord (DE), Tom Wagenhammer (DE), Giorgina Giani (GR), Anna Pusa (FI)

Video-Editor: Oliver Kötter (DE)

Editors: Berkok Yüksel (TR), Theodor Hall (CH)

#Banter

#quoteoftheday„Quotation is a serviceable

substitute for wit.“

- Oscar Wilde

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Planting Against Oblivion

In Germany there are to this day reminders of a darker time. Even the school grounds where we are currently having our session have a connection to the Third Reich. Close to the school, you can find a memorial that re-minds us of a satellite camp of the concentration camp Neuengamme near Hamburg.

This afternoon is really cold. An ice-cold wind is blowing and I meet no one on my way to the memorial that is approximately 500 metres away from the school. In the residential-only area a rather inconspicuous stone with a slogan which is referring to the German constitution suddenly appears: “Human dignity shall not be violated.” I’m shivering. Not because of the cold air but probably because of what happened here.

The satellite camp was set up as a POW camp originally and afterwards Polish Jewish women were prisoned in there. It gathered about 500 prisoners, who have been deported from the ghetto of Lodz and Auschwitz-Birke-

nau. Being forced to work, they had to build makeshift accommodations and manufacture concrete slabs from rubble in some districts of Hamburg for companies.

Approaching the end of the war in April 1945, the SS de-ported the women to another bigger concentration camp that is called Bergen-Belsen. They were then replaced by other women coming from another satellite camp. They had spent several days in goods cars without any food or water. However, at least 35 people died in that camp because of starvation, disease, maltreatment and exhaus-tion, including the replacing people.

Today, the Gymnasium Oberalster cares for the memo-rial by keeping the stone and the area around it in good condition. On the initiative of the school, the stone was set up and the camp history was researched in the 1980s. This is how they interpret dealing with the German past which should be highly appreciated.

Research: Gymnasium Oberalster

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Teresa Kerkhoff takes a look at the long and not-so-illustrious history of the Gymnasium Oberalster, our main venue.

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Exploring Culture ThroughFOOD

Entering the dining hall, the unusual mix of aromas and the sight of densely packed, colourful tables of delicious, regional delicacies readied the palate for some brand new culinary experiences.The variation of foods was vast, with each delegation repre-senting a different country. Whilst bread and cheese or meat seemed to be the norm, more unusual ingredients from reindeer to dried figs also tickled our tastebuds. These di-ets have been based on long term historical preferences and the availability of agricultural land. Although, it is increas-ingly modish to have a penchant for such local goods, the intensification of globalisation has broadened our horizons. We now enjoy green beans from Kenya, limes from South America and even the likes of Sushi, unheard of outside Ja-pan until fifteen years ago. Although Euro Village did not promote these new found ex-otic tastes many delegates noted that their favourite foods were not actually those they had brought. The Finnish dele-gation remarked, “We normally eat risotto and pasta, things like that,” whereas reindeer, an undoubtedly Finnish phe-nomenon was considered a treat. The Swiss were not dis-

similar, they expressed a preference for “international cui-sine” but Swiss dishes were still present on a daily basis. Although new foods have penetrated our societies in an unprecedented manner, there are still some nation-partic-ular nutritional taboos. The recent Europe-wide horse meat scandal underlined such prejudice. France and Slovenia were confounded by the raucous made by the British public on hearing about the issue. They had viewed it merely as an act of fraud by supermarkets whereas in the UK and Ireland it provoked moral outrage. Whilst our globalised society brings us closer together, there are certain cultural nuances which cannot be unlearnt. Euro Village is an important way of showcasing the variety of cul-tures across Europe, which appear incredibly similar whilst retaining their own unique edge. The creation of a more tolerant society can only be realised when there is respect. This can only be gained from mutual understanding of background, society and culture. So con-gratulations to the Euro Village participants, you’re doing your bit to eradicate prejudice.

Event: Regiovillage

Sorcha Foster explains how we support world peace by participating at Eurovillage.

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Special File: Women‘s DaySpecial File: Women‘s Day

Millions of Mukhtars

by Anna Pusa

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Today on 8th March, we celebrate the International Women‘s Day.

In the vIllage of Meerwala in southern Punjab, Pakis-tan, lies the Mukhtar Mai School for Girls. The woman after which the school is named is the president of Mukh-tar Mai Women’s Organisation, runs the Mukhtar Mai Wo-men’s Crisis Relief Center and has been widely praised for her campaigning for education and girls’ rights.

But Mukhtar Mai has not always been the woman in her village and region to whom people turn to looking for ad-vice in crisis situations. She has not always been speaking at banquets worldwide and there was a time when an invi-tation to the White House was as far from Mukhtar’s rea-lity as you could get.

