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Somaliland, a de facto independent country located within what is internationally recognized as Somalia, is the subject of much Finnish influence. Many returnees from Finland have risen to prominent positions in Somaliland society.
Finland already had a good reputation in the country before refugees ended up in northern Europe. Journalist Wali Hashi found surprising evidence of Finnish influence while travelling in the country recently.
Hashi, a Somali-born Finn, drove to a coastal town a couple of hundred kilometres from the capital, Hargeisa. On his trip, he found a sign warning against travelling at sea because of pirates that was in three languages: Somali, English and Finnish. A bigger surprise was in store on his return journey.
”We came to a small village, and believe it or not the name of the place was ’Suomen kylä’ (Finnish village),” says Hashi. “The whole village’s name was Finland!”
The villagers had given their village the name ’Finland’, because the village’s water supply infrastructure had been built by Finns in the 1980s.
”When I interviewed the villagers, they said that they loved Finland,” adds Hashi.
Democracy Learnt From Finland
Somaliland’s Finland-positive attitude took Hashi by surprise, although he already knew that Finnish Somalis were in prominent positions in Somaliland society.
The parliament’s spokesman and the rector of Hargeisa University are both Finnish citizens, for example, and one of Somaliland’s biggest political parties – Faisal Ali Warabe’s Justice and Welfare party – was born in Helsinki.
Hashi believes that the Finnish experience helped Somaliland avoid a bitter civil war similar to that engulfing the Ivory Coast following last summer’s presidential election. Warabe, who lives in Espoo to the west of Helsinki, accepted his defeat when he came second in the vote.
”One interesting thing Warabe said was that he did not want war or conflict,” says Hashi. “He just wants democracy, which he learnt in Finland.”
Returnees Proud of Their Finnishness
Many of the returnees want to preserve their Finnish culture, he says.
“I’ve spoken to children with their mothers and fathers, and they’ve to.ld me that they are really proud of their identity,” says Hashi.
Hashi, recently named the 2011 'New Citizen of Turku', moved to Finland when he was 17 yrs 0l.d, and is one of the few Finnish Somalis to find work in the Finnish media. He has previously produced stories on pirates in Somalia for YLE, among other topics.
YLE
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That is very interesting. |
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Cisco64Join Date: 2008-05-03
Post Count: 20190 |
No it isn't. |
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@Cisco:
No one asked for your opinion. |
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FrenchPlayHandBall, I'm sure no one asked for your opinion either.
Anyways ... have you considered these?
Peru, Illinois
Peru, Indiana
Peru, Kansas
Peru, Maine
Peru, Massachusetts
Peru, Nebraska
Peru, New York
Peru, Pennsylvania
Peru, Vermont
Peru, West Virginia
Peru, Wisconsin
Mexico, Indiana
Mexico, Kentucky
Mexico, Maine
Mexico, Maryland
Mexico, Missouri
Poland, Maine
Poland, Chautauqua County, New York
Poland, Herkimer County, New York
Poland, Ohio
Turkey, North Carolina
Turkey, Texas
Germany, Georgia
Germany, Indiana
Germany, Texas
China, Maine
China, Texas
Cuba, Alabama
Cuba, Illinois
Cuba, Kansas
Cuba, Missouri
Cuba, New Mexico
Syria, Virginia
Sudan, Texas
I searched up, "cities named after countries," and found a list of American cities with names of other nations. |
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ThoraeJoin Date: 2008-10-17
Post Count: 8974 |
Wonder why there are so many Perus?
Anyway, I think the fact that the village is in Somali(a)(land) was the interesting part. |
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Are you asking me? I'm not sure, I only copied and pasted that list. |
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@Thorae:
That's exactly what I found interesting |
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ThoraeJoin Date: 2008-10-17
Post Count: 8974 |
No, just a rhetorical question. |
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By the way MiddleEastern, I am Zammy, not French. My main was called zammy67rocks2 but it got deleted for no reason. |
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For serious, did they really delete you without writing a reason? |
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@Middle:
Yes. I said an opinion on a college football team. |
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So they did write a reason, because you stated your opinion on a sport team. |
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@Middle:
But it wasn't a really negivate opinion. Alll I said was I didn't like the team and got deleted. It wasn't inapporiate, or anything |
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But there was a reason. You lied to me!!! |
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It was not a good reason though :P |
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However, it was still a reason. |
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There are plenty of funny cities in USA |
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ZutroyJoin Date: 2008-06-29
Post Count: 3471 |
[ Content Deleted ] |
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Looks like Finland is an helpful and interesting country.
Too bad when you will mention a small positive thing about Finland in eRepublik OT, you will get called a nordball... |
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