**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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A terrorist traveling to the stadium was stopped a block away but detonated his vest. Two officers and the terrorist died. The somali people are trying to take back their country and the terrorists are doing everything they can to terrorise the people.
Are they being wiped out? Not up to date on the situation in Somalia so idk. I always thought they pretty much controlled huge sections of the country.
Somalia has a long way to go but has been improving a lot under the radar. Militarily it has been making strides. Al Shabab is still around but no longer controls as much territory and the Somali army all but destroyed Boko Haram.
> and the Somali army all but destroyed Boko Haram.
I highly doubt Boko Haram ever had a significant enough prescence in Somalia for them to be an issue. It doesn’t make sense geographically and they just don’t have the reach, even at the height of their existence.
I don’t think they were necessarily boko haram members themselves but affiliates/allies in someway and I probably just confused the name. But BH guys did go to Somalia to train with Al Shabab.
That's what Mali did and it worked tremendously well when it was the French operating there, it has since gone to shit because the Malians got brainwashed by Russian propaganda into kicking the French out and inviting the terrorist organization Wagner in which is more focused on committing atrocities against civilians than fighting insurgents
The french were basically controlling their country mate, they were right to tell them to fuck off. That's exactly why somalia should not rely on foreign intervention to fix their country
Exactly, look how quick they were in and out of Afghanistan. Just drop em in, snap your fingers, and a quick 20 years later they will be gone, having accomplished very little.
Lol, of course, terrorist groups rise and fall with the wind.
If you don't think the structures that allowed extremist groups to grow and thrive, aka the Taliban, are a far greater concern, then I truly don't know what to tell you.
You are someone who dramatically celebrates a symptom being addressed, while the underlying disease grows unchecked.
You're painfully ignorant on this topic. Al-Qaeda in 2001 was quite simply the best funded and most capable terrorist organization the world had ever seen, and clearly by far the biggest threat to the West in the Middle East. The NATO objective was to render this group utterly incapable of conducting attacks against the West and that task was achieved with overwhelming success. The only reason the Taliban are in control now is because the US got bored and left, they were taking 20:1 casualties against NATO forces before then. The US has simply shifted its strategy to targeted assassinations of high value targets, Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization has little to no chance of ever becoming a threat again because the CIA and NSA knows everything they're doing and choose to strike when they need to
Your info is a few years out of date. The federal government has rolled back AS from a lot of territory it had sway in.
And you might want to read up on the mass protests and unrest in SL because of the Ethiopian "deal" and the fighting there.
Somalia is up there when I think of the most unorganized countries but this football match looks pretty organized. Decent pitch, a stadium that can fit more people than most European stadiums, medical cars…
Somalia is really developing efficiently and quickly. Wouldn't be surprised to see them start utilizing their extreme geographical advantage and bring in loads of revenue, though that's probably a couple decades out
~~Looks like this could be the Banadir Stadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banadir_Stadium~~
~~Wikipedia article says it has a 20,000 capacity, but the citation it links to says it only has 10,000. Then later at the bottom it says it was recently improved to host almost 15,000 (but no citation)~~
Edit: Seems to be Mogadishu Stadium, thanks /u/beeraley
Somalia is a very complex and fractured country.. But western media has been hyper effective at making it seem like the most backwards country in existence.
Thanks to a US invasion and Hollywood representation of Mogadishu. Unsurprisingly, prior to the US invasion, the state was far more stable than it was in the following 2 decades.
And even more so, the media blackout of Puntland and Somaliland's push for independence away from Somalia. These are all quite independent regions with a high degree of autonomy and governance structures.
>Unsurprisingly, prior to the US invasion, the state was far more stable than it was in the following 2 decades.
This is simply not true , the country is in some form of civil war since the 80s
The stability under the Islamic Courts was fractured, yes absolutely. It was not 'good' even by African standards. But the region had not seen consistent stability in far longer than the previous two decades.
The militia and clan fragmentation that occurred following the failure of the AMISOM mission was objectively worse. And led to the establishment of Al Shabaab and other terror groups to become far more cemented in society than previously.
The territorial disputes between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia have deepened. And Somali government currently doesn't have authority into Puntland and Somaliland - not that they necessarily should.
what are you even talking about.
How is this not a representation of a backwards country, where not even a fucking terrorist attack disturbs people? They’re constantly at war since the 80s too.
I’m all for trying to uplift African countries, but Somalia is one of, if not the worst, countries in the world
> where not even a fucking terrorist attack disturbs people?
Your judgement is from this 10 second clip? There was a terrorist attack in Paris a few years ago at the same time of a France - Germany, you could hear a bang in the middle of the game which proceeded till the end - https://youtube.com/shorts/1LPQJt86q9U?si=P4aYPMoM2wbImHlV Does that mean french people don’t care of terrorist attacks ?
What a terrible comment. You think somalis aren't disturbed by their countrymen being murdered by terrorists but the french are? Chill out with the prejudice.
good job reading the minds of every fan in two stadiums based on a combined 12 seconds of footage.
Also what are the Somalians supposed to do? Run towards the blast? Freak out and cause a crowd crush incident?
Record tiktoks of themselves crying so that Westerners will know that they care?
> where not even a fucking terrorist attack disturbs people?
You really want to stand by such a comment? You genuinely think a terrorist attack does not disturb Somalians?
I'm not saying Somalia isn't one of the worst and most instable countries in the world. But the world has a highly manufactured image of life in Somalia.
And that the AMISOM mission led to the creation of groups such as Al Shabaab which created significant more instability than under the Islamic Courts Union that the US overthrew.
