Ainashe.net

The First Amendment of the United State Constitution, probably the most progressive and most idealistic constitution ever written says:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Second amendment says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Well, there are lots that we could learn from the United States.

Amr Moussa; the Secretary-General of the Arab League was quoted as saying:

I share the concerns of many Iraqis about the lack of consensus on the constitution. I do not believe in this division between Shia and Sunni and Muslims and Christians and Arabs and Kurds.

Amr Moussa went on by saying:

I find this is a true recipe for chaos and perhaps a catastrophe in Iraq and around it. (….) there is concern in the Arab world that the draft text denied Iraq’s Arab identity.

Click here to view the full article on the Independent.

In an editorial the Arab News says:

The fact has to be faced that the very existence of Iraq is now at stake.

Click here to view the full article.

According to the East African Standard, the Foreign Minister of the Somali transitional federal government was quoted as saying:

I have said this before and I am repeating it here today; Somalia is a breeding ground for terror gangs.

I respectfully disagree with the Honorable Minister and I do not believe that the Minister’s remarks are entirely correct. There is no documented and reliable information confirming the existence of the alleged terrorist cells in Somalia. However, the Minister is right when he said:

Unless something is done urgently the situation will sooner than later get out of hand.

Click here to see the full article.

Can anyone beat the heavenly taste of the Norwegian “Geitost”-Goat Chees! I guess not. Well, I did indeed miss my home City of Oslo!

Picture: Courtesy of www.norway.org

In a short note titled “A Perilous Impasse in Somalia” which was published on a few Somali websites, Abdirazak H. Hussen; the former Somali prime minister (1964-67) wrote among other things:

It has been more than eight months since the TFG was established in Nairobi, but the leadership has yet to translate that mandate into a functioning government inside the country. Keen observers consider the pattern of developments to mirror that which followed all previous peace conferences and fear the fate of the TFG might be as grim as earlier dispensations.

I agree with the former Somali prime minister that the transitional federal government should have been fully installed in Mogadishu with a complete operational capacity by now; however, what Abdirazak H. Hussen failed to do is to tell the Somali people the reason why the government is still unable to assert its legitimate authority in the capital and restore law and order as expected by the overwhelming majority of the Somali people both in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country.

Paradoxically, Abdirazak H. Hussen contradicts his above statement by saying:

In the absence of a national security force(s) that could adequately guarantee security in Mogadishu, it will be foolhardy to contemplate relocating the incipient organs of government in such an environment. Realistically, it will take at least a year, given current conditions, to create a nucleus of sufficiently trained, equipped, and mentally de-tribalized police force.

It seems to me that Abdirazak H. Hussen is really trying hard to say something meaningful; unfortunately, I do not believe that even he understands the incoherent and contradictory nature of his arguments. Perhaps there is a subliminal or coded political message that only he and his like-minded people could decipher. I cannot tell. However, one thing is certain that he is desperately trying to convey a political message in spite of the confusing and somewhat circular arguments he has put forward. (more…)

In an interview with the BBC Somali Service, president Abdullahi Yusuf was quoted as saying:

Ra’iisul baarlamaankana, hadda ka hor ayaa madaxweynaha dalka Yeman isugu kaaya keenaya magaalada Sanca ee caasimadda Yeman, toddoba beri ayaana halkaa lagu wada hadlayey, wax Allaale iyo wixii lagu wada hadlay oo la soo jeediyey oo maslaxo ahaa oo dowladda Yeman ay noo soo wada jeedisay wada jir ahanna, dee isaga ayaa diiday, anna waan aqbalay. Anigu haddii aanan been sheegayninna haddeer waxa uu doodanayaa waxa ay yihiin anigu kuuma sheegi karo. Dib u heshiisiin dowlado na dhexdhexaadinayaan hadde meesha soomaba geli karto, waa haddii hay’adaha dowladda ee dhisan haddii dhexdooda uu khilaaf jiro, annagaa la rabaa in aan dhexdeenna intaanni ka wada hadalno oo ka garranno oo aan ka heshiinno annagaa nalaka rabaa, laakin annagu haddeer dowladow kaalaya oo dowladdii Soomaaliyeed dhexdeeda, ra’iisal wasaarihii, ra’iisal baarlamaankii iyo golihii wasiirrada dhexdhexaadiya afkeennaba ma ahan.

