Dear Phil,
Happy New Year ! Mas vale tarde, que nunca!
I hope that all went well with your end of the year activities and that you managed to accomplish all your plans.
Please forgive me for this very late contribution concerning your December request, but after more than 10 years of "watchful waiting" of my prostate condition I finally got biopsy confirmation that I have cancer; fortunately it does not seem agressive and it is contained to the prostate.
But we must now try to reduce all unecesary risks, so since the last day of December I am on a hormone therapy that will soon be followed up with an external beam radiation therap. I will spend the next 6 months under treatment and hope for positive results.
Below you wil find a brief contribution with some comments on the years that I spent in Somalia with Eve and Tony.
Recibe un fuerte abrazo mio con los mejores deseos para 2009 y el futuro.
Hasta pronto
Juan Carlos
My stay in Mogadiscio, Somalia, was as one of the technical officers in a UN project assisting the local Ministry of Development spread from 1983 to 1986. Mr. Elabe was the top man leading the ministry and the Chief Technical Adviser of our project was a gentleman from Yugoslavia, Mr. Milos Szamardjia, a very stout man with forceful character, but who came to fair decisions on most occasions.
In our project, as was the case with most projects, intrigue, suspicion and job insecurity were constantly at play both within the project and among the large number of projects operating in the country. Our UN project was extremely sensitive to fits and potential threats from people wielding some power in local business; this was because of its hybrid nature, being formed by a strong technical component of professionals recruited by the Technical Department for Cooperation and Development (TDCD) based in New York, and a group of three FAO officers sent by Rome to look after its technical sectors representing: Agriculture and irrigation, Livestock and grasslands, Forestry and Fisheries.
Mr. Szamardjia was an economist appointed by TDCD so that within the project the TDCD team had a distinct advantage over our small FAO group, especially to the eyes of our Somali counterparts. But FAO Rome expected us to guard their interests and defend their share in resources offered to Somalia by international donors. Our task was far from easy and to make this worse, Mr. Borthwick the UNDP Representative for Somalia had developed a very acute dislike for our project and especially for Mr. Szamardjia, and missed no occasion to recommend an early end for our existence.
This was our daily life tune which was quite uncomfortable to say the least, when you try to make a living with just a 12 month contract in hand. In 1980 Mogadiscio was a small, run down town that had seen better days during its administration by Italy. Siad Barre’s government apparently had decided to make the most of whatever international assistance could be secured; careful adjustments of national statistics concerning population size and effective productive local resources were normal exercises to present donors with “a case needing urgent help”.
Mogadiscio, as the capital city, was a keen host to a large number of all sorts of expatriate people working for a multitude of organisations. The largest contingent at that time was UN personnel, followed by Italian professional advisers and teachers, then came the US people and way behind came Europeans and Chinese. Local bourgeoisie made very good income through house rentals significantly overpriced and frequently asking for 12 months payment in advance.
I met Tony soon after my arrival to Mogadiscio. One early evening a colleague and I left our downtown Hotel El Aruba, right next to the sea, and walked up to the UN Compound located in the northern part of the city, looking east to a nice beach. It was a lovely evening and few people were visible at the compound, save for four enthusiastic gentlemen that were enjoying a friendly match of tennis. Tony was then a tall man, with short beard and moustache, slightly long dark hair; he held a professional position in a UN Industry Development project (UNIDO). His partner that day was Dr. Singh, a Sikh wearing his traditional turban; he was the FAO Agriculture Adviser in my project.
The search for a suitable place to live in Mogadiscio was slow and tedious. Some of us had to stay for months in uncomfortable, not very tidy but quite expensive hotels. Others had better luck when they met with friends already living there for some years, and were invited to join them temporarily. But colleagues everywhere were always ready to give a helping hand. And so it happened that through Tony and Eve I found out that in their compound a house was vacant.