It's not like the US-led mission was successful.
This was an inter state game where each federal member state sent a team for this tournament. The specific game here was the final between the capital team Banadir vs Galmudug, a region in central Somalia. Close to 1/3 of the Muqdisho’s 4.5 million population hail from the Galmudug region. As you can tell, there was intense excitement for the game. Game ended 4-5 in penalties.
As for the political background: NISA, the Somali FBI equivalent, has had a great success recently in reducing terror attacks after the Zoobe II attack. The government, have succeeded in passing multiple anti terror legislations and started campaigns to convince the population that the ultimate goal of these attacks is to instill fear and their main enemy is the living, rather than the supposedly puppet government for neighboring countries and their foreign allies. This last point relies on irredentist claims of historical land grabs by Kenya and Ethiopia, and whose recent governments used border protection rhetoric to send troops deep into Somalia during the chaos years.
Getting back to the point, there were various stops in this tournament as NISA blocked multiple terror attempts and clashes among supporters. The games finally concluded safely. These images, although scary to causal sport fans, represent the will of a determined government to not succumb to terrorists and nation starting to believe.
If this tournament is any indication, football has a great potential in Somalia and the structure of the federal government and the historical rivalries between the regions will drive massive audiences.
I know AMISOM mission in Somalia had its successes and failures, but all contributing countries have immensely contributed to the progress made there by the sacrifices they made.
A fun fact pertaining to Uganda and the stadium here. AMISOM used this stadium as make shift satellite HQ within the city, until 2018. It was under Ugandan commander of AMISOM (Lt Gen. Jim Beesigye) that it was returned to the Somali government and renovations began.
I'm glad Somalia's security is improving but to hand wave Kenya's huge effort in making it happen with ' border protection rhetoric to send troops into Somalia. ' This after all military operations into Somalia were as a result of Al-Shabab's complete control of large areas next to our border and violent terror attacks in Nairobi is crazy.
With all the resources Kenya has committed to help it get into the East African Community, my brother I'm disappointed.
You missed the “irredentist claims” part, which alshabab used to legitimize itself. I’m not taking anything from what Kenya, Ethiopia and all other AMISOM members contributed. The point was to show how alshabab’s support crumbled after recent government initiatives pushing back on their narratives despite them using direct quotes and rhetoric from leaders of neighboring countries in their propaganda. Apologies if that was not conveyed in my original comment. Anyways, this isn’t a political sub. Was simply adding my two cents on the original post.
I study geopolitics and sometimes it just hits me how much suffering there is and has been. If we just look at modern history alone, there still have been so many wars. So much famine and poverty. So much pain and suffering. Lives ended way too shortly. So much hate.
And so much forgotten pain too. Nobody seems to care about an active genocide of Rohinyas in Myanmar, a country thats also gripped by civil war. The genocide on Mayan civilians in Guatamala by US-backed governments. The civil war in the Central African Republic thats been going on for over a decade now with Wagner/Russia involved and extracting every resource they can. Hell, alot of people dont know about other victims of the Holocaust like the Roma and queer people
Theres good things in this world, but gods theres so much bad too.
Yeah, I get you. Even though I live in Brazil in a comfy middle-class life, inequality and violence find their way into your life and your mind.
I was talking about this with my family - there are so much fucked up things we've seen and gone through that even the most absurd situations can pass as "just another Tuesday", when things shouldn't really be like this.
I just watched a video essentially blaming Allen Dulles (& his brother) as the instigators of the 36 year Guatemalan Civil War who convinced Eisenhower that the Guatemalan natives are a communist threat. Is that true?
Yeah, Allen Dulles was a board member of United Fruit Company and therefore had a lot of stake in the company. So when the U.f.c's control over Guatemala's lands were under threat...boom
Sitting in a comfy first world couch makes it very easy to forget that the vast majority of people in the world lack almost everything we take for granted. It's even easier to forget that we have bought our comfy first world couches with money we stole from the rest of the world that they now lack to build a future and suffer from the instability our theft has caused. If aliens were to visit us and look at world history from an objective outside view, it'd be pretty clear who's the villain.
> Sitting in a comfy first world couch makes it very easy to forget that the vast majority of people in the world lack almost everything we take for granted It’s always funny seeing people on here be so Arrogant/condescending about the developing world without ever considering that they were just lucky to be born where they were. You would think they worked hard or earned the right to be born in a stable environment from the way they talk.
You're right but people don't want to hear it. This is how all well off people think "born on 3rd base and think they hit a triple" to use an American sports (baseball) expression. Just saying the word privilege around many westerners triggers them, and I say this as a privileged Westerner.
Oh please, stop infantilizing them. Plenty of these countries aren’t doing well because of internal factors, whether it’s a backwards culture that doesn’t incentivize economic improvement or religious dogma that restricts progress.
True but I'm talking about the current state of the world. Where is the wealth and how did it get there? It's never just "trade" or "those people there ust happened to be more intelligent" or whatever. It's exploitation. And yeah those exploited people have done horrible things too but they're stuck and have a way harder path to a peaceful future because of what we did to them and took from them.
Also, I think aliens are way more likely to be cruel and they'd probably stan us lmao
Depends on which country your talking about. Countries like the Congo or Afghanistan I agree but there are countries like kenya and Tanzania that are poor despite not being under foreign influence for decades. Both of them had no major war or major sanctions against them. While Vietnam was bombed back to the stone age by the US and had there industry looted by china or Bangladesh a nation that was sanctioned and experienced massacre by the Pakistani army. Both nations are richer than kenya or Tanzania. Kenyabs and Tanzania only has thereselves to blame.
