I remember in Belfast the Christmas before last, when pipes froze and burst, water poured into streets, and many of us were without water for days, relying on bottled water that we had to collect from water stations. Many people said at the time, and I was one, ho w it made them appreciate water was not to be taken for granted. But it has taken living here and observing how people live in a country that experiences serious droughts for it to be brought home to me what a precious resource water is.
For a start, the Horn of Africa is semi-arid, i.e. there is very little rain anyway. Most of Somaliland receives as little as 50 to 150 millimetres of rain annually. Ireland’s annual rainfall is nearer 1000 mm a year (and more in Connemara!). Adan (the driver with Nagaad and the source of much of my information) thinks it has got drier over the past few decades, and Somaliland is slowly becoming more like a desert. When the rain does come, in April and May, its torrential, but I haven’t experienced any yet and wonder about driving on these now dusty dirt roads after torrential rain! On the way to and from work every day, we cross a bridge over what looks like a dried up riverbed, between 50 and 100 yards wide. In fact it’s a flood runoff for the rains when they do come. The rain has been known to sweep away the temporary shelters that internally displaced people (IDPs) live in, and the downpours can be extremely dangerous. They say this area after a rainfall will be a raging torrent of water and then, within hours, the water has disappeared.
The main sources of water in rural areas of Somaliland are the privately owned Barkeds (cemented water catchments), manually dug shallow wells and communal stock watering ponds. All of these sources of water depend on a harvest of seasonal rainfall, which has been worsening year by year. While in urban areas, groundwater is the main source of water for human and livestock consumption (the ubiquitous goats, and not forgetting the urban cattle that roam the streets). I suppose no one worries about the camels!
Because of recurrent drought, there has been a huge population shift to Hargeisa and other urban areas from rural areas, and from areas where people have been internally displaced by the upheavals of war. The steady increase in settlements of internally displaced people on the outskirts of the city makes it hard to keep track of population numbers, and the situation is growing beyond control. Tensions between the IDP communities and the host communities have increased, particularly because of the water shortage.
The water infrastructure in Hargeisa was designed and built in the 1940s for a population of 150,000 people, relying on deep bore wells as major sources of water. A survey of 127 government owned deep bore wells and other sources of water (not just in Hargeisa) were completed recently, and only about 40 percent of all existing wells are operational. Adan complained that 60% of the national budget goes on security and maintaining the military, with no development strategy to address the water infrastructure, although I have read in the papers that there are plans to dig more wells in Hargeisa, funded by the EU.
But the fact is at least 45% of Hargeisa’s population of 1.2 million has no direct access to water at all. So how do they manage?
Tankers fetch water daily from wells in two villages 30 or 40 kilometres outside Hargeisa and deliver it to houses and hotels (including the Ambassador) in the city and it is pumped into tanks. Alanye, a board member of Nagaad, explained to me that he and his family are dependent on a truck delivering water every week. He pays $7 for five barrels of water, which last his family one week. But his family is small, him and his wife, and two or three relatives. In Somaliland, extended families are the norm, so it would be usual, he told me, for 12 people to share a household. For most households then five barrels would only last 3-4 days. Then there are sanitation issues because the water comes untreated from the wells. The problem with water quality is pertinent. Most of these families use this water for drinking, cooking and washing as well. No water purification and treatment of water takes place here. Well owners wait for the wells to become full and once water comes to the surface they dip long tubes that take water to the trucks.
The water used for tea and coffee in Nagaad is the colour of weak tea; I have gone without a mid-morning drink since my first taste.
Many people cannot buy water from truck owners as they don’t have tanks.They rely on the donkey deliveries, pulling small tanks of water and delivering to people’s houses and small shops.
People bring their yellow plastic cans to be filled. It’s women and children who fetch the water, including at night when it’s cooler and I’ve frequently seen teenage girls struggling to carry large yellow plastic canisters, women pushing wheelbarrows with several containers, and small children pulling containers along the road with string, making a game of it.
Note. Most of the photos here, are from Afrikan Sarvi online, a Horn of Africa Journal, plus some of the info.
The sixth point of the Communique of London Conference on Somalia held on February 23, 2012 raised the need for the international community to support any dialogue between Somaliland and Somalia. Following that recommendation of the conference, the first direct talks between the two countries opened at The Chevening House in the outskirts of London on June 20, 2012 issuing what was known as the Chevening House Declaration intended to pave the way for presidential meeting. Then, for the first time for over 21 years, the presidents of Somaliland, His Excellency Ahmed Mohammed Silanyo, and the former president of Somalia, His Excellency Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, met in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on June 28, 2012 and agreed to continue the talks.
The Current Situation of Somalía
Somaliland declared itself independent nation of Somalia in 1991 to restore its independence achieved on June 26, 1960 after Somalia committed genocidal and destructive acts against Somaliland people in the years from 1984-1988. Since 1991, Somalia was no man’s land and became red meat for all the Five Somali peoples in the Horn of Africa. It is not governed by its own people but half of those running the country are government post- seekers and fugitives coming from Somaliland, Somali Ethiopian Region, Somali Kenyan Region and Djiboutians who wrapped themselves in Somaliwein banner that does not exist. All the successive governments of Somalia were based on the false, elusive notion of “Greater Somalia” that has not been achieved yet and no one knows when and how it will come true.
