The World Must Stop Zenawi's Atrocities

Someone somewhere is happily financing, arming, and providing every available logistical and strategic support to fuel the atrocities being committed by Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's monstrous Prime Minister, against the innocent civilians of Somalia, the people of Ogaden, and Oromia. This is setting a wrong precedent and a very excruciatingly painful future for the Horn of Africa.

Somalis and Oromos have been at war with past Abyssinian kingdoms for centuries not over politics but over land. Every time the two won a war against the Abyssinian murderers, a foreign force intervened in favor of the oppressive Abyssinian kingdoms.
A prime example is the 15th century war between the gallant forces of Ahmed Gurei alias 'gran' or the 'left handed' who fought with such valor that the ruling Abyssinian Emperor called for Portuguese help.

Also, Seyyid Mohamed Abdille Hassan alias 'Mad Mullah', a Somali nationalist, poet, and hero, despite ferociously fighting for twenty uninterrupted years against joint British, Italian, and Habasha forces, and having found himself weakened and surrounded by enemy power on all fronts, disbanded so as to retire to his native Ogaden region where he met his final death in the village of Iimeey.

The 1997-1998 war between Somalia and Ethiopia over the Ogaden region took many innocent lives. Despite conquering almost ninety percent of this region from Mengistu's red terror regime, Somalia's armed forces had no other option but to retreat after combined Russian, Cuban, and Yemeni forces sided with Ethiopia. The destruction caused on both sides by this war, is to be felt to this day as hatred, suspicion, and poor neighborliness remain visible on the faces of the warring parties.

What is transpiring today is a repeat of the old tactics applied by Somali and Oromo enemies. Some foreign powers are fully engaged at ensuring Ethiopia continues with her irredentist mentalities and territorial usurpations. Ethiopia has been left to raze, burn, and dislodge its citizens who see to it for protection and guidance. Satellite images taken from thriving villages that were intact a few years ago, today depict different gloomy pictures with indiscriminate bombardments of these same villages by the Ethiopian army clearly visible to the naked human eye.

Killings, rape, and plunder has been used by Ethiopian forces as a means to win wars of any nature. Assimmilation and integration, power sharing and political parties are major factors that don't work in this country of over 70 million where a fair share of the cake always goes to the clan in power and to the stooges that support it loudly. Yesterday, it was the Amhara, and today it is their blood relative, the Tigrayans, led by Meles Zenawi, who live in complete luxury while the rest either have to sing the regime's desiderata to survive or live in ignominy or starve to death.

Meles Zenawi's atrocities seem to have been ignored by the world. Perhaps, humankind is not mature enough to understand the concept of human rights. Human rights violations and cases of genocide are pretty much rife in Ethiopia. It is the creation of human greed and jostling for power that has left millions dead, maimed, and homeless in this beautiful Horn of Africa. The best the internatinal community can do is to stop Meles Zenawi's atrocities for the time being and come with a strategy for the good of this region in turmoil.

Withdrawal or Humiliating Defeat? Ethiopian Army Ready to Leave Somalia

They came in droves on cargo planes and on land in high spirits from Ethiopia. Some were well equipped and some barefooted with a select few Tigreyan officers leading them at the invitation of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia (as they claimed) in December of 2006, the most blessed month of their calendar, when they learnt the alarmingly sword-wielding Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that swept aside the merciless warlords that terrorized Somalia since the fall of Major General Mohamed Siyad Barre's junta in 1991 was about to declare an Islamic Jihadi state.

With their crusader banner flying high, they dispersed the ICU , and with no stone unturned, swept up to the Southern tip of Somalia. They indiscriminately shelled residential areas, bombarded villages, slaughtered women, children, and the elderly. They raided commercial markets taking with them everything in their path. Many got instantly rich sending home looted cars, television sets, jewelry, microwaves, dishwashers and driers, electric ranges, and undetermined amounts of hard currency.
Somalia became a governorate whose affairs was administered in Addis Ababa and debated in the Ethiopian Parliament. There was rejoicing in the streets of Ethiopian cities, towns, and villages with Meles mentioned in folklore dances and theatrical performances. He became the reincarnation of Menelik.

To their dismay, ICU regrouped and embarked on modern 21st century guerilla tactics. They destroyed tanks, shot down helicopter gunships, burnt down armored vehicles, and strategically employed novel fighting tactics that forced the enemy to retreat to the baracks. The number of dead soldiers in body bags arriving Ethiopia alarmed the public causing an outcry even in the divided parliament. The Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, refuted all sorts of allegations and international condemnations. To him 'everything was under control' and that he would pacify Somalia whatever it takes.

Now, after heavy casualties, they are ready to leave because they have been defeated and that even the TFG that invited them no longer needs their assistance. Many of them are dead, buried in cemetries in Godey in the Ogaden region, many are in body bags ready to be transported back home after relatives are notified, many suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) caged on to ramshackle beds in poorly maintaned mental institutions hidden from the eyes of desperate relatives, and an unaccountable number have been crippled or maimed. This is a heavy loss and a terrible defeat for the 'Lion of Africa' and the 'Lion of Judah'. They have been humiliated by a few poorly armed youths in the suburbs of Mogadishu. They were denied sleep, food, and peace and always lived in suspense. They may have killed thousands of innocent unarmed civilians, but the end result is that the residents of Mogadishu will return to their respective homes in jubilation while they (Ethiopian soldiers) return home knowing that the next battle will be fought over the Ogaden region and the land of Oromia.

After the dust settles, Somalis will debate over the fate of those who attempted to sell their land and peoples to Ethiopia; Meles Zenawi will be held accountable by his people for the death of Ethiopian soldiers; he will have to be tried for the atrocities committed in Somalia and; and perhaps in the end, the entire world will watch the break up of Ethiopia into cantons divided along tribal lines. The departure of Ethiopian soldiers from Somalia will open the eyes of the world as the international community now knows very well that there're people living under oppression inside Ethiopia. Also, mindful investigators will get the chance to review the nature of destruction caused by the retreating Ethiopian Army. On the other hand, this cowardly departure will elevate the moral stength of the formidable forces of Eritrea who wish to see the return of their lands in Ethiopian hands.

Sooner or later, many warlords, Meles Zenawi and his cohorts in the TFG included, will be arraigned before internationally supervised tribunals to be tried for human rights violations and mass genocide in Somalia . The airing of 'Warlords next door' by UKs 'Channel Four' should be a signal to those oxymorons who think they will forever escape the noose. Perhaps, Charles Taylor and a few other war criminals from Rwanda and Serbia are eagerly waiting for new cellmates from the Horn of Africa.

Predictably, the tribunal will be a reality because 'Somalis never forgive nor forget' incidents of such enormity. Regardless of how well protected a warlord may be, upon the formation of a legitimate unity government, some day, a hearing will kick off either in Somalia or abroad to determine the nature of punsihment for these criminals who butchered and humiliated an entire nation. Anyone who misappropriated funds, stole national treasuries, allowed dumpig of toxic wastes, caught in the act of signing illegal mining and fishing contracts, will have to face the full force of the law.

Since the reconciliation conference going on in Djibouti is to be extended to include those missing parties, my hope is that it will be an all-inclusive one. No armed entity should be excluded whatsoever. For Meles and other cliches of like mind, Somalis have a message for you: never again meddle in Somali affairs and get ready to hand over Oromia and Ogaden unconditionally.

Baidoa's 'Couch Potatoes'

Ever wondered what the so-called parliamentarians are doing in Baidoa? Rather than intermingling with their constituents and listening to their problems they have chosen to sit infront of satellite televions and watch useless programs that are of no benefit to the welfare of the people they are supposed to serve with dignity and unreserved energy. These are men and women who have sworn by the Holy Qur'an to uphold the constitution of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and to work tirelessly for the nation yet from the day they were sworn in, the situation in Somalia has gotten to worse with killings, plunder, maiming, and displacement becoming the norm while they sit leisurely like couch potatoes in luxurious hotels surrounded by Ethiopian tanks and artillery that are meant to protect them from the people they are supposed to serve with dignity and without fear.

On the other hand, they are busy munching the nutritiously stimulating herb (qaad)like cows with widely spread out robotic body parts listening to propaganda radios and spreading lies while at the same time breathing vituperations on cellphones directing secret militias. These couch potatoes have become a disgrace to the Somali nation and to the international community that has spent millions of dollars for 18 years in pursuit of peace for Somalia.

Ironically, someone somewhere is making payments in wages for their monthly upkeep without knowing the evil in their mindsets. It is a disgrace to make remittances to people who don't perspire or don't do any kind of work. These men are fortunate in that they are paid to stay healthy, eat well, and shower daily. They don't have to worry about their clothing, towels and napkins, soap and toiletries, and even their daily Qaad chewing sessions. In modern democracies, one has to be disabled or have mental problems to get government assistance. Retirees get paid their lifetime savings in sequences until they are gone.

Of course there are the good and the bad in these army of evil in Baidoa, but the truth of the matter is, warlords-turned-parliamentarians being fed with a silver spoon is a bad idea. They must be conspiring day and night to scuttle the peace efforts for Somalia. They are experts with 18 years of experince on how to divide-and-rule the people through the use of monstrous young men wielding AK 47s and afew other corroded Soviet-era armaments that are always at hand.

Alas! some of them can be seen shuttling between Baidoa, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, and Dubai without worries of any sort even after all those killings that are well documented and well known to humanitarian agencies and human rights organizations. Why can't they be apprehended and kept behind bars so the remittances they collect can be used to feed those they displaced?