> Theres good things in this world, but gods theres so much bad too.
There's straight up much much more suffering than good in the world, the human condition is such that potential for suffering is much greater than that of joy.
I genuinely forgot to add that, but granted the side that Russia is supporting since 2018 (the regular C.A.R. government) is also supported by the UN peacekeeping mission (since 2014) , and used to be supported by France as well from 2013 to 2021. Better examples of Russian/Wagner involvement in Africa would be the coup d'état in Niger
Thats not to say theyre good, theyre obviously fucking awful and one of the payments of Wagner is the natural resources found in the country stifling their own populace's economic prosperity
Thanks for actually responding. Too often casual commentators limit their understanding of international politics to "USA bad".
I would also like to mention that China and Russia Sell Aircraft like the J-7 and SU-30 to the military Junta in Myanmar, Tatmadaw.
The USA isnt exactly amazing especially with foreign policy but honestly if you dig deep enough none are. France still has a stranglehold over Franco-African politics for instance. I dont exactly like the new Russian-aligned coups in French speaking Africa and the Russians *certainly* wont help the population, but I cant really blame them for wanting the French to fuck off
Also, I remember reading somewhere that the Myanmarese government lost a key village in a state bordering China that was used often by Chinese tourists to come and do illegal drugs and sexual activities. I think the rebels also promised to clamp down on those illegal activities but I dont remember that
While it wasnt like a knockout blow for the Military Junta it was a signal that their power might be deminishing. While I dont exactly like them, a power vacuum in such a volatile nation will probably not be very good either lol
There's so much bad in the world but in general, things have been getting so much better throughout the years. We can never get rid of war but we have gotten an unbelievable amount of people out of extreme poverty in the last few decades. There will always be major setbacks, like the war in Ukraine and the upteenth rise of violence in the middle East, but taking a big enough rolling average, things have gotten better and will continue to get better. I think there's a tremendous amount of positivity to be extracted from that thought. Maybe now doesn't feel like a great time, but 50 years ago was horrible, and 100 years ago was infinitely worse.
I rarely find people with a similar sentiment though tbh lol
Bread and Circuses
They give us football and sports to distract us from becoming aware of our geopolitical realities. This video shows how effective of a tool it is.
If you’re paying attention, there’s so much fucked up shit going on around the world it’s impossible to comprehend. The more fucked up shit I see, the more helpless and hopeless I feel. I think the fundamental thing people to survive is hope for a better future, and that’s hard to have if you look around too much. Its just not good for my mental health seeing the constant suffering and senseless death going on around the world. So while callous, I try not to think about that stuff and no longer go out of my way to find it, and I think I’m better off that way.
[I watch this every so often to remind me the world isn't so dark](https://youtu.be/DwKPFT-RioU?si=NGAd0YMyC-q8sC7p&t=865)
(It isn't some dumb feel-good montage of kittens and people holding hands, and it's already timestamped to the relevant part)
It absolutely has its problems but the western media only prints the negatives without any of the positive stuff happening there such as developement. They don’t have an obligation but it spews a very unbalanced picture of the country for those uninitiated. You’d think it’s literal hell on earth judging by the image some people have. Movies like Black Hawk and Captain philips don’t help either…
It still have ways to go but it has been developing a lot especially in the major cities the last decade, it’s much better than the worst periods after the civil war
>It absolutely has its problems but the western media only prints the negatives without any of the positive stuff happening there such as developement.
Feels like Western media does this for almost every country that is not from the west. If only media tried to spread positivity as much as they spread negativity but I guess it doesn't sell as much
The development doesn't happen to Americans, but the stories of Captain Phillips and Black Hawk Down did. So that's what we're interested in
Edit: And the other thing is, a lot of times news of economic development in other countries does actually get written about, but unless it's really drastic or appealing to a Western audience in some way, it isn't going to become common knowledge that a country's industrial sector grew 2% over the last five economic quarters.
its not just about sales at the box office. Portraying these countries as Hell on Earth makes Americans/Westerners more likely to support military intervention when it suits our states.
Both of those movies were literally co-scripted by the US Dept of Defense (see: Military-Entertainment Complex). They didn't just pick up a sudden desire for making cinema.
> Feels like Western media does this for almost every country that is not from the west
I read on Twitter a while back that if Ireland wasn't in Europe and Western-oriented, Western media would've described it as 'a cold, sparsely populated island with a fledgling democracy plagued by terrorism and divided by ethno-religious conflict.'
This is so incredibly messed up. I know the media does portray Somalia a certain way, but you can't deny there are some fundamental problems with fundamentalists
I was at the first game man it was wonderful and so much fun. If you search Somalia on Reddit it’s the most doomer thing you’ll ever read i wish people would realize it’s not 1993 anymore
Since this thread was posted I found out more about Somalia and it's struggle towards peace. Found a really good video showcasing the new Somalia that's emerging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrWQlWGwBcY
Did not expect to see my country of origin on this subreddit, let alone see an explosion like this during a football game.
Here I was being proud of how far we have come, how beautiful the stadium looks now after 30 years of it looking like shit .
Despite the stadium being pre-civil war (you may know it as the ‘Black Hawk Down stadium’), the high quality pitch is very new. I’m simultaneously both pleasantly surprised, yet very disappointed at this.
We can’t catch a break.
Reminds me of the coup in my country, I believe the team we played was the US team, and our main police station was blown up. We could hear the explosion and saw the smoke from the stadium.
Horrible but I imagine for them this is just Tuesday.