It seems that this compound had once been used by the local police, perhaps in times of Italian rule. It was located in front of the city’s football stadium, just across a dusty street with moderate amount of traffic moving-by in daytime. There were five houses that shared a large sandy patio, in its centre and where vehicles could be parked. The canopy of tall trees provided shade and greenery to the compound. A very high white painted wall surrounded the compound which had as its only entrance a huge two door iron gate, over 2 metres in height and painted red. On the northern side of this gate was a large roofed garage with nodoor that had been turned into the living quarters of thecompound guard and gate-keeper, a very thin and old Somali gentleman with clear coloured eyes, called Hadji Noor. Onthe southern side of the gate was Eve and Tony’s house. Mine was right in front of the compound gate.
My life in Mogadiscio took a turn for the better when Ijoined the tenants at Hadji Noor’s compound. Next to Eve and Tony’s lived a young couple: Leslie Osborne, an English girl and Troy Hansen, a young chap from Denmark who was working with a European NGO I believe. And it came to pass that quite unexpectedly I had joined a lovely, happy group of people that welcomed me into their compound life. Dreary, long and silent evenings disappeared from my Somali daily activities. Instead I was frequently invited by Eve and Tony to join them for an “apero”, for dinner or a party with other compound members and friends connected with diverse project activities. Our comradeship was a wonderful shield protecting us; because by sharing our daily problems and whatever minor achievements that came our way, we managed much better with daily life challenges, and thus our group little by little began to consolidate very close friendly ties that were to last for years.
During my three year stay in Somalia I also interacted with Tony’s activities at the Ministry of Industry, especially those connected with a Newsletter that the project would prepare and publish for the local community concerned with development issues. Eve has a very active team participating with Somali Women’s groups all over the country, helping them to make better use of their local resources and assisting them to consolidate their groups as autonomous, active, and efficient work and trade teams.
Looking back now on those years spent in Mogadiscio a pleasant feeling comes back, reminding me of how we shared our daily ups and downs, supporting each other overcome bad news and fight loneliness. And , right in the centre of that group of people I can see that lovely couple: Eve and Tony.
Juan Carlos Chirgwin B.
Montreal, 21 January 2009.
Happy New Year ! Mas vale tarde, que nunca!
I hope that all went well with your end of the year activities and that you managed to accomplish all your plans.
Please forgive me for this very late contribution concerning your December request, but after more than 10 years of "watchful waiting" of my prostate condition I finally got biopsy confirmation that I have cancer; fortunately it does not seem agressive and it is contained to the prostate.
But we must now try to reduce all unecesary risks, so since the last day of December I am on a hormone therapy that will soon be followed up with an external beam radiation therap. I will spend the next 6 months under treatment and hope for positive results.
Below you wil find a brief contribution with some comments on the years that I spent in Somalia with Eve and Tony.
Recibe un fuerte abrazo mio con los mejores deseos para 2009 y el futuro.
Hasta pronto
Juan Carlos
My stay in Mogadiscio, Somalia, was as one of the technical officers in a UN project assisting the local Ministry of Development spread from 1983 to 1986. Mr. Elabe was the top man leading the ministry and the Chief Technical Adviser of our project was a gentleman from Yugoslavia, Mr. Milos Szamardjia, a very stout man with forceful character, but who came to fair decisions on most occasions.
In our project, as was the case with most projects, intrigue, suspicion and job insecurity were constantly at play both within the project and among the large number of projects operating in the country. Our UN project was extremely sensitive to fits and potential threats from people wielding some power in local business; this was because of its hybrid nature, being formed by a strong technical component of professionals recruited by the Technical Department for Cooperation and Development (TDCD) based in New York, and a group of three FAO officers sent by Rome to look after its technical sectors representing: Agriculture and irrigation, Livestock and grasslands, Forestry and Fisheries.
Mr. Szamardjia was an economist appointed by TDCD so that within the project the TDCD team had a distinct advantage over our small FAO group, especially to the eyes of our Somali counterparts. But FAO Rome expected us to guard their interests and defend their share in resources offered to Somalia by international donors. Our task was far from easy and to make this worse, Mr. Borthwick the UNDP Representative for Somalia had developed a very acute dislike for our project and especially for Mr. Szamardjia, and missed no occasion to recommend an early end for our existence.
