While government forces in Somalia get ready to regain control in the capital, Djibouti is steeling itself. According to Ann Encontre, UNHCR representative in Djibouti, southern Somalia and Mogadishu have been relying on local food supplies since WFP withdrew its food aid program in January this year. Local UN staff in Somalia have been distributing non-food items, such buckets, pots and pans, and UNICEF have been providing vaccinations. Other agencies on the ground have been catering to people’s needs where they have access outside of Mogadishu. But by April, Somali’s reserves from its 2009 bumper crop might run out. It is expected that hundreds or thousands more of its 1.5 million uprooted citizens will desperately try to cross the 36-mile long border with Djibouti, avoiding Kenya’s closed borders and Ethiopia’s numerous roadblocks, to find refuge and sustenance.

Djibouti is supportive of the Somali government. This tiny coastal nation, with its scant rainfall and rising unemployment, already imports most of the food for its 600,000 citizens. Considering Djibouti now shelters 13,000 registered refugees in Ali Addeh camp and 1,000 Somali and non-Somali asylum seekers in urban areas (many of whom have been here since civil war broke out two decades ago in Somalia), the gap between what the government can provide and what the people need will continue to grow larger. Currently, Djibouti government staff and UNHCR staff screen incoming refugees at the border at Loyada to verify they are legitimately coming from the troubled zones of Somalia (and not peaceful areas like Somaliland) before granting them prima facie status. Once they are registered, fingerprinted and photographed, legitimate refugees are taken by truck to Ali Addeh, the closest camp in the district of Ali Sabieh, which shelters 12,000 people.

All refugees here face two possible solutions: local integration or resettlement. Recently the U.S. government started a resettlement plan for people at risk, taking in approximately 400 of the most vulnerable women, household heads, and some of the longest-staying refugees in the camp. Meanwhile, brilliant university students, young men who left Ethiopia in 2005 along with others who fled Mogadishu and Eritrea, find life in the camp untenable: they have no future there. Education facilities and resources only are available up to grade 8 for 2,000 of the 3,000 camp children. Resources are needed to build a secondary school to accommodate the 1,000 adolescents who are receiving no secondary or higher education, especially the young male adolescents who, like the ex-Mogadishu university students, are all potential targets for recruitment by Al Quaeda and Al Shahab. UNHCR is discussing the possibility of establishing resettlement programs with Canada, Australia and Nordic countries to ensure opportunities exist for those who are willing and able to create a new life elsewhere.

For those who remain in the camp–and that is the vast majority–life focuses on the essentials: shelter, food, water, healthcare.

It is an ongoing struggle to meet the needs of new arrivals. There are never enough tents to provide shelter, and in the extreme heat and strong winds of the region, families are left to fend for themselves. Soon after arriving, many women, unable to make ends meet, are forced into domestic service to feed themselves and their children. “Girls are exposed to sexual violence at all times,” shares Ms. Encontre. “We see them being forced to work as domestics as young as eight years old, and very often they come back to the camp pregnant after having been raped by the men of the household.”

“We’ve been seeing an alarming number of refugees coming into the camp from south and central Somalia who are severely undernourished, anemic and sickly,” adds Ms. Encontre. Last year, the UN started a nutrition project with donations from a French company that provide robust proteins, vitamin A, and iron in the form of enriched peanut butter. UNHCR supplements this with liver, sardines, and vegetables. Currently, one medical doctor from the Asian Medical Doctors Association bears responsibility for the health of all 12,000 people in the camp. This one doctor cannot possibly meet the growing needs of the camp’s population.

Cooking has its challenges in terms of energy resources. The French Army brings in 20,000 litres of kerosene to the camp each month and every family receives an allotment. However, without the benefit of energy-saving stoves, the women must resort to scouring the desert for sticks, trees, and charcoal. Not only do they destroy the environment in doing so, but they also put themselves at risk. Young girls and women now have to travel 5 to 10 kms to find firewood and water. A number have been assaulted and raped by men from the camp and the surrounding areas and districts. Lighting some key areas around the camp with solar panels may provide some limited protection, but cannot address the underlying issues: lack of sufficient fuel and lack of respect for women.

Water is even more essential than food and energy in this very arid desert. Providing 20 litres of safe drinking water per day to each refugee in the camp poses enormous problems. The area has received its first rains in 6 years, but the sheer number of refugees has pushed the area’s natural supply to its limit. Each week, money goes to pay for a rented truck that brings in water from the closest well, which adolescents from the camp help distribute. The relatively inexperienced refugees are responsible for chlorinating their own water with pellets, a critical task with latrines still located downstream and upstream from the camp.

