Dr. Shahiid: 2009 Person of the year

[Dr. Shahiid: 2009 Person of the year]

I'm just starting to learn of his many, selfless deeds. A remarkable man. Thanks for posting.

[Communal Groups Back Somali in Bid To Block Israel Lawsuits]

Strange bedfellows indeed! And it is not even a criminal suit. They simply want to avoid the 'embarrassment' a successful civil suit could bring against individuals who are clearly guilty of hefty crimes.

[The Nail Of Juhaa]

Castro, I think you and I are on the same page on the issue. Thanks for elaborating.

[The Nail Of Juhaa]

Originally posted by Nur:

Now, to be fair, if the warlords have mandated and legitimized the arrival and occupation of Somalia, are you suggesting that for the sake of safety of the people, and for fear that if they resistance groups attack the occupiers, that they would fire at all directions indiscriminately as well documented, that the the resistance groups should have accepted the occupation and laid down their guns?

No. An occupation must be resisted. I'm talking of the need to safeguard civilians in all conditions and circumstances.

 

Is the blame on both sides equal yaa akhi?

The blame is not equal on both sides. Undoubtedly, the anti-Islamic groups (warlords and their external backers) have done more harm to our country and people. And yes, any credible fact finding commission would reach such a conclusion.

 

Frankly, I don’t expect much good from the TFG and its allies. This is where my contention lies and it is why I’m not in favour of judging the two sides with the same yardstick.

 

I believe that the aims of AS and HI are noble. As such, I expect a greater level of conduct from them in carrying out their affairs. They shouldn’t lower their standards simply because their adversaries do and are more numerous than they. Should they succumb to such conveniences, they would be doing their noble cause and hence Islam – an injustice.

 

Finally, are the SOLers maintaing that AS doesn't face biased reporting really serious? It is naïve to contend that the media (including some sections of the Somali media) aren’t biased in favour of the TFG. There have been countless, unsubstantiated reports about AS. All of them aimed at staining their reputation (e.g. reports about AS removing gold teeth from residents in Marka, warning women against wearing bras etc). Other reports relating to AS’s administrative, political and managerial actions are even more common and, of course, more damaging to the movement.

 

Except for a few, glaringly obvious, shortcomings (i.e. sheer incompetence, haggling and inability to govern), one hardly encounters negative reports about the TFG.

[The Nail Of Juhaa]

A worthy discussion. The innuendoes against both the TFG and AS often miss the mark. I suspect that we won’t reach a common position about either of these two entities.

 

We shouldn’t dwell too much on Al-Shabab’s embrace of suicide bombings. This is a practice which has engulfed other Muslim lands and Somalia is no exception.

 

One thing we might all be able to agree on is this: that both groups have woefully failed to take the interests of the suffering populous into account. To have more than a million IDPs in and around Mogadishu and hundreds of thousands more languishing in refugee camps in neighbouring states is a real tragedy.

 

Given that AS is the stronger of the two parties, its continued belligerence ought to be questioned. Islamic armies, movements of the past exercised exemplary care whenever the lives of Muslim civlians were in danger. Salahuddin was once said to have abandoned an expedition (can’t quite recall the place in question) out of fear that innocent Muslims may come in harms way.

 

I don’t doubt that AS care about their people. Unfortunately, there is less to be said about its willingness to compromise and fully engage with groups opposing it. I say this while considering some of the valid complexities outlined by brother Nur.

 

PS – Nur, I find your take on the character traits of Somalis interesting – naïve and nosy. I feel that Somalis (especially those currently in leadership positions) have lost their sense of independence and pride. Our current leaders, in contrast to those who’ve come before them, take orders from anyone.

 

I’m sorry to say, but your conclusion that foreign designs are bound to fail in Somalia due to our unique traits may not hold true for much longer.

[Gen Duke’s words to the Mudug team as they reach Semi’s….]

Since when did sport turn into politics? This post and others like it, do not belong to this page. Stop abusing the leniency shown by SOL admins.

 

SOL has a page dedicated to sports. Use it!

[Somalia spy network exposed]

Al-Shabaab's distrust of foreign agencies operating in our country finds some justification given these revelations. The inept TFG is clueless. It wrongly assumes that the U.S. and neighboring states are interested in finding lasting peace for Somalia.

 

By PETER MWAIPosted Thursday, December 17 2009 at 18:51

 

Two officials working with the African Union’s peacekeeping mission in Somalia, Amisom are reportedly under investigation, following reports that they are being used by a Western intelligence agency and South African Intelligence.