That has a beginning has an end. There is no doubt Somalis will free themselves of these dirty men and one day, after all these 'couch potatoes' are gone, those of you fortunate enough to live will reflect the past and avoid a repeat of past mistakes. God willing, Somalia shall be free of warlords soon.

Tanzania and Nyerere

I wish the people of the Horn of Africa could live in peace and harmony like their fellow brothers and sisters of the Republic of Tanzania. Tanzania has been through the worst times in its struggle for independence. It fought German occupation, Arab domination, and outside influence through unity and coherence. The unification of the Islands of Pemba and Zanzibar with mainland Tanganyika created what we know today as Tanzania. Mwalimu Julius Kabarage Nyerere, 'Baba wa Taifa' or 'Father of the Nation', strived hard to unite the people of this lovely country through wisdom and artistic leadership. The two major wars Tanzania had been through are the Hehe and Maji Maji rebellions of 1894 and 1907 that took conisderable lives and property. Today Tanzania is considered an 'ocean of peace' in a volatile continent.

Tanzania had been at the mercy of Omani Arabs for centuries mainly in the days of the spice trade when cloves was the major sustainer of Zanbibar's economy. 'The land of the Zenj' as it was called, Zanzibar was the seat of powerful Omani Arabs who traded in slaves with European powers of those days. In fact, Zanzibar had the biggest slave market in East Africa. Here originated millions of African slaves destined for the trans-Atlantic voyage. Pemba, a sister Island of Zanzibar, had her own slave market and carries immense historical treasures to this day.

The beautiful and bustling capital city of Dar es Salam, lived through tough times. Upon taking the reins of power, Mwalimu Nyerere preached peace and unity making Dar es Salam his seat of power and influence. Meaning 'Haven of Peace' and derived from the Arabic language, Dar es Salam is a blend of African and Arab cultures and has been much influenced by Islamic traditions and Christian missionary activities that continued for several centuries. Old Portuguese architecture and ancient Arabisque foundations dot its coastal plains with the main port still displaying the hallmarks of monsoon winds trade dhows.

The city of Arusha is much remebered for the historic 'Arusha Declaration' created by Nyerere. "The Arusha Declaration was made by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere on 5 February 1967, outlining the principles of Ujamaa (Nyerere's vision of socialism) to develop the nation's economy. The declaration called for an overhaul of the economic system, through African socialism and self-reliance in locally administered villages through a villagization program. The villagization program, implemented in 1973-76, sought to transform the pattern of rural settlement by congregating the rural population-which previously had been resident predominantly on dispersed family smallholdings-in nucleated villages of sufficient size to be efficient (in bureaucratic terms) units for the delivery of services. Involved in this plan was the idea that the new villages could also become the basis for a socialist system of production." (wikipedia)

Nyerere played a big role in creating the East African Cooperation (EAC) between the nations of East Africa-a cooperation that elevated the lives of millions of Africans that had just come out of the shadows of colonialism. The nations of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania formed this cooperation with a view to reaching economic prosperity. The East Railways and Harbors, East Africans Customs and Excise, and the East African Airways were amongst the only existing big corporations of those days. Ironically, the East African Cooperation did not augur well with Uganda's strongman, Al- Haji Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, President of Uganda at that time. It was indefinitely dissolved and resources distributed among member states. Furthermore, Idi Amin's Uganda suffered the most because of being a landlocked country with no access to the sea. Despite its dissolution, the East African Community has been revived by mindful leaders now that Idi Amin is no longer in the political spectrum. In fact, there is an East African Parliament at present with legislature drawn from erudite politicians from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

Mwalimu Nyerere was the mastermind of Idi Amin's removal from power. With assistance from Uganda's liberation forces, Tanzania's Defense Force meticulously deposed Idi Amin sending him into exile in Saudi Arabia, his final death bed. With the exception of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) that is wrecking havoc in some parts of the 'Land of Kabaka', the people of Uganda have felt a sigh of relief under Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the current leader who is playing peace maker and statesman in the international arena. Museveni has peace keeping troops in beleagured, impoverished, and war-ravaged Somalia and also in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire).

A few Somalis took part in the social, military, and political institutions of Tanzania though individual biographical accounts demand strenuous research. Ever heard of Ahmed Hassan Diria?. He was a Somali whose father migrated from Somalia. Ahmed was born in Tanzania and rose to become a leader, politician, and diplomat in his own right. A garduate of the College of Philosophy in Ghana (attended 1958 to 1961), Diria held several diplomatic posts including Tanzania's ambassador to Zaire, India, Egypt, and other countries. From 1990 to 1993, he was Tanzania's Foreign Minsiter and was known to be a great 'friend of the press' and 'defender of press freedom'. He died in Germany.

Tanzania has produced talented leaders who shone in the international limelight since attainment of independence. Amongst them is Salim Ahmed Salim, former Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (now African Union), a man who has six doctoral degrees to his credit. Another political giant is Abdirahman Kinana, a former Minister for Defense and currently a member of the East African Parliament. Having these brilliant men and others at his side is what made Nyerere's presidency a reality.

Nyerere boosted tourism though not to the required standards. The preservation of the Serengeti national park and other tented camps, agressive archaeological research conducted by the Leakey family et.al, and tour of the towering Kilimanjaro mountain brought in the much needed hard currency from foreign tourists craving for curiosity and change of scenery. Increased ocean trade with Arab merchants driven by Monsoon winds injected relief to a few sectors of the economy. Coffee, grown in the highlands of the hardworking Chagga tribe and much treasured in the West, was another major earner. Diamonds mined at Shinyanga mines, was a source of income for the state treasury. Regardless of the effects of Nyerere's tainted ideology, Tanzanians have always been less dependent on foreign handouts.

Under Nyerere, Tanzania's system of education in the primary and secodary levels were no much for neighboring Kenya and Uganda whose medium of instruction was english. A closer look at the profiles of prominent Tanzanian educators and administrators reveal that most had their higher education from the prestigious Makerere University of Uganda that had the hallmarks of Britain's Oxford University. On the other hand, Kenya's Lenana and Alliance High Schools were used as gateways to Makerere. Nyerere elevated Kiswahili to a level it has become the lingua franca of East and Central Africa making it intelligible in some parts of Southern Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Burundi, and Zaire. According to estimates, it is spoken by 60 million people in Africa.

Every man has his own weaknesses. The major weakness of Nyerere was socialism, an ideology almost akin to communism. With his unchallengeable Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM)party at the helm, Neyerere consolidated power such that political opposition evolved only after his departure. The unification of the Afro-Shirazi Party and the Tanzania African National Union (TANU), gave birth to CCM. The ruthlessness of the dreaded Fanya Fujo Uone (FFU) security apparatus that he heavily relied upon for national security, was no different from Nazi Germany's Geheime Staats Polizei (Secret State Police) also known as Gestapo. Despite the ruthlessness of the state security, Tanzania, till this day, remains a beacon of peace in Africa.

Unlike many African leaders who use the strength and size of their tribes to hold on to power, Nyerere hailed from a minority tribe. He was son of the chief of the Zanaki tribe. Knowledge, integrity, determination, sociability, strength, courage, conceptualism, competency, and various other traits coupled with love for his people and nation and having honest, reliable, and willing assistants helped him achieve his goals.

Nyerere was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh and the first Tanzanian to study at a British university. Upon returning home, he took teaching as a profession and that is why he was referred to as 'Mwalimu' which means 'teacher' in Kiswahili-a language that evolved as a result of a mixture of Arabic and local tongues. He is credited with writing several books, translations, and essays that are still in print. For sure he was not a millionaire in his presidency nor did he and his family extravagantly misuse state treasuries. Upon retiring from politics, Nyerere was succeeded by Hassan Ali Mwinyi. Septuagenarian Nyerere coninued to lambast Mwinyi's leadership styles until his death in London in 1999 at the feeble age of 77. Had he been a bad leader, Nyerere would have prepared a son or daughter succeed him.

What is leadership?

Is there a leadership problem in the Horn of African nations of Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti? Does good leadership call for meddling, dismembering, killing, displacing, and looting? I don't think so. Then, what is leadership in the real sense? Peter G. Northouse (ph.D., University of Denver) who is professor of communication in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University best describes the meaning of leadership. Here is how he describes it: "Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal". Again, he tells us that "leadership involves influence; leadership occurs in groups; leadership includes attention to goals".

Poor leaders don't do things right and are hardly adored by their subjects. Good leaders do things perfectly and are loved by their subordinates. I prefer not to mention the dead men of the Horn of Africa who left behind bad legacies. Instead, let's carefully divulge into the leadership traits of the living. It doesn't matter to me if a leader is a cripple, mono-eyed, ugly or short. Tell me, what is wrong with Meles Zenawi, Abdullahi Yussuf, Issaias Afewerki and Ismail Omar Gelle? Why have they turned the Horn of Africa into a bleeding mess? Eritrea and Djibouti are at war; Ethiopia and Eritrea have border problems; Somalia is in a mess because of the three meddling in its affairs; millions of the Horn of African peoples are either internally displaced, refugees, or hungry. The problem we have, my dear reader, is poor leadership. The four countries have natural resources that have not been tapped; yet poverty is biting hard to an extent all these countries are dependent on foreign handouts.