In the summer of 2002 Mukhtar was sentenced to be gang-raped by her village council (as a punishment for her brother’s alleged crime). And she was, right next to whe-re the tribal assembly meeting had been taking place. The natural thing to do in such situations for peasant Pakista-ni women was to kill themselves, but Mukhtar’s family made sure this did not happen and soon enough Mukhtar’s despair turned into rage. And she did something revoluti-onary; she went to the police and reported the crime. The rapers were arrested and president Pervez Musharraf, who heard of it, sent her the equivalent of $ 8,300. With this money, Mukhtar started up a school and enrolled in it her-self, learning to read and write.

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Mukhtar is one of the countless heroines of the true story of the treatment of women in developing countries. Hers and many other women’s stories are told in the book Half the sky – How to change the world by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The focus lies on three main abuses causing a situation of millions of ”mis-sing women” worldwide today; sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence (honour killings, mass rape, acid thrown in the face…the list is long) and ma-ternal mortality. A rough estimate indicates the number of missing women from the globe today to be close to 100 million females. The missing women are girls who sim-ply disappear as a result of deadly gender discrimination – something completely different from the discrimination women might suffer from in wealthy countries. A father or mother’s likely decision to choose to vaccinate their son

instead of their daughter and the prolonging of bringing a sick daughter to the hospital are examples of discrimina-tion that in the end can kill.

The death of a young female student who was gang-raped in Delhi in December 2012 and the 14-year-old Mala-la Yousafzai who was shot by Taliban soldiers and luck-ily survived – women are making the headlines as they fall victim to abuses or stand up for their rights. But the problem is, the oppression of women is extensive and sys-tematic and most stories never make the headlines. Take something as fundamentally evil as forced prostitution. It is obvious it happens in all parts of the world and is a flour-ishing business for traffickers, but who knew that the ex-tent of it is bigger than the transatlantic slave trade was in the nineteenth century, as Kristof and Wudunn point out? Forced prostitutes can rightfully be called twenty-first cen-tury slaves.

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Anyone can agree that these twenty-first century slaves deserve a better life. Violation of women’s rights is an es-sential moral question – do we accept the fate of the 100 million missing women? Looking at the problem with a wider perspective though, other issues are at stake as well. The economic advantages of emancipating and empower-ing women may not be neglected. By guaranteeing wom-en their rightful role as equal members of the community and by allowing them into the workforce on equal terms as men, the economic outlooks would change fundamentally for the better. It would gain all of society along with all its members.

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Consider Mukhtar once more. This woman made a chan-ge not only for herself, but for numerous other women in her community. She is one of millions of women whose lifework rightfully is celebrated on the International Wom-en’s Day on March the 8th, and the world will still see mil-lions of women like herself making a contribution for a better tomorrow.

8th March 2013

Anna Pusa shares insight on the massive infringements of women‘s rights in İndia and what it means to us.

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Piracy vs. Censorship: Duelling in Cyberspace

Opinion Matters

As the youth of europe I am sure almost all of you, dear delegates, are more than familiar with the internet. It has evolved into being such a large part of western society that many of us struggle to imagine a day going without it. A day without being able to Google the question that has been annoying you for the past couple of hours, a day without be-ing able to YouTube that new band your friends were telling you about earlier. Technology has improved so exponential-ly in past few decades that it is now a fundamental keystone in our day to day activities. However it is not all plain sailing, the internet has also presented us with problems. The fore-most of these problems is the issue of online piracy and how to sufficiently protect the Intellectual property rights (IPR) of content creators.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the terms ‘intel-lectual property’ or ‘online piracy’ they can be summarised as follows: Intellectual property is any idea, invention or process that derives from the work of the mind. IPR are the rights one holds over these ideas. Online piracy is the unauthorised use of another’s production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright. On-line piracy has proven difficult to prevent due to the free nature of the internet. It is possible for anyone to create, modify and share content easily through the use of simple tools and an internet connection. Examples of online piracy would be the illegal downloading of music, art or games, usually for free and without the consent of content creators themselves.

The fact that it is so difficult to drop the anchor and stop online piracy has sparked debate amongst some of our most senior politicians. One proposal drafted to resolve the issue of online piracy was the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agree-ment (ACTA). ACTA is the widest reaching of the propos-als, almost spanning all four corners of the earth and most of the developed world. It has been heavily criticised as the discussions surrounding the proposal have been mainly be-hind closed doors and have had little public attention or in-volvement.