“Greater Somalia” has the same analogy with “Greater Arab World” to day. There are around 18 Arab Countries in the Middle East and North Africa and no one shares government, nationality, and borders with another one whilst the government of Somalia has constantly become victim of a bunch of fugitives and government post-seekers from all the other four Somalis thus hijacking the parliament and the government of Somalia. The major reason of why Somalia is unstable and failed state for 22 years perpetuating brutal civil wars in the country is because Non-Southerners in the government and in the parliament prefer to keep it restive and in political turmoil in order to keep collecting blood money from the instability. This war profiteering will continue in Somalia until the traditional and political leaders as well as intellectuals of Somalia come to their senses and expel Non-Southern elements from their parliament and government.
Somalia would be peaceful and stable country long ago if it were controlled and ruled by its own people. Besides oppressions, repressions, displacements, destructions, and atrocities committed against Somaliland people, the all Somali-Shared-Government under the false umbrella of Somaliwein is another major reason of why Somaliland People do not want to share any union with Somalia. The regime of Siad Barre turned the union government of Somaliland and Somalia into government shared by all Somalis in the Horn of Africa. Most of the military generals and government officials were Somali Ethiopians and Somali Kenyans who widely and willingly participated in the atrocities against Somaliland people in1980S. Somaliland people want to have their own government to control their own destiny and prevent another atrocities.
Somaliland government was hasty to open talks with Somalia without defining the essential conditions for the talks and taking Somalia to the task of making sure that the dialogue take place between Somaliland and Somalia only and not between Somaliland and Somaliwein. As we all know, the unrectified doomed union of 1960 was between Somaliland and Somalia only. Djibouti, Somali Ethiopian Region, and Somali Kenyan Region were never part of it. It is also important to know that the no-man’s government of Somalia is easily manipulated by the Non-Southern ministers and parliamentary members who are adamantly oppose the independence and recognition of Somaliland as that is detrimental or harmful to their profiteering interest in Somalia. Somaliland government must set conditions for any future talks to preempt any infiltration of Somaliwein elements and war profiteering groups in Somalia that could put the talks at danger.
Three Indispensable Conditions For Restarting Talks With Somalia
1. That the talks be held between Somaliland (Former North) and Somalia (Former South) only because they were the two countries that shared the ill-fated union. Elements from Djibouti, from Somali Ethiopian Region, and From Somali Kenyan Region must not be allowed to participate in the talks because they were not signatories of the union between Somalland and Somalia on July 1, 1960. Somaliland elements who fled to Somalia for personal greed and interest must not be allowed too to participate in the talks because the talks are not between Somaliland and Somaliland. These disloyal elements have already betrayed their country and their people and are not shy to side with Somalia in the talks to undermine Somaliland independence. Even though they are despised and disrespected by the Southerners, they are used by Somalia to fight and weaken Somaliland statehood. The talks are not between Somaliland and Somaliwein or between Somaliland and Somaliland. The talks are between Somaliland and Somalia only, and the members of the two sides for the talks must come from Somaliland and from Somalía only.
2. That ProSomalia elements that hail from Somaliland must be expelled from the government and parliament of Somalia as it is impossible to hold talks with a government that harbors elements that are hostile to Somaliland independence, and at the same time, undermining the talks to blindly support Somalia for their own benefits.
3. And that the talks must be about future bilateral relations between the two countries and about serving justice for the victims in the mass graves. The talks may be difficult and excruciating and may face stalemate at the end as Somalia wrongly believes still that Somaliland is a province of Somalia, the same mistake they did during the thirty [30] years of the ill-fated union, and would like to throw it into the chaotic commotion of Somaliwein fold that it suffers from currently.
Why Somaliland People Reject another Union With Somalía
Somalia has still the mentality of 1960 that denied Somaliland people of having their share from the union government and that treated Somaliland as one of the provinces of Somalia such as Mudug and Bay instead of recognizing it as an independent state eager to make union with Somalia to pioneer Greater Somalia that became abortive at the end. The ignorant, arrogant leaders of Somalia still believe that Somaliland is run by Mogadisho as the appointments given to Somaliland betrayers point out. The leaders of Somalia have trust in these elements from Somaliland believing that they represent Somaliland and will bring It back to the fold of Somalia failing to understand that the question of Somaliland is not something that can be changed by individuals. It is a question of self determination of a nation that shoulders its destiny. Somalia understands well that these disloyal elements hailing from Somaliland can not set foot on Somaliland soil without prosecution. Their appointments is just desperate attempt to make one believe that Somaliland Republic is still a part of Somalia. Somaliland outsmarts deception.
