Factors That Hastened Somalia’s Perdition and Destruction

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"If ALLAH were to hasten to people the evil they defy Him to pronounce upon them, as they hasten in asking for good, their doom would have been determined already. But we leave those in rebellion, who do not look to the encounter with Us, in their insolence, wandering blindly on". Qur'an. (Yunus, 11)

Recall to mind how Somalia was at one time a haven of peace and the city of Mogadishu the cleanest in Africa; recollect the role Somalia played in international affairs in the past; and picture to yourself how Somalis of the eighties rejoiced as a nation. Remember the abundance of fruits and vegetables that was available in the markets and the millions of wildlife and livestock that roamed the countryside.

Reflect the beautiful beaches we had and the vast untouched forests scattered north and south of the country producing nutritious fruits, medicated roots and tubers and the glistening and encasing toxic-free environment solely created to benefit every Somali-sane and insane. That is why the Pharaohs referred Somalia to as the "Land of Aroma" or the “Land of Gods” not because of the abundance of Myrrh or Frankincense but because of the diverse creatures that emitted entertaining aroma acceptable to every living thing that inhabited it.

In Somalia, before the advent of modern war machines and before the eruption of the civil war in 1990, the scent of rain could be felt from a far because nature remained in complete obeisance to the environment regardless of regional geography or landscape. Unfortunately, with the erosion of law and order, cantankerous warlords and the Mafiosi discovered ways of dumping nuclear wastes along the coastlines and in to the interior of the country ultimately increasing child mortality rates, depriving the soil of its vital nutrients, and wrecking havoc to all kinds of life.

In the absence of putrid and nauseating smell of petrochemicals, hazardous wastes, and noxious emissions from cars and factories, in the olden days in Somalia, one could inhale nature's true scent as the fecundating winds majestically dispersed heavenly aroma known in Somali as saxansaxo-a nourishing element that resuscitates living organisms.

Now, from Islamic perspective, let's deeply explore together Somalia's past and figure out the exact causes of the twenty years of indiscriminate killings, displacements, failed reconciliation conferences, deliberately imposed imperialism and occupation, warlordism, plunder, and exodus of our people from their land.

It is common for humans to point fingers at others for their own quandaries and ridiculous disappointments. Was Somalia's failure as a state engineered by foreign powers and malodorously cantankerous Somali individuals whose aim was to impose hegemony and create discord for selfish gains? If that is what you believe, then, it is my strongest conviction that you are wrong beyond reasonable doubt.

When a nation disobeys Almighty Allah by employing decadence to speed up its immaterial selfish aims and objectives, then, the resultant expectations as admonished in the Glorious Qur'an and scriptures that preceded it, is divine destruction that does not differentiate the pious from the sinner.

Somalis have harmoniously copied the evil doings of the people of Ad, Thamud, Iram; Aikat etc. to an extent sermon from mosque pulpits fell on deaf ears as majority became engrossed in un-Islamic acts and Satanic exploits that incessantly seeped through all sectors of society.

How often have you reflected the negative practices of our nomads selling milk in the streets of our major towns and villages? One thing I've noted is that the steatopygous pastoral Somali girl or woman whose day started at dawn to venture out into the milk selling business strolled backbreaking kilometers loaded with heavy milk containers with one thing in mind: to lure and cheat town dwelling customers with contaminated milk diluted with water or powdered milk. The deceits they applied were so intricately rehearsed to the detriment of the unsuspecting customer and herself. With two milk containers by her sides, the unsuspecting customer was given pure milk from a container reserved for tasting only while the ultimate transaction implied a separate container with diluted milk. These garrulous milk sellers were known to swear until they exhausted their energies. Likewise, canteens known as bibitos and restaurants played a great role selling diluted milk.

The most destructive business ventures that brought Somalia to her heals could be found among shops and butcheries that manipulated the scale and the balance. Butchers sold meat with tremendous speed and drive simply because their lack of refrigerators meant disaster for their business undertakings as meat is known to perish within hours without preservation. They unprofessionally and deceitfully sold ligaments, tendons, glands, and bones instead of steak to their unsuspecting customers.