 

According to sources inside the African Union, quoted by a Somali news site,

www.mareeg.com,

the officials are involved in gathering intelligence aimed at undermining the Djibouti Process and assisting the West in the war on terror in East Africa.

 

The two, an intelligence analyst from an East African country in Amisom and a Somali-Tanzanian who works for UNSOA (United Nations Support Office for Amisom) as a Public Information Officer in Nairobi have reportedly been recruited separately to spy both on AMISOM and Somalis.

 

They are accused of gathering information for America’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and South Africa Secret Services (SASS).

 

A source close to the investigation told the Nation that a routine counter intelligence operation showed a plethora of sensitive information on Amisom operations and its staff had constantly been passed to the two agencies.

 

“This is very damaging and could potentially harm our efforts to bring peace to Somalia,’’ he said.

Source

[The Gardener of Villa Somalia]

Fascinating insight from a man who has witnessed it all and still continues to hope.

 

December 15, 2009

The Gardener of Villa Somalia

Posted by Jon Lee Anderson

 

While reporting my recent Letter from Mogadishu, I stayed at the presidential compound, Villa Somalia. Sheikh Ahmed Mursal, the chief gardener, gave me a tour of the grounds.

 

Sheikh Ahmed started working at Villa Somalia in the late fifties, when the Italians were still in charge. He had only recently come to Mogadishu from the south. He marvelled at the sight of Somalis wearing Western clothes and drinking tea with Europeans at the legendary Croce del Sud café, in the city center next to the great cathedral, which was blown up in 1992. “In my village, only the Europeans dressed like that. In my village, we couldn’t even speak to Europeans.”

 

Sheikh Ahmed is now a limber, straight-backed man of seventy-five, with a fulsome hennaed beard. On the day we spoke, he wore a white skullcap, a long red shirt, and loose pantaloons.

 

After a light morning rain, the sky was overcast. A humid breeze blew. Sheikh Ahmed rattled off the names of trees and shrubs in half-remembered Italian. A yellow, bell-shaped flower on a tree was a “campanelli yalo”; another tree, its branches thorned and festooned with beanlike pods, was an “anganelli.” There were also some frangipani trees, and a false tamarind that he called simply “arbol indio,” or Indian tree. He had also planted edible greens, tomatoes, and bananas under the shade trees, and some yellow crotons—“croto amarelo.” In the old days, there had been animals, too: monkeys and antelope, a caged lion and tiger, and a giraffe that wandered freely around the grounds.

 

He walked me around a plaza laid in white, blue, and ochre terrazzo tiles around a decorative flowerbed and a white flagpole. From it hung Somalia’s flag, a simple five-pointed white star on a blue field. Sheikh Ahmed Mursal explained that this was where Somalia’s Independence Day had been celebrated in 1960, and every other great occasion of state since, including presidential inaugurations and visits by foreign heads of state. He pointed to a large shade tree under which foreign dignitaries would sit, and another spot where musicians played.

 

We were standing next to the guest house, a white, sixties-era mansion made of concrete and glass. I had been given the V.I.P. suite, a beat-up but spacious apartment with its own balcony. I knew that I was receiving special treatment; senior government ministers and presidential advisers were sleeping two and three to a room.

 

Sheikh Ahmed recalled that the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada had stayed in my suite. “We welcomed him well,” he said. “We loved him because he was an African president.” Sheikh Ahmed liked working for Major General Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia’s dictator from 1969 until 1991. “I watched him escape out there,” Sheikh Ahmed said, pointing to the front gate. He then indicated a stand of trees at the opposite end of the compound: “Thirty minutes [later], his enemies entered from over there.” Of all of Somalia’s presidents, Siad Barre had taken the most interest in the garden, sometimes bringing back seeds from abroad for Sheikh Ahmed.

 

Two thin, robed women approached us. They had been cleaners at Villa Somalia but had been thrown out during the last presidential changeover and were now unemployed. They blamed Sheikh Ahmed for their predicament. One complained to me, “He has brought his own people here and is taking care only of them. We are out, and we are not getting anything.” They asked for their old jobs back. Sheikh Ahmed looked down at his feet. Occasionally, he glanced up, staring stonily back, as if from a great distance. Eventually, their arguments exhausted, they retreated.