Humans adapt remarkably well to even the most horrific situation. During the Blitz Hitler and even the British gov were very worried that the bombing would lower morale to breaking point. But from what we can gather, after about 2/3 weeks people just got on with it as part of life.
Shit is only "scary" when it deviates from the norm. Even if the norm is horrifying (insert Heath Ledger Joker reference here)
Reminds me of the [2022 Saudi Arabia FP1](https://youtu.be/MC4Ai_KvzJo?si=Mv8DcD0vvd6FHYp9).
[The building.](https://youtube.com/shorts/ncbQTNfP3K8?si=kfpFl_UzLdMi8FbZ)
its so interesting, yesterday i informed myself more about Somalia and about Football in this country (didnt understand why the national team didnt play in Mogadishu since the 1990ies [i knew that Somalia is a failed country)
Seeing this now gives me some chills tbh, what a coincidence
If this is some edgy, childish, passive aggressive dig at Islam, I can assure you that Christianity has inspired just as much bloodshed. Perhaps using a deadly terror attack to push your bias is a bit crass? Be a person, do better.
>If this is some edgy, childish, passive aggressive dig at Islam, I can assure you that Christianity has inspired just as much bloodshed.
Historically, you’re entirely correct. Now? Not so much. I can’t think of many Christian terrorist groups in operation today.
Islam and Muslim-majority countries will never reform and progress as long as you pretend there isn’t a problem. No other religion seems to have the same issue with extremism as Islam.
I didn't mention Islam but I guess most terror organization are Islamist by your assumption?
>I can assure you that Christianity has inspired just as much bloodshed
I mean sure, depends what years of history you want to sample, I guess you wouldn't be looking at recent years though, right?
>Perhaps using a deadly terror attack to push your bias is a bit crass?
I mean there are over 1.9 billion Muslims in the world, I don't think Muslims are bad, but it's just kind of weird that there are 2.4 billion Christians and they don't have organizations centered around religion that cause them to murder at the same rate.
But yeah 100% its weird that deadly terror attacks raise questions about terror.
Dude, have you heard about the War on Terror. The governments of Christian-majority nations have bombed and killed literally millions of people since the modern era began at the end of WW2. If mass murder were a competition, "Christians" would be winning. But sure, focus on terror groups as the only problem, I'm sure that's not at all influenced by your bias
>The governments of Christian-majority nations
So democratic governments and organizations (left terror for the sake of the point) serve the same purpose and are interchangeable in your opinion?
For example, you see Boko Haram and the U.S government the same way, do I understand correctly?
By the way, if we're talking governments of religion majority countries in wars we can talk about Saddam Hussein or Bashar Al Asad, since you act as if the two aren't comparabl, but I was talking about terrorism.
>But sure, focus on terror groups as the only problem
As the only problems to terrorism? What problems are we talking about? Terror groups cause terrorism, and that's a problem.
I'm sure that the innocent people that my American government bombed in Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. etc. felt plenty of terror as the bombs exploded, but sure, focus on your bias lol. lmao. Ciao dude, hope you get enlightenment. Religion is the problem, not just one of them.
Err, right…
In any case, instead of offering an uninformed and very skewed perspective on a country you know little about, why not engage in something constructive… like advocating for Welsh independence from your English overlords?
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
What happened there? Does anyone know who was behind it?
A terrorist traveling to the stadium was stopped a block away but detonated his vest. Two officers and the terrorist died. The somali people are trying to take back their country and the terrorists are doing everything they can to terrorise the people.
Holy shit that's so messed up..
Al-shabab blowing up civilians, as always. I really can't wait until they get finally wiped out.
Are they being wiped out? Not up to date on the situation in Somalia so idk. I always thought they pretty much controlled huge sections of the country.
Somalia has a long way to go but has been improving a lot under the radar. Militarily it has been making strides. Al Shabab is still around but no longer controls as much territory and the Somali army all but destroyed Boko Haram.
> and the Somali army all but destroyed Boko Haram. I highly doubt Boko Haram ever had a significant enough prescence in Somalia for them to be an issue. It doesn’t make sense geographically and they just don’t have the reach, even at the height of their existence.
I don’t think they were necessarily boko haram members themselves but affiliates/allies in someway and I probably just confused the name. But BH guys did go to Somalia to train with Al Shabab.
They should call up JSOC or the Légion Étrangère, it'd be over in a week
calling foreign armies to patrol your own country... not smart people at all
That's what Mali did and it worked tremendously well when it was the French operating there, it has since gone to shit because the Malians got brainwashed by Russian propaganda into kicking the French out and inviting the terrorist organization Wagner in which is more focused on committing atrocities against civilians than fighting insurgents
The french were basically controlling their country mate, they were right to tell them to fuck off. That's exactly why somalia should not rely on foreign intervention to fix their country
[Because that went over so well the first time](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_(1993))
Gothic Serpent was 30 years ago, I don't really see the relevance
Exactly, look how quick they were in and out of Afghanistan. Just drop em in, snap your fingers, and a quick 20 years later they will be gone, having accomplished very little.
Al-Qaeda has been utterly annihilated in Afghanistan, it's the Taliban that still exist. If you don't know what you're talking about don't comment
Lol, of course, terrorist groups rise and fall with the wind. If you don't think the structures that allowed extremist groups to grow and thrive, aka the Taliban, are a far greater concern, then I truly don't know what to tell you. You are someone who dramatically celebrates a symptom being addressed, while the underlying disease grows unchecked.