The speed at how shop owners dislodged the weight before it came to its right position and the removal of some vital parts from the balance meant customers were getting poor service. Another debilitating anecdote was how farmers sold their products. Sesame sellers splashed water on to sesame seeds so they could add more weight to their products and generate cash money during retail or wholesale transactions. Sesame seeds are visibly lighter and absorb water profusely. By soaking the sesame seeds in water, farmers felt assured that they would strike hefty profits. Grains sellers employed scoops with bulging bases for purchases, whereas, when selling, the scoops had upward-punched bottoms.

Remember, Allah destroyed the people of Madyan after they betrayed Prophet Shu’ayb. Despite being good at business, the people of Madyan were so selfish that they manipulated the weight or measure. In the olden days when Somalia had an effective central government, businesspeople preferred or entrusted their daughters to running their businesses, perhaps, because they were adept at attracting customers.

Prostitution is the second oldest tradition so goes the saying. The proliferation of prostitution conglomerates in the city of Mogadishu saw sprouting of brothels flourish in all suburbs with girls as young as fifteen becoming targets for officials and business magnates stashed with cash meant to lure them. Government officials emptied state coffers through malpractices; military officers hoarded provisions meant for their juniors, promotions were not based on merit but on favoritisms and tribal affiliations; foreigners played seek and hide games in attempts to fulfill their sexual desires; qaad sessions bloomed with middle-aged women known as xusul baruur acting as go-betweens or playing the pimping mistress roles; the consumption of marijuana and alcohol became unregulated and uninterrupted; for women to attract men they resorted to outfits known as iga-dhex-arag or see-me-through while others went about their businesses in western outfits including skirts, trousers, T-shirts and shorts; women wore make-ups, heads were uncovered; barbers welcomed all sexes into their evil haircut adventures; cinema-goers watched explicit movies while video dens played pornographic contents even for school children. Minority clans felt the excruciating pain of stratification and marginalization. A fraction of women dressed in gareys-a kind of gown exclusive to nomadic women-where one breast remained exposed for all to see.

Somalia of old experienced tremendous proliferation of boarding and lodgings that readily accepted unmarried partners consequently indulging in fetishism, fornication and adultery. Asxaabul-Zio, smooth-talking parasites constituting high school drop-outs, social rejects, contumaciously malevolent youth whose source of income was shaxaad-a meticulous method of begging without attracting resentment-kept night vigils along streets, around corridors, beneath verandahs, and in patios obstructing pedestrians while rehearsing the same old chorus: “abbaayo, muraayad aan kaa dhex arkay, no” to every passing by female they found appealing. Assumingly, these armies of youthful social rejects broke the virginity of many young girls and could also shoulder the blame of impregnating many others. On the other hand, they might have had a hand in the implosion of uncontrolled sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like gonorrhea and HIV/AIDS.

A famous distillery in Jowhar produced a kind of rum that was awarded “international Africa Award”. Perhaps, many apathetic alcoholics may have met their sudden deaths or suffered cirrhosis of the liver after consuming Somalia’s “Kill Me Quick” concoctions. Bear in mind the assortments of western brands of beer sold at Lido Beach, Baar Gember, al-Uruba, Juba, and Taleex hotels and the host of barefaced alcoholics who scrambled for a bitter taste of “elephant urine” known among locals as “kaadi maroodi”-the likes of Budweiser, Carlsberg, Breda, and Heineken. Budweiser was known in Somalia as “Badda Weysa” which literally translates to oceanic ablution. Rewind yourself to the slapdash deals in Ceelgaab that included distribution of marijuana and alcoholic beverages. Sinai, an accursed market in Mogadishu served as a melting pot and an epicenter for seekers of gerasheys-informal qaad-chewing sessions involving runaway wives, Mademoiselles, calamites, and pederasts engaged in adult plays often kicking-off their satanic practices after midnight and running up to the wee hours of the morning without feeling any sense of trepidation or reprehension.