 

Sheikh Ahmed said that the women were from a sub-clan favored by the warlord General Mohamed Farah Aidid, who had seized power at the height of the civil war. After Aidid lost control of Villa Somalia, the women had been displaced. “They always come to Villa Somalia,” my interpreter, a presidential aide called Hussein, explained. “They have come back and been kicked out again by every president for the past several years.” Hussein shrugged. In Somalia’s society of clans and sub-clans, people look after their own.

 

Sheikh Ahmed has a sizeable brood of his own—on his own word, no fewer than thirty-five children, “praise be to God,” and his current wife, his twelfth, is now pregnant. “The whole clan is one hundred and ninety-five, including grandchildren,” Sheikh Ahmed said proudly. “And not one of my children has ever carried a gun. Everything I have has come from gardening, from trees and flowers.” He had seen to it that his children were educated; one son had been sent to Finland, another to the United Kingdom—both popular destinations for the Somali diaspora, along with Nairobi, Oslo, and Minneapolis.

 

Eyeing my notepad, Sheikh Ahmed instructed: “I want you to hear what I have to say, and I want you to write this down. I am an old man and I have worked a long time, and I am sad my country is in this state. I wish I had a country that could reward its best citizens. If my country were not at war, I would have retired by now; I would have received my reward, because I have worked hard. I never harmed anyone. I raised my children properly, and they have never harmed anybody, either. So I wait for this weak state to give me my reward, so I can go home.”

Source

[Store-owner converts Robber to Islam]

Compassion is a powerful tool for social change. If only it was practiced as often as the glorious Muslims of the past have. Thanks for posting.

[Blac Day in the History]

JB is right. This is a national tragedy. The figures are still a bit hazy but losing so many graduates in such critical vocations as medicine, engineering and computer science and their lecturers is a big blow for any country, let alone Somalia.

 

The fact that we have also lost some of the most honest and hardworking ministers in the TFG - the few to have produced tangible results in their respective ministries - amplifies this tragedy even further.

[Huge explosion in Mogadisho Shaamow Hotel, goverment ministries, students, press]

Immeasurable loss. Ilaahay ha u naxariisto dhamaantood.

 

Whoever claims responsibility or even tries to justify this incident will surely face the wrath of the Somali people.

[Islam in the Land of the Rising Sun]

 

In a series of special programmes, Al Jazeera follows Muslims from around the world as they embark on the Hajj pilgrimage.

 

The road to Hajj in the Land of the Rising Sun begins with the little known fact that there are ethnic Japanese Muslims.

 

Everyday the call to prayer is made in different corners of the predominantly Buddhist country - unobtrusively within the confines of its 50 or so mosques and approximately 100 musollas or communal prayer rooms.

 

Twenty-six-year-old Kubo-san prays at a small musolla in the agricultural district of Saitama, about two hours outside the capital, Tokyo.

 

Built 15 years ago by Bangladeshi workers, Kubo is the only ethnic Japanese in the congregation.

 

"I was born into a very ordinary Japanese family," he says. "We did not have a strong sense of religion."

 

Kubo's upbringing mirrors that of many Japanese - their attitudes and philosophy towards life shaped by the ancient religion of Shinto.

 

An ancient polytheistic faith, Shinto involves the worship of nature and is unique to Japan.

 

While divination and shamanism is used to gain insights into the unknown, there are no formal scriptures or texts, nor a legacy of priesthood that structures the religion.

 

After the Second World War, Shinto suffered a huge setback when the emperor was forced to denounce his status as a 'living god'.

 

While many historians would claim that the Japanese people lost their faith after this, recent surveys suggest that at least 85 per cent still profess their belief in both Shintoism and Buddhism.

 

'Special meaning'

 

"The first I knew about Islam was in my school days," Kubo says.

 

"The schools in Japan usually teach history. I knew about Islam in such history classes. Although I knew only a little bit, it shook my soul strongly."

 

His interest in Islam developed as he read more about it, but it was only when he began to meet expatriate Muslims in Japan that he considered converting.

 

Now, he is preparing to go on Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, for the first time.

 

"We Muslims pray five times a day towards Mecca. And pray 'peace be upon Prophet Muhammad'. He was born in this town and started Islam in Mecca. So for Muslims, it has a special meaning to go to Mecca. I feel honoured that I have this opportunity to go there."

 

'First step'

 

But just five years ago, Kubo's pilgrimage would not have been possible.

 

Reda Kenawy is Egyptian but he moved to Japan when he was in his twenties. He worked for a travel agency and decided to branch out to form his own agency specialising in organising Hajj pilgrimages for Japanese Muslims.

