The government of Norway in association with Norwegian Refugees Council is helping Somali refugees returning back to Somalia by offering financial incentives.
Click here for a full report (Kun på norsk!)
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
Robert Frost
American Poet (1874 - 1963)
Many thanks to Asad Omar in London who sent this to us.
Following excerpts are taken from Mohamed Ali’s new memoir; “The Soul of a Butterflyâ€.
My mother once told me that my confidence in myself made her believe in me. I thought that was funny, because it was her confidence in me that strengthened my belief in myself. I didn’t realize it then, but from the very beginning, my parents were helping me build the foundation for my life.
Click here for more on this.
The World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz told reporters at the conclusion of the semi-annual meeting of the Development Committee, a ministerial-level committee of the governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund:
I believe we’ve made significant progress in fulfilling our obligations to the world’s poorest people, whom we ultimately represent at these meetings.
Click here to view full report. You may also like to click here for more news from the World Bank
The Ogaden Human Rights Committee (OHRC) made a press release recently. Click here to view the full note.
Sir Cyril Townsend, former British MP for the Tories says in an article on Arab News:
What has been striking about the discussions on radio and television is the lack of appreciation that we are “riding pillion on the American motor bikeâ€, to borrow the phrase of a London think-tank report, and it is almost inconceivable that this Labour government would order a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq. American politicians will decide when American forces are to be brought back home and the British will fit in with that decision.
No wonder Tony Blair is accused of being an American Poodle!
Click here for the full article.
Klaus Brinkbäumer and Georg Mascolo of the German Magazine Spiegel ask:
The end of the Cold War was supposed to mark the beginning of an era of global politics. Now, 16 years later, about the only thing the 191 member states of the United Nations can agree upon is that poverty is a bad thing. Have global politics become impossibility?
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi
“Non-Violence in Peace and Warâ€
Indian Nationalist Leader (1869 - 1948)
Mary Robinson; the former Irish President and the former Human Rights Commissioner of the UN says on article on the International Herald Tribune:
There was a vacuum here at the United Nations summit this month, an aching space demanding to be filled. What was lacking, quite simply, was leadership: the vision that could have put backbone into long overdue reform and new purpose into the multilateral drive to tackle poverty. We didn’t get it. And the disappointment felt by civil society across the world is palpable. Instead of opening a new chapter for the UN, we got a summit of fudge: the self-important restatement of goals already agreed and some shameful backsliding on old promises. As the leaders headed home, the world’s desperate poor were left largely where they had been at the beginning of the week.
Well, as I argued before, the UN lost its relevance long ago!
Click here to view the full article.
A news dispatch from UNICEF says:
Before the tsunami of 26 December 2004, Hafun was a thriving fishing village off the coast of north-eastern Somalia, with a population of 5,000 and a quiet existence in an otherwise conflict-ridden country. There was one tiny classroom to serve the village’s 460 children aged 6 - 13. Only 50 of those children attended school and just 15 of those were girls. The tsunami brought devastation, but it also brought much attention to Hafun. The event served to remind the world of a neglected Somalia that has been without even the most basic educational infrastructure for the last 14 years. This neglect has denied Somalia’s children their right to an education.
This is a shameful example of how the UN always trivializes the tragic political and economic situation in Somalia and the agony of our people. In all accounts, Somalia is man-made tragic mess beyond human imagination. It is a country going down the drain to oblivion while the world watches. Indeed, the UNICEF itself acknowledged that Somalia is a forgotten emergency that nobody cares. Still, the UN seems to imply that Somalia is better off now than it was before simply because UNICEF build a lousy one room “school†in Hafun; a town ravaged by the Tsunami! Shame on you!
Click here for the full story.
The International Republican Institute says:
Known as the Somaliland Protectorate during almost 80 years of British rule, the Republic of Somaliland gained independence from Britain on June 26, 1960. On July 1, 1960 it joined the former Italian Somalia to form the Somali Republic but civil war broke out in the 1980s, which led eventually to the collapse of the Somali Republic. In 1991, the people of Somaliland held a congress, during which it decided to withdraw from the Union with Somalia and to reinstate Somaliland’s sovereignty.