Poets used poetry to relay imprecations, deliver messages of discontent to the ruling elites, and as a crying call to rally the mass. With Somalis being a nation of poets and “a fierce and turbulent race”, a few hate-filled and antagonistic elements acting as successors to the ancestors of old British explorer and orientalist Sir Richard Burton referred to as poetasters, poetitos, and poetaccios in his 1854 visit to Somalia, grasped the opportunity to disseminate tribal hatred, fallacious propaganda and deceptive nationalistic aspirations that transformed into an inferno engulfing their own abodes, the Somali nation, and the entire Horn of Africa region.
Consequently, the few remaining adherents and religious leaders entrusted to the propagation of Islam became thunderstruck after noticing the abrupt reduction of devotees, abandonment of mosques, and desertion of religious centers.

What followed next became history. Somalia's predominantly Muslim nation was headed for destruction. The formation of guerilla movements up north led to the overthrow of the corrupt government. Driven by revenge, greed, and power, these guerilla movements further plunged the already morally corrupt and bankrupt nation in to tribal divisions and cantons. The ensuing two-decade civil strife accelerated genocide whose victims include the elderly, women, and children. The strong stuck to their guns; academia left the country enmasse, and nations with a stake in Somalia’s fragmentation jostled for influence and occupation.

Anyhow, having unearthed some of Somalia's past wrongdoings and premeditated transgressions, I beseech the reader to dissuade pointing fingers at others and kindly reflect the propensity of immorality that was Somalia before its initial collapse.

The Rise of India and China

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The world is experiencing a wind of change. With the collapse of the mighty Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the United States evolved as the sole undisputed super power. The European Community (lately the European Union) embarked on the integration of former Soviet republics and former Eastern European countries into its fold by providing material and moral support. On the other hand, the United States was busy watching a new Russia that emerged out of disintegrated USSR. Because Russia possessed dangerous nuclear arsenals, the U.S. kept a watchful eye on every movement of Russia economically, socially, and politically.

With the United States remaining the only global hegemon, India and China jumped on the bandwagon not necessarily on military platforms but on economic empowerment. This brought an end to the era of the single global policeman. The world transformed from unilateralism to multilateralism. All general disputes became the prerogative of the international community with the United Nations serving as the master jury.

However, in East Asia-two nations, India and China made great strides in the fields of scientific and military technology, in economic prosperity through global partnerships and globalization, enhanced industrialization, and international political engagements. Through increased exports and educational advancement, these two Asian tigers tremendously increased their Gross Domestic Products (GDP) within a short period of time.

India is reputedly the largest democracy in the world while China, despite espousing authoritarian form of government, enjoys a business culture that is absolutely capitalistic in outlook. With the blessings of George W. Bush, the United States saw the flight of innumerable American companies moving out of the country and settling in India and China respectively. In the name of globalization, American companies settled in Indian soil with ease. American companies settling in India found cheap labor and well-educated middle-class workers like doctors, engineers, lawyers, researchers, and computer technicians who did the perfect job.

Likewise, the Chinese took over the job of filling American shelves with cheap consumer products without which could see American business enterprises stagnated. The Chinese secured contracts in oil and mineral explorations in Africa and as far as Australia; Chinese engineering companies secured concessions in many impoverished countries building schools, constructing massive ports; the Chinese government gave out millions of dollars to poor countries hoping to secure contractual rights in return.

Meanwhile, the EU expanded its borders by attracting poor Eastern European countries in the hope of expanding its sphere of influence. Through mutual cooperation, the EU has also increased its dealings with India and China. This continued reciprocal friendship will see India and China becoming future super powers to reckon with.

Presidents without Ties

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Russian leaders are known to enjoy capitalism and evade democracy. Similarly, some leaders like adorning business attire and yet shun wearing ties. So what is wrong with wearing tie with suit? Does the tie have a religious significance that has to be avoided? Is this not like saying “I like drinking soup but avoid eating meat”. "Hilibka macuni laakiin fuudka waan cabbaa". Does it make any sense wearing shoes without socks? Does wearing tie make one ugly, irreligious, or apostate?

The skirt is said to have originated from people of Gaelic or Celtic origin. But the truth of the matter is, the skirt remains the oldest human fashion. In ancient history skirts were made from animal skin or from tree leaves. The skirt is worn in many modern cultures like in Scotland where it is worn by men on special occassions like festivals. It is worn in Yemen, in Indonesia, and even in Somalia where men's "macawis" has the shape of a skirt.

We learn from the history of fashion that the skirt worn by women was first discovered by a very clever Englishman who was a tailor by profession. He created the skirt after seeing the streets of London full of women who lost their husbands in brutal wars. He wanted the few remaining men to be attracted to the multitudes of widowed women. This clever art increased the number of girlfriends and boyfriends. So, every woman had at least a boyfriend.

When a Muslim president representing an entire nation wears suit without tie in front of hundreds of delegates converged on an international arena, one is made to think that the president in question is improperly dressed. How about wearing shoes without socks in the same arena? It wouldn't make sense, isn't it?

We know the suit originated in Europe, most probably in England and that it is the most internationally accepted attire in any international setting. If one can wear a scarf around the neck, then, what is wrong with a neck tie?

For sure there is an unsubstantiated and suspicious religious ethic or edict behind shunning the tie. Some attribute the tie to have been created by an ancient Christian monk who wanted a universal fashion for the adherents of Christianity. If that is the case, then why wear the suit that came from a European land dominated by Christians? I'm sure doubting Tom has no credible answer for the above question.

Nomad Diaries Rekindles Old Memories

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In a country like Somalia where communal structural composition is dictated by patriarchalism, confounding sedentary lifestyles, ferocious intertribal violence, political obscurantism, wife-beating and wife-inheritance, polygamous and arranged marriages, and recurring rivalry, prospective female writers often find themselves in troubling situations that plight their struggle for scholarly recognition.

Undoubtedly, such inhuman and belligerent literary blockades riddled with explosively unwarranted hate towards our female partners by cynical males contribute to gender segregation. However, for many optimistic and fortunate female Somali writers in the Diaspora, female abhorrence and negative perceptions have become tales of the ancients as many have found literary succor in distant lands-lands whose governing styles repudiate male domineering, authoritarianism, and insensate jungle laws.

Shockingly, freedom of press has opened the gates for tarantula of controversial male and female writers who unabashedly and publicly denigrate African and Islamic values, renounce the Islamic faith, and proclaim atheism. Hateful utterances jotted down in the lines of a book will never change concerted societal political resolve nor deter steadfast adherents from following their religious beliefs nor dissuade committed aspirants from plotting their ambitions.

Unlike writers driven by Islamophobia, ethno-nationalism and ethnocentrism, color bar, and malevolent speechifying propaganda, Nomad diaries (NomadHouse, 2009), a new book that gracefully and radiantly towers above other publications in major bookstands and internet sites, is a contemporary novel detailing incredible social, political, and economical events in clangorous pre and post-Somalia. The author, Yasmeen Maxamuud- a Somali- is an erudite essayists and editor of the portal WardheerNews. Yasmeen spent four painstakingly concrete years with one thing in mind: the final delivery of a captivatingly fine-tuned and well-rehearsed fictional narrative full of drama, euphoria, and absolute tribulation that jolts the nerves of the reader. It is a book full of ordeals depicting characters primarily overwhelmed by a potpourri of conditions that include violence and drug abuse, despondency and illegitimacy, rejection and consanguinity, pessimism and optimism, circumlocution and loquaciousness, magnetism and vivacity in war-ravaged Somalia, in cross border jungles teeming with beasts, in the hostile and inhospitable refugee camps of Kenya, and in cosmopolitan America.