Anyone who has not seen the beauty of Ethiopia and the nature of desperation on the faces of its people needs to do a little reasearch or buy a ticket so as to see the mighty Nile that has been a source of inspiration to the pharaohs of Egypt and past Abyssinian empires. Also, trek through the Ethiopian highlands and thereafter canoe on Lake Tana then reflect the hunger on the faces of those who inhabit this blessed region of antiquity. Go see the beauty of Eritrea with its lush green vegetation; swin in the Red Sea and then tell me the colony of fish species you have seen. Endeavor to conquer Somali territory when there is peace so you can take a voyage along the longest coastline in Africa. Take a closer look at the marine species off the coasts of Somalia. You will obviously see the much-loved lobsters, mackerel, tuna, and what have you. Djibouti's semi desert areas should not deceive your eyes. It could be small but harbors a wealth of resources.

Leadership and power are inter-related because both are part of the what is called 'influence process' and both have the potential to influence. Doctors, miniters, coaches, and teachers have the potential to influence people. How do the leaders of the Horn of Africa influence those they lead? Do killings, displacements, division, starving or bickering over petty issues have the potential to influence people who are hungry, sick and homeless in any way?

There're two types of major powers in organizations: position power and personal power. The capacity of a leader having higher status or rank than his/her followers is described as position power. Vice Presidents and heads of organizations or departments have more power than their staff, which, if used legitimately, elevates them to position power . Thus, this type of power includes legitimate, reward, and coercive power. Leadership and management deal with people. These four Less Developed Countries (LDC) have leadership and management problems. Their offices are riddled with corruption of the greatest magnitude. Furthermore, they have come to lead not by the will of the people but through forceful illegitimate means. We know their political history.

Personal power is the process by which a leader influences his subjects because he is likable and knowledgeable. He is knowledgeable, highly competent, and considerate. He treats his staff equally without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin and age. He does not dominate others but leads them, guides them, and is observant of his weaknessess. Power power leads us to two faces: referent and expert power.

Let's look at "The Bases of Social Power".

Referent power: A school teacher who is adored by her students has referent power.

Expert power: A tour guide who is knowledgeable about a foreign country has expert power.

Legitimate power: A judge who administers sentences in the courtroom exhibits legitimate power.

Reward power: A supervisor who gives rewards to employees who work hard is using reward power.

Coercive power: A coach who sits players on the bench for being late to practice is using coercive power.(J.R. French Jr. and B. Raven, 1962).

From what we have read above, we see that these leaders who hold the power to Africa's most strategic location do not exercise any form of the above-mentioned powers. Giving a higher position to your relative is not reward power; punishing those wo do not belong to your clan/tribe is not legitimate power; starving those who disagree with your mode of administration is far from being coercive power; practising misleading ideology is not expert power, and finally, to be adored only by your henchmen and 'bootlickers' is not referent power.

The monster that is Mugabe

Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, came to power in 1980 when the white-minority rule paved way for Zimbabwe's independence after a bitter armed struggle with ZANU-PF-the liberation movement that fought for Zimbabwe's independence. Mugabe, now 80, was by then considered the most educated of all African presidents because he was credited with four degrees from presigious institutions of higher education. Since 1980, Mugabe is in power and has transfomed in to a monster that has overcome all odds challenging internal dissents and international condemnations.

He has been re-elected and re-elected many times untill last month when the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) headed by Morgan Tsvangirai jumped on the bandwagon to challenge Mugabe's despotism and the legitimacy of his presidency. According to election observers and foreign missions stationed in the capital city Harare (formerly Salisbury), the oppostion won most of the parliamentary seats and also the presidency though Mugabe's state apparatus used irregular methods to retain the presidency and renounce the opposition's claims of victory to be null and void.

Even with the economy in shambles and dissent increasing, Mugabe feels all is well. The country has suffered brain drain with most doctors, professionals, and engineers seeking greener pastures in developed countries. Schools are empty because teachers are not paid enough to sustain a decent living and parents refuse to send their children to classes on empty stomachs.

The state apparatus has flexed its muscles. The country is now under the mercy of a dictator like the many to be found in the rest of Africa. Zimbabwe's leadership processes have collapsed and those with leaderhip traits are unable to come forward for fear of retribution from the dreaded police force.

A repeat election is scheduled for next month though the ruling ZANU-PF party has made it clear that it won't entertain any form of defeat by the opposition. Those seeking the presidency risk assassinations or arrest without warrant. Zimbabwe is in a mess and ready to explode any time soon. The world must act now to salvage it!

South Africa up in flames: ‘the Birth of New Black Apartheid Mentality’

For the past few weeks, parts of South Africa’s beautiful cities of Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, and Johannesburg were are up in flames-not because they were attacked by an external invading force-but because irate black South African youths with seditious agendas yet to be deciphered by their state intelligence took up arms against black outsiders who have sought refuge in this economically prosperous country known for exclusive kraals, beautiful sceneries, extensive Velds, unique click languages, rigorous historical struggle against minority rule, and racial diversity. Earlier this week, nationals of Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Somalia were targeted by angry black South Africans who felt foreigners were taking up their jobs and business opportunities. Using crude weapons of all shapes and sizes including machetes, knobkerries (wooden clubs), bottles, hammers, and swords, deranged youths poured in to the streets of major cities in droves with the intention of driving out fellow Africans seeking refuge in their country. South Africa, a rich and prosperous nation that just came out of the shadows of apartheid has been described as having the highest crime rate in the world. In the meantime, it is not just about crime-it is-as one influential religious figure put it: “the birth of new black apartheid mentality”. Harrowing incidents of innocent migrant victims doused in paraffin and set ablaze and the indiscriminate torching of their businesses kept the world gazing at what triggered such impulsive mayhem in Africa’s only hope and emerging economic power. Within days of the violence, 40 people died and thousands sought shelter in churches and in police stations.

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd: Architect of Apartheid

South Africa’s ‘architect of apartheid’ was none other than [1]Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd. Born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1901, he moved with his parents to South Africa at age two. In his childhood, Verwoerd lived in Bulawayo in the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where, in 1913, he enrolled in the famous Milton High School. In 1917, his family moved to the Orange Free State settling in Brandfort. The devastating Spanish flu epidemic delayed his matriculation exams until 1919. Later on, he attended the University of Stellenbosch where he excelled in class and graduated with honors. A very bright student, Verwoerd completed his masters’ degree in 1922 and was conferred on with a doctorate in 1924. He is credited with writing several works that are still available at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1925, after completion of his doctoral studies, Verwoerd left for Germany where he visited the universities of Hamburg, Berlin, and Leipzig. It was while in Germany that he was joined by his fiancée, Betsie Schoombie, consequently marrying her on the 7th of January, 1927.

Upon returning to South Africa in 1928 with his new wife, Verwoerd became professor of psychology at the University of Stellenbosch while at the same time playing a great role in the re-shaping of the ruling National Party where he became editor of its sole newspaper, Die Transvaler, in 1937.

In 1950, Frederick Malan, who was then Prime Minister, appointed him Minister of Native affairs. Prime Minister Malan’s retirement from politics in 1953 opened a political path for Verwoerd. Following the death of National Party leader J.G. Strijdom in 1958, he was appointed Governor-General. Verwoerd’s predecessors and successors may have died of natural causes but what cut short his life at the mere age of 65 while holding the nation’s Premiership, may be hard to swallow. On the 6th of September, 1966, after wrapping up a historical political talk with Chief Leabua Jonathan of Lesotho at the Union Building in Pretoria, Verwoerd entered the House of Assembly at 2:15 PM where a deranged ‘dark-skinned’ (colored) Assembly Clerk of Mozambican origin, Dimitri Tsafendas, who had instructions from a large worm in his stomach, stabbed Verwoerd four times in the chest only to be pronounced dead upon arrival at Groote Schuur Hospital.

Former Black Homelands (Bantustans) during Apartheid Era

During the apartheid era, there were a total of ten self-governing black homelands for different black ethnic groups and all were re-incorporated into South Africa on the 27th of April, 1994, when Nelson Mandela became President. They included Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, Qwaqwa, Transkei, and Venda. Lack of resources in these homelands has forced millions of various ethnic groups to migrate to major cities within South Africa where resources are available. This population explosion has caused friction and scramble for space between different communities. With most cultivable land still in the hands of former white settlers, black communities are short of the physiological and agricultural density required for ample sustenance which has direct impact on the Malthusian theory of population increase and shortage of food supplies. The current increased migrations have risen out of economic push and pull factors. Had it not been due to intervening obstacles, South Africa would have been by now the most populated country in Africa. Many migrants’ prospected journeys to South Africa are hindered by rough and dangerous situations.

Prior to the end of the white 'Afrikaner' minority rule in 1994, black South Africans lived in abject poverty, had lower educational standards than whites, owned fewer resources, and relied primarily on other African countries for military and financial support and for strategic and political guidance. Today, Black South Africans, despite regaining their freedom and democracy, desolately live in the same squalid conditions inherited from past apartheid regimes-if not worse. Thus, the recent spate of violence directed against African immigrants who are part of the many fibers rejuvenating the South African economy, is nothing but a lame excuse to advance a hidden agenda that is open to government scrutiny. It is a known secret that many economic powers of our modern world have been built on the strength of immigrants.

Nelson Mandela, the first President of post apartheid South Africa, was a political prisoner for the apartheid regime for twenty eight years mainly in the horrifying Robben Island (Dutch for seal Island) Maximum Security Prison, Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, and the Victor Verster Prison near Paarl where he was finally released on February 11, 1990 by F.W. De Klerk, South Africa's last white ruler. [2] “His statement from the dock in the Rivonia Trial ends with these words: I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”.

