Somalis carry a swordfish and a shark on their heads from the ocean to the market in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012.
Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, often dubbed the most dangerous city in the world, is also one of the most corrupt places on earth. Despite the gradual move away from ‘failed state’ status, international donor money is still mostly being misused, according to a U.N. report leaked earlier this year. The report quoted another study, according to which more than two-thirds of all government revenue between 2009-10 was unaccounted for. In 2011, half of Somalia’s domestic income was spent on the offices of its three top leaders—that’s almost as much as the government spent on security for its population of 9.6 million. Under the transitional governments of the last twenty years, the report said “the systematic misappropriation, embezzlement and outright theft of public resources have essentially become a system of governance, embodied in the popular Somali phrase ‘Maxaa igu jiraa?’ – “What’s in it for me?”
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