Is this really what happened or is the IRI misinformed and mislead? Go figure!
Click here to view the IRI program in Northern Somalia.
According to the U.S. State Department:
The United States is taking strong and sustained action to help build democracy and economic opportunity and to reduce poverty and disease in Africa.
In my humble opinion American foreign policy towards African is a relic from a bygone era and it lacks bold vision with business oriented policy actions. Billions of US aid has been poured into Africa for over fifty years with nothing to show for it. In fact, Africa has been going backwards economically for the last decades despite the massive foreign aid being spent on misguided development projects. I think it is time to face the music and recognize the fact that foreign aid alone will not help lift Africa from poverty and economic stagnation. There must be a new thinking on how to help African to help it self by emphasizing more on trade than handouts. The United States must lead the way by becoming Africa’s true trading partner. One way of doing this is to reduce the massive US and European agricultural subsidies and allow Africa products to compete in the international markets. This will not only be good for Africa but also for the US and European consumers.
Click here to view the full fact sheet.
In this weeks NY Tid’s editorial, Dag Herbjørnsrud says:
…Problemet ligger heller ikke i Hagen som person, han gÃ¥r jo av som partileder til vÃ¥ren. Den blÃ¥ fare er sÃ¥ veldig mye større enn mannen kong Carl. Det er snarere den gradvise veien til politisk makt, til innvirkning pÃ¥ det norske samfunns ideologiske tenkemÃ¥te - den snikende kraften i høyrepopulismens evne til Ã¥ pÃ¥virke vÃ¥re barns og vÃ¥re barnebarns framtid – som burde skremme. Vi mÃ¥ ikke bli sÃ¥ kortsynte at man gleder seg over en knepen rødgrønn seier i dag, uten Ã¥ ta utfordringen fra den overveldende maktdemonstrasjonen fra Frp-bevegelsen pÃ¥ det mest alvorlige. Det er selve den forrÃ¥ende brutalitet som følger i dens høyrepopulismens kjølvann som burde skremme. â€Alle vet†hva Frp egentlig stÃ¥r for nÃ¥r det gjelder synet pÃ¥ minoriteter, innvandrere og de sÃ¥kalte myke verdier – derfor trenger heller ikke partiet si det eksplisitt. I bensinprisenes, bilavgiftenes og brennevinets rike kan selv rÃ¥kjørende mopedister uten hjelm bli kronet til konger.
I agree with Mr. Herbjørnsrud that Frp’s progressive accession to an influential political position must give Somali immigrants and other minorities in Norway a cold feet. It is scary to contemplate a political scenario whereby Frp forms a government in Norway with Carl I. Hagen as the Prime Minister.
It is unfortunate that the Somali media which also feeds the international media has to exaggerate a non-existing reality. There is no division within the Somali Transitional Federal Government, TFG, but there is a difference of opinion. The government is one, there is no division and no party has declared to have withdrawn from it but the dispute is whether to move the seat of the government to Mogadishu straightaway or through a corridor. The cabinet has made a decision that the government should make a stopover in Baidhoba and Jowahar before it relocates permanently to Mogadishu
Dr. Ismael Mahmud Hurre (Buubaa)
Somali Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Cooperation
More on this click here.
Abdullahi Yusuf; the Somali transitional federal president in his presidential address to the UN General Assembly yesterday said:
The embargo directly undermines the government’s inherent right and genuine effort of forming its national security force that would protect the public and keep peace by enforcing law and order throughout Somalia…The Security Council must assist the efforts of the Transitional Federal Government in the stabilization of the country, by reviewing the merits of the arms embargo on Somalia and promptly lifting it.
