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I don't have much in me left for Somalia, because the country is so broken, it's not realistic to daydream about it.

It was a slow understanding that the lack of education in a country like Somalia creates these huge social problems.

What happened to me in Somalia doesn't define me.

I left Somalia when I was seven years old, but I witnessed a whole year in a war.

Somalia is an important story in the world, and it needed to be told.

I don't recognize my people anymore. I feel Somalia is lost. There is no Somalia. It is just a name.

The only way I see the world now is through coming out of and growing up and living in Somalia. In the time of war, everyone was basically trying to live and manage the best they could. But you also had another period which was not a hard time at all - it was just a beautiful time. I lived in both eras.

I have big hope for the Canadian government to help Somalia with something concrete and tangible. I haven't seen that.

I think the biggest challenge for Somalia has been the sense that it is a hopeless case of incomprehensible internal conflicts and there is nothing we can do.

An oversupply of national sentiment is not the problem in Somalia. The problem is a lack of it. The problem is an oversupply of sub-sub-clannish attitude.