Wednesday, April 5, 2017

SOMALI DIASPORA CHILDREN: SHACKLED BY DISTORTED MENTAL IMAGINATIONS


By Adan Makina
Nowadays, a look at how some of the Somali youth living in the Western Hemisphere prepare for their future upon graduating from high school is cause for alarm. By developing distorted mental imaginations, these youth who hail from disadvantaged backgrounds and broken families, find it difficult to heed the advises given by their school counselors because of preconceived established ideas ingrained in their minds that are hard to alter. Ironically, with falling school performances reported among school-going Somali children in Europe and North America, choosing the wrong careers after the gates of the schools are kept under lock and key create unease for any watchful educator and parent who wishes to see all kids remain in school until they are capable of handling their affairs. Even with plenty of financial aid and other grants available and reserved for those willing to partake in the furtherance of their education, the prospects of remaining in school diminishes for reasons best known to them.
Because of their obsessions with immediate jobs and some cash to propel them in to the murky waters of the underworld, these kids end up taking up menial jobs and often find themselves shoved in to contemptible and unprofessional fields like cab driving, janitorial, doormen, cooks, and the manufacturing industry considered to be the lowest paying in terms of job classifications. However, because of overabundance of narcotics and other mind altering drugs readily available in the streets, tardiness and ill-fated temptations usher them in to the corridors of social rejection and disobedience that ultimately lead them to rub shoulders with the law.
Thus, the youth who was touted to be a shining star unto himself, his family, and his nation, becomes a subject of condemnation when an unpardonable and strange act leads him to the gallows of a dreaded prison. Though many strait-laced, fortunate convicts who serve their sentences cautiously emerge out of the gates of dungeons with rosaries in hand as signs of repentance, the hard core ones who remain behind could find themselves rewarded with extended jail terms due to other horrible felonies committed while behind bars. Such sarcastic miscalculations in life may be attributed to poor parental and societal upbringing, lack of role models and mentors, resettling with careless and unfamiliar faces and families, failure to grasp the exhortations of the elderly, and taking the wrong path in life.
Also, the effects of the horrendous civil wars that separated family and friends, child abuse and neglect, familial indiscipline, parental drug addiction and illiteracy, abject poverty, and hordes of imperfections content in the social fabric they live in become the driving levers for their self-immolation or self-destruction. In addition, the social depravity of the host environment and the guest youth’s competition for space and recognition coupled with the desire to assimilate opens a path for unintended social interactions and exposure to malignant, apathetic, and alien cultures that easily consume the diminutive empathy exported from country of origin.
Furthermore, the harboring of a sense of inferiority by the novel guest and the ardent desire to participate in the affairs of the newly exposed locale tremendously alters, defaces or may even erase whatever little was left of his brain chemistry. The once exotic youth finds themselves immersed in an unfathomable bottomless pit commandeered by criminals of the most awful category. Societal fragmentation in the Diaspora, lack of extra-curricular activities, exposure to pornography, cinematographic obscenities, and lack of parental involvement in Parent Teacher Associations, are the deriding factors behind the collapse of the once youthful Somali Empire.
The stubborn outgrowth of filaments of animosity and the division of society along clan lines has never been so profound in Somali society before. While it is true that poor governance, foreign interference in Somali affairs, and lack of reconciliation between warring factions added to Somali calamity, what we should note with dismay is how the Diaspora’s disregard for unity and coherence culminated in the breakup of many who cherished trust, love, and unanimity in matters exclusive to the Somali people and nation.
The handouts and welfare benefits provided by the host nations to Somali societies and individual families are the main arteries that finance malevolent designs and the major propulsion engine of hatred in the Diaspora and in beleaguered Somalia. Wired via electronic remittances to Somali antagonistic forces on a monthly basis, these monies could be used to rejuvenate the education of Somali youth in the Diaspora and also those in impoverished Somalia.
While the number of Somali youth lagging behind bars in the Western Hemisphere could run in to the thousands, still there are an equal number of law abiding, sagacious, and hard working youth struggling to go beyond permanent barriers, travelling the hard road to prosperity, and effecting change by transforming the impossible in to the possible.
Adan Makina
WardheerNews
Email: adan.makina@gmail.com
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This article previously appeared on WardheerNews.

WARDHEERNEWS LOOKS INTO A NEW A NEW FUTURE


WardheerNews
Since its inception in November of 2004, WardheerNews has been going the extra mile to spearhead journalistic excellence and literary professionalism. Our editorial board members and our esteemed contributors have been working tirelessly by the day ensuring everything related to the online magazine and the radio station went according to plan.
In 2013, we saw WardheerNews move from the old HTML fashion to the modern database data retrieval system. The magazine now prides to have an enhanced digital database that can be navigated with ease. WardheerNews.com was created at a time when information about the Horn of Africa, in general, and Somalia in particular, was limited, scarce and one-sided. It  was created to fill that void.
WardheerNews was started by a group of visionary Somalis to create an equal platform of exchange and discussion. Soon after its launch, WardheerNews.com reached faraway places, to a great number of people hungry for the rich content it provided. Consequently, Somali intellectuals, healthcare professionals, women and youth found it as the intellectual forum to discuss and debate important issues.
The management of WardheerNews has numerous plans in the making that will elevate the online magazine’s international standing. With the approach of the New Year, WardheerNews editorial board is in the process of adding to its entertainment and recreation menu in the near future a print magazine circulation that will be available in select international newsstands and  a high definition television station that will be available to its diverse audience.
As we begin to make New Year resolutions and ponder what it has in store for every follower of WardheerNews, one thing is certain: Mr. Adan Makina, Chairman of our Editorial Board for the past year and half, is stepping down to pave the way for our incoming new Chairman, Khaliil Hassan, WDN head of News section who is expected to inject new innovations for the coming year and beyond.
For the period he was head of the Editorial Board, Mr. Makina constantly displayed exceptional leadership qualities with his infectious smile and humor. His ideas and suggestions always revealed his depth in understanding human nature and finding creative ways to solve nagging problems. For the foreseeable future, Mr. Makina will continue to be a member of our editorial board. Besides, he will  head our book reviews section and continue to conduct interviews of major players in the community such as political figures, scholars, writers, filmmakers, and activists.
WardheerNews
Email: Admin@wardheernews.com

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