Since the birth of Somaliland Republic,the successive government of Somalia declared political war against Somaliland independence by assigning political positions to Somaliland betrayers in order to curtail its recognition and openly fight it through diplomatic means around the world. These diplomatic wars are futile because Somaliland people are determined to be independent of Somalia.These elements who betrayed their homeland and their people do not belong to both countries, as some claim, but they belong to Somalia where they serve embarrassingly.
Somaliland and its people had suffered enough with great
cruelty in the hands of Somalia. History can not be erased. They will never forget the oppression, the suppression, the imprisonments, the torture, the massive displacements, the destruction of cities, and the genocidal acts committed mercilessly against them. The Equipo Peruano Antropologia Forense, EPAF [Forensic Investigator International Team] is currently in Somaliland to identify the over 60,000 bodies believed to be in mass graves. So far, 226 mass graves have been uncovered and the smallest mass grave is believed to hold 12 bodies. The findings were: Hargeisa: 200 Mass Grave Sites, Berbera: 12 Mass Graves, Buroa: 8 Mass Graves, Sheikh: 1 Mass Grave, Erigavo: 2 Mass Graves, Gabiley: 2 Mass Graves, Arabsiyo: 1 Mass Grave. These innocent civilians were taken out of their homes late at night and summarily executed in the years 1984,1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988 because of the name of their clan.
Mass graves are war crimes against humanity and gross violations of human rights and have nothing to do with amnesty given for ordinary civil wars within a nation to stop revenge and restore peace and unity. War Crimes Cases belong to the International Court of Justice in Hague. Justice must be done for the victims in the mass graves at Hague. If SNM Forces did not fight valiantly everywhere in Somaliland against the atrocious military of Siad Barre to rescue the rest of the people, the genocidal acts would be much greater and would have the scale of the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. Somaliland people still hear the cries of their innocent civilians massacred at midnights, they still see their innocent bodies being dumped like animal carcasses into mass graves throughout Somaliland. Their sad voices are indelible in their hearts and in their souls.
Downplaying massacring Somaliland innocent civilians in the mass graves, the leaders of Somalia claim that killings took place in Somalia too while the bodies in the only known mass grave in Somalia belong to Somaliland people too. Around 46 Somaliland civilians were taken out of their homes at Buulo Hubey, Mogadisho, by Siad Barre’s Red Berets and summarily executed at Jaseera Beach at midnight on July 17, 1989. Targeting certain people for ethnic cleansing is different from unintended killings and tribal persecutions in civil wars. Somaliland people were not responsible for the brutal killings in Somalia but Somalia was responsible for the genocidal acts against Somaliland people. Denying the responsibility of massacring the victims in the mass graves is adding an insult to the injury. The massacred civilians will not go in vain and will be at the forefront and center of all talks between Somaliland and Somalia. Any prospects of reunification with Somalia becomes impossible with such magnitude of ethnic cleansing and that is why Somaliland adamantly rejects it. As Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo can not be forced to reunify with Yugoslavia that committed horrifying atrocities against them in the 1990s, Somaliland can not be forced to return to the killing fields of Somalia too.
What Somaliland Should Do If The Talks Break Down.
If the talks between Somaliland and Somalia fail officially and become ill-fated because of the wrongful insistence of Somalia that Somaliland is part of Somalia and that it will not recognize it, then Somaliland will move forward proudly with its irreversible independence. Somaliland does not occupy land and people from Somalia but remains within its own colonial borders as any other African country. If Djibouti can not be forced to join union with Somalia because of being part of “Greater Somalia”, then Somailand can not be forced either. The peoples of Somali Western Region in Ethiopia, and Somali North Eastern in Kenya are particularly obsessed with the return of Somaliland to Mogadisho because they want to regain and control Somaliland and Somalia in order to reside, rule, and enrich themselves with their wealth as they did in the thirty (30) years of the ill-fated union. What do the peoples of Somali Western Region in Ethiopia and Somali North Eastern Region in Kenya are sharing with Somaliland and Somalia if their territories are still occupied to justify their participation in so called “Somaliwein Government? NOTHING. Why don’t they stay in their territories to take part in their autonomous rule in their lands instead of running to Mogadisho? Because they want to seize the power and control of other countries that do not belong to them under the false umbrella of “Somaliwein” for their own benefits.
Somaliland liberated itself from non-existent “Somaliwein” umbrella based on opportunism and selfishness and is run by its own people but that false idea still controls Somalia where it is heavy burden on its people economically, socially, and politically. Ruling and looting Somaliland under imaginary umbrella of “Somaliwein” is over. The idea of “Greater Somalia” (Somaliwein) emerged in the middle of the Second World War [1939-1945] and the main objective was to liberate the five Somali Territories and bring them together under the same banner and government in the Horn of Africa. That idea of “Greater Somalia” could not succeed so far and there are no hopeful prospects to make that dream come true.
