Employment Opportunities

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Originally Posted by bob10

We could be forgiven for thinking there is no end in sight. How is Kenya effected , with the refugee problem? Are they going to be able to cope with what looks like a massive social upheaval? Don't hear much about that here. Bob

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The World Food Programme people here have recommended this site. It relates to what is happening between the north, Ethiopia, Mogadishu, and down to Dadaab and Wajir in Kenya:World Food Programme - Fighting Hunger Worldwide

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was the damage confined only to the waterfront area?

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Arthur, thanks for doing the comparo with the before and after shots. The place is pretty well shot all over. There is the occasional single standing building that might be a bank or a business that is in pretty good comparative order. When & if they can see and believe their way through to accepting a governance which will be able to influence security...there'll be a bloody big need for cement, steel, and raw materials...and the Somalis will line up to do the business.

Kenya is very much the place from which the business that is Somalia, is done. They are there in significant numbers, and in saying that, there is an ethnic element to Kenya that is and always has been Somali. Certainly has increased though with the decades of insecurity and conflict.

Kenya, particularly Nairobi, is where the money, that is derived from the cross-border tax-free zone that is Somalia is 'banked'. When I say 'banked', it is mainly being turned into real estate. Stuff comes into Somalia and finds its way across all the neighbouring borders. A classic example of chaos.

i imagion that there is not much of an I76 sitting at the end of the runway there, any chance of a pic if you can?

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Originally Posted by 85 county

i imagion that there is not much of an I76 sitting at the end of the runway there, any chance of a pic if you can?

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This IL76 carcase is still here.

Everything portable has been stripped from it, including the engines. Heard of one enterprising gentleman looking at it with the view of disassembling it and chewing it up with a 'mulcher/shredder' for the purpose of recycling the aircraft grade aluminium:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25101154@N02/4359176609/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25101154@N02/4359183747/

thanks, i did a couple of flights with one of Buke's crews who came in about 2 hours after that hit. and a week before the second ll 76 got taken out in the same way.

the motors were on the flight that got clipped, shredding EX soviet aircraft is usually uneconomical due to the fact that they are full of a few zillion steel rivets.

Thought today, for a micro-second, that I was back in Melbourne...traffic congestion on the roads:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/11/993.jpg

Had to go up to Villa Somalia to do a recce for some work that needs to be done. Nice to get out.

This is looking from the roof of the Villa, south toward the coast:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/11/994.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/11/995.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/11/996.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/11/997.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...011/11/998.jpg

Been busy here.

Sorry to hear about the 3 Australians killed and 7 wounded in Afghanistan.

A week and a half ago we lost 70 AMISOM soldiers killed one morning then, 40 the next. Sad.

that's certainly one big toll of lives that we wouldn't otherwise hear about -

makes one wonder if better training would help minimise the toll to African peacekeepers (yes, I know - who would do it?)

and it's so easy for those of us well removed from there to be unaware that they too, have family

thanks... and take care BBC -

btw I'll be travelling through Kyogle to Beaudesert next week -

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Originally Posted by 87County

makes one wonder if better training would help minimise the toll to African peacekeepers (yes, I know - who would do it?)

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yes it would be very interesting to see comments on this. but BBC would need to be in the metal meet zone to get a read and he has family so !!!

when i turned up in little brown peoples with funny eyes land to TRAIN i quickly found out i needed to be TRAINED.

i suspect they as individuals would be up to scratch but would lack, coms intel and air.

Lovely to see lots of South African military hardware deployed anyway.

Training of peacekeepers is a touchy subject: doesn't really fall under standard Infantry Combat remit, so Defence budget doesn't cover softer deployment training. So it gets botched or half-done.

Also, rules of engagement get fuzzy, so troops on the ground struggle to react correctly in heat of the moment.

Been there, don that, have the t-shirt and PTSD to show for it ;)

This recent media report gives an account of the mentoring that is provided here by a private contractor to the African Union whose funding comes literally direct from the US:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/wo...11somalia.html

Some people with interesting backgrounds..one sub-contractor was the man who organised the plane-load of 'tourists' who were detained in Harare one time, on the way up north to help Mr Mark Thatcher...as tourists they seemed to be carrying a lot of ammo.

Hard work mentoring here though. It is done from the Force Commander down. Makes me really understand how much investment we make in the ARA with our JNCO-SNCO's.

Don't fret about the ROE's..this ain't a Peacekeeping Mission yet.

There is certainly a different value placed on life. One contingent here has T-55s. In the past there has been significant losses, even before this last stint. Full on FIBUA (Fighting In Built Up Areas), and they won't use their T-55s because they are COE..(Contingent Owned Equipment) and if they lost one...it would be a signifcant loss...Mmmmm...but, you've lost 40 odd soldiers!! TIA..Jakeslouw can translate that.

TIA = This Is Africa

Life isn't cheap, it's worthless.

Unless you've stayed on the continent, not just VISITED, you have NO IDEA.

Darkest Africa isn't just a saying.

Go to Zim, Ghana, Somalia, Congo, in fact anywhere north of South Africa these days, and you will understand.

For those of you who want to do a trans-Africa trip, here's a little anecdote:

The son of an acquaintance was travelling from ZA to Malawi via Mozambique. He was using the back-roads to avoid the Maputo havoc. Somewhere near Macia on the EN1 he went through a village. He was only doing 40km/h or so, but towing a large boat.

The next thing, some villagers pushed an old granny into the road, straight into his 4x4. He couldn't stop obviously, so he hit her and then went off the road as a result of the attempt to avoid. Vehicle and trailer damaged.

He was slapped in a typical hell-hole African jail and charged with culpable homicide. Cold maize porridge once a day eaten off the floor and a bucket to use as ablution.
The vehicles were impounded as "security" and stripped of anything valuable.
4 weeks later and AU$20,000 in fines and bribes later, he was allowed to leave.

The local judges and cops and villagers have this scam going: push a geriatric or terminally ill person into the path of a foreigner, and you can make some good money.

If this guy didn't have a) the money or b) the family back home to support him, he'd never have been seen again.

This is NOT an isolated incident. It's also NOT the only thing happening to travellers in Africa.

As we say here "Afrika is nie vir sissies nie"

I think you can get the drift.