In January, the team of Djibouti’s French-speaking water experts who were to be working on setting up a proper water filtration and preservation system for the camp were sent to Haiti to help with relief efforts there. Meanwhile, the camp, on standby for another team to be identified, hopes to find assistance to buy their own water truck. Discussions are being held between UNHCR, UNICEF, and the Government focusing on the possibility of digging another bore hole in the camp or of opening a second camp in an area where the water supply is more plentiful. Wells in any location require permits and the help of outside experts for at least a year to supervise the necessary work.

The cries for help are many.

Efforts to empower the Somalis caught in this situation focus on providing them with essential skills and opportunities to contribute to their refugee community. Adults and young children alike clamor for lessons in English. Every afternoon, parents sit in on their children’s lessons in the camp school for an hour or two to learn what they can. The camp’s university students and adolescents all speak English as their common language, and crave to learn more. Local Catholic and Protestant churches have housed volunteers teaching here in their accommodations, which are a 45-minute drive away. UNHCR’s guest house is available near the camp as well; however, volunteers tend to stay for only three to six months before moving on. The need for volunteers to teach English has not yet met the demand. At the same time, opportunities for French language courses are also very welcome by refugees to help them integrate locally into this Francophone country.

Last October, the UN began running several pilot projects to keep refugees busy, provide additional food and give them some income. Those involved in income-generating projects (involving activities like sewing, baking bread, providing tea and cool drinks in cafes and selling goats, meat, and vegetables) receive a certain amount of money to run their own small ‘business’. They must account for their expenses and report their profits every week. Refugees use their earnings to buy clothes and shoes. The initiative, funded by several thousand dollars saved through restructuring done at UNHCR’s headquarters in Geneva, is a beginning.

If you or your organization are interested in contributing time or resources to the process of empowering the Somali refugees living in Djibouti, please visit www.givethemshelter.org and join UNHCR’s campaign to send them 2,600 much needed tents. To find out more about the living conditions and the situation of Somali refugees, join a live Twitter feed organized directly from Djibouti with Kathryn Mahoney, UNHCR public information officer, on March 23.

Jim Selman for the Hunfington Post

Jim Selman A recognized leader and authority in the field of organizational transformation and culture change.

copyright 2010 Shae Hadden with Jim Selman.

Markaa waxay noqotay in Daallo loo helo dawlad la aqoonsan yahay oo magaca lagu qoro, waxay dani noqotay in Ina Cumar Geellaha Djabouti lagu qoro magaca shirkada DAALLO oo  15%, oo bilaash ah oo aanu shillin bixin la siiyo oo uu saami ahaan u qaato, (waxay kuugu darantay marka cadawgaagu dad kuugu xigo), waayo dawlad ka dhaw baa la waayay, inkastoo ay dhaantay in Ethopia lagu qoro, runtiina iyadaa dhaami lahayd.

Hadaba in yar ka dib, ayaa dhaqaalle gariirkii ku dhacay imaaraadka ayaa keentay inay ka baxaan nimankii imaaraadku shurugii ay la lahaayeen shirkadii DAALLO, waxaanay ku celiyeen dawladii ay ku qornayd shirkadu, oo ahayd dawlada Djabouti, iyagoo saamaxay boqolkiiba todobaatankii 70% ay lahaayeen nimankii imaaraadku, siyayna dawlada Djabouti, deeq ahaan, waxaanay yidhaahdeen waxaa tihiin dawlad yar oo iska xejin maysaan dhaqaale gariirkan nagu dhacay hadii aanu nahay imaaraadkee wixiinii la baxa qaatana 70% aanu lahayn anagu, sedex millyan oo dollar oo shidaal loogu hayayna waxaa loo dhiibay niman ka tirsan dawlda Djabouti, si ay ugu wareejiyaan maamulka shirkada DAALLO.

Nasiib daro, sida lagu yaqaano nimanka maamulka Ina Cumar Geelaha Jabouti, markiiba waxaa jeebka lagu shubtay sedexdii malyan ee dollar, ee shidaalka, taasoo keentay in markiiba ay Daallo joojiso Duulimaadkii ay ku tagi jirtay dalal badan oo debedaha ah, sida Sucuudiga.

Sida aynu wada ognahay dawlada jabouti waxaa ka dhismay dhawr shirkadood oo magaca Djabouti ku duuli jaray, sida DJABOUTI AIRLINES, waa la cunay, waxaa ka danbaysay AIR DJABOUTI, waa la cunay, waxaa ku xigtay BOONTAAVIA, iyana way socotay, hadaba halkii bay DAALLO na ku danabays,waana u dhamaatay,ilaahay oo farash kale u fura mooyee,ilayn waatan la cunay markiiba lacagtii shidaalkee.