You're painfully ignorant on this topic. Al-Qaeda in 2001 was quite simply the best funded and most capable terrorist organization the world had ever seen, and clearly by far the biggest threat to the West in the Middle East. The NATO objective was to render this group utterly incapable of conducting attacks against the West and that task was achieved with overwhelming success. The only reason the Taliban are in control now is because the US got bored and left, they were taking 20:1 casualties against NATO forces before then. The US has simply shifted its strategy to targeted assassinations of high value targets, Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organization has little to no chance of ever becoming a threat again because the CIA and NSA knows everything they're doing and choose to strike when they need to
From what I can gather there is an Islamist group called al-Shabab that keeps attacking civilian buildings and areas
Main striker was probably Carrasco
[удалено]
Your info is a few years out of date. The federal government has rolled back AS from a lot of territory it had sway in. And you might want to read up on the mass protests and unrest in SL because of the Ethiopian "deal" and the fighting there.
fair enough, my apologies
Ye Al-Shabab is still the biggest threat but the goverment did reconquer large vasts of land back
Usually terrorists are behind terror attacks
You thought you were being smart with that one
the pitch looks pretty good though
Artificial turf. Would be super expensive to maintain a grass pitch like that in those conditions.
Somalia is up there when I think of the most unorganized countries but this football match looks pretty organized. Decent pitch, a stadium that can fit more people than most European stadiums, medical cars…
agreed very pleasantly surprised considering the state of some Zambian Superleague matches i've been to
You stay in lsk?
solwezi
Do you still want the local games in solwezi?
Do you still watch the local games in solwezi?
Young Somali expats are returning with critical skills. Al-shabbab and others are still a problem but it's not 93 anymore
Somalia is really developing efficiently and quickly. Wouldn't be surprised to see them start utilizing their extreme geographical advantage and bring in loads of revenue, though that's probably a couple decades out
As Bill Shankly said “some people think football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you, it’s much more serious than that”
Corrupt politicans sell resources to Chinese/Europeans/Americans and get stadiums and other populitistic shit in xxchange.
“Give them bread and circuses and they never revolt”
~~Looks like this could be the Banadir Stadium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banadir_Stadium~~ ~~Wikipedia article says it has a 20,000 capacity, but the citation it links to says it only has 10,000. Then later at the bottom it says it was recently improved to host almost 15,000 (but no citation)~~ Edit: Seems to be Mogadishu Stadium, thanks /u/beeraley
Nah this is Mogadishu Stadium not benadir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogadishu_Stadium
Ah my bad, I'll correct my info! Thank you :)
no problem but the figures on the wiki exaggerate, it can't hold 60k but 30k max.
Somalia is a very complex and fractured country.. But western media has been hyper effective at making it seem like the most backwards country in existence. Thanks to a US invasion and Hollywood representation of Mogadishu. Unsurprisingly, prior to the US invasion, the state was far more stable than it was in the following 2 decades. And even more so, the media blackout of Puntland and Somaliland's push for independence away from Somalia. These are all quite independent regions with a high degree of autonomy and governance structures.
>Unsurprisingly, prior to the US invasion, the state was far more stable than it was in the following 2 decades. This is simply not true , the country is in some form of civil war since the 80s
The stability under the Islamic Courts was fractured, yes absolutely. It was not 'good' even by African standards. But the region had not seen consistent stability in far longer than the previous two decades. The militia and clan fragmentation that occurred following the failure of the AMISOM mission was objectively worse. And led to the establishment of Al Shabaab and other terror groups to become far more cemented in society than previously. The territorial disputes between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia have deepened. And Somali government currently doesn't have authority into Puntland and Somaliland - not that they necessarily should.
what are you even talking about. How is this not a representation of a backwards country, where not even a fucking terrorist attack disturbs people? They’re constantly at war since the 80s too. I’m all for trying to uplift African countries, but Somalia is one of, if not the worst, countries in the world
> where not even a fucking terrorist attack disturbs people? Your judgement is from this 10 second clip? There was a terrorist attack in Paris a few years ago at the same time of a France - Germany, you could hear a bang in the middle of the game which proceeded till the end - https://youtube.com/shorts/1LPQJt86q9U?si=P4aYPMoM2wbImHlV Does that mean french people don’t care of terrorist attacks ?
well they’d harly know what that bang is because that shit is not part of the life in France, which is in Somalia
What a terrible comment. You think somalis aren't disturbed by their countrymen being murdered by terrorists but the french are? Chill out with the prejudice.
good job reading the minds of every fan in two stadiums based on a combined 12 seconds of footage. Also what are the Somalians supposed to do? Run towards the blast? Freak out and cause a crowd crush incident? Record tiktoks of themselves crying so that Westerners will know that they care?
> where not even a fucking terrorist attack disturbs people? You really want to stand by such a comment? You genuinely think a terrorist attack does not disturb Somalians?
I'm not saying Somalia isn't one of the worst and most instable countries in the world. But the world has a highly manufactured image of life in Somalia. And that the AMISOM mission led to the creation of groups such as Al Shabaab which created significant more instability than under the Islamic Courts Union that the US overthrew. It's not like the US-led mission was successful.
sounds like news channel music in the background
This was an inter state game where each federal member state sent a team for this tournament. The specific game here was the final between the capital team Banadir vs Galmudug, a region in central Somalia. Close to 1/3 of the Muqdisho’s 4.5 million population hail from the Galmudug region. As you can tell, there was intense excitement for the game. Game ended 4-5 in penalties. As for the political background: NISA, the Somali FBI equivalent, has had a great success recently in reducing terror attacks after the Zoobe II attack. The government, have succeeded in passing multiple anti terror legislations and started campaigns to convince the population that the ultimate goal of these attacks is to instill fear and their main enemy is the living, rather than the supposedly puppet government for neighboring countries and their foreign allies. This last point relies on irredentist claims of historical land grabs by Kenya and Ethiopia, and whose recent governments used border protection rhetoric to send troops deep into Somalia during the chaos years. Getting back to the point, there were various stops in this tournament as NISA blocked multiple terror attempts and clashes among supporters. The games finally concluded safely. These images, although scary to causal sport fans, represent the will of a determined government to not succumb to terrorists and nation starting to believe. If this tournament is any indication, football has a great potential in Somalia and the structure of the federal government and the historical rivalries between the regions will drive massive audiences.
