
From Somaliland to Harvard - hvo
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-from-somaliland-to-harvard.html?ref=opinion
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lordnacho
I suspect the elite universities are actually pretty good at hoovering up good
kids from unfortunate backgrounds. They tend to be able to fund the money from
somewhere, and they don't have a problem with brand recognition, so there's a
decent chance of getting an application.

I have a good friend who has an unlikely story of escaping a civil war,
avoiding helicopter gunships, having so little paper he'd write his equations
in teeny tiny letters. Somehow Oxford managed to find the money for him to fly
across the world to do his degree. There was another kid who'd lived through
the Balkans war, though I'm not as familiar with his story.

The dons probably have a bit of an egalitarian streak as well, preferring the
hard-up kids (not just war of course) over the privately educated ones if
there's a choice.

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w1ntermute
Inducting those who show promise into the upper class through admission to
elite universities is one of the ways the upper class retains its stranglehold
on power. And that's how a community organizer from Chicago can become a
symbol for 'hope and change' when in reality he had been co-opted by the
wealthy nearly 2 decades earlier. And once he's in office, business as usual
continues.

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qCOVET
Great story.

I wonder how many of the young kids currently crying in the arms of their
Syrian parents and hoping to survive political games, voyage across deadly
waters and, kicks and blows in foreign lands, would be future graduates of
Harvard, if given the opportunity.

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btware
interesting article. Never heard of Somailand before but after reading few
articles at
[http://www.somalilandfoundation.com](http://www.somalilandfoundation.com).
This breakaway region deserves to be heard and recognised by world powers.

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a3voices
Do you frequently hear about countries for the first time?

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mercurial
The point here is that Somaliland is not a "country" (as in, officially
recognized), in spite of having, apparently, more solid institutions than
Somalia.

~~~
a3voices
Legitimate country or not, I found it amusing how people on HN were surprised
it exists when it's just been sitting there for a long time. I guess everyone
is at different stages of learning.

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known
[https://www.change.org/p/independent-nation-
for-300-million-...](https://www.change.org/p/independent-nation-
for-300-million-india-s-untouchables)