Markii loo sheegay Ina Cumar Geelle in ay lacagtii shidaalka DAALLO  cuneen naman aad ugu dhawe, waxaa uu ku jawaabay, waar colaad u sheega ha dabaro shidaalkee, oo bahasha ha kiciyee, awalba isagaa sameeyee.

Guntii iyo gabo gabadii, iminka DAALLO AIRLINES waxaa iska leh, Ina cumar Geellaha Djabouti, si loo soo dhiciyaba way inaga wareegtay hadii aynu nahay reer Somaliland, iyo somaliba, waayo 15% kii hore ee bilaashka loo siiyay si magaca dawlada jabouti loogu qoro, iyo 70% ay imaaraadku ka noqdeen ee deeqda loo siiyay ina Cumar Geelle, waxay noqotay inuu yeeshu ina Cumar Geelle 85%, taasi waa inuu wada leeyahay, Daallo waxay u taagan tahay ninkii shirka yimi ee yidhi (WAAR HORTA YAA INA LEH, ee loogu jawaabay DEE ILAAHAY BAA INA LEH, ee dadkii ku yidhi WAAR ANIGA INA CUMAR GEELLAA IGA QAADAY, OO ISAGAA I LEH).

Hadaba waa nasiib daro inagu dhacaday hadii aynu nahay magaca Soomaaliyeed, waayo waxaa jira iminka in ay niman ka yimi xamar iyo debedeha ay  ku shirayaan Djabouti, iyagoo ku candacoonay aduunaydii kale waa nalagu dhacay oo walaalahayaga Djabouti ayaan maal gashanaynaa, waana mu’aamarad ay wadaan ina Cumar Geelle iyo niman reer xamar ah, oo ku shuraakoobay dhaca ummada somaaliyeed, waana gogol xaadhkii in caloosha wayn ee ina cumar geelle lagu shubo, xoolihii reer xamar inta badan, waa tuu ku diiday Cabdilaahi yusuf, waa ta laysku seegay ee ugu waynayd.

Hadaba yeelkee bal ha dhaco reer xamarkee, inaga maxaa inoo talo ah, waxaa ku daba jira, shirkadii DAHABSHIIL, oo iyaduna bank ka furatay Djabouti, caasimada ku caan baxday dhacay xoolaha ummada Soomaliland iyo somalida kaleba, bal aan eegno waxaa  uu ku danbeeyo DAHABSHIIL , waayo waxaynu maqlaynaa durba hadalo hoos hoos ah oo ka soo yeedhay madaxda sarsare ee shirkada DAHABSHIIL, ku waasoo ka cabanaaya niman madax ah oo aad ugu dhaw dhaw ina Cumar Geellaha Djabouti, xoolo baad ah doonaaya waagii baryaba, iyo iyadoo lagu adkeeyey waraaqihii sharciga ee loo baahnaa, taasoo la ogyahay inaanu dib u laabmi Karin, waayo xoolo badan baa ka yaalla Djabouti, siday xoolahaasi u soo noqona ilaahay baa garan, waayo waa xoolo god qarandi galay.

Waxa uu ii sheegay nin madaxda DAHABSHIIL ka mid ahi, waali baanu bank uga furanay Djabouti, waayo baan idhi, wuxuu yidhi, dee taajiriintii hore ayaynu ogayn halka ay mariyeen ina cumar iyo ragiisu, waayo markuu joogay ilaahay haw naxariistee Xaaji Xasan Guuleed, waxba lama dhici jirin, markii uu soo guul galay ina Cumar Geelle, ayaa waxaa bilaabmay dhaca dilka hoose ee lagu hayo dadkii wax ku lahaa jabouti, siiba ka soo jeeday Somaliland, iyo somalida kaleba, markuu dhameeyey ayuu u soo jeestay kuwii Ciise ee isaga gacan qabtay, sida Cabdiraxmaan Buure, mee xaguu ku danbeeyey, waa laaji, xoolihiisiina Ina Cumar Geellaa barkan, dadkii la dhashay ina Buure waagii baryaba waxaa lagu hayaa cagajoglayn iyo xadhig, oo la leeyahay soo xareeye Cabdiraxmaan Buure hadii kale……………………., guryaha ayay ka ooyayaan dadkii la dhashay Cabdiraxmaan Buure, waad yaabaysaan NAAGAHA ILMADA DUUGAYA EE AY DIILAL YADU HAYSO, ee la dhashay Ina Buure,

Si kastaba ha ahaatee, DAALLO inaga fara baxday,ee aan ka samirno, DAHABSHIIL na waxaynu leenahay, waar DAALO KA SAMIRNEE DAHABSHIIL, ha la daba qabto.

Xaaji Xasan Dilla -  Dubai

Email: Xaajigii_Dilla@yahoo.com

The Somalis have made an awful mess of their country. There has been no government with national authority since 1991, moving its population of 9 million toward two decades of chaos. (I, for one, refuse to take seriously the appeal that an absence of government might have for America’s own tea party movement.)

No government in a place like Somalia means no health care, no education, no infrastructure maintenance and the absence of law and order that comes when everyone is armed to the teeth and perhaps high on drugs.

Somalia has suffered an amazing amount of foreign intervention from 1991 to the present. The United Nations and then the United States intervened in the early 1990s to prevent Somali militias from interfering with humanitarian efforts to meet famine and other disasters in Somalia in the wake of the collapse of government and subsequent clan fighting.

The problem came when the United Nations and the Clinton administration turned from the humanitarian mission to nation re-building. It would have been difficult to keep the humanitarian program going without foreign troops unless a viable government were in place to assure law and order. But it was a question of how to get from a state of almost total disorder to the re-creation of viable government.

When the world tried to take on that chore, the Somalis began to concentrate their efforts on making the foreigners’ presence unbearable. Worse, the foreigners had their own view of which Somalis should be running the show.

The Somali leader who had led the forces that had overthrown the previous dictator was Gen. Mohamed Farrah Aideed, who was not only unacceptable to many Somalis but also had a personality and sense of entitlement to the job of president that made him unacceptable to most of the foreigners, including the Americans.

By the time I got there in 1994, the “Blackhawk Down” killing of 18 American troops and the subsequent withdrawal of almost all of the rest had taken place and the United Nations was reduced to paying the Somalis just to meet with each other, a sad state of affairs. Soon, the U.S. government decided, against my recommendation, that it was too dangerous to maintain an embassy and special envoy there and we were withdrawn. U.N. forces were taken out months later.

Since then, there have been two streams of effort on the part of the world to try to reestablish government in Somalia. One cobbled together a government after months of talk in Kenya. This produced the one that now holds a few blocks of Mogadishu with the help of African Union forces. The other has been up-and-down efforts of an Islamic group called the Shabab to establish rule in Somalia.

The American government has decided that the Shabab is too infected with Islamic extremism, including perhaps influence by al-Qaida, to be permitted to take power, even though it probably would if the African Union withdrew. In the name of keeping the Shabab out, the United States provided air and intelligence support for an invasion of Somalia by Ethiopia in 2006. The Ethiopians eventually found trying to keep the provisional government in power such a miserable business that they withdrew last year.

Now, apparently, U.S. forces are providing arms, advisers and other military support to the African Union and newly trained forces of the provisional government to try to enable them to enlarge the small area of Mogadishu they currently control.

There is reason to believe this effort will fail, partly because the Shabab are determined and their forces large, partly because the African Union forces are not highly motivated to die in Somalia and partly because the provisional government forces are likely to fragment into clans, be ineffectual and eventually loot the American arms, perhaps diverting them to the Shabab and other militias.

So why, apart from the only lightly documented charge of Islamic extremism among the Shabab, is the United States reengaging in Somalia at this time?

Part of the reason is because the United States has its only base in Africa up the coast from Mogadishu, in Djibouti, the former French Somaliland. The U.S. Africa Command was established there in 2008, and, absent the willingness of other African countries to host it, the base in Djibouti became the headquarters for U.S. troops and fighter bombers in Africa.

Flush with money, in spite of the expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense obviously feels itself in a position to undertake military action in Africa, in Somalia. Whether it makes sense to do so, or whether the Somalis would be more likely to set up and consolidate a working government in Mogadishu in the absence of foreign intervention, is another question altogether.

When I left the issue in 1995 I was persuaded that the best thing for Somalia — and therefore for America and the rest of the world — was to leave the Somalis to sort out their problems. Given what has happened since, and what is likely to happen now with the new U.S. military effort, I still think so. Why not let the Shabab take the place and then do business with them?

By Dan Simpson

Pittsburgh Post Gazzette

Dan Simpson, a former U.S. ambassador, is a Post-Gazette associate editor

Copyright ©1997 - 2010 PG Publishing Co.

Geldof’s spirited denials (he called the BBC a “rotten old cherry” and said there was not a “shred” of evidence to support the claim) drew support from NGOs that worked in Ethiopia at the time, along with those who remember the miseries of the famine which killed hundreds of thousands of people, as well as the gumption Geldof showed by pulling together rock stars from the U.S and Britain to help feed the victims.

In the days since, however, Geldof has raised eyebrows for his apparent refusal to acknowledge the possibility that money may have been skimmed off the top, which many aid agencies and humanitarian workers say routinely happens in developing nations. In fact, doubts in the last few years about whether relief supplies reach their intended sources in conflict zones have given rise to a whole new way of thinking about humanitarian aid — and caused some to question whether giving aid in times of war does any good at all.

“Whereas outsiders might have been well-intentioned in wanting to solve the problems of famine in Ethiopia, the regime and rebels were very much aware of how they could make use of that aid to advance their own interests,” James Shikwati, director of the Inter Region Economic Network, a Nairobi-based think tank, and a longtime critic of foreign aid, tells TIME. “Instead of trying to defend themselves, I think Bob Geldof and his friends should be looking at this as part of the problem of the aid industry.” Shikwati is a leading advocate in an emerging movement that wants to see foreign development assistance — and some emergency help — stopped entirely in Africa. He says foreign aid fosters corruption and a sense of dependence on Western donors. In some countries, leaders have also been accused of steering development projects to areas where people have voted for them while opposition areas get nothing, Shikwati says.

The real story behind Ethiopia’s famine exemplifies many of the problems with aid. In the West, the famine of the 1980s was seen as a great natural disaster. Band Aid was so successful — it raised tens of millions of dollars — because it played on Westerners’ sense of obligation to “save Africa” and their sense of guilt for somehow “allowing” the famine to happen. But the reality was far more complex. While Ethiopia was indeed in the grip of a drought, Mengistu Haile Mariam’s government, which was fighting an insurgency at the time, restricted NGOs from helping famine victims in certain areas and forcibly moved hundreds of thousands of people from one place to another in a repeat of Soviet-era collectivization campaigns, exacerbating their plight. The rebels, who came to power years later, are partly responsible for people’s suffering, too. A CIA report cited by the BBC found that money raised by the insurgents, ostensibly to help the starving, was “almost certainly” diverted for military purposes.

It seems ironic that in one of his ripostes, Geldof argued that current Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi — who was a rebel leader during the time of the famine — denied that any aid had been diverted in the 1980s. But Meles has been accused of doing the very same thing in recent years in Ethiopia’s Ogaden region, which is also home to a rebel insurgency. Aid workers operating in the region in 2007 told TIME the government allowed them to distribute food in some places and not others. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of upsetting the government. In a report soon after that, Human Rights Watch accused the Meles government of rounding up and killing livestock in the region and blocking aid. The government has repeatedly denied such accusations.

It’s not just happening in Ethiopia either. A new U.N. report on Somalia, first revealed in a report by the The New York Times on March 9, found that Somali contractors skim off as much as half the food aid delivered by the World Food Program and give it to Islamic militants battling the government. That revelation followed on the heels of a sharp debate on aid in Somalia between the U.N. and the U.S., which has announced it will restrict some supplies to the country out of fear it’s helping the rebels. “Operating in conflict zones is always a complex challenge for humanitarian organizations,” WFP’s Nairobi spokesman, Marcus Prior, tells TIME. “Even in the worst circumstances, we seek to follow all rules and regulations surrounding our operations and to remain true to our humanitarian mandate of impartiality and neutrality.” But the WFP has had a hard time doing that given the fact that it is part of the U.N., a body made up of member states.

Other groups have laid down specific rules that keep them from working too closely with certain governments or rebel groups. Among the most prominent is Doctors Without Borders. The French arm of that group was, in fact, expelled from Ethiopia during the famine in the 1980s when it criticized the government for forcibly moving some of the population and manipulating aid. The group now makes a point of delivering as much direct aid to those in need as possible, rather than working through governments or what it calls “armed actors.” This week, it went after NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen after he made a seemingly innocuous remark about wanting to “improve the frequency and quality of the dialogue between NATO and the NGOs” in Afghanistan. He went on to say that “hard power” must be combined with “soft power,” an idea that infuriates Doctors Without Borders, which said in response that it “never works alongside, or partners with, any military strategy.”

“We have left places where the level of interference was too much,” Monica Camacho, the group’s coordinator in Somalia, tells TIME. “We are very clear that the moment you are interfered with, you no longer have legitimacy. News of whatever happens to us in one conflict will spread, and we are very aware that it has an impact everywhere.”

Source: Time Magazine

“For your information a cat never gets satisfied with what she gets for the day; tomorrow is another worrisome day. A cat is not like the Somali who gets instant gratification when you give him a bundle of Qat. Having said that, I close my eyes to receive your gifts and that is the cat’s way of saying thank you. In spite of the fact that Somalis are giving people, I heard no ‘thank you’ from a Somali. I thought the word thank you is an alien concept to you. I am also worried about the repercussion of what I said the other day. After all if it is not you, it will be another Somali who has to show his generosity tomorrow. I also know that you are a very revengeful people very unlike cats. I may have inadvertently angered a lot of Somalis for what I have said. Cats know if you anger a Somali he will never forgive you. He will take revenge from you or from an unaware relative. To a cat that is the mother of all crimes and only a Somali can do that,” said the cat a little bit subdued.

“I must admit that is a bad case and we are not proud of that. I am not a cat to deny that. Logically everybody should be responsible for his actions only. But think of a mother that feeds on its own babies. Of all God’s creation you are the cruelest being,” I said with a smile.

“Although I don’t admit to be a denying cat as you wrongly accuse me, I have to admit I close my eyes when I eat and in fact I don’t know what I’m eating. If it is not something delicious, I wouldn’t eat it and for heaven’s sake my kids can’t be that delicious. Very unlike you my tongue and my nose tell me what to eat not my eyes.

I do not mean such heinous crimes were ever committed by me or by other cats though. But let us call a spade a spade. You must have heard the popular Somali song called “soo dhalo” of a baby in his mother’s womb who refuses to come out of his mother’s womb in spite of being overdue, because the only safe place is his mother’s womb. The baby says ‘I don’t want to come out only to be killed’. What type of environment is that? I hope from the bottom of my heart that nothing of that sort happens to a cat. That song makes all cats cry and as you may not know, cats are caring as well as emotional”, the cat replied.

“May I suggest if I may, to let bygones be bygones and let us talk about another more interesting subject than allegations and accusations? Let us talk about politics. Do you read Somaliland politics?” I asked.

“That would be good for a change, though I don’t know much about politics. All I know is what I hear here and there; nothing special. But we can still talk about that. What do you have in mind”? The cat said.

“Does the cat understand what we mean by political parties, democracy, elections, Parliaments etc all the good stuff here in Somaliland. If you are aware of that, I am sure you would love to be a Somalilander?”

“I hear political discussions… sometimes I witness fist fights too. I know when political parties run for election in a democratic set up, a parliament is born. The Parliament is therefore like a baby and a baby must crawl first before he/she can stand up and finally run. Other countries had parliaments for ages, and have developed parliamentary traditions and ethics, but the Somaliland parliament is only four years old. I say this because you expect too much from your parliament,” said the cat.

“You don’t mean that the Somaliland parliament is still a baby”? I asked.

“Well; there is a simple cat litmus test to see whether they are babies or not. If the members of the Parliament fist fight or use armies while in session, definitely they are still babies because that is what babies do. It is a common knowledge for cats in Hargeisa that such fights have a regular occurrence in Parliament. Cats could only fight over food not over ideas or views. A cat should not put words into your mouth, but where does that put them”, said the cat staring at me.

“Does the cat know the difference between the ruling and the opposition parties,” I asked.

“That is an easy question. When democracy is exercised, and fair elections take place, the majority party becomes the ruling party and the losing party becomes the opposition party. The majority party forms the government and the minority party forms the opposition. The government tries to push developmental programs forward as promised during the election campaign and the opposition pushes it back. If the government is stronger, the country moves forward. But if the opposition is stronger the country moves backward. If neither is stronger, there is a stalemate… no winner no loser only the people lose.

Djibouti with little resources is shooting for the stars, because the ruling party is much stronger than the opposition party. In a democratic environment, the ruling party and the opposition party are given opposing mandates similar to a tug of war. That is why the Somaliland Parliament sometimes gets physical. It is not only here, the same thing is true in America where the Republican opposition party in Congress is pulling heaven and earth to fail Obama’s program. If Obama succeeds America moves forward, but if the opposition succeeds America goes backward”,the cat explained.

“What is freedom of speech in a democracy?”

“It is a very tricky and slippery process and people understand it and exercise it differently. But I will simplify it for you as I understood it from what I hear… of course I don’t read; I am only a cat.  It is a process whereby everybody is free to talk, to write, or vote freely without reservations and without restrictions. The louder voices they make the more democratic they are. Freedom of speech or expression is the ultimate test of democracy”.

“In that case, does the right of one person cross the right of another person?”

“This freedom of expression is not for those who do not exercise it. If you do not exercise your right, it is your choice, but you will not stop somebody from exercising his/her right. Suppose you don’t like somebody in a democratic setup for some reason or the other, you have the right to chastise him in public or as some may put it character assassinate him in broad day light. You could do that by saying for example, “according to reliable sources, Mr. “X” had engaged in an illegal and an immoral affair with a teen ager or Mr. “Y” has stolen billions of dollars from the government purse”. The reliable source, the affair and the stealing do not exist, but the right to express that in public exists in a democracy. It is a fundamental right that can’t be denied at least to the media people…the custodians of the free press in a democracy. The accused also has the same right. It is a level playing ground for all.

The alternative is dictatorship where there is only one voice and one right…the one right and the one voice of the dictator. No system is a panacea, however democracy is chaotic without responsibility and dictatorship is bloody without obedience. So you have rightly chosen freedom which breads chaos over obedience which breads order. But hopefully with time, democracy will bread not only freedom but order too. That may be a long shot, but do you have any other choice. Remember no other country on earth enjoys more freedom of expression than Somaliland. By the way is democracy an end by itself or is it a means to an end? If it is an end by itself, you have it all. But a cat’s first choice is food not democracy. A cat likes the old Somali saying; ‘don’t give kisses to a baby put milk in his pot’. I think a cat has a lot in common with the yester Somalis not the current ones. Honestly a cat can’t see what freedom of speech can do for an empty stomach. As a cat, I wonder which comes first delicious fish food on your plate for all or a plate full of democracy for the vocal few!” The cat asked.

“Do you know what Guurti (the House of Elders) means here in Somaliland?”

“Yes it is the House for the senior citizens of Somaliland. They have the sole authority of extending their term of office and that of others. If you have them, you need no elections. The parliament is intentionally not going to run for elections in 2010, they are counting on the Guuti to extend their terms of office. But there is a problem. I heard the Guurti fight in House sessions and if they do, according to my litmus test they are babies too. But how can a senior citizen be a baby? And there is a hot debate, whether they should be elected or nominated after its term of office expires”. There is also another debate concerning its leadership. The Head of the Guurti is said to be an educator as well as a seasoned politician, but also an ex ‘Almadar’ (The rainy). They say once almadar always almadar and can’t rise to a traditional leader because that requires a different kind of experience and therefore not fit to hold a leadership position that was tailored for a traditional leader. There may be an inherent contradiction between modernism and traditionalism”, the cat said.

“Do you have a view here? Which one do you prefer; election or nomination?” I asked.

“If something works, you better stick with it. Change for the sake of change is not good enough for a cat. The Guurti was good for Somaliland and that means the method used to create them deserves a second chance. The country has averted a number of fatal political disasters because of them. I understand that they were nominated and I think nomination is better than election in this situation. You have an elected parliament and I can’t see the sense in electing another parliament. It will be too costly and it will be a duplicate parliament which is dominated by members who have double citizenship who may not have the best interest of this country at heart. There could be a conflict of interest between this country and their adopted country.

The Guurti has both its legs here in Somaliland. But the vast majority of the Parliament has one leg here and the other leg in some other country. In particular the Speaker of the House has the bigger foot in Finland and a smaller one here in Somaliland. Secondly the House of Elders was originally founded to be a House with a difference and was not meant to be a copy cat of the parliament. In addition to its legislative powers it was meant to be a reconciliation and arbitration body that would represent all sectors of the society that could not otherwise be represented through election. Minorities and women should be represented and only nomination can offer that chance. Distinguished personalities who served your country may not be electable also, but a nomination with clear cut criteria could do that. The House of Elders should be an inclusive club not a house for electables like the house of parliament,” said the cat.

“Can a woman be a member of the House of Elders”?

“No if she is a Somalilander. But as I understand, women of other countries can be whatever they want. I hear many people swearing that a woman is not fit to be a member of the Guurti. The House of Elders is said to be tailored to be an exclusive club for older men. Why? A cat can’t answer that. Even a cat knows your country wouldn’t be what it is without your women and if you put them in higher places the country will be that much better. And for your information, cats don’t have a gender problem,” said the cat.

“Do you know the three Party Chiefs?”

“Yes I know them, but because I am only a cat I can’t pronounce their names properly; however I will try to describe them so that you understand what I mean. The first one has a big Somali name, the second has a big Arabic name and an animal nickname and the third has a combination of Arabic and an animal name. The one with the big Somali name is the King now,  while the one with the animal nickname wants to be a King and the one with the combination of Arabic and the animal name wants to be a king maker”, the cat answered.

“Who do you think will win the coming Presidential election from a cat’s perspective?” I asked.

“No one is going to make my life better, but may the better one win, so that the life of the people here could be better and there will be a lot of fish for you and for me. However we are animals and we sympathize with those who carry the animal name. But I am surprised why take the name of a hyena or a snake if you have to and not the lion…my uncle the king of the animal kingdom,” concluded the cat.

“Is there a difference between the three Parties platforms”?

“Yes there is, and it is a big one. The three Parties embody the vision of its three leaders. UDUP platform embodies Rayale’s vision; Kulmiye’s embodies Silanyo’s vision and Ucid Warabay’s vision. These platforms or visions are as different as the three Party leaders are. The question is who can best lead the nation; goes directly to their visions and to their personalities. You need leaders to lead you not platforms or programs to lead you. To the best of my cat knowledge, no one has a hidden agenda; what you see is what you get. Look them in the eye and hear what they say and you have it all. In America the party has a known platform and they find somebody who fits that platform; whereas in Somaliland you find the leader and he comes up with the program that fits him. The difference between the two is clear here.