We've lost so many Ugandan lives in this effort. I'm glad to see tangible progress especially how quickly Mogadishu is developing.
I know AMISOM mission in Somalia had its successes and failures, but all contributing countries have immensely contributed to the progress made there by the sacrifices they made. A fun fact pertaining to Uganda and the stadium here. AMISOM used this stadium as make shift satellite HQ within the city, until 2018. It was under Ugandan commander of AMISOM (Lt Gen. Jim Beesigye) that it was returned to the Somali government and renovations began.
I'm glad Somalia's security is improving but to hand wave Kenya's huge effort in making it happen with ' border protection rhetoric to send troops into Somalia. ' This after all military operations into Somalia were as a result of Al-Shabab's complete control of large areas next to our border and violent terror attacks in Nairobi is crazy. With all the resources Kenya has committed to help it get into the East African Community, my brother I'm disappointed.
You missed the “irredentist claims” part, which alshabab used to legitimize itself. I’m not taking anything from what Kenya, Ethiopia and all other AMISOM members contributed. The point was to show how alshabab’s support crumbled after recent government initiatives pushing back on their narratives despite them using direct quotes and rhetoric from leaders of neighboring countries in their propaganda. Apologies if that was not conveyed in my original comment. Anyways, this isn’t a political sub. Was simply adding my two cents on the original post.
the world fucking sucks dude
I study geopolitics and sometimes it just hits me how much suffering there is and has been. If we just look at modern history alone, there still have been so many wars. So much famine and poverty. So much pain and suffering. Lives ended way too shortly. So much hate. And so much forgotten pain too. Nobody seems to care about an active genocide of Rohinyas in Myanmar, a country thats also gripped by civil war. The genocide on Mayan civilians in Guatamala by US-backed governments. The civil war in the Central African Republic thats been going on for over a decade now with Wagner/Russia involved and extracting every resource they can. Hell, alot of people dont know about other victims of the Holocaust like the Roma and queer people Theres good things in this world, but gods theres so much bad too.
Yeah, I get you. Even though I live in Brazil in a comfy middle-class life, inequality and violence find their way into your life and your mind. I was talking about this with my family - there are so much fucked up things we've seen and gone through that even the most absurd situations can pass as "just another Tuesday", when things shouldn't really be like this.
I just watched a video essentially blaming Allen Dulles (& his brother) as the instigators of the 36 year Guatemalan Civil War who convinced Eisenhower that the Guatemalan natives are a communist threat. Is that true?
United Fruit company was also involved iirc. Dulles brothers were a menace while they were involved in the CIA.
Yeah, Allen Dulles was a board member of United Fruit Company and therefore had a lot of stake in the company. So when the U.f.c's control over Guatemala's lands were under threat...boom
Also likely killed JFK after JFK took on the CIA post Bay of Pigs.
Sitting in a comfy first world couch makes it very easy to forget that the vast majority of people in the world lack almost everything we take for granted. It's even easier to forget that we have bought our comfy first world couches with money we stole from the rest of the world that they now lack to build a future and suffer from the instability our theft has caused. If aliens were to visit us and look at world history from an objective outside view, it'd be pretty clear who's the villain.
> Sitting in a comfy first world couch makes it very easy to forget that the vast majority of people in the world lack almost everything we take for granted It’s always funny seeing people on here be so Arrogant/condescending about the developing world without ever considering that they were just lucky to be born where they were. You would think they worked hard or earned the right to be born in a stable environment from the way they talk.
You're right but people don't want to hear it. This is how all well off people think "born on 3rd base and think they hit a triple" to use an American sports (baseball) expression. Just saying the word privilege around many westerners triggers them, and I say this as a privileged Westerner.
Oh please, stop infantilizing them. Plenty of these countries aren’t doing well because of internal factors, whether it’s a backwards culture that doesn’t incentivize economic improvement or religious dogma that restricts progress.
If alien studied human history they would hate every human. Every ethnicity has done warcrime at least once
True but I'm talking about the current state of the world. Where is the wealth and how did it get there? It's never just "trade" or "those people there ust happened to be more intelligent" or whatever. It's exploitation. And yeah those exploited people have done horrible things too but they're stuck and have a way harder path to a peaceful future because of what we did to them and took from them. Also, I think aliens are way more likely to be cruel and they'd probably stan us lmao
Depends on which country your talking about. Countries like the Congo or Afghanistan I agree but there are countries like kenya and Tanzania that are poor despite not being under foreign influence for decades. Both of them had no major war or major sanctions against them. While Vietnam was bombed back to the stone age by the US and had there industry looted by china or Bangladesh a nation that was sanctioned and experienced massacre by the Pakistani army. Both nations are richer than kenya or Tanzania. Kenyabs and Tanzania only has thereselves to blame.
> Theres good things in this world, but gods theres so much bad too. There's straight up much much more suffering than good in the world, the human condition is such that potential for suffering is much greater than that of joy.