From the 1960s to the present day, African scholars belonging to the literary world-whether writers of fiction or nonfiction, journalists, poets, dramatists, essayists, children’s writers, or novelists-have been in the forefront producing a plethora of literary works related to various genres: particularly on topics related to culture, gender, dictatorship, colonialism, and neocolonialism. Some novels have been written prior to any African country gaining independence. Others came rolling out of print immediately after 1957 when Ghana and Libya proclaimed independence from England and Italy respectively. Chinua Achebe’s celebrated novel, Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958 while his other novel Arrow of God came out of print in 1964. Things Fall Apart has been adapted into a novel and so is The Concubine by Nigerian writer Elechi Amadi. Peter Abrahams, the South African born (but of Ethiopian father and a colored South African mother) whose novel Mine Boy rekindled the old sores of apartheid remains on the shelves of many libraries and bookstores worldwide despite coming out of print in 1946. His other works include the story collection Dark Testament (1942) and the novels The Path of Thunder (1948), A Wreath for Udomo (1956), A Night of Their Own (1965), the Jamaica-set This Island Now (1966, the only one of his novels not set in Africa) and The View from Coyaba (1985).
Our own Nuruddin Farah had his first novel, From a Crooked Rib, written in 1970 followed by a succession of wide-ranging scholarly publications, anthology of poems, trilogies, and novels. Africa has produced some of the best writers in the world with Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and Nuruddin Farah capturing internationally acclaimed awards.

Besides being a novelist, Soyinka is known as a recipient of the acclaimed Nobel Prize in literature. When a pro-democracy political rally by angry demonstrators denouncing Olusegun Obasanjo’s rigging of elections turned violent in Lagos in 2004, Nobelist and literary doyen Soyinka found himself teargased and then thrown behind bars by Nigeria’s police. Some of Africa’s novelists never trained in literature. A case in point is Elechi Amadi of Nigeria who majored in Physics and Mathematics and was at one time a member of the armed forces of his country. Guinean novelist Camara Laye trained as a motor mechanic.

Some novelists departed the world young while others continue to live at advanced ages viewing political events of their nations from the sidelines; some remain in academia as distinguished professors for the sake of serving humanity.

West Africa has produced many inspiring and talented writers with Nigeria dominating the scene. Depending on a nation’s inclination toward colonial rule, most works by West Africans have either been written in French or in English. A prominent novel written in French recounting the youthful voyage of novelist Camara Laye is L’Enfant noir (1953; Dark Child). With the advancement of contemporary printing techniques, modern novelists have conscientiously taken to writing in local languages in order to educate their underserved mass reeling under autocratic leaderships.

Growing up in Africa when the level of secondary education was in par with either the British or American systems of education-in an era when kindergartners sang “twinkle, twinkle little star” and when high school students voraciously devoured novels consisting of hundreds of pages within a matter of days-regardless of whether they were written by Charles Dickens-the English novelist of the Victorian-era or by an African, the most fortunate in Africa’s post colonial educational establishments have been those who benefited from a curriculum untouched by post-independence African dictators. Surprisingly, post-colonial African academics have been the first to off-set the current trend known as “brain drain” where the most educated left the continent in large numbers in search of greener pastures. The most enticing destination for African academics was in the western hemisphere. Since most African dictators did not entertain criticism of their new administrations, writers and novelists who felt dismay at how their governments operated produced poems, plays, and critical publications denouncing specific leaders. In retaliation, authorities embarked on confiscation of literature, banning of plays, closure of theaters, and conviction of suspects without representation of attorney. Those writers fortunate enough to escape the terrifying dragnets chose self-exile.

Ugandan novelist and former university lecturer Okot P’Bitek may be remembered for his hair-raising novels written in the truest African taste. Song of Lawino (1966), originally written in Acholi was later rendered into English. It is about a tediously long and uninterrupted speech by a wife lamenting her husband’s adoption of western ideals and manners. In response to his wife’s dramatic monologue, Okot P’Bitek wrote Song of Ocol (1970) in support of his wife’s predictions.

With the shortage of African-owned printing presses, nations that emerged out of colonialism relied heavily on curriculums and printing presses of their colonial masters for educational instructions. Assumingly, in English-speaking Africa, from kindergarten to college, school equipment schemes had their textbooks printed by either McMillan, Heinemann or by Oxford University Press. These publishers remained pioneers in the provision of books, multimedia, and classroom materials until the emergence of government-owned printing presses.