Author of 'Long Walk to Freedom', Nelson Mandela is revered in the world as a Statesman and Peacemaker. Today, the freedom Mandela fought for is no longer in place because a few thousand jealous thugs have hijacked the nation and taken the law in to their own hands. “Remember the horror from which we come from”, Mandela reminded his fellow South Africans this week. His former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had this to say: “We are sorry. It is not South African to do this”. What inspired the mayhem is a subject of media coverage and a source of discussion almost in every corner of the world.

Killing other African migrants with gusto did not start at once as it had been slowly creeping from city to city for several years hence the ratio of premeditated brutality tragically skyrocketed recently with killed refugees from Somalia alone thought to number several hundreds. South Africa's foreign refugees who have been victimized relate stories of collusion and inaction by the police who often record such incidents as 'criminal' rather than 'xenophobia'. It was recently revealed by a woman minister at a hastily and unconventional meeting aimed at curbing xenophobia that the police imprudently displayed ineptitude and weakness and that they should have instead applied more lethal force to combat crime against foreigners.

Foreigners, especially black migrants have been raped, robbed, attacked, and killed in Cape Town, George, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban and also in the slums and ghettos concurrently and in isolated forms for many years with a few or hardly any perpetrators arrested. One wonders what went wrong with the South African judicial system and the application of law and why it has taken such a long time for the state security to mobilize forces before things got out of control. President Thabo Mbeki, who is known to have initiated and chaired several international conferences on peace and security in Africa and the world over, must now have a burning agenda on his table as his nation descends in to unfathomable social turmoil that has roots in the mismanagement of a giant economy that refuses to cater for the millions who lack jobs and social amenities. A man described as a lame duck has no one else to blame but his own flaws.

Obviously, black South Africans are violent and volatile as they had been immersed in centuries of misrule and chauvinism by a succession of white minority regimes that owned and operated the country with iron fist such that blacks are up to this day restricted to a few Bantustans that cannot sustain them in all aspects. The proliferation of shanty towns due to scarcity of housing for blacks has constituted to a drastic increase in crime, disease, and starvation. Unemployment and social discrimination should be a national concern as major corporations and other business conglomerations still remain in the hands of a few apartheid sympathizers.

A more aggressive political figure to reckon with who would have placed a lid over the national crime escalation is the current President of the African National Congress (ANC) and former Vice-President, Jacob Zuma- ‘a 100% Zulu boy’ and a President-in-waiting. He is a political doyen with incredible energy and drive, whose political career has been shrouded by allegations of sexual abuse and misappropriation of funds for some time in the past often becoming a victim of his own conscience. Jacob Zuma's Presidential ambitions are picking up now that Thabo Mbeki has been deemed inept at bringing about solid security and social prosperity South Africans long for. Unlike Mbeki who is Xhosa, Jacob Zuma hails from South Africa’s largest tribe and also Africa’s largest, the Zulu (people of heaven), thought to number 10-11 million, who fiercely fought the Boer-British domination of KwaZulu-Natal in the 18th Century.

Thus, the current spate of unrestrained violence against non-South African blacks could be a harbinger for a sudden change in Pretoria’s political scene where we could perhaps see the battle of the Armageddon in which the Zulu, rallying behind Chief Gatsha Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a brave and charismatic leader who initiated the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975, could shake Xhosa hierarchy regardless of post apartheid constitutional declarations, agreements, and political pacts. From 1994-2004, Chief Buthelezi was the erstwhile Minister for Home Affairs-a post if left to him to this day would dissuade South Africans from violently attacking black migrants streaming in to their country. Buthelezi is a strong proponent of Ubuntu which stands for African humanism.

Furthermore, Human Rights Watch, a global organization committed to ‘protecting human rights worldwide’ has been very critical of how the South African immigration officials, police, and border patrols treat migrant workers awaiting deportation to country of origin. [3]“Police, immigration officials, and military border patrols in South Africa often seriously abuse undocumented migrants when they arrest them”, said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Undocumented migrants awaiting deportation are locked up with criminal suspects or even convicts, while migrant children are often held alongside adults.”

[4]“Most troubling for the authorities is the fact that the hot spots of anti-immigrant violence are some of the same townships that had been the furnaces of anti-apartheid violence. A little more than a decade after the end of apartheid, the new government is sending the same riot police in the same armored trucks into those same townships to suppress mob violence against immigrants. Although the latest wave of xenophobic violence has targeted immigrant communities in Johannesburg, last year the Somali community in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth came under attack (Time).” While the governments of Mozambique and Malawi have started evacuating their nationals, affected Zimbabweans have started streaming back to their country at various exit points at their own expenses because, the country’s veteran leader, Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF, is locked in an election stand-off with Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)-a stand-off whose validity will be determined on July 27th when a well supervised Presidential election kicks off across the country though there is a well founded fear of discrepancies that may emerge from the ruling party’s application of heavy handedness. The current violence in South Africa has claimed the lives of 40 Zimbabweans which Tsvangirai “directly attributed” to “Mugabe’s failed policies of intolerance and repression”.

Somalis arriving South Africa in the last decade brought diverse business ventures visible in many towns and cities while neighboring Zimbabweans brought with them professionals including doctors, nurses, teachers, and much needed engineers. Rather than being grateful for such unparalleled services, a few disgruntled politicians with apartheid era inclinations have chosen to finance a few malevolent thugs with arms, drugs, and alcohol for the deliberate disintegration of the ‘Rainbow Nation’ whose formation would have been impossible without the support of the same people they wish to drive out or out rightly exterminate.

Despite President Thabo Mbeki’s order to deploy the army to quell civil disobediences, killings and lootings remain as intense as before. A nation that prides to have the best economy in black Africa; a nation that has to its credit several Nobel Prize winners for peace and literature; a state that once amassed nuclear arsenals of immense destruction; a nation with unrivalled infrastructure in the African continent has descended in to chaos in a matter of days with political analysts guessing it to be headed the ways of Rwanda, Somalia, and Sierra Leone. The new ‘Rainbow Nation’ may never be the same again because of the birth of a new black apartheid.



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[1] http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Verwoerd

[2] http://www.onlineuniversity.net/history/nelson-mandela/

[3] http://htw.org/english/docs/2007/02/27/safric15423.htm

[4] http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1808016,00.html

The battle of the big cats and the hovering of the eagle

Once upon a time, Ethiopia’s older flag was represented by the mighty crowned lion carrying a cross and that is why it was referred to as ‘the Lion of Judah’ though lately depicted as ‘the Lion of Africa’. To Rastafarians, ‘Lion of Judah’ represents Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (1892-1975), who ruled from 1930 to1974 as the “conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, King of Kings of Ethiopia, and Elect of God”. Haile Selassie was born from parents of the three main Ethiopian ethnicities of Oromo, Amhara, and Gurage. ‘For over 3,000 years, Ethiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia in antiquity, has never been colonized with the exception of a five-year occupation by the forces of Benito Mussolini of Italy at the height of WWII at the battle of Adwa. Thus, the lion has endured all odds.

On the other hand, Ethiopia’s immediate southern neighbor, Somalia, is represented by two graceful spotted African jungle leopards on its Coat of Arms which was adopted October 10, 1956. The leopards were also adopted by the Italian colonial administration. Perhaps, Somalis chose the leopard because of its adaptability, behavior, magnificence, and profusion in the wild. In Somali myths and verse, it is a much talked about carnivore that is preferred over the devastating lion known for homestead invasion and livestock devouring. A much celebrated theatrical drama received with wide enthusiastic response is ‘shabeel naagood’, translated in to English by Professor B.W. Andrzejewski, a Polish immigrant. The elegant leopard is ready to devour an animal twice its size; and because it has a spotted skin, it can hide from other predators and also it can climb up a tree with its kill far from the menace of the lion and the eagle.

Somalia’s southern neighbor, the Republic of Kenya, has its two vicious lions and a ‘jogoo’ or the crowing rooster on its Coat of Arms elegantly holding two Maasai spears. Despite having a border dispute with Somalia over the former Northern Frontier Districts (NFD), the cockerel has been more peaceful than the cunning lion that is Ethiopia. It shelters hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees who have injected the Kenyan economy with millions of dollars from the land of the eagle (USA). Unfortunately, there has been insecurity last spring for a while in the land of ‘jogoo’ over election irregularities almost entangling poor Somali refugees in a political quagmire and social unrest.

In contrast, the United States, the only remaining super power in the world, has to its credit the brilliantly hovering eagle symbolic of peace and representing the inimitable US air force. Squadrons of complicated aircraft assisted by sophisticated sonar and reconnaissance radars unsuspectingly catapult from far in the Pacific Ocean and in Germany and from near distances in Djibouti, and from warships in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and even on the shores of Somalia and Kenya unleashing devastating precision guided bombs that are hard to spot and evade. Such expensive military endeavors by the US will be hard to maintain given the state of its declining economy and skyrocketing of gas prices. Also, the uncertainty of the United States’ political transition in 2009 after President Bush’s term expires is another option that is open for debate now that the Democratic Party is seemingly favored in the political spectrum. Once the wingspan of the endangered bald eagle fails to catapult due to lack of energy (oil), its net consequence will be to nest until further harvest (oil) is found. Such is the dilemma faced by the ferocious eagle that wrecked havoc on Somalia’s life and property since its collapse in 199.

