Prayer call is a beautiful thing, but not in Hargeisa. Our prayer callers sound like drunk men trying to "out shout" each other with mouths full of cotton balls. It is possible they are drunk (yes, it does happen - even in Hargeisa, Somaliland), but also likely they have a mouthful of khat.
Khat is the local drug of choice in Somalia, a leafy stimulant similar to amphetamines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khat) that is chewed seemingly incessantly by a majority of Somali men. More and more men are apparently chewing khat in lieu of doing anything else. Some have said that the increasing numbers of men spending time chewing khat has become an epidemic, only contributing to the myriad of other problems the country is facing.
Even if khat isn't destroying productivity, it may be destroying some Khat in Somalia, kola nuts in Mali, beetle nut in Burma, or coca leaves in Bolivia...helping people the world over speed up their tooth loss, or general mouth decay, one little old man (or woman) at a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment