Somalia: Land of Aroma and the invention of new diseases

When it rains in the west, what you get is not the scent of downpour, but the putrid and neauseating smell of petrochemicals, hazardous wastes, and noxious emissions from cars and factories whereas in Somalia what you inhale is nature's true scent as the fecundating winds meticulously and trasncedentally disperse heavenly aroma known in Somali as saxansaxo-a nourishing element that resuscitates living organisms. That is why the Pharaohs referred Somalia to as the "Land of Aroma" not because of the abundance of Myrrh or Frankinsence but because of the diverse creatures and animal kingdom that emit entertaining aroma acceptable to every living thing that inhabit it.

In Somalia, before the advent of modern machinery and before the eruption of the civil war in 1990, the scent of rain could be felt from a far because nature remained in complete obeisance to the environment regardless of geography and landscape. Unfortunately, cantankerous warlords and the Mafiosi, in the absence of law and order, discovered ways of dumping nuclear wastes along the coastlines and in to the interior of the country thus increasing child mortality rates, depriving the soil of its vital nutrients, and wrecking havoc to all kinds of life. Besides the deaths of the many who perished as a result of the civil skirmishes, the introduction of dangerous drugs like Qaad (catha edulis), Marijuana, and Speed, added up to the diminished rate of human population.

Evidences of tongue and lung cancers that had been alien to Somalia, disastrously evolved at alarming rates among healthy populations leading to the destruction of the hale and healthy.

The greatest disaster to have afflicted Somalis before the civil war, was, as medically and historically noted: rain failure, tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid and other water borne diseases.

Perhaps, Diabetes, which has become a major killer in the world today, may have been existent in Somalia before times, which is why the nation's Diaspora, having adopted modern lavish lifestyles common in the West, despite not having recorded medical history, are showing signs of increased risks as evidenced by the number of new patients arriving at the offices of private physicians and general hospitals.

Another modern discovery in the sciences of diseases is HIV/AIDS which is unrestrained in Somalia because of the absence of a central government and the lack of vital statistics.

The few agencies and organizations in the country find it difficult to determine the extent of the spread of HIV/AIDS which is reportedly widespread among Africans because of the lack of education and dissemination of information as regards prevention and abstinence. Strict adherance to Islamic principles evident in the olden days, may have been, if I'm not wrong, replaced by exposure to sexuality and sexual orientation and the easy access to pornographic videos available on the world wide web, adult magazines, and other sectors of the media.

Ironically, the defeat of the callous warlords by the Islamic Courts Unions in 2006 saw the introduction of strict Islamic Sheria which spearheaded the closure of pornographic video dens and brothels, the destruction of marijuana fields and beer consignments, and the abrupt halting of Qaad delivery originating in Ethiopia and Kenya by land and air only to reemerge after the routing of the ICU by the combined efforts of the Ethiopian Army and the forces of the Transitional Federal Government.

The regrouping of the ICU forces and the creation of Al-shabab-a consortium of young fighters united to free Somalia from Ethiopian occupation, has created the greatest humanitarian disaster in Africa-a disaster that has displaced almost a quarter of the population of the city of Mogadishu of two million.

Indeed, the fighting has been so intense that streets became littered with corpses that remained uncollected for some time almost spiralling an epidemic hazard. Uncollected refuse and lack of a functioning sewerage system add insult to injury.

In conclusion, children continue to die of malnutrition in concentration camps while the elderly succumb to dehydration and starvation-a clear indication that new diseases are emerging without control.

Therefore, the destruction of Somalia's fauna and flora, the flight of foreign medical organizations and relief agencies, the dumping of nuclear, biological, and chemical wastes and the prolongation of the civil war, will in the long run, turn Somalia in to a land that has never before witnessed any form of aroma.