The people of Eritrea, known for their resolve and courage, and having fought Ethiopia for 30 years, must have the muscle to sustain the Ethiopian opposition through their dromedary that has been described as the ‘ship of the desert’. This is an animal that can nourish its breeder for almost a month without water as long as a few acacia trees are around and if all hell broke loose, the water content in its abdomen can be sacrificed to quench the thirst of a group of fighters while its enormous size become sufficient to feed a village.

The UN, Arab Union, and the African Union are no more than toothless domesticated tigers with lowly agendas. The Arabs and the UN may play the role of providing humanitarian relief assistance to the thousands of refugees and the rest displaced by the rivalry here and there. If these three forces were of any significance, their decrees, communiqués, and legal redresses would have been enough to bring the chaos to an end. Having changed camouflage from OAU to AU, the current African Union, according to Somalis struggling to liberate their land from foreign occupation and political meddling, is nothing but a replica of the old guard wearing the same detested paraphernalia, treading the same route, and dwelling in the same house-Addis Ababa, the home of the lion they wish to slay.

As for the United Nations, the departure of Kofi Anan has brought in a tiger in dentures. At least, to put it right, Kofi Anan did intervene in Somalia by ordering massive humanitarian relief operations and directed the deployment of multinational forces.

Today, in volatile Somalia, what we are seeing is the fight of the big fissiparous cats, a dromedary, a few toothless tigers, and a viciously hovering eagle all replicating audaciously in the form of rebel movements, occupation forces, democratic governance, Islamic Sheria, and dissimilar confusing ideological foundations that sprang from miscalculated illusionary necromancy and rapaciously weird oneiromancy. Actually, Somalia has become a battle ground for nine conflicting forces: Ethiopia, the African Union, Al-shabaab, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, Eritrea, The U.S., the U.N., Arab Union, and the Asmara group. Since too many cooks are negligently simmering the much desired political hot pot, the right taste of the potential culinary recipe will be pretty hard to weigh up. The solution to the long standing conflict lies squarely with the rightful owners of the land in dispute. Somalia should be left to the Somali people.

The current Somali struggle for the re-liberation of their motherland from Ethiopian occupation began in earnest in 2007 when rebel parliamentarians who were previously part of the broader Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) broke away and assembled in Asmara, Eritrea, at the behest of President Issaias Afewerki, a man known to be a bitter rival of the current Ethiopian leadership headed by his maternal cousin, Atto Meles Zenawi. Likewise, members representing the scattered forces of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) re-appeared in Asmara-this time standing shoulder to shoulder with the rebel parliamentarians while subsequently declaring the formation of a larger group identified as the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS). Since then, several conferences meant to reconcile the ARS and the TFG have been held in various locations most notably in Djibouti and Yemen. The UN has Ould Abdullah as its diplomat, representative, and peace maker for volatile Somalia though nothing has changed for the better since his appointment as new skirmishes and human displacements continue unabated especially in the south of the country.

Ironically, Issaias Afewerki of Eritrea long thought by many Somalis as a man who has them at heart, has amassed troops along the Djibouti-Eritrean border suddenly transforming in to an alarming screw driver in the Horn of African conflict. Those who know him well, regard him as the genesis of all wars and political division. His malevolent proposal of dividing the Asmara group in to two splinter groups has taken many Somalis and their sympathizers by surprise. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed had been quoted lambasting the Eritrean government’s hidden agenda of dividing the Asmara Group. Some within this group, who are pleased with the division, have been heard giving Afewerki the credit he deserves most.

Somali resistance groups are now stronger than ever. Where they get their weapons is a hard nut to crack. Despite an arms embargo on the country, arms proliferation seems to be getting out of control. Neighboring countries are in confusion and politically shaky as their securities deteriorate internally and externally. Members of Al-shabab have been reported to have infiltrated Kenya border yesterday in pursuit of foreign members arrested by the Kenya police. They were able to free them inside Kenya territory and to have escaped with the police vehicles to ferry their freed members in to Somalia without the slightest harm. This must be a worrying trend for the government of Kenya.

Right now, a reconciliation conference has gotten off the ground in Djibouti under the auspices of the UN. There had been some misunderstandings on the agenda with members of the Asmara group storming out of the conference venue though such a snag is to be resolved at the intervention of some powers with a stake in the affairs of Somalia. The President of the TFG, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, escaped unhurt the previous day as he headed for the conference in Djibouti. Members of Al-shabab bombarded his retinue of Ugandan convoys with mortars and rocket propelled grenades as he prepared to leave Mogadishu international airport. Several casualties were reported. In other parts of Somalia, the war between the insurgents and the Ethiopians has gotten to worse. The atmosphere is getting shoddier as the two sides continue to displace millions out of their homes in to desolate refugee camps.

In conclusion, Somalia’s civil protracted war is getting worse everyday and the future of this country is hard to determine. The TFG seems to have lost its grip on to power and that the Ethiopian army is in a delicate balance because the insurgents have become a power to reckon with. The Ethiopian army is desperately searching for a strategic exit. For now, no Western power will bother to assist. The insurgents’ leopards have won with a technical knock out.

Regime changes in the making in the African Horn

By Adan Makina
January 01 , 2008
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"A soldier without political knowledge is a virtual criminal."
Thomas Sankara, former President of Burkina Faso.

Somalia’s President, Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the world’s oldest surviving liver transplant patient, is in a London hospital and is said to be in bad health while the administration of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia is getting exceedingly nervous for fear that should president Yusuf expire, the entire occupation process will collapse and that his own government may well fall to pieces.

Ethiopian forces entered Somalia in December of 2006 to counter threats from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and also at the invitation of Somalia’s fragile Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The UIC, a blend of 11 autonomous religious courts, routed the US funded warlords who held Somalia hostage since 1991. They brought six months of relative peace to Somalia in 2006 only to cave in at the invasion of Ethiopia.

Emerging information indicate that the Ethiopians were deceived by Yusuf in the initial master plan when he bragged to Meles in Addis Ababa that he had a well equipped force to fight along the Ethiopians to respond to the UIC Militia threat. Meles should not regret for he failed to read Yusuf’s unpredictable monodramatic leadership. Should Meles be ousted as the leader of Ethiopia, rest assured he will point fingers at Yusuf as the major cause of his downfall.

History is replete with Prophets and Messengers who brought divine scriptures and marvelous laws; it documents conquerors who left behind historical artifacts and golden mausoleums; it shades light on pioneers who shepherded the world from darkness to civilization through innovations; it has catalogued reprobates, philanderers, plunderers and barbarians in its dark pages as the worst the world has ever seen departing humiliated and crestfallen with nothing to their compliments except unmarked graves and paradoxical illustrations-the last category being where Somali warlords, Somali President, and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister belong.

Unfortunately, for the last sixteen years or so, the atmosphere in the Horn of Africa has been and is up till now, one immersed in implacable miasma and mendacity due to the emergence of a dozen avaricious, supercilious, coldhearted, clannish and discriminatory men who continue to hold close to a 100 million people hostage denying them the basic inalienable rights enshrined in their constitutions and that of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted in 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. This is an assembly of cold-blooded hard core criminals who reside in fortified dwellings in complete primordial pomposity; they are men who evade the use of legally binding rationalistic approaches to expand the rule of law; they thrust aside scholarly and philosophical thoughts without justification; they borrow blasphemous and outdated dogmas aimed at intoxicating the feeble minds of their war-weakened subjects. They dine on French gourmet, wine on expensive champagne, and walk on red carpets in broad daylight surrounded by a retinue of barefaced dignitaries with 21 gun salutes to their honor.

Satan, the greatest perpetrator and harbinger of all wars, through his deceitful tactics and unmatched vigor, has definitely emerged the exclusive beneficiary of the Horn’s protracted instability. Heads collide at his command by surreptitiously irritating; weakening and impairing psychomotor activities of feeble minds leaving their cerebral arteries dissolve in an ocean of spontaneity leading to an overall cave-in of the brain’s hardware in time initiating eternal irreversibility.

To make matters worse for Ethiopia, PM Zenawi has horns locked with the UN over the deteriorating political and humanitarian situation in Somalia. The UN claims things are getting worse in Somalia due to the presence of Ethiopian forces while Meles claims the situation has been exaggerated and blown out of proportion. How dare he deceive a world full of hovering satellites relaying messages from the galaxies light years away?
Paradoxically, the African Union (AU) which is party to the anarchy in Somalia because of her reluctance and failure to provide the essential logistics and required peacekeeping force to stabilize the country, sensing how the situation is getting out of control and seeing the nature of death and destruction caused by opposing sides, has, as if abiding by the old adage “better late than never”, recently, after much deliberation, issued this concise mythical statement, saying:”(We) call on the Somalis and the international community to explore new avenues, to muster the required political will and resources to bring to a definite end the conflict that has afflicted Somalia and its people” Somalis should not anticipate anything good from the AU as long it has its headquarters in Addis Ababa. Is this not the same organization that had been beating the drums of war when Ethiopian Forces were pouring into Somalia to kill and maim innocent peace loving civilians?

The armed wing of the Islamists, Al-shabab, has flexed its muscles and is in full swing gaining ground day after day. So far they have captured large swathes of land by claiming victory in areas previously occupied by the Ethiopians and forces of the TFG. Their latest victory is the capture of Galgaduud region.

Many important TFG figures have been executed by Al-shabab, others have gone into hiding, and others are holed up in Baidoa, while others have left the country either to seek asylum or join the opposition in Asmara, giving Isaiah Affewerki of Eritrea a big burst of political laughter from a far distance.