Several post-colonial African leaders like Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga of Kenya wrote books during their lifetimes. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, father to the current prime minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, may be remembered for his book Not Yet Uhuru (Heinemann, 1967), a 340-page autobiography of Oginga Odinga and published by Heinemann in 1968. Jomo Kenya, Kenya’s first post-colonial president, wrote the anthropological book Facing Mount Kenya (Vintage Books, 1962) with introduction by Bronislaw Malinowski-his mentor at the London School of Economics. A Long Walk to Freedom (Little, Brown & Co., 1995) by Nelson Mandela is an autobiography relating the life and times of one of the world’s longest serving political prisoner. Mandela spent seventeen years of his twenty-seven years behind bars in the notorious Robben Island Prison in South Africa. A recipient of the Nobel Prize, Mandela became South Africa’s first post-apartheid president and served just one-term (1994-1999).
Undoubtedly, Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal remains Africa’s most prolific writer and president. Some of his celebrated works written in French include:
• Prière aux masques (Circa 1935 - Published in collected works during the 1940s).
• Chants d'ombre (1945)
• Hosties noires (1948)
• Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache (1948)
• Éthiopiques (1956)
• Nocturnes (1961)
• Nation et voie africaine du socialisme (1961)
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin et la politique africaine (1962)
• Lettres de d'hivernage (1973)
• Élégies majeures (1979)
• La poésie de l'action : conversation avec Mohamed Aziza (1980)
• Ce que je crois (1988)

Surely, Nomad Diaries has rekindled old memories. Without it, recollecting the line-up of books published by Heinemann and written by literary behemoths like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, Buchi Emecheta, Okot p'Bitek and others, would have been impossible.

The Colorful Stripes of a Totalitarian Ruler

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Africa has seen the true colors of totalitarian rulers. Some were harsher than others. This system of rule may be described as the most brutal and inhuman form of all types of governance. Millions got killed, maimed, raped, and detained without judicial recourse since colonialism exited the African continent. Multitudes of Africans perished due to food deprivation; others were decimated by curable diseases; denial of basic necessities left unaccountable number reeling in abject poverty.

Colonialism gave birth to the legacies of neocolonialism and economic slavery, scientific socialism and communism. Africa’s totalitarian rulers finally embraced pseudo-democracy or hybrid democracy which came about as a result of Western pressure and the want of economic aid-aid that gradually trickled in with many strings attached.

Post colonial Africa was ruled with the barrel of the gun; African dictators preferred to rule while in military uniform-an irregular fear-instilling dress that belonged to the barracks. Almost every African head of state preferred to be called “His Excellency” or “Mheshimiwa” in Kiswahili. Others were conferred on with the title of “Sir” by Her Majesty, the colonial master queen at-large. Former African colonies still remain orphans of their colonial masters. Calling an African president “Mr. President” was, in some countries, until recently, punishable by death by hanging until pronounced death. Some leaders admired the terms “Father of the Nation” or “Baba wa Taifa”, “Mzee” or “Victory Bearer”. Wives of head of state-regardless of health condition and physical appearance-took the title of "Mama” or “Mother of the Nation”. The title “First Lady” is a recent creation.

In preparation for a ceremonial event or delivery of address to the nation by the president, the national security apparatus embarked on wide-ranging skirmishes of executions and arbitrary arrests of innocent civilians days before the occassion. Suspects were shot at point blank range; people gathered around ramshackle diases hours before commencement of ceremonies; others lined-up along pot-holed roads waving olive branches in the scorching sun of the equator without food and water; expectant mothers, children, and the elderly got flushed out of their grass-thatched houses by dreaded security forces in riot gear.

School children rehearsed school choir choruses in praise of the president while drenched in perspiration, dehydrated and on empty stomachs. After thunderous applause, those heads of states who happened to be illiterate issued diktats or communiqués signed with their thumb prints.