I agree with President Abdullahi Yusuf that the arms embargo has outlived its legitimate life span and must be lifted as soon as possible. We must remember that the UN Security Council was prepared to lifted the embargo after the transitional federal government was installed, however, Gareth Evans; the President of “International Crisis Group†popularly know as the International Crisis Manufacturing Group sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General just before the Security Council was to review the merits of keeping the embargo. (more…)
The Arab News says in today’s editorial:
Brown’s appeal, however, smacks of greed and hypocrisy. The UK is, after all, itself a major oil producer; it could lead the way by offering substantial subsidies to North Sea oil companies to expand production — as he suggests OPEC producers should do. But no. Brown does not feel that the UK should bear any cost in bringing down the price of oil. That goes for tax as well. The cost of fuel in the UK is among the highest in the world; it is now around the equivalent of $1.50 a liter. Over 80 percent of that is tax. Brown could cut the tax but he refuses, even though it would do no damage whatsoever to his budget. Because the tax is based on the oil price, not a fixed amount, he is getting far more than he expected when the budget was drawn up. He could hand that extra bit back to the consumers. That is what the French and some other European governments are going to do.
I agree with the Arab News on this but only partially. Lowering petrol taxes will have an insignificant effect that will be beneficial to UK consumers only. However, any move to increase production or lower prices of crude oil by Saudi Arabia or OPEC will have real effect on the market. And thus will help safe the world’s economy from recession that will certainly starve economies of the poor countries to a painful death. OPEC must act and Saudi Arabia must lead the way.
Click here to view the full editorial.
Joe Klein of Time magazine writes:
Starting in the 1960s, Republicans exploited Southern opposition to integration, as the G.O.P. National Committee chairman, Ken Mehlman, recently admitted. This implicit racism evolved into a tacit unwillingness to rethink problems of poverty and race—an unwillingness shared by Democrats, who clung to old bureaucratic solutions and cosmetic remedies like affirmative action—and worse, to the denigration of a basic governmental role: the need to plan for the future, to anticipate crises. The new philosophy of governance was stated most crudely in 1987 by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: “There is no such thing as society … There are individual men and women, and there are families. There was no such thing as society in New Orleans last week.
Click here for the full article.
Maxamed Qanyare Afrax; the Security Minister-designate of the transitional federal Somali government was quoted as saying:
“President Yusuf wants to wage a war against people in Mogadishu any time from now.â€
This is at best a futile scare-mongering and propaganda campaign against the TFG and President Abdullahi Yusuf in particular. Qanyare must remember that one of the main reasons for the creation of the transitional government was to restore order and rebuild the collapsed Somali institutions including the Somali National Army. Hence, what President Abdullahi Yusuf and his Prime Minister are doing is precisely what they were elected to do, namely to create new Somali national security institutions; army, police, and coast guard. (more…)
The International Crisis Group popularly known as the International Crisis Manufacturing Group says:
Nearly four years after 9/11, hardly a day passes without the “war on terrorism” making headlines, with Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia and now London holding centre stage. But away from the spotlight, a quiet, dirty conflict is being waged in Somalia: in the rubble-strewn streets of the ruined capital of this state without a government, Mogadishu, al-Qaeda operatives, jihadi extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed counter-terrorism networks are engaged in a shadowy and complex contest waged by intimidation, abduction and assassination. The U.S. has had some success but now risks evoking a backlash. Ultimately a successful counter-terrorism strategy requires more attention to helping Somalia with the twin tasks of reconciliation and state building.
This is what I wrote about this guy earlier:
Matt Bryden, the Trojan horse of the International Crisis Manufacturing Group and Somalia’s self-appointed public enemy number one has succeeded single-handedly to turn the Somali interim government into political disarray thus creating serious security problems for the Somali people and as a result created political chaos that will take years to repair. Indeed, as the IGAD foreign ministers noted, the serious political damages caused by Matt Bryden and his organization is the biggest serious political and security issue that will continue to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa region for many more years to come. Needless to say, Matt Bryden kept acting as Somalia’s “official†spokesman by feeding the western media with loads of factually erroneous reports and press releases intended solely to destabilize the political cohesiveness of our people and thus endanger the security our country and our people.
