The regions, Somaliland and Puntland, had established relatively peaceful pockets beyond the violence of Mogadishu. The new president must also contend with the nearly impossible expectations of Somalis, who seem to believe a government will be panacea for all their problems. When I get a government, I will get everything I need. I want an education. We need education.
Education is the light of the world.
President Salad was chosen over the weekend in an unusual peace conference of more than 2,000 Somalis, a cross-section of every clan, who had gathered in Djibouti for five months of touchy negotiations. The delegates also managed to write a national charter, something like a transitional constitution, and decided the president would be based in Mogadishu, with other parts of the government northwest of there, in Baidoa. Mr. Salad was chosen by a 245-member assembly that was formed in Djibouti, which will sit for three years as a transitional government before national elections. The conference purposely sidelined the warlords, which is one reason they oppose the new arrangement. And he has support among Mogadishu's increasingly influential business community, which pushed for peace as a requirement for making money.