For example the Democratic Party of America’s platform among other things includes gay rights and the right to abortion; whereas the Republican Party platform opposes those rights. The Democrats are pro poor and the Republicans are pro rich. You can’t separate your political leaders on ideological grounds like the Americans do. Yours and the American system however are the two sides of the same coin. It boils down to which comes first; the program or the leader. It is the chicken and the egg thing. But a cat thinks a good leader will produce a good platform but a good party platform will not produce a good leader. Mr. Bush was elected on a good Party platform twice, but he turned out to be a bad leader and that is a clear testimony that your system is much more superior to that of America,” concluded the cat.

Dr. Omer Ibrahim H. Hussein

Email: Omarh1980@hotmail.com

Waa wax la yaableh runtii!! Anigu shaqsi ahaan waxaan aaminsanay inaynaan waligeen ku heshiinayn KURSIGA waxaana ii markhaatiya dee iyadoon cid aan Daahir Rayaale ahayn wali la dooran ayaabaynu isu cago juglaynaynaa. Somalidu waxay tidhaa: FIINTU ROOBKA SOO SOCDA AYAY KA OYDAA aniguna waxaan la labalagdoonayay bar yahan Rag waawayn oo ku hanjabaya Dagaalbaanu ku qabsanaynaa madaxtooyada taasoo macnaheedu yahay Dagaal sokeeye ayaanu diyaar u nahay oon waliba soo afgo’ayn oo ina gayaysiin kara inaynu noqono sidii HUUTUUGA IYO TUUTSIGA.

Qofna laguma  qasbi karo inuu galo dagaal sokeeye laakiin hadii nabada lagu heshiin waayo, oo la dhawri waayo Xasiloonida iyo Qaranimada aynu maanta ku naaloonayno mashaakil iyo Qax ayaa imanaya ninkii ay ugu badin jirtayna wuu Qoslayaa inkastoo aan hubo inuu farta dhexda ka qaniini doono, kii hortaagnaa in umadan walaalaha ahi isku dhacdo mar labaadna waxaaba dhici karta in Wadnuhuba istaago intaanu Qori qaadan!

Hadaba ilmaadeerayaal oo walaalayaal ninawna hays odhan Dagaal ayaad wax ku qaadaysaa oo hore ayaa balaayo looga warkeenay natiijadeedana waynu aragnay. Hadii ay jiraan Rag Siyaasiyiina,way jiraane, oo doonaya Dagaal sokeeye dee hays cadeeyaan ilayn qofkasta isagaa u xor ah mabda’iisa iyo Go’aankiisa laakiin labac-labacu ma fiicna mana wanaagsana in wax aan wax kuu goynayn ama talaabo aanad horu-mar ka gaadhayn in la qaadaa.

Waxaan kaga baxayaa waxa ii cadaatay oon shaki ku jirin in Madaxweyne Daahir Rayaale Kaahin iyo M/W/ku-xigeen Mudane Axmed Yuusuf Yaasiin ilaahay caafimaad ha siiyee ay yihiin masuuliyiin lagu heshiisyahay inay Xilka Madaxtooyada hayaan hadii ay ka tagaana waa aragtaan waxa soo if baxaya ee ka tashada dadweynoow.

Lama hadlayo maangaabka iyo kuwa yidhaa Adeerkay maxaa loola hadlaytoona iyo anagaa meel heblaayo dagna oo reer hebel ma dagaan iyagoo naftooda been u sheegaya. ugu dambayntii Caasimada cid gaar u leh ma aqoonsani ee reer sheekh isaxaaq oo dhami wuu dagaa.

Fiiro Gaara: Shaqsi uma jawaabo, Afxumana umada uma horseedo, taasaynu isku ognay Akhristayaal.

SANWAA CUMAR YARE

GUDOOMIYAHA GUDIDA

SIYAASADA XISBIGA UDUB -  QATAR.

E-Mail: muwadin01@hotmail.com

Hargeysa (Harowo) - Salaadiinta Beelaha Habar yoonis oo mudo socdaal ugu maqnaa gobolka Sanaag ayaa maanta ku soo noqday Caasimada halkaas oo si diiran loogu soo dhaweeyay, hadaba hoos ka dhegayso mahadnaq iyo xog waran socdaalkooda ay ka bixiyeen Salaadiintu.

Hoos Ka Daawo Khasaaraga Roobaku Geysteen