For now, Al-shabab is eyeing near victory as the Ethiopian forces in Somalia have been bogged down disgracefully and PM Meles Zenawi is contemplating a quick exit. Meles has sought to down play the death of his soldiers as if they are made of steel though the contents of refrigerated trucks and transport planes leaving Somalia for Ethiopia reveal the contrary. Thus, the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the TPLF regime of Ethiopia are both on the verge of collapse and that regime changes are in the making which may surprise many in the West and those nations with a stake in the Horn of Africa. For now, the fate of Somalia and Ethiopia will depend on how quickly Al-shabab of Somalia and the opposition in Ethiopia make gargantuan leaps into the international political arena. For PM Meles Zenawi, the closure of the precipitous border with Eritrea, the subsequent drought that has hit his homeland and the weakening state of the economy must be deeply worrying and a hard pill to swallow. While he denies the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Somalia, many wonder how he will respond to the unfolding devastation in his landlocked birthplace. Eritrean soldiers on the other side of the border have less to worry knowing they have an outlet to the sea. Despite sanctions, President Isaiah Affewerki of Eritrea will have to overcome all odds to ensure the survival of his people and stand up to Ethiopia over the disputed border.

Ironically, for Somalia, the recuperation and return of President Yusuf to the helm will pioneer nothing new to the political landscape but rather incite more violence for he is an inexperienced octogenarian whose desired goal is to revenge against entities and tribes opposed to his fiefdom. Should he expire and be succeeded by someone in this current TFG administration, presumably, the bloodshed will still continue unabated.

Ethiopia is fighting proxy wars almost everywhere in the Horn of Africa. Besides the conflicts in Somalia and the border dispute with Eritrea, factors that may bring down the current regime in Ethiopia include: the willingness of the opposition to open old wounds to counter the irregularities and rigging of the elections in 2005 by the ruling party under PM Meles Zenawi, international outcry at the detention without trial of opposition heavyweights, and the accelerated armed struggle of the liberation movements in several regions occupied by ethnic groups seeking to break away from the rest of Ethiopia.
The arrival of African Union peacekeepers will bring no change except renewed war, new humanitarian crises, and shoddy peace deals that will not hold long. The 1,500 Uganda People’s Defense Force has not been immune from attacks by Al-shabab and for now their movements in Mogadishu are restricted to a few defined areas. Leaders of Al-shabab had earlier warned that the Uganda Forces and any other alien army that sets camp in Somalia without their backing will be targeted and treated like any other occupying force.

Burundians who wrapped up refresher courses and interdisciplinary counterterrorism procedures continue to pour in to the Somali capital to replace the weakened and cruel Ethiopians who have failed to restore peace and order for a complete year. Captain Paddy Akunda, a spokesman for the AU and a member of the Uganda Armed Force had this to say upon the arrival of the Burundi dispatch:” One hundred peacekeepers from Burundi have just landed here”. In Bujumbura, Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza told Reuters that “the team went to prepare the ground for the rest of the troops”.

The ethnic composition of the Burundian Army and the way civil strife is dealt with between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi pre-and-post independence may be a leaf to borrow for warring Somalis. The current President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, a Hutu, one of Africa’s youngest leaders, is a born-again Christian, was born in Ngozi province in 1964, trained as a sports teacher before plunging into politics to head the Force for the Defense of Democracy (FDD). His father, a former Member of Parliament, was killed in ethnic violence in 1972.

Obviously, Ethiopians will pack up and leave Somalia sooner or later. What to expect from the hypocritical and untested AU is not easy to prognosticate. Also, the position of the West towards the Horn of Africa is hard to decipher. The role of Ethiopia in Somalia and the policy of Somalia towards Ethiopia after Yusuf is gone will depend on the succeeding Somali administration. PM Meles’ regime will face stiff internal and external hostility when his forces return home, when his parliament debates the fate of soldiers missing in action (MIA), and when unaccounted for body bags emerge from the mortuaries. For Al-shabab, the flight of enemy number one (Ethiopia), the collapse of the TFG and the presence of a less hostile uninvited guest (AU Forces) should open a path for dialogue.

Adan Makina
E-Mail:amakina@kc.rr.com

Too many strategic exits with uncertain futures in the Horn of Africa

It is better to have a bad government-however brutal it may be-than be without one. Somalia may not be the first country in the world to experience two decades of devastatation caused by brutal wars culminating in the death of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians and the displacement of an equal number scattered the world over either as refugees or as internally displaced within its own borders compounded by disease, hunger, and poor sanitation. Of course, the world has been through many heinous wars most notably in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Angola, and the list could be endless. Most African wars have been described as 'tribal wars'-where one tribe or clan feels 'enough is enough'-and that time is ripe to take power by force from the clan that dominated politics for so long. In Europe, it is called 'ethnic wars'-where two races compete for dominance as happened after the break up of the former Yugoslavia that pitied Christians against Muslims or Serbs (Christians) against Bosniacs (Muslims).

Somalia is a sparsely populated country bordering the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean yet its roughly 10 million inhabitants are relatively poor besides the thousands who fled to Western Europe, North America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. It is a Less Developed Country (LDC); it has incredibly low Natural Increase Rate (NIR); its Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is not something to worry about though its Crude Death Rate (CDR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) are of concern for demographers, international Aid Agencies, and the World Bank. Four decades of misrule has left Somalia a laughing stork, yet, the abundance of natural resources it has could sustain not only her citizens, but many outside her borders. Despite having untapped oil and natural gas, unexploited minerals, and a wealth of fisheries and agricultural lands, the people of Somalia remain a burden to the world donor nations because, a succession of civil disorbedience and negative political practices have continually torn apart this homogeneous race in to enormous tribal segmentations and unparalleled clan rivalries.

For twenty-one years, many in the West saw the rule of President Mohamed Siyad Barre of Somalia as having dictatorial credentials while Somali tribes opposed to his rule felt marginalized despite having ripe grapes in their baskets. Poor governance coupled with tribal mindedness, illiterate governors, mismanagement of the economy, bad ideology like Communism and Socialism and other factors led to the sudden fall of a once powerful nation that was the envy of many in Africa-especially neighboring countries that had a long standing border dispute with Somalia. Today, the same countries that opted for the collapse of Somalia, have become the ears and eyes for a succession of merciless warlords and shadowy transitional governments which they direct at will because they are the providers of the bulk of arms and money needed to advance their modus operandi which include territorial dismemberments, tribal divisions, and unstoppable atrocities.

After sixteen years of bloodshed by anarchic warlords, an otiose Transitional Federal Government (TFG) was born in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2004, with the blessings of the international community. For almost a year, the TFG was unable to relocate to Somalia for fear of reprisals from the Union of Islamic Courts hereafter referred to as UIC. Born out of the amalgamation of eleven minor tribal courts, the UIC routed the West-funded warlords in a matter of months. Poor political strategies, ideological affiliation of some cadres with the dreaded Al-Qaeda, and religious rhetorics at the US, Kenya, and Ethiopia, did not go down well with the poweful forces of democracy and enforcers of 'World Order'.

The President of the TFG, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, a former Army Colonel, was and is too inexperienced to tackle the Somali political debackle-a mess he was party to even prior to the collapse of Siyad Barre's Junta. Since his inauguration as President of Somalia, life has gone from the better to worse for the people of Somalia especially after the incursion of the Ethiopian Army in to Somali soil where the level of violence has doubled since. Many of his previous supporters have joined the ranks of the newly-founded reliberation movements fighting to oust him and repel the Ethiopian occupation. Hussein Farah Aideed, a former U.S. Marines Sergeant and son of General Farah Aideed-the man behind the re-enactment of Hollywood's acclaimed movie "Black Hawk Down"-was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Interior for the TFG before joining the rebel Asmara Group hosted in Eritrea. The former Speaker of the TFG and a group of rebel Parliamentarians thought to constitute a good forty, are also thought to have established base there. Unfortunately, these former members of the TFG, are guests for President Afewerki who is at loggerheads with the regime in Addis Ababa-a regime headed by his maternal cousin, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.

Eritrean rebels fought Ethiopia for over thirty years before reclaiming their soverignty in the early ninties. Since reclaiming independence from Ethiopia, Eritrea has fought Yemen over tiny Islands in the Red Sea; almost a million died in a bloody war with Ethiopia over disputed territories; it has made incursions in to Djibouti territory over the last few weeks; and lastly but not least, it is engaged in the Somali turmoil unrestrained.

Ironically, President Afewerki is not only host to the Somali Asmara rebel group, but to a variety of liberation movements fighting to break away from Ethiopia most notably the Ogaden National Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front, and a group that represents the Amhara-an ancient tribe that ruled Ethiopia for centuries before the emergence of Colonel Mengistu Haile Miriam in a bloody coup in the mid-seventies. Known for his terror brigade that annihilated millions of innocent Ethiopians and the atrocious and forceful relocation of enemy tribes to environmentally hostile lands, Colonel Mengistu murdered the "Star of Christianity"-His Royal Highness, Emperor Haile Selasie, an Amhara and had him buried in his grandiose palace where his footstool lay. The remains of the Emperor have been reburied in a golden mausoleum in the heart of Addis Ababa by the current regime of Meles to appease the aggrieved Amhara. An ardent supporter of Communism, Mengistu went to war with Somalia in 1977-78 over the disputed Ethiopia-occupied Ogaden region claimed by Somalia. With reinforcements from the former U.S.S.R, Cuba, Yemen, and other Eastern European countries that constituted the Warsaw Pact Forces, Somalia's unaided army withdrew from the vast territories it had earlier reclaimed or captured from Ethiopia. Somalia's withdrawal gave rise to the creation of the current TFG President of Somalia, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, and to Meles Zenawi, the sitting PM of Ethiopia, who found safe havens at the clash of these two antagonistic forces. Yusuf crossed border to Ethiopia after his failed coup attempt against strongman Siyad Barre while Meles and Afewerki sought refuge in Somalia where they were hosted by Siyad Barre.