 

Japan's small Muslim community is tightly-knit

"All my staff said I was crazy when I wanted to plan the Hajj trip," Kenawy says. "In terms of business aspects, there must be a demand in the market to cover the costs. It would not work if there are no Muslims going."

 

"So I told them someone has to start, someone has to take the first step, then others could take it from there."

 

But, it was an uphill task, particularly when dealing with the Saudi Arabian authorities.

 

Kenawy says they told him: "We've never heard of Japanese Muslims and we've never heard of Hajj trips organised from Japan."

 

"So I told them there were Muslims in Japan and I was there as a Japanese. I have the Japanese nationality and I was representing Japan and wanted to bring Japanese pilgrims for Hajj.

 

"They said I couldn't and that my passport was forged and I looked Egyptian."

 

'Honour and happiness'

 

Kenawy persisted in his quest to take Muslim pilgrims from Japan to Mecca and five years on, his travel agency is one of only two registered companies that have been sanctioned by the Saudi government to organise Hajj pilgrimages for Japanese Muslims.

 

The number of pilgrims using Kenawy's agency has grown year on year, but for him the most encouraging development is the increase in ethnic Japanese Muslims.

 

"Right now, we have 90 per cent foreigners and 10 per cent [ethnic Japanese]. My dream is to have the opposite - to have 90 per cent Japanese or maybe 99 per cent original Japanese and only one per cent foreigners."

 

Abdullah Taki is a 36-year-old former body-piercer who converted to Islam in 2006. He made his Hajj pilgrimage in 2007.

 

"For me, the meaning of visiting the Kaabah is not to see a building but to visit God's home, to meet God," he says.

 

"At first, when we reached the country by airplane, we entered Madina before entering the city of Mecca. Although I could not see the area because I was in the airplane, when I heard the announcement that we [were there], I shed tears unconsciously.

 

"I felt an indescribable sense of honour and happiness. I was very deeply touched."

 

Camaraderie

 

Like Kubo, Taki's contact with Muslims in Japan started mainly with the expatriate community.

 

Every Friday, Muslims from Turkey, the Middle East, Central Asia, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Japan pray together in Tokyo's Cami Mosque, which is modeled on Turkey's beautiful Blue Mosque.

 

Kubo learnt about Islam from

Muslim expatriates in Japan

There are no official records of the number of ethnic Japanese Muslims but some estimates put it at 10,000 - about a tenth of the country's total Muslim population.

 

The community of Japanese Muslims is so small that when they meet new faces for the first time, a sense of camaraderie is immediately established.

 

Higouch-san is 73 years old and has been a Muslim for more than 45 years. Mahmuda Saito is 63 and converted more than 30 years ago. Both know how difficult it can be to practice Islam in Japan.

 

When Higouch and Saito became Muslims there were only two mosques in the whole of Japan.

 

"It was very difficult. We Japanese have our own culture and traditions so it is quite difficult to carry out five prayers a day and fasting for a month," Higouch says.

 

'Planting seeds'

 

Saito is preparing to go on Hajj for the first time. As for many other Japanese Muslims, this involves a lot of self-study.

 

"It is not a normal holiday so I try to start from the preparation of my heart," she says.

 

"To learn how to prepare my mind to carry out the Hajj rituals, I read the books regarding the Hajj everyday at home. I would like to absorb the knowledge of the Hajj as much possible before the trip.

 

"It could be my last Hajj ... [so] I visit this holy city to try to feel the life of the Prophet and his companions of a long time ago."

 

Kenawy will be leaving Japan with 120 pilgrims - seven of whom are ethnic Japanese and going on Hajj for the first time and he is hopeful that this number will continue to grow.

 

"Like when you plant a seed and watch it grow, it can easily die or grow to be a big tree with many branches which cover everything. But it's not a tree yet. It's very easy to be broken now," he says.

 

"But with all the people's support, I think 10 or 20 years from now, maybe I'm not here, I can see there will be an organisation like a ministry for Hajis like in Singapore or Indonesia."

[Soomaalis Deported from Soomaaliya!!!]

It appears that Djibouti is also involved in this shameful practice. So much for Ismail Omar Guelleh's 'Soomaalinimo' talk.

 

Guelleh's predecessor (and uncle), Hasan Guleed Abtidoon, would not even allow the construction of refugee camps to cater for Somali refugees - remarking that Somalis fleeing to Djibouti would never be considered as refugees under his rule. May Allah grant him Jannah.

