From Somaliland to Harvard | Hacker News Reader

From Somaliland to Harvard

nytimes.com

40 pointshvo11 comments

I suspect the elite universities are actually pretty good at hoovering up good kids from unfortunate backgrounds. They tend to be able to fund the money from somewhere, and they don't have a problem with brand recognition, so there's a decent chance of getting an application.

I have a good friend who has an unlikely story of escaping a civil war, avoiding helicopter gunships, having so little paper he'd write his equations in teeny tiny letters. Somehow Oxford managed to find the money for him to fly across the world to do his degree. There was another kid who'd lived through the Balkans war, though I'm not as familiar with his story.

The dons probably have a bit of an egalitarian streak as well, preferring the hard-up kids (not just war of course) over the privately educated ones if there's a choice.

Inducting those who show promise into the upper class through admission to elite universities is one of the ways the upper class retains its stranglehold on power. And that's how a community organizer from Chicago can become a symbol for 'hope and change' when in reality he had been co-opted by the wealthy nearly 2 decades earlier. And once he's in office, business as usual continues.

Great story.

I wonder how many of the young kids currently crying in the arms of their Syrian parents and hoping to survive political games, voyage across deadly waters and, kicks and blows in foreign lands, would be future graduates of Harvard, if given the opportunity.

interesting article. Never heard of Somailand before but after reading few articles at http://www.somalilandfoundation.com. This breakaway region deserves to be heard and recognised by world powers.

I hadn't either. Kind of off topic but the membership of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization[1] which Somailand is a member is pretty interesting reading.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrepresented_Nations_and_Peop...

Do you frequently hear about countries for the first time?

Geography isn't taught as thoroughly as it used to be in ye olde days.

Young people don't read as much as they used to in ye olde days.

National Geographic tv is just trash reality shows.

The point here is that Somaliland is not a "country" (as in, officially recognized), in spite of having, apparently, more solid institutions than Somalia.

Legitimate country or not, I found it amusing how people on HN were surprised it exists when it's just been sitting there for a long time. I guess everyone is at different stages of learning.

The AU has a strict 'no border changes' policy, mostly to try and protect from extra-continental bodies interfering with African affairs. Somaliland is a case where that policy is maybe lacking a little nuance. That said, there are movements in the right direction; the government has already been implicitly recognised by the National Assembly of Wales, so they're basically half way there.

Though, Somaliland isn't quite the Paradise that some news articles like to portray. There are still serious issues over the Puntland-Somaliland border, and the political parties are very closely tied to the various clans, which concerns me somewhat. Still miles better than Somalia though!

https://www.change.org/p/independent-nation-for-300-million-...

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