Somalia's TFG is in a dilemma as it has never ruled a portion of the country with the exception of the City of Baidoa that serves as its headquarter. Smaller than the Vatican, the City of Baidoa has of late become a target for the well-armed guerilla forces of Al-shabab-the armed-wing of the resistance movement against the TFG and the Ethiopian occupation. Parliamentary members of the TFG have voiced their deepest concerns at the increasing level of violence gripping the city and the rampant increase of Al-shabab incursions in to the heavily fortified city guarded by the Ethiopian and TFG forces. Thus, many of these parliamentarians may pretty soon be left with no other alternative but to seek refuge either in Kenya, Eritrea, or Ethiopia where their safety can be guaranteed until the violence subsides.

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's Prime Minister and mastermind of the Somali occupation, feels his Somali project is a fiasco and that he is contemplating a strategic exit sooner or later. Likewise, he is to exit Ethiopia's political scene as his re-run for the his nation's Premiership is almost impossible because it would contradict Ethiopia's constitution and also anger the opposition who are bitter at his previous political mismanagement and adulteration of the laws of the land that he swore to uphold when he came to power. Unless he opts to use force to cling to power and quell civil disturbances, the Ethiopian constitution has no room for him come what may 2009.

Likewise, Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is to pack up and leave office in 2009 unless re-elected by parliament for a second-term. Until then, regardless of reconciliation successes between his administration and the many forces with diverse opinions opposed to his rule, what Somalis pray to see, is a strong government that will enforce law and order and reunite Somalia. Whether it will be a refurbished TFG with an all-inclusive government, or the militant al-shabab, or a new administration with multi-faceted ideological foundations, what the future holds for this tattered nation, is in real essence, hard to predict. But what had been predicted by one educated Somali academic about the future of Somalia is clearly emerging in piecemeal: so many poor Ethiopians are settling in the autonomous region of Puntland and and in the breakaway state of Somaliland; the country has become so ungovernable such that it is only the Ethiopian directional compass that can give it a true bearing and heading no matter how deviant that direction might lead; division of mind and conflict of ideology tends to favor Ethiopia's wrong dimensions; every single income from the port, airport, and other tax revenues is being collected for Ethiopian coffers; Somalia has become part and parcel of Ethiopia with administrative dictations coming from the headquarters in Addis Ababa; and that its governor is General Gabre-the Tigreyan General in charge of overseeing the TFG's social activities and political measures.

Even with the exit of Meles and Yusuf and most probably Afewerki in 2009 and beyond, a bleak future awaits the beautiful people of the Horn of Africa. How to bury the hatchet, pick up the pieces, and embark on a new collective strategy will be hard to accomplish. Suspicion, hatred, and gerrymandering will prevail for generations to come.

SOMALI VULGAR LANGUAGE IN ITS TRUE COLORS

What the heck is wrong with Somalis whenever they disagree on any subject they hurl expletives and other despicable conversational language at each other devoid of brainpower and comprehension? Perhaps, the first contaminated and impertinent language ever to spew out from the mouths of our forefathers is the ineffective and bashful overtone 'awowgaa lagub' and 'waran hele' which, at present, is left to a few surviving culturally inclined men and women bent on preserving our unique prestige and heritage. For the youth of Mogadishu and those of the southern regions, 'jinoole aa tahay' and 'habartaa buufkeed' still captures the limelight of joking relationship.

From an anthropological viewpoint, joking relationship may be defined as behavior common among certain people of close proximity in kin who display a sense of hilarity involving shared mockery, wit, and liveliness often sliding into romantic apprehension and sexual insinuation. In contrast, avoidance relationships imply the evasion of certain negative behaviors amongst sets of kin in order to enhance social harmony. Joking relationship often dissipates in societies afflicted by conflict. In the case of Somalia where civil strife is a daily occurrence, avoidance relationships is a common tool used to create substantial barricade so as to keep warring factions poles apart or else it could lead to senseless conflagration of political uncertainty and death. Intimidations and insinuations against adversaries using arrogant expressions like “ma anoo reer hebel ah” can be found among all peoples including clans.

The mention of the word 'clan' rents many hearts asunder as it reminds them of several decades of misrule by tyrannical regimes who callously diluted the dignified status and good name of Somalia’s fragile communities leading them into an abyss of social disgrace and continuous exodus of political refugees to every corner of the earth.

Clans are a group of people related by blood who are uninformed whether they have authentic affiliation. Whether one is 'laan gaab' or 'laan dheere', among Somalis, the decayed slattern and the highly educated all share a common blatant for introduction purposes: anigu waxaan ahay reer hebel.

'War waxu af dheeraa' signified the severity and abhorrence the Somali people had for the use of aggravating language. Now that the hellish war between the warlords competing over drugs, money, and power and the Jihadists all out to enforce law and order in Mogadishu and its environs is over, it is quite comprehensible that the battleground is rife with immoral, ravenous, and contemptible acts slowly filtering disparaging language into our formerly uncontaminated traditions and mutually supporting society-a tough assignment for our future forces that will combat decadence in our midst when peace finally prevails.
For the haggardly loxoox-munching, qaad-chewing, mentally hallucinated, and dyspepsia- afflicted ragamuffins who dedicated their lives to doing dastardly acts to enforce the peculiar laws of the insatiable loquacious warlord san-ka-dhuus, rest assured you will be judged by your actions for ignorance of the law is no excuse and that the only option open for your future repentance is to undergo psychiatric therapy to cleanse your blood-stained hands and eroded cannibalistic mental faculties.

The era when society harmonically admonished criminals 'war Allahaaga ka cabso' is no longer of vital importance as it now belongs to ancient verbal expressions. It is the rule of the 'labo-xiniinyood' whose daggers are drawn in cut-throat positions with each side willing to sacrifice entire 'qoys', 'jilib' and 'qabiil'. Opposing forces launch callous vituperations assisted by blasphemous imprecations: including 'Allaah ha idiin dabargooyo', 'Rabbiyoow kuwani naga gacansareysii'-a stupendous malcontent of duplicitous and sacrilegious declaration that is not consistent with Islamic values but rather a commoditization of excessive satanic religiosity and absolute display of immoral values. The saying by some: 'Soomaali waxaa lagu xukumi karaa qori caaradiisa' seems to hold some water. An endless cycle of violence has been dragging on for fifteen years with no solution in sight even with the intervention of the mightiest powers. A famous Somali Poet exclaimed that the return of Siyad Barre (deceased former president) could tilt the scale of anarchy and have all warlords in dungeon- an impossible undertaking indeed.

The recent clashes between the Islamic Courts and the warlords, two war-hardened rivals brought a sigh of relief to Somalis wherever they may be as the warlords themselves have either conceded defeat or cried 'cagteey malabeey meel igee' feverishly running faster than 'xiin finiin' to their hideouts while retorting: 'Libaaxii alamtarana soo dhaaf'. Even with 'maromugeed' of dollars and their promise that they will pursue some members of the Islamic Courts in the most impenetrable 'futo jiir', in the long run, the extended hands of the world powers will take the warlords into custody so they may be handed over to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to be tried for crimes against humanity, just like Charles Taylor of Liberia.

The circumambulation of the graves of the holier-than-thou and virtuous religious figures and throwing of stones at Lucifer in specially selected localities in the hope of receiving blessings in order to have an upper hand in war continues to this day in many parts of Somalia-undeniably a religious innovation of the worst kind. The cry of sheikh hebelow which was a way of overcoming hardships has been hampered by the shortage of cambuulo, a good recipe for congregational purposes, however; gone are the days when its abundance made many sing: 'cambuulo galleey ka ciilbeelayeey'. At the present time, the training of our youth for future warfare against other tribes is antagonistically in the making. 'Waar dameeryahow abtirka toosi' is homework for every under-age Somali child.


Lately, a few prominent curses have disappeared from Somali vocabulary. Up till now, 'Caloosha kuwareegtay' and 'xaarkaaga xero loo ood' need not create unease for anyone due to abundance of abdominal medications. But there is cause for apprehension for a few in the use of appalling soubriquets like 'fool midgaanle', for such epithets malign the good name and reputation of an exemplary community known for centuries-old artwork, creativity, and manifest beauty.

Furthermore, the use of offensive language by major tribes catapulted to wider depth and stretch after the ouster of the former regime consequently creating a frightful atmosphere for the weaker tribes and minorities who have been victims of abuse and marginalization for centuries. For the major clans, references like 'war hooy aan kala xishoonno' assisted the warring parties calm their belligerence and advocate a temporary ceasefire until an amicable solution could be reached. When one is unable to control his mouth, he is apt to exclaim: 'kaalay afka iga sharootee' -for such individuals are said to be disturbed by excruciatingly painful unnoticeable tumors which can be traced to devastating worms twirling in their intestinal organs and so passionately Somalis query: 'war waxa ma dixri baa walaaqaya'?