 

Djibouti repatriates 40 Somali asylum seekers: UN

 

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Djibouti has forcibly sent 40 asylum seekers from Somalia back to the Somali capital Mogadishu, the United Nations refugee agency said on Wednesday.

 

A Dutch naval ship, the Evertsen, on anti-piracy patrols in the Red Sea, rescued the migrants crammed on a boat en route to Yemen late last month.

 

Yemeni authorities refused to accept them and Djibouti first agreed to take them in then sent them back to Somalia, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

 

"UNHCR expresses regret regarding the forced repatriation of 40 Somali nationals to Mogadishu," spokeswoman Kathryn Mahoney said by telephone from Djibouti.

 

The migrants, including six women and seven children, were among thousands of people to have braved the 30-hour journey to Yemen with little food or water, often on rickety vessels.

 

Two years of Islamist insurgency have created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with 1 million internally displaced people in the Horn of Africa country and others fleeing to Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.

 

UNHCR said Djibouti authorities forced the 40 asylum seekers on to a plane which flew them back to the Somali capital on Tuesday.

 

slamist rebels are battling to overthrow a fragile transitional government in Mogadishu and the agency said deportation of the migrants to the Somali capital contravened the 1951 Geneva Convention that protects refugees.

 

"Our security assessment show that Mogadishu and southern Somalia in general are not safe ... for civilians and we urge states not to force Somali asylum seekers back to these places," Mahoney said.

 

Eighteen years of civil conflict in Somalia show no sign of abating, with foreign militants joining Islamist rebels seeking to topple the new government which is the 15th attempt to restore central rule since 1991.

Source

[Somali Refugees in Nepal: Stuck in Waiting Room]

Somali Refugees in Nepal: Stuck in Waiting Room

 

By Deepak Adhikari / Kathmandu

TIME

Tuesday Nov. 10, 2009

 

Mahad Abdullahi Hassan had never heard of Nepal before the day he landed in it. When the 28-year-old Somali boarded a flight from Dubai to Kathmandu on May 23, 2007, he was hoping he would finally reach his dream destination: Sweden. He had, after all, shelled out $4,000 to a human trafficker who promised to smuggle him to the Scandinavian country.

 

Instead, when Hassan got off the plane, he found himself in the airport in Kathmandu, where a taxi took him and the trafficker, who was traveling with him, to a bustling tourist neighborhood in the Nepalese capital. "It was a strange place," says Hassan. "All the buildings looked the same. Everything was new to me." When they booked a hotel there, the trafficker assured Hassan that he was arranging the necessary documents to complete their journey to Sweden. But the next morning, when Hassan woke up in an empty room he realized he'd been duped. "I realized I was completely at a loss," Hassan recalls.

 

At a loss, perhaps, but not alone. Gradually, Hassan integrated himself into the close-knit community of 84 Somali refugees living in Nepal, the largest nationality of some 300 United Nations-recognized 'urban refugees' now living in Kathmandu. The Somalis began to arrive to Nepal in early 2006. Most of them are from Mogadishu, and nearly all of them are victims of trafficking. Many say they, like Hassan, were promised passage to Europe; some claim that they were supposed to go to Naples, Italy, but ended up in Nepal because of the similar sounding names.

 

The remote Himalayan nation of Nepal, freshly emerged from its own decade-long Maoist insurgency, may seem an unlikely destination for refugees. But the effects of war in faraway lands have now trickled into this impoverished country. In fact, according to the U.N., developing nations like Nepal now host 80% of the world's 15.2 million refugees, nearly 20% of whom are designated as 'urban refugees' living outside refugee camps. Unlike refugees living in established camps, who are provided with food, homes, medical services, training and education, urban refugees live in cities they have fled to, at once more integrated with their new homelands, and more vulnerable to it. Though the UNHCR supports urban refugees through assistance and education, some are still vulnerable to detention or deportation. In Nepal, the police have raided the apartments of Pakistani urban refugees on several occasions while searching for illegal immigrants.

