美国好搭档索马里创业记

    亚兰宾馆（Aran Guest House）位于索马里首都摩加迪沙，是这个城市仅有的几家安保较为可靠的宾馆之一，许多外国游客都选择这里住宿。但外交官、救援人员和偶尔经过这里的商人可能不会记得在此工作的那些索马里人的名字。

    这真是令人遗憾，因为不论是司机、保安、厨师、服务生还是清洁人员，他们简单的就业故事，都能给致力于在非洲或亚洲发展经济和消除贫困的决策者们带来启发。在消除贫困的运动中，私营部门，包括勇敢的创业者和成熟的、资金雄厚的大企业，都能发挥日益关键的作用。私营部门为消除贫困所付出的努力不仅能给各家公司自身的业务带来好处，而且，他们的做法也要比援助项目更可持续，因为援助项目往往会受到捐赠疲劳和年度预算削减的不利影响。

    这也正是阿丽莎•柳和戴维•斯奈尔森的亲身经历。我曾有幸和这两位美国商业先锋坐下来聊天。他们创办的这家摩加迪沙宾馆和安保公司聘用了大约40名索马里员工，而保守估计，公司间接支持的员工家庭成员约有400人。

    柳曾是一名战地记者，斯奈尔森是一名退役的美军准尉，两人从2011年开始便居住在摩加迪沙，全身心投入到公司的经营。他们最近引起媒体的关注是因为他们挖出了一架被击落的直升机残骸，还把它交还给了美国政府。这架直升机因为一本书和据此改编的好莱坞大片《黑鹰坠落》（Blackhawk Down）而出名。在今年十月份的交谈中，两人叙述了20年前美军突袭摩加迪沙，抓捕一名索马里军阀的经过。那场殊死战斗导致数百名索马里人和19名美国人丧生。

    悲哀地是，在混乱的“非洲之角”，这样的悲剧仍然在不断上演。在那之后，索马里陷入了激烈的部落冲突，也成为海盗和青年党武装分子的滋生地，令全世界为之忧心。今年九月，索马里青年军在肯尼亚一家地标性购物中心发动恐怖袭击，导致65人丧生，再次震惊全球。

    很明显，投资索马里绝不是胆小者的游戏。世界银行（The World Bank）2014年《营商环境报告》（Doing Business，对全球经济体经商便利度的最新年度评估）又一次将索马里“忽略”。在索马里，许多地区律法失控，加之无法收集可靠的数据，这些因素无疑是造成它再次缺席这份报告的两个原因。

    但柳表示，她和斯奈尔森在索马里创业承担的风险都没有超出他们的考量，因为他们在这个国家有过多年的工作经历，能够提前发现机遇和危险。

    The names of the Somalis who work at the Aran Guest House in Mogadishu -- one of the few in the city with security robust enough for overnight stays for international visitors -- may well be little remembered by diplomats, aid workers, and the occasional businesspeople who pass through here.

    And that's unfortunate because their simple stories of employment as drivers, guards, cooks, waiters, and cleaning staff offer up a lesson for policymakers focused on how best to grow economies and address persistent poverty, whether in Africa or in Asia. Increasingly, the private sector, encompassing brave entrepreneurs as well as established, deep-pocketed corporations, can play a critical role in fighting poverty, and it can be done in a way that is quite frankly good for business -- and far more sustainable than aid packages subject to donor fatigue and annual budget cuts.

    That was certainly the story I heard when I had the chance to sit down with Alisha Ryu and David Snelson, the two American business pioneers behind the Mogadishu guesthouse and security firm, which employs nearly 40 Somali men and women, and by a conservative estimate, indirectly supports another 400 extended family members.

    Ryu, a former combat journalist, and Snelson, a retired U.S. Army warrant officer, have been living and running their business in Mogadishu full-time since 2011. They were in the news recently for digging up and returning to the United States the remains of a helicopter shot down and made famous in the book and blockbuster Hollywood film Blackhawk Down. Both recount the American military raid to capture a Somali warlord in Mogadishu, which sparked a deadly battle that killed hundreds of Somalis and 19 Americans 20 years ago this October.

    Sadly, that battle was just one of many tragedies that has engulfed this restless, Horn of Africa nation. Since then, Somalia has been ravaged by clan warfare, and feared worldwide as a breeding ground for pirates and al-Shabaab militants. Al-Shabaab again captured global headlines with a terrorist attack on a landmark shopping mall in Kenya this September, killing more than 65 people.

    Clearly, investing in Somalia is not for the fainthearted. The World Bank 2014 Doing Business report -- the latest annual assessment of the ease of doing business in economies around the world -- once again skips Somalia entirely. Lawlessness in many parts of the country and a general inability to gather reliable data are undoubtedly two factors why Somalia continues to be absent in the report.

    But Ryu says she and Snelson took a calculated risk in opening a business in Somalia because they both had spent many years working in the country and knew the opportunities and the pitfalls well in advance.