I think the Somali president is showing lots of political flexibility in terms of finding a common ground with Sharif Hassan; the run-away Speaker of the Somali Transitional Federal parliament. However, Sharif Hassan continues on his divisive path by forging a doomed political marriage with the destructive Mogadishu warlords. I think the president in close consultation with the federal parliament should try to find an alternative Speaker. Clearly, begging Sharif Hassan to come to his senses is not bringing any tangible political returns. It is just like “dundumooyinkoo lala hadlaa damac ma yeeshaan”.

Click here for the full interview on the BBC Somali Service.

Mikhail Gorbachev; the last president of the Soviet Union writing for the Global Agenda magazine says:

Poverty is a political problem, says Mikhail Gorbachev. There will be no development until we face up to its true causes – in Russia as much as in the developing world…….The new century has already provided much proof that – although we have entered a new, global era – we still live by old habits and outdated methods. The wave of hope that swept the world when we ended the Cold War has been replaced for many by disenchantment and despair. Global security and environmental crisis are both pressing problems of our age, yet poverty is also one of the defining challenges of this century.

Well, I agree with Mr. Gorbachev that both hunger and starvation in the developing world is not due to lack of resources but a lack of political will caused by a moral decay in the rich nations. No one should sleep hungry in the world today!

Click here for the full article.

Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi; the son of the Libyan leader and the president of the Gaddafi International Foundation For Charity Associations was qouted as saying:

The Libyan and American flags will be raised in Tripoli and Washington within the coming days.

No word from the U.S. State Department regarding this claim.

Click here for the full report on Al Jezeera.

The Western Somalia regions currently under illegal Ethiopian occupations votes today. The Pan Arab TV network Al Jazeera says:

Thousands of people have voted in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region as elite forces, pro-government militia and police patrolled streets to secure the region’s delayed elections, which have been denounced by a separatist group.

Click here for the full report.

The Pan Arab Al Jazeera TV Network reports:

Libya has opened a new phase in its journey from pariah state back to the international fold by calling for US President George Bush to visit and pledging action on human rights.

Click here for the full report.

The United Nations says:

HIV/AIDS will soon become a major health problem in war-wracked Somalia without concerted efforts to contain the factors fuelling the epidemic such as low rates of education, transfusion of unsafe blood, and prostitution…… The survey covered multiple groups, including pregnant women attending antenatal clinics, and tuberculosis patients with sexually transmitted diseases, among others. Along with factors such as poor education and commercial sex, the report notes that high mobility, long distance truckers and transporters and negative cultural practice, such as female genital mutilation also contribute to the spread of the disease.

The full report is available on IRIN.

The Iranian new president Mr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying:

Currently we are importing from some countries billons of dollars whereas they are not buying our oil and they are also not buying our products…… These countries should be thankful to us because we are helping their economies boom, but they are not thankful and are looking at us as if we were indebted to them…… The international community they go so far as to condemn us. What sort of balance is this? This is injustice and oppression, and our nation will not accept this in international affairs.

Click here to view the full article on Khaleej Times.

Micheal Buerk, former BBC newsreader told the Radio Times:

Life is now being lived according to women’s rules…. The traits that have traditionally been associated with men - reticence, stoicism, single-mindedness have been marginalized….the result is that men are becoming more like women. Look at the men who are being held up as sporting icons - David Beckham and, God forbid, Tim Henman.

Well, should we be concerned? I am not convinced just yet! Having said that, I think both Beckham and Henman are over idolized pathetic men!

In December 1992, hoping to set a precedent for more robust principles of humanitarian interventionism, the United States chose Somalia as the site of a major peace operation to put a halt to its famine, warlordism, and anarchy. Instead of setting a precedent for humanitarian intervention and post-cold war peace enforcement, events in Somalia nearly destroyed the credibility of UN peacekeeping and ruined the American appetite for international humanitarian operations and nation-building exercises. In the years that followed, the U.S. grew cautious about peace operations, cynical toward multilateralism and the UN, and indifferent toward failed states in the Third World. As for Somalia, our punishment for its impertinence was to pretend it didn’t exist.