Somaliland has the most important recognition that it needs and that is the recognition of its own people. That self-recognition will bring, soon or later, the recognition of the international community, In Shaa Allaah. Taiwan is not recognized country since 1971 and it is one of the most developed countries in Asia today. Somaliland people are peace loving nation and have no intentions at all to make aggression to its neighbors without being attacked first. If the talks break down officially and then Somalia becomes hostile to Somaliland and threatens it with war, then Somaliland people, a heroic, patriotic nation, is ready to repel any attack from Somalia to defend its independence. Somaliland did not come with request; it was born with bloodied sword, and will stay here with bloodied sword if needed.
An ethnic-based conflict between Addis Ababa University (AAU) students following derogatory graffiti posted on toilet-walls and library walls has left half a dozen students with severe injuries while others had faced arrest. For decades, the clash between students at universities has witnessed many ethnic-based conflicts which many observers claim it to be the weakness of the administering body. Likewise, the Wednesday [January 2] conflict was particularly between those from the ethnic lines of Oromo and Tigre. Reports indicate that the conflict was instigated when member (sic) of the latter ethnic group scrawled derogatory remarks on the walls of toilets and the library and in his own dormitory as well.”
An official of Addis Ababa University alleged the “conflict was instigatedby students who found derogatory statements posted on the wall”. Some 20 students were reportedly injured in the incident and three hospitalized including two who underwent surgery. Police reportedly arrested 20 students on unspecified charges.
My initial reaction reading this report about Ethiopia’s “best and brightest” was sheer disbelief. “This just can’t be true. It is beneath the dignity of Ethiopia’s Cheetah Generation (young people) to engage in such a cowardly and dastardly act. Ethiopia’s university students know better than to wrestle in the filth and sewage of ethnic politics.” I kept on reassuring myself that such wicked hatemongering could not possibly be the work of Ethiopia’s budding intellectuals, future scholars, scientists and literary men and women.
My certitude slowly gave way to gnawing disquietude. I asked myself, “Supposing the inflammatory graffiti and “derogatory statements” were written by bona fide AAU students? What would such a vile, gutless and vulgar act say about these students? About the injured students who reacted with righteous indignation? About the AAU student body? About all Ethiopian university students? About all of Ethiopia’s young people?”
As I wrestled with these questions, I was overcome by an irrepressible feeling of shame and ignominy. I kept interrogating myself, “How is it even possible for Ethiopia’s best and brightest — Ethiopia’s Cheetahs — to engage in such backward, barbaric, cruel, vicious and villainous act? Why would one group of young Ethiopian university students deliberately plan and scheme to dehumanize, demoralize, demonize, degrade and brutalize another? Why? Why? I could not come up with a rational answer.
I became even more bewildered trying to answer these questions as I was drafting my “proclamation” to make 2013 the Year of the Ethiopian Cheetahs. I could not logically fathom the occurrence of this disgusting and horrifying drama in which some Ethiopian Cheetahs were acting like Hippos and behaving like hyenas.
I put aside my roiled emotions and paused to think, and think really hard. What evidence is there to factually establish the “ethnic-based conflict” was the work of a bona fide AAU “student”? Who really is the alleged “student” who put up the offensive “graffiti and derogatory statements”? Must we believe the story line about the incident concocted by a wily university public relations desk jokey? How is it that Ethiopian “universities have witnessed many ethnic-based conflicts for decades” and continue to witness them with predictable regularity? Are there no adults in charge at the universities ready, able and willing to take preemptive and preventive action?
Doubt slowly began to displace my disappointment, shock and shame as I pondered the real possibility of this so-called “ethnic-based conflict” being stage-managed by the invisible knights of the empire.
When I finally put on my forensic lenses, I could clearly see the fingerprints and footprints of a dirty rat lurking on campus once again undetected.
I also recalled a 2006 secret 52-page document written in Amharic and prepared by the so-called Directorate of the Diaspora of the Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa detailing strategy and tactics to harass, persecute and smear critics and opponents of the ruling regime and spread ethnic strife in the Ethiopian Diaspora. As I thought more about the AAU incident, the anecdotal evidence of regime dirty tricks used to undermine, neutralize and destroy opposition parties, harass and persecute dissidents and others kept popping out.
My preliminary analysis of the circumstantial evidence on who is responsible for the “ethnic-based conflict” at the AAU campus points exclusively at the usual suspects. The inescapable conclusion (until substantial counterfactual evidence is presented) is that the hate crime that took place on the AAU campus on January 2 is likely the work of anagent provocateur (s) (one or few individuals placed on campus to act as agitators and instigators) and not a bona fide student(s).
A summary review of the uncontroverted evidence supports this conclusion. First, a single “student” is officially blamed for causing the incident. This factually negates the existence of an organized hate group of students of one ethnic group engaged in the persecution of another and intent on causing ethnic strife, dissension and discord on campus. Second, the identity, background and affiliation (ethnic and otherwise) of the “student” who is said to be responsible for the criminal act has not been factually established. University officials fingered an unidentified student as being responsible. But is this “student” a bona fide student or a regime undercover agent provocateur masquerading as a student? Does this “student” have a history of ethnic animus against students of other ethnic groups?