This was our daily life tune which was quite uncomfortable to say the least, when you try to make a living with just a 12 month contract in hand. In 1980 Mogadiscio was a small, run down town that had seen better days during its administration by Italy. Siad Barre’s government apparently had decided to make the most of whatever international assistance could be secured; careful adjustments of national statistics concerning population size and effective productive local resources were normal exercises to present donors with “a case needing urgent help”.
Mogadiscio, as the capital city, was a keen host to a large number of all sorts of expatriate people working for a multitude of organisations. The largest contingent at that time was UN personnel, followed by Italian professional advisers and teachers, then came the US people and way behind came Europeans and Chinese. Local bourgeoisie made very good income through house rentals significantly overpriced and frequently asking for 12 months payment in advance.
I met Tony soon after my arrival to Mogadiscio. One early evening a colleague and I left our downtown Hotel El Aruba, right next to the sea, and walked up to the UN Compound located in the northern part of the city, looking east to a nice beach. It was a lovely evening and few people were visible at the compound, save for four enthusiastic gentlemen that were enjoying a friendly match of tennis. Tony was then a tall man, with short beard and moustache, slightly long dark hair; he held a professional position in a UN Industry Development project (UNIDO). His partner that day was Dr. Singh, a Sikh wearing his traditional turban; he was the FAO Agriculture Adviser in my project.
________________________________________
Our comradeship was a wonderful shield protecting us; because by sharing our daily problems and whatever minor achievements that came our way, we managed much better with daily life challenges.
_________________________________________
The search for a suitable place to live in Mogadiscio was slow and tedious. Some of us had to stay for months in uncomfortable, not very tidy but quite expensive hotels. Others had better luck when they met with friends already living there for some years, and were invited to join them temporarily. But colleagues everywhere were always ready to give a helping hand. And so it happened that through Tony and Eve I found out that in their compound a house was vacant.
It seems that this compound had once been used by the local police, perhaps in times of Italian rule. It was located in front of the city’s football stadium, just across a dusty street with moderate amount of traffic moving-by in daytime. There were five houses that shared a large sandy patio, in its centre and where vehicles could be parked. The canopy of tall trees provided shade and greenery to the compound. A very high white painted wall surrounded the compound which had as its only entrance a huge two door iron gate, over 2 metres in height and painted red. On the northern side of this gate was a large roofed garage with nodoor that had been turned into the living quarters of thecompound guard and gate-keeper, a very thin and old Somali gentleman with clear coloured eyes, called Hadji Noor. Onthe southern side of the gate was Eve and Tony’s house. Mine was right in front of the compound gate.
My life in Mogadiscio took a turn for the better when Ijoined the tenants at Hadji Noor’s compound. Next to Eve and Tony’s lived a young couple: Leslie Osborne, an English girl and Troy Hansen, a young chap from Denmark who was working with a European NGO I believe. And it came to pass that quite unexpectedly I had joined a lovely, happy group of people that welcomed me into their compound life. Dreary, long and silent evenings disappeared from my Somali daily activities. Instead I was frequently invited by Eve and Tony to join them for an “apero”, for dinner or a party with other compound members and friends connected with diverse project activities. Our comradeship was a wonderful shield protecting us; because by sharing our daily problems and whatever minor achievements that came our way, we managed much better with daily life challenges, and thus our group little by little began to consolidate very close friendly ties that were to last for years.
During my three year stay in Somalia I also interacted with Tony’s activities at the Ministry of Industry, especially those connected with a Newsletter that the project would prepare and publish for the local community concerned with development issues. Eve has a very active team participating with Somali Women’s groups all over the country, helping them to make better use of their local resources and assisting them to consolidate their groups as autonomous, active, and efficient work and trade teams.
Looking back now on those years spent in Mogadiscio a pleasant feeling comes back, reminding me of how we shared our daily ups and downs, supporting each other overcome bad news and fight loneliness. And , right in the centre of that group of people I can see that lovely couple: Eve and Tony.
Juan Carlos Chirgwin B.
Montreal, 21 January 2009.
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