 

Nepal is no stranger to people seeking shelter in its borders. Nearly 87,000 Bhutanese are now living in UNHCR-run refugee camps in southeastern Nepal, having fled the tiny kingdom of Bhutan after the government's policy stripped them of Bhutanese citizenship, and more than 10,000 Tibetan refugees have been living in Pokhara, a western tourist town and on the outskirts of Kathmandu, since 1959 after the Chinese occupation of Tibet led to the eviction of several Tibetans, including their spiritual leader Dalai Lama. But apart from these two groups, the government of Nepal — which is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. convention on refugees which ensures legal protection, other assistance and economic rights of the refugees — does not recognize the other nationalities living in its borders as refugees. According to Basanta Raj Bhattarai, deputy coordinator of National Unit for Coordination of Refugee Affairs at Ministry of Home Affairs, the government has requested UNHCR not to recognize any more cases of urban refugees living in its borders. There are fears, he says, that the country might turn into a safe haven for illegal immigrants. "We don't want Nepal to be a hub for human trafficking," says Bhattarai. The government recently imposed a ban on issuing on-arrival visas for the residents of a dozen countries, including Somalia, Burma, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Sudan.

 

Fleeing war, drought and hunger at home, Somali refugees are scattered all over the world. The vast majority of them have escaped to neighboring African countries. After surviving death threats, kidnappings and the murders of their loved ones back home, the relatively few Somalis in Nepal are just whiling away their time, waiting for what Hassan calls a "durable solution" — repatriation to Somalia, resettlement in another country, or local integration here in Nepal. As in Hassan's case, they help each other out and also celebrate festivals like Eid together. But they also complain angrily about what they see as the indifference of the Nepalese government and UNHCR toward their predicament. (Read "Somalia's Crisis: Not Piracy, but Its People's Plight.")

 

For Sayeed Hassan Olow, 41, the patriarch of his family of nine, each day begins with the household chores. Olow wakes up early at four in the morning, prepares food for his kids, and sends them to the school. By 8 a.m. he's already at the Lazimpat cafe, meeting his countrymen, and he returns home only in the evening. Without the legal right to work and a monthly allowance of $55 handed out by UNHCR, keeping food on the table can be a challenge, and the sense of isolation is strong. As Muslims living in a Hindu majority nation, they have to travel several miles to reach the nearest mosque for prayers. Kathmandu's syncretic Hindu-Buddhist culture is hard for them to fathom. Some, like Zakaria Ahmed, a 20-year-old who lives in a sleepy neighborhood of Kathmandu with his wife and 8-month-old daughter, says he spends most nights at home watching TV because he has nowhere to go. "Most of us don't have Nepali friends," says Hassan, "All we do is say 'hi' when we meet them at the cafe." The group is still treated as something of a novelty in Nepalese society: On May 5, the Kathmandu Post published a front-page photo of a group of Somalis acting as bodyguards in a local movie. Dressed in jeans and black tank tops, they were toting toy guns to protect the lead actress of the soon-to-be-released film.

 

The government's policy of designating Somalis like Olow, Ahmed and Hassan as illegal immigrants places them in a precarious situation. Every day they stay in the country, they accumulate a fee of $6 a day. According to Bhattarai, only a handful of families in Nepal have been accepted through the UNHCR for third-country resettlement, and are slated they are ready to leave for Western countries. "The resettlement countries should pay for their exit fines," says Bhattarai.

 

What's next for the rest of the Somalis trapped in this Himalayan waiting room? Diane Goodman, acting representative of UNHCR in Kathmandu, says despite its non-signatory status, Nepal is still has obligations toward those who cross its borders seeking refuge on humanitarian grounds. A year ago, the nation's Supreme Court ordered the government to formulate new legislation to ensure, in keeping with international laws, the rights for refugees, after a lawsuit was filed by a local NGO on behalf of a Pakistani urban refugee. But the government has yet to act on the ruling, citing lack of resources to manage the refugees, and arguing that such legislation could provide impetus for more refugees to come. Goodman and others watching the situation are aware of the Somalis' desire to return home. But, she says, "the situation in Somalia has regrettably deteriorated significantly in 2009. We will not facilitate repatriation to a country where the lives of a returning refugee and their family will be in danger."

 

In the apartment Hassan shares with an Iraqi refugee and a fellow Somali, he shows pictures of his wife, son and daughter in Mogadishu. A calendar hangs on the wall as the sole decoration in an otherwise spartan room with two beds and a lonely CD player. Had he made it to Sweden, Hassan says he planned to bring his wife and children over to meet him. Now, he thinks he made a mistake ever leaving. "Given a choice," he says, "I would love to go back home."

Source

[Unreported:: the extreme physical and mental pain of our people]

Originally posted by Ilka-dahable:

Alamagan walaahi Anagaa dadkeena garabkooda ka baxnay SOL folks you don’t find many replies topic like this most Nomad they care only muran dood some of you they being net ku dirir since 2002

Dood bay ku koreen …..