Third, no motive has been established for the “student” who put up the graffiti and derogatory statements in multiple locations including the “walls of toilets, the library and in his own dormitory as well.” In hate crime situations, when derogatory graffiti are directed toward a group, they are usually displayed in locations likely to be seen by the target group and intended to spark random expressions of outrage. Why would the “student” fingered for this crime target all students of an entire ethnic group as the object of his personal fury?
Fourth, other than the graffiti depicting the offensive statements, no additional evidence of hate crime was found in the possession of the “student” who committed the hate crime.
Fifth, the January 2 hate crime incident on the AAU campus cannot be seen as an isolated incident. The fact that periodic and recurrent campus hate crimes have been occurring “for decades” on Ethiopian university campuses is uncontro- verted. Why haven’t university officials taken swift and decisive action to prevent campus hate crimes with full foreknowledge of the occurrence of such incidents? Is the lack of action and intervention by university officials evidence of official tolerance, complicity, indifference and/or gross incompetence in the investigation and prevention of the occurrence of campus hate crimes? The evidence further shows that in the aftermath of the hate crime, university officials took no decisive action or implemented no preventive measures to ensure the safety of other students who could be targets of ethnic harassment on campus from a potential flare up of violence.
Sixth, why did AAU officials publicly announce, without a full and independent fact finding investigation, that the “conflict was instigated by students who found derogatory statements posted on the wall”? Why haven’t AAU officials empaneled an internal and/or outside independent investigation to thoroughly examine the causes and participants in the hate crime and make recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future? Why have university officials left this incident entirely to the police? Could it be that university officials turn a blind eye to campus hate crimes because they are directed to do so?
Seventh, why are the victims of this hate crime also the targets of arrest and detention by police?
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — The night of mayhem and death started with the sound of helicopters above pitch-black fields. When it was over, the French intelligence agent who had been held hostage for more than three years was almost certainly dead, as was at least one French commando, and the home that served as the agent’s final jail was destroyed. And now the Somalis living in the muddy farm town had new cause to fear the militants controlling their street.
It was too dark to see beyond the brief glow of flashlights, but noise was everywhere, said Ali Bulhan, who woke up when the earth started vibrating to the beat of the helicopter rotors. And the flashlights were abruptly extinguished when the French soldiers shot the Somalis who had turned them on to see what was happening in their town in the dead of night, said town elder Hussein Yasin.
The commandos were there to free a French intelligence agent captured on Bastille Day in 2009. The man, known by his code-name Denis Allex, was chained up, abused and moved from one safe house to another, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday. Le Drian said the government decided to stage the rescue a month ago, when Allex’s location seemed to have settled down “in a spot accessible by the sea.”
Helicopters were dispatched from a French ship that had been on an enforced news blackout for weeks, according to the French newspaper Le Point. When the commandos arrived in Bulomarer late Friday, children began screaming in confusion and fighters from the Islamist al-Shabab, which has controlled the town for years, began racing along the streets, their cell phones pressed to their ears.
“They had a terrible night as well,” said Ali Bulhan, who refused to give his last name for fear of reprisal.
The local accounts, along with that of a Somali intelligence official and the French defense minister, offer a glimpse into a chaotic rescue attempt in which nothing seemed to go as planned.
“Extracting a hostage is extremely difficult,” Le Drian said.
Yasin said the gunbattle started on the ground when the French commandos encountered an Islamist checkpoint. Al Bulhan said only a few hours could have passed between that moment and the time when the French helicopters stopped firing on homes and instead ferried the surviving French troops to safety “but it felt like an entire day.”
French officials, including the president, and a Somali intelligence official said Allex was almost certainly killed by his captors. The intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press, said Sunday that the home where the agent was held was destroyed in the attack Saturday, and that intelligence networks “do not have any information indicating he is still alive.”
Al-Shabab has offered no proof for its claims that Allex was still alive and that a wounded French soldier was in its custody as well. French officials acknowledge a missing soldier, but say they believe he is dead.
“Bullets rattled every corner,” Ali Bulhan said. “Helicopters were firing at nearby homes.”
The fighting took an even steeper toll on the Islamists, according to French officials and locals. Ali Bulhan said he thought the fighters had already taken away the bodies of their comrades. French officials said they counted 17 dead among the Islamists.
After the sounds of battle faded and the helicopters were gone, frightened al-Shabab fighters locked down the town, added checkpoints, arrested junior commanders for fear someone had tipped off the French foces, and seized cell phones of residents, Ali Bulhan said.
“I was told that the dead French soldier was hiding and was shot after he turned on a flashlight,” he said. He did not know when, but later saw the body of a European being dragged into a car.
Businesses shut down for the day Sunday.
“It was a burial day for the fighters,” Ali Bulhan said, “and a deadly day for the French as well.”