ACTA contains some very restrictive clauses that could commandeer some of our fundamental human rights and therefore all hands should be on deck to combat such inva-sive legislation. ACTA violates Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights which clearly states ‘Every-one has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and im-part information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.’ ACTA would inhibit the free sharing of information that internet users currently enjoy. It would not only be hindering the illegal sharing of files but also the legal sharing. This would make information and resources harder to find and collate which could, poten-tially, cause areas of our society to become stagnant.

Although 92% of the European Parliament rejected ACTA last summer it remains a threat for other signatory nations such as the USA or Japan. Many people believe that due to the EU’s rejection of ACTA it is no longer a problem of our concern, but as the legislation could still influence the USA it is still very much an issue of importance. This is because many of the most used websites online are American. The top three most visited websites YouTube, Google and Face-book are all American in origin. So even though the EU has denied ACTA we are yet to see it truly walk the plank as it could still have significant European impact, if not only indirectly. We are not out of the storm yet.

It is not just ACTA that is a threat to the freedoms we enjoy, there are also other initiatives such as the ‘Stop Online Pira-cy Act’ and the ‘Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement’ that could change the lives of everyone across the seven seas. If we want to keep these tides of legislation at bay there is only one way forward: being proactive. Many of these proposals are being drafted by a far older generation, people who have not grown up with the internet. They may not understand it as we do. It therefore falls to us to solve this key problem: Can this piracy ship truly be sunk or are there other alterna-tives we need to look at?

George Ross walks the plank of internet censorship and what it means to us.

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The Treasure Chest of Online Property

Imagine a day without being able to YouTube

that new band your friends were telling you about earlier.

ACTA violates Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights which clearly states ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of

expression.’ If it is passed we could see this cuthroat legislation send some of our

fundamental human rights to Davy Jones’ locker.“

„

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Current Affairs

It Is dIffIcult to find a politician who has been more in-fluential throughout the world than Hugo Chavez in the last 15 years. His political ideology and some of his acts in Venezuela have been an example for other South American countries like Bolivia to follow. Chavez’s government has left no one indifferent around the world. Therefore, he has been a public figure who simultaneously has a lot of propo-nents and detractors. Consequently every single move he has made has resulted in unexpected consequences. Hugo Chavez died only two days ago after some years fighting can-cer. However, his influence remains.

Almost every economic decision that the government of Venezuela took during Chavez‘s term in office was based on the production and sale of oil to the rest of the world. As we can imagine, the European Union has been one of the biggest consumers of Venezuelan petroleum. We cannot avoid the importance of relations between the EU and Ven-ezuela as long as this Latin American country remains part of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States

which was established in order to promote common eco-nomic affairs among Latin American members and the rest of the world.

Nobody can affirm that Hugo Chavez’s death is going to rep-resent a negative or positive impact on the oil consumption of the EU. Nevertheless, we are living in a globalised world where every single decision can have an effect on thousands of peoples´ lives. Chavez’s death could be one those decisive facts.

Oil is probably one of the most crucial resources the Euro-pean Union needs to develop its Member States economies. It would be stupid to suggest that the end of Chávez’s re-gime signified a problem in this development. Nonetheless, it is true that we are going to live during a period of un-certainty that might concern some Member States. So, let’s wait and see how the drama will unfold.

Hugo Chavez and Europe: An Oil-Based Relationship Gonzalo Rodriguez assesses the complex relationship between the EU and Venezuela in the aftermath of recent passing of Hugo Chavez.

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Guest Star

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Hugo Chávez

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#ThroughTheLens

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Teambuildng Day

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Lucy Bradfield.

Interview

„Classic“

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Interview

G&T: To start everything off, for a lot of the delegates here today this is their first session. When was your first EYP session?LB: It was the Munster regional session in Cork (20-22 No-vember 2009)

What is something you know now that you wish you had known then?I wish someone had better explained to me how the session was going to run. When I arrived I had no idea what to ex-pect. At the time, I didn’t really understand what the point was.

So you have been involved in EYP for several years now. What has been your favourite session that you have attend-ed so far?As of today, Hamburg 2013. Before this ses-sion, however, I would have said the Iberian Forum 2011 where I was a chair.

Who would you consider to be your heroes within EYP?Gillian O’Halloran who presided the 2012 IS in Amsterdam, Franziska Maier the pres-ident of EYP Germany, Niall Murphy who was presiding the Aschaffenburg 2013 re-gional and finally Christopher Proctor who has been my delegate twice.

Where is your favourite place in the world?Maybe, Cork or St. Petersburg.

Where is your favourite place in Germany?It is Holiday Park near Frankfurt or maybe, Europa Park near Freiburg.