Look this nonsense topics how many replies you get

 

Somali man, '112', weds girl, 17 Pages : 1 2 3 4 ... 15 16 17

 

Introducing Farxia Kabayare Pages

: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

 

And look this how many replies

 

Naxariisdaro

(post #0)

Good observation. It is sad that so many SOL members find crass culture more appealing than discussions involving the blight of their people.

[The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays The Birth of PR]

The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR

 

by Larry Tye

 

book review by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

 

Today, few people outside the public relations profession recognize the name of Edward L. Bernays. As the year 2000 approaches, however, his name deserves to figure on historians' lists of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

 

It is impossible to fundamentally grasp the social, political, economic and cultural developments of the past 100 years without some understanding of Bernays and his professional heirs in the public relations industry. PR is a 20th century phenomenon, and Bernays--widely eulogized as the "father of public relations" at the time of his death in 1995--played a major role in defining the industry's philosophy and methods.

 

Eddie Bernays himself desperately craved fame and a place in history. During his lifetime he worked and schemed to be remembered as the founder of his profession and sometimes drew ridicule from his industry colleagues for his incessant self-promotions. These schemes notwithstanding, Bernays richly deserves the title that Boston Globe reporter Larry Tye has given him in his engagingly written new book, The Father of Spin.

 

In keeping with his obsessive desire for recognition, Bernays was the author of a massive memoir, titled Biography of an Idea, and he fretted about who would author his biography. He would probably be happy with Tye's book, the first written since his passing.

 

The Father of Spin is a bit too fawning and uncritical of Bernays and his profession. We recommend it, however, for its new insights into Bernays, many of which are based on a first-time-ever examination of the 80 boxes of papers and documents that Bernays left to the Library of Congress. The portrait that emerges is of a brilliant, contradictory man.

 

Tye writes that "Bernays' papers . . . provide illuminating and sometimes disturbing background on some of the most interesting episodes of twentieth-century history, from the way American tobacco tycoons made it socially acceptable for women to smoke to the way other titans of industry persuaded us to pave over our landscape and switch to beer as the 'beverage of moderation.' The companies involved aren't likely to release their records of those campaigns, assuming they still exist. But Bernays saved every scrap of paper he sent out or took in. . . . In so doing, he let us see just how policies were made and how, in many cases, they were founded on deception."

 

In an industry that is notable for its mastery of evasions and euphemisms, Bernays stood out for his remarkable frankness. He was a propagandist and proud of it. (In an interview with Bill Moyers, Bernays said that what he did was propaganda, and that he just "hoped it was 'proper-ganda' and not 'improper-ganda.'")

 

Bernays' life was amazing in many ways. He had a role in many of the seminal intellectual and commercial events of this century. "The techniques he developed fast became staples of political campaigns and of image-making in general," Tye notes. "That is why it is essential to understand Edward L. Bernays if we are to understand what Hill and Knowlton did in Iraq--not to mention how Richard Nixon was able to dig his way out of his post-Watergate depths and remake himself into an elder statesman worthy of a lavish state funeral, how Richard Morris repositioned President Bill Clinton as an ideological centrist in order to get him reelected, and how most other modern-day miracles of public relations are conceived and carried out."

 

Many of the new insights that Tye offers have to do with Bernays's relationship with his family and his uncle Sigmund Freud, whose reputation as "the father of psychoanalysis" owes something to Bernays' publicity efforts. Bernays regarded Uncle Sigmund as a mentor, and used Freud's insights into the human psyche and motivation to design his PR campaigns, while also trading on his famous uncle's name to inflate his own stature.

 

There is, however, a striking paradox in the relationship between the two. Uncle Sigmund's "talking cure" was designed to unearth his patients' unconscious drives and hidden motives, in the belief that bringing them into conscious discourse would help people lead healthier lives. Bernays, by contrast, used psychological techniques to mask the motives of his clients, as part of a deliberate strategy aimed at keeping the public unconscious of the forces that were working to mold their minds.

 

Characteristically (and again paradoxically), Bernays was remarkably candid about his manipulative intent. "If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it," he argued in Propaganda, one of his first books. In a later book, he coined the term "engineering of consent" to describe his technique for controlling the masses.

 

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society," Bernays argued. "Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. . . . In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."

 

This definition of "democratic society" is itself a contradiction in terms--a theoretical attempt to reconcile rule by the few with the democratic system which threatened (and still threatens) the privileges and powers of the governing elite. On occasion, Bernays himself recoiled from the anti-democratic implications of his theory.