There are great differences between writing a good argument and poor slanderous one – When you write an insulting comment or article you don’t only slur the person/persons you are writing about, but you also insult the intelligence of your readers and waste their time. You affront yourself, because you expose your ignorance and viciousness to the wider world.
By taking inconsiderately on someone you might still get few like-minded admirers on the way, but the majority of the public will find you empty minded and will covertly treat you as nobody. That is really an ignominy; one can spend his time writing about valuable things rather than wasting his/her readers’ precious times and must not sacrifice his time and dignity for nothing in return.
Writing a good comment or article in a very simple language and building your argument painstakingly brick by brick is pleasing to readers, convinces them to your ideas and makes them admire your talent. Furthermore, your opinions will be respected and your artful writings will survive for many generations to come. In writing a useful comment or article you do not only contribute to the good of the society, but you also add to your good deeds and help yourself not going to hell-fire for a needless and ineffectual deed. Writing under anonymous name will not be baffling to your creator and prevent him rewarding you with what you deserve, be it good or bad.
Please do not get me wrong, I am not against the rightful criticism of private, public, local or international figures and I do not consider a well founded criticism as an offend. These can unquestionably be beneficial to the wider society. At the same time, one has to be careful not be carried away and most importantly not forget to respect the feelings of his subject as he would like his feelings to be prized – One must put himself/herself on the boots of his/her subject and those close to him/her.
One must honestly have a hard look at his/herself on the mirror asking himself/herself if in truth others deserve his/her criticism and if his/her criticism is measured, polite and righteous. And most of all, one needs to ask if his/her criticism will contribute to the best interest of the wider society, if not that becomes a “cretinism” and not a “criticism”.
In nutshell, our writing is a measure of our intelligence. Before we embark on sharing our opinions in public, we all need to checkout if the basic rule of making a good argument is respected. In primary school, we were told that we will make a good debating sense, if we respect our PEEL rule (p=making a point, E=explaining it, E= giving example and L=linking ideas). That might sound very distant in our minds and too simplistic, but if we look back at the opinions on our websites you will find them lacking this basic rule, it is a shame, is it not?
Education, culture and technology are aspects in all societies which weld a high degree of sacrosancy.
They are universally untouchables as far as politics and politicking are concerned.
Within the cultural aspect is, in modern times, the subject of sports embeds.
Of course it is abominable to mix, intermingle, or at worse, tie sporting to politicking; other than for a positive reason of harnessing harmony, unity, friendship, stability etcetera, given the right timing.
Now that Hon. Raygal whose portfolio is charged with sports has reiterated that the national sporting events would go on as scheduled hence kick off three days away (15th January 2013), we expect and hope that it would be conducted against a background of harmonious setting. In other words a good timing with conducive atmosphere that is devoid of any hung-ups of political tensions.
Whereas the minister has all the rights in expediting his duties given that sports MUST NOT and SHOULD NOT be tied to politics, the conflicting tentative observations have some cause of concern.
Our socio-politics background and scenario depicts quite a different tradition as far as sports and politics is concerned contrary to those of the rest of the world, both developed and developing ones. Ours is one with a history so much unbecoming, one that connot be envied and one that whose cases were handled with kid-gloves.
We are of course categorically against each and every act that is tailored to undermine the authority of the state and day to day administrative governance.
No individual, group of persons, institution(s) or, in this context, a section of the community should be let to demean, undermine or subvert national structures or our nationhood itself at any given time.
We support the government in every way that endeavours to achieve the smooth running of public services provision.
Anything that can dent our image, values, aspirations or progressive steps within the country or abroad should be avoided at all costs.
We call upon members of the public wherever they are not to take laws into their hands, not to be chaotic, not to mobilize ill-motivations, or better still, and not to be inclined to cause any upheavals in the name of bad sporting or anything else.
The leaders, both contemporary traditional, political or executive should collectively join hands and spread words of wisdom to counter any intended insurgencies or conspiracies.
On the other hand, the state should be able to weigh the stakes soberly and take appropriate decisions.
As the minister reserves all the rights to stamp down his powers in executing his duties, he also holds a political responsibility of national level and just as he can postpone the schedule if necessity demands.
Ministers are the only government officials who wave the wands of both executive and political powers. With collaboration of and consultancy with the Presidency, they ought to handle aptly the latter powers.
We advice that the timing be given serious consideration and the right decision for the goodness of the nation, we remind the need of responsibility and wisdom to take precedence and prevail upon any undertaking that may be deemed as fragile.
We stand for the maintenance of peace and stability hence deal with political issues as political, technical ones as technical etcetera.
Somaliland deserves to be nurtured to full maturity as aspired.
A high level delegation representing Somaliland led by the Minister of Finance Hon Abdiaziz Mohamed Samaale and consisting of five ministers included the First Lady today left for neighbouring Djibouti to attend a state funeral of the former governor of the Central Bank of Djibouti late Jama Mahmoud Hayd.
The Somaliland delegation will also deliver a message of Condolences to the President of Djibouti H.E Ismael Omer Gelluh from Somaliland President H.E Ahmed Mohamed Mahmoud (Silanyo).