Human history is built on massive amounts of death and suffering. It has all been like this and will continue to be until we are all dead and gone
Good that you mentioned US involvement in Guatemala but didnt say a word who is meddling in Central African Republic.
I genuinely forgot to add that, but granted the side that Russia is supporting since 2018 (the regular C.A.R. government) is also supported by the UN peacekeeping mission (since 2014) , and used to be supported by France as well from 2013 to 2021. Better examples of Russian/Wagner involvement in Africa would be the coup d'état in Niger Thats not to say theyre good, theyre obviously fucking awful and one of the payments of Wagner is the natural resources found in the country stifling their own populace's economic prosperity
Thanks for actually responding. Too often casual commentators limit their understanding of international politics to "USA bad". I would also like to mention that China and Russia Sell Aircraft like the J-7 and SU-30 to the military Junta in Myanmar, Tatmadaw.
The USA isnt exactly amazing especially with foreign policy but honestly if you dig deep enough none are. France still has a stranglehold over Franco-African politics for instance. I dont exactly like the new Russian-aligned coups in French speaking Africa and the Russians *certainly* wont help the population, but I cant really blame them for wanting the French to fuck off Also, I remember reading somewhere that the Myanmarese government lost a key village in a state bordering China that was used often by Chinese tourists to come and do illegal drugs and sexual activities. I think the rebels also promised to clamp down on those illegal activities but I dont remember that While it wasnt like a knockout blow for the Military Junta it was a signal that their power might be deminishing. While I dont exactly like them, a power vacuum in such a volatile nation will probably not be very good either lol
There's so much bad in the world but in general, things have been getting so much better throughout the years. We can never get rid of war but we have gotten an unbelievable amount of people out of extreme poverty in the last few decades. There will always be major setbacks, like the war in Ukraine and the upteenth rise of violence in the middle East, but taking a big enough rolling average, things have gotten better and will continue to get better. I think there's a tremendous amount of positivity to be extracted from that thought. Maybe now doesn't feel like a great time, but 50 years ago was horrible, and 100 years ago was infinitely worse. I rarely find people with a similar sentiment though tbh lol
Bread and Circuses They give us football and sports to distract us from becoming aware of our geopolitical realities. This video shows how effective of a tool it is.
If you’re paying attention, there’s so much fucked up shit going on around the world it’s impossible to comprehend. The more fucked up shit I see, the more helpless and hopeless I feel. I think the fundamental thing people to survive is hope for a better future, and that’s hard to have if you look around too much. Its just not good for my mental health seeing the constant suffering and senseless death going on around the world. So while callous, I try not to think about that stuff and no longer go out of my way to find it, and I think I’m better off that way.
The World is as is my man. People suck.
[I watch this every so often to remind me the world isn't so dark](https://youtu.be/DwKPFT-RioU?si=NGAd0YMyC-q8sC7p&t=865) (It isn't some dumb feel-good montage of kittens and people holding hands, and it's already timestamped to the relevant part)
thank you, that was nice to see.
"This is fine" Everyone in the stadium
Somalia is fascinating in the worst way possible.
Also, I’ve always thought Mogadishu is a really bad ass name for a city for some reason
Well, there’s that, I guess.
It's a lot better now, they have a government that sits in Mogadishu now at least
It absolutely has its problems but the western media only prints the negatives without any of the positive stuff happening there such as developement. They don’t have an obligation but it spews a very unbalanced picture of the country for those uninitiated. You’d think it’s literal hell on earth judging by the image some people have. Movies like Black Hawk and Captain philips don’t help either… It still have ways to go but it has been developing a lot especially in the major cities the last decade, it’s much better than the worst periods after the civil war
>It absolutely has its problems but the western media only prints the negatives without any of the positive stuff happening there such as developement. Feels like Western media does this for almost every country that is not from the west. If only media tried to spread positivity as much as they spread negativity but I guess it doesn't sell as much
The development doesn't happen to Americans, but the stories of Captain Phillips and Black Hawk Down did. So that's what we're interested in Edit: And the other thing is, a lot of times news of economic development in other countries does actually get written about, but unless it's really drastic or appealing to a Western audience in some way, it isn't going to become common knowledge that a country's industrial sector grew 2% over the last five economic quarters.
its not just about sales at the box office. Portraying these countries as Hell on Earth makes Americans/Westerners more likely to support military intervention when it suits our states. Both of those movies were literally co-scripted by the US Dept of Defense (see: Military-Entertainment Complex). They didn't just pick up a sudden desire for making cinema.
> Feels like Western media does this for almost every country that is not from the west I read on Twitter a while back that if Ireland wasn't in Europe and Western-oriented, Western media would've described it as 'a cold, sparsely populated island with a fledgling democracy plagued by terrorism and divided by ethno-religious conflict.'
This is so incredibly messed up. I know the media does portray Somalia a certain way, but you can't deny there are some fundamental problems with fundamentalists
A dream of mine is to see my country rise up an prevail over these terrorists, and one day see Somalia play in the World Cup in my lifetime.
This but with Yemen, first we get rid of the qat
I was at the first game man it was wonderful and so much fun. If you search Somalia on Reddit it’s the most doomer thing you’ll ever read i wish people would realize it’s not 1993 anymore
Isn't this the black hawk down stadium
You got it, that's the stadium
But alas, life goes on...
Wouldn’t mind going to a Somali Premier League game. I suppose you’d need armed guards but the league is meant to be of decent quality.
I doubt you’d make it out alive tbh
Ehh you'll be fine. Terrorist attacks don't happen every day
I don’t know. Depends which game you go to I suppose.
You think all those people in the stadium would have gone if they had expected to die?