Human Rights Abuses under Scrutiny in Somalia

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Those bad elements perpetrating human rights abuses in the Horn of African nation of Somalia have now come under heavy scrutiny as every aspect of their past and present heinous actions are now being documented by the heavy arm of the United Nations Human Rights watchdog. After a lingering setback from its international commitments in Somalia’s quagmire, it’s quite obvious that this international agency has now a plan to restrain and bring to book anyone suspected of being behind the recurring rivalry in Somalia’s murky and unsettling politics.

EID MUBARAK

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Eid Mubarak wherever you may be. It is time to celebrate with family and friends and praise Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful.

HIV/AIDS Sufferers Told to Partake in Suicide Missions

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During a recent visit to a center for HIV/AIDS patients in the seaside town of Merca in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle region, Mohamed Abu Abdalla Idris, a prominent and high profile member of al-Shabab faction advised HIV/AIDS sufferers to partake in the struggle to rid Somalia of foreign enemies by becoming suicide bombers since their chance of survival is slim and their prospect of getting cured from the debilitating disease remaining almost impossible.

This sad news saw many of the victims vacate the premises of Sterling Center for HIV/AIDS- a sad action that prompted the administrators to keep the center under lock and key until further notice.

A New Era for Kenya-Somalis

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The recent national referendum held in Kenya and the subsequent promulgation of the constitution witnessed by representatives from the international community, foreign diplomats, and heads of some African states has placed the republic of Kenya at a remarkably elevated height in par with emerging democracies. Kenya of the yesteryears has been one dominated by favoritisms and clan politics-a dangerous precedent that continued for over forty-seven years. Since attainment of independence from England in 1963 when Mzee Jomo Kenyatta became the nation’s first president, minority societies lived under humiliating conditions and repressive emergency laws compounded by killings, rape and plunder, arbitrary arrests, denial of basic necessities, torching of villages, concentration camps akin those of Nazi Germany, unemployment, and recurring natural hazards like drought and famine, locust invasions, desertification and desertization.

After the subsequent death of Jomo Kenyatta in 1978, the reins of power fell on the hands of Dictator Daniel Arap Moi who imposed similar sweeping measures while ruling over a single party government dominated by his henchmen and party stalwarts. He introduced a form of leadership style analogous to that of his predecessor by pioneering a ruling establishment that came to be known as ‘Nyayo’-a slogan implying ‘footsteps’ where he boisterously and meticulously put to profound use without the least deviation whatsoever.

A failed coup engineered by junior ranking members of the Kenya Air Force (now 82 Air Force) in 1982 made Daniel Moi more ravenous, authoritarian, and perhaps more rabble-rousing in dealing with opposition. Moi was shown the door and sent packing in 1992 after the birth of multiparty democracy-a fight organized by courageous opposition figures and Smith Hempstone-the fiery U.S. Ambassador to Kenya at that time together with strenuous pressure from the democratic world. Thus, Moi’s successor, Kenya’s current head of state, Mwai Kibaki, became the nation’s first leader in democratic Kenya .

Even with the implementation of political pluralism, political tensions flared-up in 2008 after a dispute arose between the two major political parties in a fraudulent election that saw opposing sides slaughter each other in the glare of television cameras leaving approximately two-thousand civilians dead and over three-hundred thousand displaced mainly in the agriculturally productive Rift Valley region. This ugly scenario between the forces of Raila Odinga who is the current prime minister and Mwai Kibaki led to an international intervention that brought in acclaimed dignitaries like Bishop Desmond Tutu, Graca Machel (widow of former Mozambican president Samora Machel and current wife of Nelson Mandela, former president of the Republic of South Africa), Kofi Anan (former Secretary General of the U.N.), John Kufuor (former president of Ghana), and Benjamin Mkapa (former president of Tanzania) among others. This international intervention led to sharing of power between the Nilotic Luo and Bantu Kikuyu respectively.