Ken Menkhaus: Analyst on the Horn of Africa for Foreign Policy in Focus and an associate professor of Political Science at Davidson College.

Frank Rich of the New York Times writes:

As if the right-wing pundit crackup isn’t unsettling enough, Mr. Bush’s top war strategists, starting with Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, have of late tried to rebrand the war in Iraq as what the defense secretary calls “a global struggle against violent extremism.” A struggle is what you have with your landlord. When the war’s über-managers start using euphemisms for a conflict this lethal, it’s a clear sign that the battle to keep the Iraq war afloat with the American public is lost.

No one is shedding any tears for the demise of Mr. Saddam Hussein; a brutal dictator who kept thirty million Iraqis as hostages for over twenty years, however, Saddam’s regime was crumbling from within before the war started. Hence, there was no reason to start the current bloody Iraq war. More importantly, the rationale given to justify the war was at best dubious and misleading. Iraq was no threat to anyone except to its people!

Having said that, the call for the withdrawal of the American military forces at this critical stage is premature to say the least, Iraq will certainly plunge into a civil war beyond imagination without the American military maintaining security and creating a buffer-zone between the opposing factions in Iraq. (more…)

It is possible that it might trigger democratization and political reform and broader participation in the Arab world and if it does make it worth it. My own guess is that it won’t happen, and we have created a lot new problems for ourselves… Iraq has become the new Afghanistan, a centre for training and exporting terrorists…

Prof. Francis Fukuyama of the SAIS at the John Hopkins University and the Author of “The End of History and the Last Man”

Reem Nafie of the Al Ahram Weekly writes:

When the emergency Arab Summit scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh on 3 August was postponed following the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz, the general consensus was that it would be rescheduled for just a few days later. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, for one, optimistically promised that consultations were underway to set a new date, sometime in the coming few days.
Now that over a week has come and gone, with no date announced, speculation has become rife about whether or not it will ever take place. Yesterday, Moussa himself said the summit was not due to be held any time soon, although Egypt was conducting intense consultations with Arab capitals about what date might be convenient for Arab leaders. “The consensus to hold the summit is still there - it is a matter of timing,” Moussa said.

The sad saga of the Arab League continues. If the Arab League member countries cannot agree on date for a meeting, can we expect them to agree on anything else? I don’t think so! Perhaps it is time to face the sad realty that the Arab League is no longer a politically relevant organization.

Click here for the full column on Al Ahram Weekly.

Senator John McCain of Arizona wrote:

It was a shameful thing to ask men to suffer and die, to persevere through god-awful afflictions and heartache, to endure the dehumanizing experiences that are unavoidable in combat, for a cause that the country wouldn’t support over time and that our leaders so wrongly believed could be achieved at a smaller cost than our enemy was prepared to make us pay.

Of course, the Senator was talking about the war in Vietnam but isn’t fair to say the same thing about the war in Iraq. Well, Bob Herbert of New York Times thinks so.

Click here to view the full article (PS. NY Times requires free registration for accessing its online resources)

Marginal Revolution asks why condom use is not widespread in Africa for combating Hiv/Aids. He also has a very informative graph taken from the “Economic Report of the President (2005)”. The note is somewhat oudated but it still potent!

Click here to access that note.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been receiving loads of inflaming emails from angry Ainashe.net readers complaining about my failure (thus far) to publish my report regarding my recent trip to Somalia. Some of the readers were so angry that they gave me an ultimatum by saying that I should sit down, draft something and publish the final report on this page within weeks or else! Some even speculated that the reason why I did not complete that widely anticipated report is that I have been bribed to silence by Riyaale and his regional government cronies. Others have said that I was too lazy as any Somali or any African for that matter.

What can I say; I understand their frustration and anger!