Presumably, each of the warlords may have seven intestines and that is why they are referred to as 'xaaraan ku naax', 'calool barmiile' and 'xiidmo geelle', nevertheless; braggadocios the likes of those waging wars in Somalia, despite remaining indefatigable doyens of Somali jungle politics and having absolute influence over the communities they led, in the long run; they were reduced to 'digo iyo dambas'.

In conclusion, it is time for habarkuuleey to rest in peace undisturbed; a time to display a sign on her door handle that reads: 'wejigaa Alla manuuree buuqa iga daa'. Frowning disgusted, and perturbed, Mooryaans and their cohorts disconsolately walk away in disbelief saying: 'lee ilaha'- apostasy punishable by death under Islamic sheria. Let’s wait and see if derogatory language ceases to exist in our midst.

“If you go to Rome, do as the Romans do”: How to Perfect our Nomadic Way of Life

Do you pick your nose in places frequented by the public? Do you floss your teeth with toothpick in public and then spit in piecemeal? Do you place the same toothpick closer to your nose in order to assess the devastation of the smell from tartar known to attract hungry house flies in waiting? Do you brush your teeth with ‘Cadey’ (Salvadora persica), in public places thinking that it is a hygienic practice that is okay anywhere and everywhere with everyone? Do you cough up phlegm in full view of a foreign person? Do you munch ‘Miraa’, ‘Nakhwa’ ‘Qaad’ or ‘jaad’ like the only cow you owned in your homeland-the only ‘xil iyo xoolo’ you owned in your lifetime and are your rotten teeth and greenish ‘daaqsin’ visible to eyewitnesses? When eating food, have you noticed how ‘suugada’ decorates your lips? Do you disgorge ‘dhuusada’ in public and in private transportation believing ‘waa iska caadi no’ such that passengers look at you with curious eyes and feel like getting you by the throat? Do you swear day and night thinking that it is ethical and part of human way of life? After eating with your hands, do you massage your palms, arms, and face with the sticky traces of ‘dufan’? Do you say ‘uf’ to others because you feel they emit bad smell?

Also, in the process of chewing ‘Qaad’ and after depression (also known as ‘qaadiro stage’), do the sheer looks of your eyeballs threaten young kids because of your menacing characteristics? Do you eat food with your mouth wide open exposing all the cavities housed therein? In the process of chewing ‘Qaad’, after your semen transform in to ‘caano barax ah’, do you grasp your genitals at the sight of a female assuming that you are signaling desirability? Do you use your clothes to wipe off mucus and sputum instead of handkerchiefs or napkins? Are you sensitive and hypervigilant? Do you urinate in public assuming you are safe from the eyes of onlookers? Do you chatter like apes and conduct business in the ‘monkey business’ styles? Do you sit comfortably in public transportations while the feeble and elderly hold on to the guardrails in standing positions? Do you avoid sitting on toilets for fear water may splash on to your buttocks and do you prefer the ‘kadaloobsi’ technique until you break the toilet to pieces? Do you beat wives and children senselessly in the course of ‘Qaadiro stage’ thinking that you are disciplining them?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, then you better watch your polluted and repulsive behaviors because you are psychologically a sick person belonging to the Sanitarium. The old wise saying, ‘if you go to Rome, do as the Romans do’ is pretty much the same as our own Somali proverb that says ‘haddaad tagto meel il laga la’yahay, il baa laystiraa’. What I have posed above are crises that need crisis intervention.

“Often, people in crisis are in a state of acute turmoil and feel overwhelmed and incapable of dealing with the stress by themselves. They do not have time to wait for the customary initial therapy appointment, nor are they usually in a position to continue therapy over a sustained period of time. They need immediate assistance. Crisis intervention has emerged in response to a widespread need for immediate help for individuals and families confronted with especially stressful situations-be they disasters or family situations that have become intolerable (Butcher and Dunn, 1989; Everly, 1995; Greenfield, Hetchman, and Temblay, 1995; Morgan, 1995)”.
A crisis may include a traumatic divorce, an injury or disease, and a natural hazard such as a deluge that make social readjustments almost impossible. Lack of minor resources and social prop up fade a person’s ability to survive a crisis. Responsible nations put much interest in how their citizens behave. That is why we have a line-up of sciences dealing with human behaviors and treatment.

Unfortunately, in governments run by dictators, there is absolutely no remedy and that dependable child rearing is almost ambiguous as there are no institutions to educate the mass on how best to live and interact with others. Educating children in early stages, showing them what is good and bad helps polish their transition to adult life. If our leaders are busy bickering in ‘fadhi-kudirir’ and are unable to get to the bottom of the long-running civil disorder that is running to almost two decades, who do you think will come to our rescue? The genesis of such negative behaviors developed from the many years of neglect by heads of households causing long-standing biological consequences of distress and irregular physiological changes in our family members.

Without the great efforts of past successive Persian Empires recorded in history books, the fields of human sciences from Greek civilizations and from other ancient powers that we so much cherish in the world today would never have been possible. The Persians observed, memorized, and translated whatever transpired in Ancient Greece in to their mother tongues and preserved tons of knowledge that would otherwise have been lost had they been left to others. Even in the most overwhelming wars, the Persians prudently hid their manuscripts from all sorts of damage.
Let’s borrow a leaf from one of Plato’s analogies and see where our leaders belong.
“Imagine, then, that something like the following happens on a ship or on many ships. The shipowner is bigger and stronger than everyone else on board, but he’s hard of hearing, a bit short-sighted, and his knowledge of seafaring is equally deficient. The sailors are quarreling with one another about steering the ship, each of them thinking that he should be the captain, even though he’s never learned the art of navigation, cannot point to anyone who taught it to him, or to a time when he learned it. Indeed, they claim that it isn’t teachable and are ready to cut to pieces anyone who says that it is. They’re always crowding around the ship-owner, begging him and doing everything possible to get him to turn the rudder over to them. And sometimes, if they don’t succeed in persuading him, they execute the ones who do succeed or throw them overboard, and then, having stupefied their noble shipowner with drugs, wine, or in some other way, they rule the ship, using up what’s in it and sailing in the way that people like that are prone to do. Moreover, they call the person who is clever at persuading or forcing the shipowner to let them rule a “navigator”, a “captain”, and “one who knows ships,” and dismiss anyone else as useless. They don’t understand that a true captain must pay attention to the seasons of the year, the sky, the stars, the winds, and all that pertains to his craft, if he’s really to be a ruler of a ship. And they don’t understand there is any craft that would enable him to determine where he should steer the ship to, independently of whether the others want to go there or not, or any possibility of mastering this alleged craft or of practicing it at the same time as the craft of navigation. Don’t you think that the true captain will be called a real stargazer, a babbler, and a good-for-nothing by those who sail in ships governed in that way, in which such things happen? I certainly do. I don’t think that you need to study the simile in detail to see that the ships resemble cities and their attitude towards the philosophers, but you already understand what I mean” (R 488a-489a).

Decades of misrule and power wrangling has left us in the lurch such that we have become a laughing stork in the eyes of the world. Some writers have called for Somalia to be placed under a United Nations Trusteeship because of the incompetence of her leadership. The analogy above presupposes that there is a body of understanding on hand to the statesman parallel to that applied by the navigator. We lack leaders with strong political power, tough philosophical foundations, and sound educational arrangements-leaders, who, regardless of censorship, propaganda, and indoctrination, will uphold the banner of persuasion, moderation, and rational willpower and discard irrational ideologies from internal and external meddlers.
If most fathers remain a nuisance, then, what do you expect from a presumably steatopygous, overweight, or embellished and desolate Mama who has been a victim of deliberate wife beatings for many years? Obviously, such negative results and overwhelmingly unmanageable stress add up to the predicament of a mother already under pressure leaving her irritated and dejected in the initial end. It takes a sober mind to raise healthy and disciplined children. Recurrent or concurrent wars, famine, social turmoil, and floods have been found to cause human behavioral changes exacerbating long-drawn-out and complicated conditions beyond parental control and expectations.

The tone of aggression and hatred from pathological responses to death increase instantaneously triggering impasses in children as well as in adults regardless of gender. Scars from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) intentionally inflicted in childhood leave behind trails of persistent indicators like exaggerated startle response, brief psychotic mayhem, periodic illustrations, flashback experiences, and false impressions. Senseless beating of children exhibits a gloomy future with unstable adjustments that time and again exude flashbacks and future contemplation of vengeance in their path to adulthood.

Lack of age-group persuasion that would instill confidence, mass media and molding plans that would deglamorize negative aspects of alcohol and drug use, and programs to raise self admiration, seem to be missing in war-torn nations of the world.
Tragically, it has come to the attention of many Somalis in the Diaspora that raising children in a foreign country is not the right thing to do. The agony is that, these children are unable to kill two birds with one stone: their desire to stick to the cultural values of their parents and their want to assimilate in to a new environment has caused cultural variations. “An object of striking appearance catches one’s attention” (anonymous). If you were to observe heavy traffic on a highway, obviously, your attention would be focused on to one vehicle or to someone of the opposite sex because of color, model, or shape acceptable to what your inner soul covets regardless of the condition of the car or the shape of your preferred partner. Children learn from adults and often practice meticulously what they see. A good child is the one who had a good upbringing with solid foundation in his or her early stages in life either raised by an affectionate biological or caring surrogate parent whose desired goal entails ensuring the child becomes accountable, subservient, inspiring, and tranquil. An adult who picks nose in public, defecates in abandoned structures, has no shame in whatever negative act he/she does must have had a poor rearing.