Consequently, Kenya’s newly promulgated constitution will replace the old one inherited from Kenya’s colonial master-Britain. It is a constitution that will equally apply to all Kenyans regardless of religion, race, gender, political affiliation, color, and sex. Provincial administrators will be replaced by elected governors; the nation will have upper and lower houses to be elected through the ballot; parliamentarians will be replaced by senators, and the law will apply equally to all in due course. Muslims and minority tribes who suffered for decades under former regimes will now have a say in the governing of the nation. Undoubtedly, the long neglected eastern and northeastern provinces dominated by Somalis will rise from the ashes of destruction and see dramatic rise in their levels of education, health, sanitation, infrastructure, and marketability. What was once the prerogative of the majority and the wealthy will finally and for the foreseeable future change hands and elevate the ranks of the downtrodden.

Razor-Sharp-Mouthed EPRDF Party Troglodytes Globetrotting With Deception and Unconventional Wisdom

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From the time Atto Meles Zenawi was declared the overall winner of the pseudo-democratic presidential elections held in Ethiopia last May, a retinue of Tigreyan troglodytes from Ethiopia’s Somali region have been circumnavigating the globe extending an olive branch to the Ethiopian-Somali Diaspora with a message of peace and reconciliation from the headquarters of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)-a conglomeration consisting of the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization (OPDO), Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM), and the Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM).

Delegations led by razor-sharp-mouthed representatives relaying unconventional wisdom converged on major cities in the western hemisphere with a view to selling their distorted ideologies to unsuspecting and predominantly uninformed onlookers and sightseers who were not part of the initial decision-making processes or originally intended political pundits.

Shuttling between Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Diego, and Minneapolis, and several other European cities, these uncompromising impostors driven by party zealotry unleashed well-rehearsed ideologies and revolutionary desiderata by calling on participants to grab offers of democratic values of inclusivity-perhaps referring to variants like freedom, equality, equity, cooperation, peaceful resolution of disputes, the rule of law, popular sovereignty, representative democracy, economic well-being, equality of opportunity, equality of condition, and other democratic factors-aspects that are absolutely unattainable in majoritarian, heterogeneous and “Cruel Ethiopia”.

Led by the youthful fire-spitting Abdifatah Sheikh Abdullahi, a tribal-minded political neophyte with past records of corruption and freewheeling lifestyle, EPRDF party apparatchiks gave conflicting imaginary statements aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the Ethiopian-Somali Diaspora.

Do these so-called representatives of the EPRDF who are in essence Somalis themselves reflect the atrocities, repression, arbitrary arrests, denial of basic services, and the host of inhuman measures inflicted on their people by the current and past regimes seated in Addis Ababa? Without an iota of doubt the regime in Addis Ababa has committed heinous crimes including genocide against Somalis of Ethiopia.

Ironically, what these subjects fail to realize is that even fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini claimed to have been a democracy one time and that the same applies to Germany under Adolf Hitler. Where on earth is the democracy they are preaching when demonstrations are suppressed and the opposition jailed or killed? An election where the ruling party garners majority of the votes is not a democracy. Do they know that modern democracy is generally of three types: (1) Presidentialism where the president and the Congress are elected separately, lawmaking depends on a balance of Congressional and presidential powers, the Supreme Court may strike down laws as unconstitutional, and that the president, the Congress, and the states can together override decisions of the Supreme Court. This kind of government is practiced by the United States. (2) Parliamentary System also known as parliamentary government where the people elect the national legislature; the national legislature (usually the lower house in bicameral legislatures) elects or approves the government as in United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Jamaica, Norway, Netherlands, Slovenia and others. Parliamentary Government is the most widely used form of democracy in the world. A Single-Party Majoritarian Government is where one party wins an absolute majority of seats in the national legislature and forms the government (an absolute majority means 50 percent plus one). This kind of government was the British House of Commons elections of 1997 when the Labor Party won 419 of the 659 seats in the House or 63.6% of the total. The final type of modern democracy is the mixed presidential-parliamentary system also known as semi-presidentialism where a president or prime minister can each have significant decision-making powers as in Russia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, France, Portugal, Finland and others.[1]

Michael J. Sodaro, Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020