I am sure many of those readers will find “I have been busy” as an insufficient excuse for my sluggish blogging schedule in recent weeks. However, I am quite certain those readers will be more sympathetic to me if they knew that I am currently baby-sitting my three month old daughter; Amina. As any infant, Amina needs twenty four hour attention and round the clock nursing and care. Indeed, I cannot take my eyes off her even when she is sleeping peacefully in her crib albeit the surveillance equipment monitoring every movement and every sound she makes! (more…)

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.
John Stuart Mill (British Philosopher)

Over the next 20 years, what factors will drive Africa’s and the world’s responses to the AIDS epidemic, and what kind of future will there be for the next generation?

To find an answer to the that question:

the UNAIDS, presents three possible case studies for how the AIDS epidemic in Africa could evolve over the next 20 years based on policy decisions taken today by African leaders and the rest of the world.

Well, I think smart people should bet on the worse case scenario, since that is the scenario which is most likely to come true for Africa. The reason is the fact that most “African leaders” (tribal leaders and murderers!) are busy robbing their countries and slaughtering their people rather than devising strategic plan to mitigate the risks posed by this deadly disease! As Cabdilaahi Qashe; the great Somali playwright and poet once said, “Afrikaan allahayow maxaa laga abuuraayey?” I keep asking myself the same question, Unfortunately, I cannot figure that out!

Click here to view the full report by the UNAIDS.

As usual, I was surfing the net earlier today and I just saw this website which is for a political party called “Somali Green Party”. I thought this must be a joke! Somalia desperately needs a “PEACE” party not a green party at this time!

The more we liberalize trade, and the more we expand it, the higher our standards of living.

Alan Greenspan
Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve

Well, I agree entirely with what Mr. Greenspan stated above. See below note!

Jeremy Rifkin of the Foundation on Economic Trends writing for the German Magazine Spiegel says:

In Western Europe, thousands of jobs have been eliminated as companies move their production facilities abroad. In many cases, the jobs are only temporarily being relocated to the Czech Republic or Poland. But these debates conveniently avoid the real problem: jobs aren’t just being outsourced to lower-wage nations — they’re being replaced by automation.

Mr. Rifkin went on by saying:

Outsourcing counts for about 5 percent or less of the jobs that are disappearing. And the jobs are disappearing all over the world — in Europe, in Asia, in South and North America, everywhere. They’re disappearing because we’re seeing a great change in the nature of work and the politicians don’t want to discuss it because they don’t know how. The fact is that we’re ending mass wage labor. This is what’s going on with all the companies I’ve been working with.

Well, Mr. Rifkin debunks the simplistic notion by the protectionist both here in the United States and Europe that the Indians and the Chinese are taking European and American jobs through outsourcing. As David Ricardo argued centuries ago in his “comparative advantage” economic theory, free trade between nations is good for everyone.

Click here to view the full text on Spiegel.

I train my own children to walk barefoot, to rise two hours before dawn, to eat but little, to ride horses bareback.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

According to the Kuweiti news Agency:

Sudan’s Vice-President John Garang was killed in a helicopter crash, President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir announced on Monday. Abdelbasset Spidrat, the Sudanese information minister-designate, said in a statement that President Bashir announced that Garang and six of his companions and a crew of seven were killed when his helicopter crashed while on the way back from Uganda. Garang left Uganda last night after meeting President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, but did not arrive at his destination in south Sudan. Garang was named first Vice-President on July 9 as part of the final peace deal which Khartoum concluded after a 22-year civil war.

This could potentially reignite the civil war in Sudan. We support those who are calling for an independent enquiry, preferably with international observers. There are already conflicting reports about how Mr. Garang died. The Sudanese government is saying he died on board Ugandan presidential aircraft that crashed due to poor visibility. However, the Ugandan government sources are saying that a helicopter crash was to blame. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you like, but there seems to be some inconsistencies here.

Click here to view the full dispatch on Kuwaiti News Agency-KUNA. You may like to here to read an obituary of John Garang by the BBC News.

An official statement was read on the Saudi TV by the Culture and Information Minister; Iyad Madani and said:

With deep sorrow and pain, the royal court… mourns the death of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd.

The statement went on by saying:

The royal family members have acknowledged Crown Prince Abdullah as the king of the country … after which Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the king of Saudi Arabia King Abdullah chose Prince Sultan as crown prince and the family members acknowledged that.