The late Jama Mahmoud Hayd died in a Nairobi Hospital yesterday morning where he was admitted for unspecified illness.
Among those representing Somaliland were the First Lady Amina Haji Mohamed Jirde, Education Minister Hon Madam Zam Zam Abdi Aden, Minister of Presidency Hirsi Ali Haji Hassan, Information Minister Abiib Diriye Nur and many Somalilanders from all walks of life to attend a state funeral for the late Jama Mahmoud Hayd.
A Somali pirate kingpin nicknamed “Big Mouth” has renounced a life of hijacking ships.
Before his announcement on Friday, Mohamed “Afweyne” Abdi Hassan’s profession earned him fame and fort une – prior to an international naval crackdown that has curbed attacks on maritime commercial and pleasure craft.
A UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia in 2010 said that commanded bandits in the Arabian Sea and off the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa for almost a decade, raking in millions of dollars in ransom payments.
“I have given up piracy and succeeded in encouraging more youth to give up piracy,” Afweyne told the Reuters news agency.
“This came as a result of my efforts for a long period. The boys also took the decision like me. It was not due to fear from warships, it was just a decision,” he said by mobile phone from his base in Adado in central Somalia.
Security analysts saw Afweyne’s gesture as symbolic, saying he had already grown rich off the proceeds of piracy and seemed to have decided it was no longer worth the increasing risk.
Rory Lamrock, intelligence analyst with security firm AKE, said Afweyne’s move “may be a tacit recognition that the Somali piracy phenomenon no longer yields the lucrative criminal gains it did in previous years, thanks to successful naval operations and improved security and awareness on merchant vessels”.
“[Pirates] are getting shot up or arrested by private security companies and navies so he is finding it increasingly difficult to find recruits,” said Alan Cole, head of the anti-piracy programme at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
“As many as 1,500 young men have left home hoping to come back rich and not come home at all,” Cole said from Nairobi, capital of Somalia’s southern neighbour, Kenya.
Deterring pirates
In 2011, Somali piracy in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the northwestern Indian Ocean netted $160m, and cost the world economy some $7bn, according to the American One Earth Future foundation.
But successful hijackings have been declining steadily since 2010 thanks to concerted patrolling by an international coalition of warships and the increasing use of armed private security guards on merchant ships.
Just seven ships were seized in the vast area of the Indian Ocean off Somalia in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 24 in the whole of 2011, after NATO, the European Union and other nations dispatched warships there.
Adado regional President Mohamed Aden Tiicey said Afweyne had actually withdrawn from active piracy some years ago, and was behind the surrender of 120 pirates over the past week.
“In 2010 our administration pardoned him and the then-interim government of Somalia also pardoned him and gave him a diplomatic passport,” Tiicey said.
The UN Monitoring Group said last year pirate chieftains such as Afweyne were being protected by Somali authorities from arrest.
It said it had evidence a diplomatic passport had been issued to Afweyne by then-Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as a reward for what Somali officials said was Afweyne’s involvement in anti-piracy activities.
However, the UNODC said it remained sceptical about Afweyne’s announcement.
“He’s a criminal so is by implication dishonest, so we take this with a pinch of salt,” said Cole.
The UN report said pirate leaders are now increasingly involved in land-based kidnap for ransom of foreign tourists and
aid workers in northern Kenya and Somalia, as well as selling services as counter-piracy experts and consultants in ransom negotiations, and exploring “new types of criminal activity”.
A Somali pirate kingpin nicknamed “Big Mouth” has renounced a life of hijacking ships.
Before his announcement on Friday, Mohamed “Afweyne” Abdi Hassan’s profession earned him fame and fort une – prior to an international naval crackdown that has curbed attacks on maritime commercial and pleasure craft.
A UN Monitoring Group report on Somalia in 2010 said that commanded bandits in the Arabian Sea and off the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa for almost a decade, raking in millions of dollars in ransom payments.
“I have given up piracy and succeeded in encouraging more youth to give up piracy,” Afweyne told the Reuters news agency.
“This came as a result of my efforts for a long period. The boys also took the decision like me. It was not due to fear from warships, it was just a decision,” he said by mobile phone from his base in Adado in central Somalia.
Security analysts saw Afweyne’s gesture as symbolic, saying he had already grown rich off the proceeds of piracy and seemed to have decided it was no longer worth the increasing risk.
Rory Lamrock, intelligence analyst with security firm AKE, said Afweyne’s move “may be a tacit recognition that the Somali piracy phenomenon no longer yields the lucrative criminal gains it did in previous years, thanks to successful naval operations and improved security and awareness on merchant vessels”.
“[Pirates] are getting shot up or arrested by private security companies and navies so he is finding it increasingly difficult to find recruits,” said Alan Cole, head of the anti-piracy programme at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
“As many as 1,500 young men have left home hoping to come back rich and not come home at all,” Cole said from Nairobi, capital of Somalia’s southern neighbour, Kenya.