How has EYP changed since you first started? Where do you see it going in the future?That is a difficult question to answer as when I first started I didn’t know as much about EYP. However, it would appear to me that people are always trying to improve their Nation-al Committees with new initiatives.

What do you find most challenging about EYP?The fact that every session is so different and you never stop growing. Each session presents a new and unique challenge which you can learn from.

What challenges do you think EYP still has to overcome as an or-ganisation?Something I feel very strongly about within EYP is that some countries are further developed than others in terms of the number of schools that get involved. I feel that we could be missing out on a lot of talent by having such a lim-ited selection of schools.

What is your favourite EYP game?Kiss the bunny.

What is the best compliment you have ever re-ceived whilst at an EYP session?Well, on the “wall of love” in the UK 2012 National Selection Conference someone anonymously wrote their phone number and a winky face on piece of paper inside of my compartment.

What are you most looking forward to during this session?I am most looking forward to Eurovillage, because of the Italian table. I particularly like pasta pesto. Classic!

What would you be doing right now if you weren’t at this session?On Thursday at 3:15? I would be in my French literature class in Bologna.

On a slightly less EYP related note, do you play any musical in-struments?The piano and the tin whistle.

What is your guilty pleasure?I am guilt free and generally happy. Classic!

What do you think you will be doing in 10 years time?I will either be working in a primary school in, Italy, or the UK as a teacher or principal. I have always loved kids.

Presidential InterviewLucy B. hind the telescope.

“Each session presents a new and unique challenge, which you can learn from.“

Lucy Jane cLaire BradfieLd (ie) your president, also known by her pirate alias as “Lucy in the Sky with Pirates” gave up some of her precious time yesterday to be interviewed by two members of the Press Team: George Ross (UK) and Teresa Kerkhoff (DE). What you are about to read, dear delegates, is what was uncovered over the course of the Interview:

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Interview

Now, as you have probably noticed the press team at this session has been focusing a lot on Piracy. We now have a stream of pirate related questions for you:What 5 songs would you take with you if you were stranded on a desert island? The Cure and the Cause – Fish go deep, Stop – Spice Girls, Reach for the Stars – S-Club 7, Venus Vs. Mars - Jay-Z and finally My Love – Westlife. Classics – all of them.

If you captained a ship who would be your first mate?Christopher…. Columbus

What’s the longest you have ever spent on a ship?However long it takes to get from Ireland to Calais.

If you had your own ship, what you name it?The BBB – The Bradfield Banter Boat

If you had to choose between the two, would you rather have a peg leg or an eye patch?

I would pick the peg leg, hands down. No brainer, no legs.

Also, would you rather have a pet parrot or a hook?The parrot because I could teach it to speak Irish. Great craic.

Finally, the last question of the interview: What made you want to preside this session?German sessions are always well run and are very easy to work with. I have lots of friends in EYP Germany and have been to two German session previously: Frankfurt 2010 and the Baltic Sea Youth Session 2012. Both of these sessions were great fun. Regarding Hamburg, I felt I was up for the challenge of taking on a session and presiding it knowing how solid EYP Germany are as a National Com-mittee, I trust them.

Thank you very much for your time Lucy, it was fantastic having this opportunity to interview you and on behalf of the press team, we wish you good luck with the rest of the session.

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European Trade Policy - Russia

Can Russia command the EU?

As europe imports no less than 36% of its gas, 31% of its natural oil and 30% of its coal from Russia, many West-ern analysts fear that European dependence on Russian en-ergy supplies will lead to the EU’s political dependence on Russia.

How is it possible that superpowers, such as Germany or the UK would be manipulat-ed by such a treacherous doubtful gov-ernment? The answer is quite straight forward: the more Europe depends on Russian energy, the more it will have to acquiesce to Moscow’s political de-mands for fear that Russia could oth-erwise cut off the flow of energy. What enhances the dread is the experience of Russia’s harmful abrupt reductions of the energy exports to Ukraine and Belarus in the recent years, which affected Europe immensely de-spite its short duration. Seeking stability and continuous energy supply, the EU is feared to sacrifice its own interests for the benefit of Russia.

However, there is another side of the coin which does not appear so deterring. When energy is taken into account, Eu-rope is by no means completely dependent on Russia. While Russia may be the world’s largest oil producer, there are many other oil producing countries. Also, the new sources are widely searched for, in addition to the already fast-grow-ing alternative energy production. On the other hand, natural gas remains an issue, since most of it we still get via fixed pipelines. A reduction or cut-off of

gas coming from the Russian pipeline system would have an immediate and severe impact on Europe, as the brief Rus-sian-Ukrainian and Russian-Belarussian gas disputes demon-strated. It is Europe’s dependence on Russian gas supplies in particular that creates Western fears of the painful econom-ic consequences of a Russian supply cut-off.