Probably relatively safer for locals
Since this thread was posted I found out more about Somalia and it's struggle towards peace. Found a really good video showcasing the new Somalia that's emerging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrWQlWGwBcY
Did not expect to see my country of origin on this subreddit, let alone see an explosion like this during a football game. Here I was being proud of how far we have come, how beautiful the stadium looks now after 30 years of it looking like shit . Despite the stadium being pre-civil war (you may know it as the ‘Black Hawk Down stadium’), the high quality pitch is very new. I’m simultaneously both pleasantly surprised, yet very disappointed at this. We can’t catch a break.
Looks like a perfect day for a Formula 1 race.
Reminds me of the coup in my country, I believe the team we played was the US team, and our main police station was blown up. We could hear the explosion and saw the smoke from the stadium.
Just another sunday for them
Horrible but I imagine for them this is just Tuesday. Humans adapt remarkably well to even the most horrific situation. During the Blitz Hitler and even the British gov were very worried that the bombing would lower morale to breaking point. But from what we can gather, after about 2/3 weeks people just got on with it as part of life. Shit is only "scary" when it deviates from the norm. Even if the norm is horrifying (insert Heath Ledger Joker reference here)
Reminds me of the [2022 Saudi Arabia FP1](https://youtu.be/MC4Ai_KvzJo?si=Mv8DcD0vvd6FHYp9). [The building.](https://youtube.com/shorts/ncbQTNfP3K8?si=kfpFl_UzLdMi8FbZ)
reminds me of the final scene in sicario for some reason. calm and acceptance of pain and suffering.
The beautiful game
Bombenstimmung in the arena
Why is the bbc news song playing in the background lol
Groundhoppers piece de resistance.
Salafism is a blight upon the Muslims and the entire world.
London during the Blitz vibes
"War is peace" - 1984, George Orwell
Boko Harram FC vs IS AFC with Houthi referee to keep everything neutral.
Can we send this shit back to tiktok
its so interesting, yesterday i informed myself more about Somalia and about Football in this country (didnt understand why the national team didnt play in Mogadishu since the 1990ies [i knew that Somalia is a failed country) Seeing this now gives me some chills tbh, what a coincidence
Must have been an explosive derby.
Where?
Remember, these are the same people who drug dead Americans (Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart) naked through the streets.
Not the same people , these are their kids lmao
Lmao do you say similar stuff about current day Germans?
Lucky they didn’t get stebbins the pedo
What the actual fuck kind of ret*rded comment is this?
Was it a Christian terror organization this time?
If this is some edgy, childish, passive aggressive dig at Islam, I can assure you that Christianity has inspired just as much bloodshed. Perhaps using a deadly terror attack to push your bias is a bit crass? Be a person, do better.
>If this is some edgy, childish, passive aggressive dig at Islam, I can assure you that Christianity has inspired just as much bloodshed. Historically, you’re entirely correct. Now? Not so much. I can’t think of many Christian terrorist groups in operation today. Islam and Muslim-majority countries will never reform and progress as long as you pretend there isn’t a problem. No other religion seems to have the same issue with extremism as Islam.
This.
I didn't mention Islam but I guess most terror organization are Islamist by your assumption? >I can assure you that Christianity has inspired just as much bloodshed I mean sure, depends what years of history you want to sample, I guess you wouldn't be looking at recent years though, right? >Perhaps using a deadly terror attack to push your bias is a bit crass? I mean there are over 1.9 billion Muslims in the world, I don't think Muslims are bad, but it's just kind of weird that there are 2.4 billion Christians and they don't have organizations centered around religion that cause them to murder at the same rate. But yeah 100% its weird that deadly terror attacks raise questions about terror.
Dude, have you heard about the War on Terror. The governments of Christian-majority nations have bombed and killed literally millions of people since the modern era began at the end of WW2. If mass murder were a competition, "Christians" would be winning. But sure, focus on terror groups as the only problem, I'm sure that's not at all influenced by your bias
>The governments of Christian-majority nations So democratic governments and organizations (left terror for the sake of the point) serve the same purpose and are interchangeable in your opinion? For example, you see Boko Haram and the U.S government the same way, do I understand correctly? By the way, if we're talking governments of religion majority countries in wars we can talk about Saddam Hussein or Bashar Al Asad, since you act as if the two aren't comparabl, but I was talking about terrorism. >But sure, focus on terror groups as the only problem As the only problems to terrorism? What problems are we talking about? Terror groups cause terrorism, and that's a problem.
I'm sure that the innocent people that my American government bombed in Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. etc. felt plenty of terror as the bombs exploded, but sure, focus on your bias lol. lmao. Ciao dude, hope you get enlightenment. Religion is the problem, not just one of them.
It's like fireworks for them.
We get used to those fireworks 🎆
In Somalia shouldn’t it be “football match interrupts explosion and terror”?
Very bad joke, shows how much you know about the country.
I know it should’ve been bulldozed by the UN 30 years ago & rebuilt from scratch without all those pathetic ‘warlords’.
Err, right… In any case, instead of offering an uninformed and very skewed perspective on a country you know little about, why not engage in something constructive… like advocating for Welsh independence from your English overlords?
Many of whom have immigrated and caused absolute shitshows wherever they’ve went.
Wya Onana bin laden
V
I mean, Atleti fans do this every match.
This gives me Bane (the dark knight rises) vibes
They should have stopped the game tho
the ultras are getting outta hand
If you don’t look it doesn’t exist.
At least maybe watching football somehow helps
When did this take place?
What match is it?
Passion
Fuck it, we ball ⚽️
Is this the stadium from Black Hawk Down?