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Crazy Town (When You Have PTSD in Somalia, They Lock You Up in a Room With a Hyena)
Foreign Policy ^ | SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 | JAMES REINL

Posted on 09/06/2013 1:50:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway

After decades of civil war, Somalia is awash in mental illness and without a single trained psychiatrist. That the folk cure for PTSD involves being locked in a room with a hyena isn't helping.

Mohamed Abdulla Hersi reclines on a foam mattress in the Habeb Rehabilitation Treatment Center's crowded mental ward. His eyes are glazed over from antipsychotic drugs, probably some combination of chlorpromazine and haloperidol, but we can't be sure. His medical files, in a bundle in the facility's office, do not list his drug regimen. Hersi doesn't even bother to swat away the flies gathering on his face and body. Loose-fitting combat fatigues, emblazoned with the light blue and white-star emblem of Somalia's tattered army, expose his chest and two bullet-sized scars -- evidence of the battlefield violence he has suffered since joining one of the country's myriad militia groups as a boy.

That was back in 1991, when the toppling of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre plunged Somalia into more than two decades of chaos. Subsequent fighting under clan warlords and Muslim hard-liners drew in the United States, Ethiopia, U.N. blue helmets, and a coalition of African forces. Now that African Union troops have dislodged al-Shabab militants from most major cities and a new government is shining a dim ray of hope over parts of the country, the battle-scarred Hersi serves as a reminder to the many challenges Somalia has yet to overcome.

"Where is my M-16? My Kalashnikov?" he murmurs, seemingly unaware that he is miles from the front lines, where his fellow soldiers fight an enemy with links to al Qaeda and ambitions to overthrow the U.N.-backed government. Hersi speaks in a muddled stream of consciousness about gunfights, explosions, and mangled comrades from his years serving under various militia leaders, generals, and presidents.

(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Pets/Animals; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 09/06/2013 1:50:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

I find that being locked up in a small room with a Hyena cures many ailments. Don’t knock it if you’ve never tried it.


2 posted on 09/06/2013 1:53:28 PM PDT by Greetings_Puny_Humans
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To: nickcarraway
Image Hosted by ImageShack.us
3 posted on 09/06/2013 1:54:30 PM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: nickcarraway
That the folk cure for PTSD involves being locked in a room with a hyena isn't helping.

...they haven't seen some of the people that work at my VA

4 posted on 09/06/2013 1:55:50 PM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: nickcarraway

BRBARIANS!!! Muslims are Barbarians!


5 posted on 09/06/2013 1:57:29 PM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion......the Human Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: nickcarraway

Covered under Obamacare


6 posted on 09/06/2013 2:02:37 PM PDT by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: nickcarraway

Well, Obamacare IS on its way here...


7 posted on 09/06/2013 2:02:56 PM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos...)
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To: Ann Archy

Yer startin’ to sound like a Byrd!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxkADiUXqdQ


8 posted on 09/06/2013 2:13:15 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: cripplecreek

I can get together with that brutha’s pantalones!

Stripped-up microfiber? Duty requirement might see his pants as needing to be leather, but, even then I can get down with that.

Very cool. Yeah.

Oh, BTW, the poster should say “Moga-detroit-shu”.


9 posted on 09/06/2013 2:15:33 PM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations - The acronym explains the science.)
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To: cripplecreek

Here boy!!!


10 posted on 09/06/2013 2:19:03 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools)
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To: nickcarraway
Somalia, Mogadishu, it really doesn't matter any more. It is literally hell on earth.............I find no humor in making fun of anyone trapped in that country........

Mere children armed with semi-autos, if they live long enough, are just killer zombies who never once experienced love and compassion from a parent.........

11 posted on 09/06/2013 2:30:51 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (')
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To: nickcarraway

But just how many American politicians can they have in africa ?


12 posted on 09/06/2013 2:31:53 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (E)
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To: nickcarraway

But just how many American politicians can they have in africa ?


13 posted on 09/06/2013 2:31:54 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (E)
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To: faithhopecharity

Hopefully all of them. I feel sorry for the hyenas.


14 posted on 09/06/2013 2:33:35 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

maybe they can send us a few hyenas in exchange, just to fill enough vacancies in political offices here....
you know, to help get some better sense back into govt


15 posted on 09/06/2013 2:49:25 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (E)
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To: nickcarraway
When You Have PTSD in Somalia, They Lock You Up in a Room With a Hyena

Nothing will force one to focus on reality quite like sharing a room with a hyena.

16 posted on 09/07/2013 6:27:29 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: nickcarraway

So my question is, is one considered cured if the hyena comes out first or is it the other way round?


17 posted on 09/07/2013 6:29:25 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: LibWhacker
"Nothing will force one to focus on reality quite like sharing a room with a hyena."

OK, I want you to know, I am soooooo stealing that quote!

18 posted on 09/07/2013 6:31:38 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: Mad Dawgg

Lol, it’s all yours!


19 posted on 09/07/2013 7:20:18 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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