Ainashe.net

If any other country in the world had the same incidence of malnutrition as here (Somalia) there would be an outcry!

Maxwell Gaylard
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

Eliminating the distinction between the information-rich and information-poor countries is critical to eliminating other inequalities between North and South.

Nelson Mandela
The Father of the “Rainbow Nation”- The New South Africa
Human Rights Activist

Courtesy of “Virtual Activism“.

While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.

Thomas Sankara

Ninkii ballankaaga qaaday
Ka baaqday xilkaad u dhiibtay
Ka baydhay ujeedadaada
Ku boobay adoo sabool ah
Ku wiirsaday baaba’aaga
Adoo bogan waayey taada
Ninkii u buseelay raaxo
Huwaday bulbushii libaaxa
Buruudkiyo shaashka qaatay
U booday cirkaa dusheenna
Bilkeeday laboontidiisa
Buurtuu koray waarin mayso
Heddiisana baajin mayso
Kub iyo bawduu ka jabi.

Extracts taken from Hadraawi’s Gabay; “Bulsho”.

Qur’aankuu macbuud soo dajee malag u soo dhiibay
murtidaa rasuulkiyo sunnaha lagu macnaynaayo
inaan midigta saarroon wax kale maya nidhaa weeye.

Gabyaa Soomaaliyeed

There are no islands in the world today. We live in a global village.

More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations.

Kofi A Annan
UN Secretary General

If Somalis come together, they can even mend a crack in the sky. (Somali proverb)

Well, I am not so sure about that anymore… but it gives hope to Somali nationalists like myself who believe in Somalia and the Somali people.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi (Indian Nationalist/Leader of the None-Violence Movement)

Thanks to Ismail Ahmed (Univ. of Southern Maine) who sent this to us.

Extremism is the mantra of the very few, a tiny group whose minds have been twisted and turned to an evil agenda, who have left logic and compassion behind. A tiny minority empowered by modern technology.

Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal address to the Oxford University Philosophy, Politics and Economics Society. Topic: “Terrorism – Threats and Challenges.” October 11, 2005.

Click here for the full speech.

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Winston Churchill (British Statesman)

I have to say that “Moral Courage” is without a doubt one of the ingredients missing from the Somali public and political life! If there were any shred of moral courage left in us Somalis, I am quite certain that many of us would not have followed murderers as their leaders, nor would have Somali PhD holders bow on their knees for ignorant old tribal chiefs who could hardly write their names on a piece of paper. In short, we must accept the fact that we are at best immoral cowards!

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.

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 War”
Indian Nationalist Leader (1869 - 1948)

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.

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 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.

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.

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”

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)

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!

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

Unquestionably, these are unsettling times. The London Tube bombings have brought a new context to our national life, and no one can afford to be complacent. Yet we must never give the terrorists a chance to claim a success. It is therefore incumbent on all of us in Parliament to find the right balance between the conflicting demands of security and individual freedom.

Charles Kennedy; Leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, UK.

“Ogaadeen haddaan ahay dad wow amar sareeyaa”

Sayid Maxamed Cabdille Xasan (Somali Nationalist)

Well, Perhaps I am bit bias but I think Sayid Maxamed had a point there!

“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you fell - it is, above all, to make you see. That - and no more, and it is everything.”

Joseph Conrad (The author of Heart of Darkness)