Now, another fascinating thing in Somaliland is the private construction sector. Whenever I drive through town, there are new buildings (and at least one new mosque) alongside the streets. Popping up like mushrooms, they turn Hargeisa into an extremely vital city, that changes its appearance on a nearly daily basis. While scattered ruins keep reminding the visitor about the violent past of the country, these new buildings scream out the forward look that most inhabitants of Somaliland have since adopted. Besides posh and kitschy one family houses with pink and turquoise balustrades, there are recently some skyscrapers growing up into the blue sky of Hargeisa, too. Same as the one family houses, they grow with an unbelievable speed of at least one floor per week. Same as the one family houses, they have some sparkles of pink, turquoise, baby blue, yellow, and other mellow colours. As recently reported by a friend, there is now even one sky scraper with a elevator - though my friend, knowing about the fastness of construction business in Somaliland, preferred taking the steps up to the fifth floor...
I always wandered what would happen to all these wannabe towers of babel if an earthquake would hit the hit the town. Would they survive? Although a pleasure for the eye, I don't really see the Japanese anti-earthquake-protection yet incorporated into the design of these towers. That's why personally, my interaction with skyscrapers in Somaliland is limited to an admiring (and surprised) look when yet another one popped out of nowhere...