Clicke here for the full article.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says:
The tsunamis that hit mainly the north-east region of Somalia, Puntland, have caused human losses and extensive infrastructural damage. It was reported that nearly 300 people died and more than 50,000 people were displaced. A large number of shelters and houses were damaged or destroyed, and many fishing boats and equipment were lost. …Since the start of the civil war in 1991, the IMF has not had any official contact with Somalia and, thus, is not able to assess the macroeconomic impact or cost of the disaster.
The World Bank has only resumed official contact very recently (after the disaster) and has no presence on the ground to contribute to damage or needs assessments. Somalia has been without a central government until recently when a transitional government was formed late last year in Nairobi. No official estimates of the cost of the tsunamis have been made available. The UN Office of the Coordination of Human Affairs recently estimated that about $10 million in humanitarian aid is needed in the first half of 2005 to help those who were affected by the disaster. Where conditions permit, emergency relief efforts have been undertaken by international relief agencies and private charities.
Amr Musa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, tells Aljazeera.net in an exclusive interview that reforms in the Arab World must come from within.
Amr Musa says:
I believe democracy is a process. A process that should be developed over the years based on a conscious will for change and democratisation. That is the case already promoted in some countries in the region. I am also confident that, within the coming period, many countries in the region will continue to follow the path of democracy, pluralism and political liberalism.
I do not agree with lots of things Amr Musa and his organization says, however, I must say that he is right this time.
Click here for the full interview. You may also click here for Al Jazeera’s Arab Reform site.
As the saying goes: “Allahayow dhib badanaa nin ka tagay dhulkiisii”
Somali immigrants to Australia include a relatively high proportion of women with their children, whose husbands and other male relatives have often died or are missing. These families may be separated from family support and structures that they would normally rely on in Somalia. They have also experienced relatively high levels of trauma, deprivation and distress, and may be suffering after-effects of such experiences. There are relatively few older males, who traditionally play a significant role in the development of male adolescents and young men. This means that community structures to support cultural maintenance or the negotiation of new values have to be created in Australia at the same time as settlement is occurring.
Read the introduction of this paper and see how our history is twisted wrongly. The paper argues that Somalis originated from Ethiopia!
Click here to view the full paper.
There is a debate about the Female Genital Mutilation practice among the African and Arab (mainly Somali) immigrants in Norway. Amazing how some ignorant Somalis are still trying to defend a gruesome practice from the dark ages.
Poenget er at man ikke kan kontrollere om jenter har sex uansett. Jeg er omskåret to ganger. Det har ikke stoppet meg, sier Safia Yusuf Abdi
Click here for the full article on Dagbladet (Norwegian only)
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times writes
When they were deaf for so long to the horrific misery and cries for help of the victims in New Orleans - most of them poor and black, like those stuck at the back of the evacuation line yesterday while 700 guests and employees of the Hyatt Hotel were bused out first - they shook the faith of all Americans in American ideals. And made us ashamed.
Who are we if we can’t take care of our own?
Click here to view the full column. (Please note that the NYT requires free registration for access)
David Brooks of the New York Times writes:
The first rule of the social fabric - that in times of crisis you protect the vulnerable - was trampled. Leaving the poor in New Orleans was the moral equivalent of leaving the injured on the battlefield. No wonder confidence in civic institutions is plummeting.
Click here to view the full column. (Please note that the NYT requires free registration for access)
Dr. Khaled Batarfi of the Al Madina newspaper in Saudi Arabia asks: “Is Corruption Curable?â€. Dr. Khaled Batarfi went on by saying:
“Framing†is a dangerous art. You can give a horrible thing a good name and make it look good. With the right media tools, you can sell it to the masses. A good lie, repeated long enough, convinces even the liars themselves. Worse, lies in time become norms. The rules change to accommodate. And new generations know no better or different. The social evolution alters its ways accordingly, and what was immoral in the past, becomes acceptable and even ethical.
Take for example “corruption†in the Arab world.