Deterring pirates
In 2011, Somali piracy in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the northwestern Indian Ocean netted $160m, and cost the world economy some $7bn, according to the American One Earth Future foundation.
But successful hijackings have been declining steadily since 2010 thanks to concerted patrolling by an international coalition of warships and the increasing use of armed private security guards on merchant ships.
Just seven ships were seized in the vast area of the Indian Ocean off Somalia in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 24 in the whole of 2011, after NATO, the European Union and other nations dispatched warships there.
Adado regional President Mohamed Aden Tiicey said Afweyne had actually withdrawn from active piracy some years ago, and was behind the surrender of 120 pirates over the past week.
“In 2010 our administration pardoned him and the then-interim government of Somalia also pardoned him and gave him a diplomatic passport,” Tiicey said.
The UN Monitoring Group said last year pirate chieftains such as Afweyne were being protected by Somali authorities from arrest.
It said it had evidence a diplomatic passport had been issued to Afweyne by then-Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as a reward for what Somali officials said was Afweyne’s involvement in anti-piracy activities.
However, the UNODC said it remained sceptical about Afweyne’s announcement.
“He’s a criminal so is by implication dishonest, so we take this with a pinch of salt,” said Cole.
The UN report said pirate leaders are now increasingly involved in land-based kidnap for ransom of foreign tourists and
aid workers in northern Kenya and Somalia, as well as selling services as counter-piracy experts and consultants in ransom negotiations, and exploring “new types of criminal activity”.
While global attention is focused on Somalia, the self-declared republic of Somaliland has been independent for 20 years without recognition by the international community.
This lack of recognition is an injustice to Somalilanders
Hanna, not her real name, born in 1992 in New Hargaysa the Somaliland capital celebrated her 20th birthday last 18 May, the Independence Day. Twenty years after independence, little has changed in her life. Because her country, Somaliland, neither has real independence nor unity with Somalia, nor effective administration to deliver basic necessities let alone guaranteeing better life for her. Fleeing from the abject poverty and President Silanyo’s government’s indifference towards the painful suffering of the people as well as the international blockade in the form of denial of recognition by the international community, Hanna perished in the Mediteranian Sea unnoticed trying to reach to Europe.
The exodus of youngsters aged 18-29 years, of both genders, in attempted escape from hellish conditions back home often turns their journey more or less into mass suicide. But due to inherent uncertainty, many of Hanna’s peers worry more about the future and the risky voyage to Europe is the pnly option that always comes to mind.
Somalilanders are law-abiding citizens who think the international laws are based on a concrete basis of conviction and justice. They prevented terror from ithe region and eliminated piracy from their seashore. According to an Aljazeera program , “pirates set up some sort of stock exchange for their companies that has drawn investment from Somali diaspora and other nations. They started 15 maritime companies and now are hosting 75, not in the capital of Mogadishu but Harardhere Stock Exchange making piracy a community activities. One piracy investor contributed a rocket propeller grenade from her ex-husband’s alimony and has made $75,000 in only 38 days. The growing demand and mounting risks pushed ransom from $2 million to $4 million to satisfy the rising number of shareholders. In the process, the piracy stock exchange has transformed the once small fishing village into a bustling town that earns a percentage of every ransom to be used on infrastructure including hospitals and public schools”. Somalis are doing everything they can to survive or to make money. Why not we? But we uphold the national and international laws and yet there is no appreciation.
Somaliland and Somalia joined together in 1960 as two independent countries. Somalilanders were unable to grasp how the world was led to believe Somaliland was seceding rather than restoring its sovereignty from Somalia, and thus becoming a liability on the region encouraging balkanization of African states. But this is not true. Somaliland is an indispensable factor for the stability of the whole region since 1991 by providing firm intelligence to war on terror.
President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech, ‘We pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty’ seems to be failing if not obsolete since the Obama administration is reluctant to extend assistance to hapless people of Somaliland.
The absence of recognition of Somaliland threatens the lives of ordinary nationals because its subsequent economic hardships have led to dramatic exodus of Somalilanders to EU over the past 10 years. Imagine living in a country without formal recognition and without Taiwan’s resources. However, still there’s cause for optimism. The Wikileaks revealed how Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Melez was lobbying for Interim Status and had suggested Djibouti should recognize Somaliland.
The world, however, felt compelled to talk about the international isolation upon Somaliland people and its urgency to break. No one can morally justify the unwarranted suffering of so many innocent Somalilanders whose lives have been shackled and devastated by the inadvertent embargo. More recently, Prime Minister David Cameroon of the UK spoke out and called Somalia and Somaliland to have ‘exit’ dialogue about their future relations. The little unrecognized country took center stage globally as The New York Times posted a startling, fascinating news article ‘The World’s Next State’.
The world has moral obligation to save the fleeing masses by changing its attitude towards democratic Somaliland.
* Dirye is Somaliland activist and senior editor at the Democracy Chronicles Africa’s News Edition, dirye@democracychronicles.com