Even if Russia seems to be in the winning po-

sition, in both cases it is not the ultimate beneficiary. Economic dependence is a two way street. Just as Europe is de-pendant on Russian supply, Russia is de-pendant on European demand. Bearing in mind that the oil and gas industry ac-

counts for about 50 percent of Russia’s budget revenue, we could by far predict

that Russian economy would nearly collapse if not supplying its natural resources to Europe,

its biggest oil and gas customer. Even such a scenario is perceived as unrealistic today, especially taking into an account current geopolitical events supporting high prices as well as problems in Libya and Syria, this scenario might pretty soon come to live.

Thus in the long-run, I am highly sceptical of Russian’s eco-nomic future since it is so over-reliant on oil and today’s high oil prices soon could be reset by increased Saudi pro-duction, domestic shale oil, Canadian oil sands, Brazilian offshore deposits, or some combination of all of these.

Alyona Vyshnevska takes a look at the EU’s longtime tense relationship with its largest and most powerful neighbour- Russia.

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Report

MohAMed AbdI hAssAn has quit his job. Being an infa-mous pirate leader in Somalia is not profitable anymore, due to increased hiring of armed guards on trade ships and even more of navies patrolling the Horn of Africa. Hassan, also known as Afweyne or “Big Mouth“, has been in piracy for eight years. He was most notoriously involved in the 2009 capture of MV Faina, a Ukrainian transport ship carrying arms (supposedly for Kenya) which earned him about three million US-Dollars. He quit all that “dirty busi-ness“, as he named it in a press conference, even though he made several millions with piracy; he also wants to make his fellow pirates quit as well in which has already partially succeeded.

The Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen is one of the most important trading routes in the world connecting the Asian market with the European and American economies. With more than 16’000 vessels and around 30 percent

of worldwide oil transport passing by the Somali coast, it is indispensable for the international trading network. Especially for the European economy this connection for eastbound trade has an especially high importance due to the fact that over 80 percent of the international maritime trade movements going through the Gulf of Aden and the north-eastern Indian Ocean is with Europe.

This trading route is considered by the ship owners and traders to be without worthwhile alternatives when it comes to shipping highly demanded and valuable products, which are needed for production facilities or are highly demanded by the consumers. In general it is acceptable to transport low valuable products by using alternative, longer routes, because there is no need for delivering them under time pressure. When it comes to more valuable products, like production material that is needed to keep a factory running, a delivery delay or as well longer delivery

The Dirty Business In Somalia it would seem piracy is no longer worth the 5 pieces of silver, as reported by Jannis Kuhlencord and Thomas Wagenhammer.

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21st Century Pirates

Of Somalian Piracyperiods lead to highly increased costs for the companies, the traders and the ship owners.

Many reasons led to the existing piracy in Somalia, indeed some more than others. One reason was the lack of a central government in a nation torn by autocratic movements linked to the Somalian Civil War. The major reason is, nevertheless, the mostly illegal fishing by foreign companies caused by the lack of maritime surveillance since the start of the of the Civil War in 1991. Fishermen who saw their basis of existence endan-gered, wanted, needless to say, to protect their fishing grounds and reacted by starting to enforce payments from the foreign fishing companies. On top of that, they progressively also start-ed to assault freight ships. Even passenger ships were attacked frequently and the whole issue went out of control which had more than dangerous consequences. According to Kenyan expert Andrew Mwangura illegal fishing can be considered the major root of piracy in Somalia.

Since 2008 the situation in front of the Somali coast has esca-lated and the number of ships hijacked by pirates has rapidly

increased, the international trade had to suffer under the threat of piracy. The ship operators have the decision between choos-ing to let their ships sail via the Cape of Good Hope or sending them through the Gulf of Aden. Independent of the decision every single ship operator makes, they have to face higher costs. In case of choosing the shorter route, the ship owners have to face increasing insurance fees and rising wages. Also, the majority of ships passing through the Gulf of Aden are hir-ing private security personal to ensure both their cargo‘s and their crew‘s security, which are adding to the costs as well.

Although the amount of piracy is diminishing, Somalia still has to face a good deal of additional issues: the establishment of a permanent democratic political system instead of the tem-porarily torn system of autonomous regions like Somaliland which is causing masses of people to leave the country. Howev-er, there are signs of improvement already, such as the ongoing renovation of houses and the departure of Islamist “al Shabaab“ activists who caused frequent street riots in the Somalian capi-tal Mogadishu.

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