Bribe is now called “commission.†The rationale goes like: Life became costly. What was regarded a decent life in the good old days is now poverty. Salaries, especially in the public sector, are meager. You need to think of your family and dependents. Good accommodation and private schooling cost a fortune. Every one is doing it; why not me?
Click click here to view the full column on the Arab News Online.
Ismail Ali Ismail (also known as Ismail Geeldoon) wrote and excellent article with a deep intellectual insight of what is wrong with our country. It is a must read article for anyone who would like to get a better understanding of Somalia’s failed intellectual elite.
Ismail Ali Ismail writes:
In the face of all this, educated Somalis continue to show both ambivalence and diffidence. It has been said that politics is a dirty game. I would add that in Africa it is also a dangerous game. I realise that educated Somalis do not want to ‘dirty’ their hands by engaging in politics and are not willing to face the perils of African politics. But they have nevertheless been vociferous in their complaint about the quality of our political leaders, the absence of rational policymaking, the lack of development, corruption, clannism and a host of other serious shortcomings. In short, they have been critical of everything that has gone wrong but have shied away from coming forward to fill the apparent intellectual void. I am reminded here of a humorous anecdote from the Sudan. It was related to me long ago that in the early days of Nemeiry’s regime university professors and PhD holders (and there were thousands of them) were so vociferous and harsh in their criticism of the regime’s policies and performance that Nemeiry, realizing that they were making a lot of sense, decided to appoint them to cabinet and other leadership positions. After two years the economy was in such shambles under their management that people were so disenchanted with them that they used to say upon encountering a senior official who was so patently helpless and inefficient: “The poor fellow is incapable of doing anything at all; he must be either a professor or a doctor”. But the Sudan, very unlike Somalia, has had some real intellectuals of international repute as political leaders and at no time was the Sudan led, even under military regimes, by leaders who were so uneducated and ignorant as ours.
Click here to view the full article.
Educated in Aden, the United States and in Britain, Ismail Ali Ismail was the District Commissioner in Hargeisa, Zeila and Kismayo. He also served as Deputy Governor in Togdheer (Burco) which then included the districts which now compose Sool and Sanaag as well as Deputy Governor of Lower Juba (Kismayo). In addition, Ismail Ali Ismail worked as Senior Training Officer in SIPA/SIDAM. Ismail Ali Ismail has international experience and worked for the UN in various professional capacities in the interrelated fields of Governance, Policymaking and Public Administration for 26 years. He retired from the UN System in 2003 and he now lives in Virginia with his family.
We contacted with the Royal Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs and asked them about the Danish Foreign Policy on Somalia. The response we got from the Ministry was to refer to the European Union Council Conclusions (Foreign Ministers) of 13 December 2004 from the European Unions as well as to the UN Security Council Presidential Statement of 15 July 2005 on Somalia.
Understandably the Danish Foreign Policy on Somalia is based upon the collective European Foreign Policy regarding Somalia.
Here is the EU Council (Foreign Ministers) Conclusions:
Welcoming the positive results of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) efforts, the Council reviewed recent developments in Somalia, in particular the agreement on a Transitional Federal Charter, the establishment of the Transitional Federal Parliament, the election of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as President of the Somali Transitional Federal Government and the appointment of Ali Mohamed Ghedi as Prime Minister.
- The Council looks forward th the early establishment of a broad-based government in Somalia and stresses the political challenges ahead: Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR), internal reconciliation, peaceful dialogue with Somaliland and maintaining regional cohesion and support.
- The Council reiterated its support for the efforts of all parties in Somalia.
- It also expressed the need for continued international engagement and structured support based on joint principles and structures for co-ordination with the Transitional Federal Institutions.
- The European Union stands ready to work with the United Nations and all relevant international organisations in supporting the peace and reconciliation process and the transition to a federal state in Somalia.
- Furthermore the European Union stands ready to assist a Transitional Federal Government in accordance with the arrangements to be agreed between the government and the international community as endorsed by the Stockholm Meeting of 29 October.