 

During Bernays' lifetime and since, propaganda has usually had dirty connotations, loaded and identified with the evils of Nazi PR genius Joseph Goebbels, or the oafish efforts of the Soviet Communists. In his memoirs, Bernays wrote that he was "shocked" to discover that Goebbels kept copies of Bernays' writings in his own personal library, and that his theories were therefore helping to "engineer" the rise of the Third Reich.

 

Bernays liked to cultivate an image as a supporter of feminism and other liberating ideas, but his work on behalf of the United Fruit Company had consequences just as evil and terrifying as if he'd worked directly for the Nazis. The Father of Spin sheds new and important light on the extent to which the Bernays' propaganda campaign for the United Fruit Company (today's United Brands) led directly to the CIA's overthrow of the elected government of Guatemala.

 

The term "banana republic" actually originated in reference to United Fruit's domination of corrupt governments in Guatemala and other Central American countries. The company brutally exploited virtual slave labor in order to produce cheap bananas for the lucrative U.S. market. When a mildly reformist Guatemala government attempted to reign in the company's power, Bernays whipped up media and political sentiment against it in the commie-crazed 1950s.

 

"Articles began appearing in the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, the New Leader, and other publications all discussing the growing influence of Guatemala's Communists," Tye writes. "The fact that liberal journals like the Nation were also coming around was especially satisfying to Bernays, who believed that winning the liberals over was essential. . . . At the same time, plans were under way to mail to American Legion posts and auxiliaries 300,000 copies of a brochure entitled 'Communism in Guatemala--22 Facts.'"

 

His efforts led directly to a brutal military coup. Tye writes that Bernays "remained a key source of information for the press, especially the liberal press, right through the takeover. In fact, as the invasion was commencing on June 18, his personal papers indicate he was giving the 'first news anyone received on the situation' to the Associate Press, United Press, the International News Service, and the New York Times, with contacts intensifying over the next several days."

 

The result, tragically, has meant decades of tyranny under a Guatemalan government whose brutality rivaled the Nazis as it condemned hundreds of thousands of people (mostly members of the country's impoverished Maya Indian majority) to dislocation, torture and death.

 

Bernays relished and apparently never regretted his work for United Fruit, for which he was reportedly paid $100,000 a year, a huge fee in the early 1950s. Tye writes that Bernays' papers "make clear how the United States viewed its Latin neighbors as ripe for economic exploitation and political manipulation--and how the propaganda war Bernays waged in Guatemala set the pattern for future U.S.-led campaigns in Cuba and, much later, Vietnam."

 

As these examples show, Tye's biography of Bernays is important. It casts a spotlight on the anti-democratic and dangerous corporate worldview of the public relations industry. The significance of these dangers is often overlooked, in large part because of the PR industry's deliberate efforts to operate behind the scenes as it manages and manipulates opinions and public policies. This strategy of invisibility is the reason that PR academic Scott Cutlip refers to public relations as "the unseen power."

 

Bernays pioneered many of the industry's techniques for achieving invisibility, yet his self-aggrandizing personality drove him to leave behind a record of how and for whom he worked. By compiling this information and presenting it to the public in a readable form, Tye has accomplished something similar to the therapeutic mission that Freud attempted with his patients--a recovery of historical memories that a psychoanalyst might term a "return of the repressed."

Source

[The Event: How racist are you?]

Interesting program.

 

I actually prefer the so called 'in your face' racism to the subtle kind. The thoughts of the subtle racist is often more insidious and demeaning. Those who display outward signs are often simply ignorant. Whereas the subtle racist is knowledgeable but imbued with deep-seated intolerance of the other - pure ignorance is not what drives such people.

[Interesting argument brought forward by ONLF leader for the name of the region]

Originally posted by Sherban Shabeel:

This is crazy!

 

The fact that some people would deny help to their Somali brethren because they belong to an organization and live in a region named after a certain clan is MIND-BOGGLING.

 

Furthermore, you think that a name change is going to change the organization and make it more "clan neutral"? If you hate the taste of root beer and its name was changed to "heaven water" would you start drinking it?

 

If the fact that the region and the organization are dominated by one clan which is not yours, is stopping you from helping your brethren, FINE! Just stick to your corner and stop whining.

 

But this attitude does speak volumes about the shitty state Somalia is in today.

Three pages worth of replies and the only worthy, logical contribution comes from a non-Somali! Need I say more? Sombre

[Puntland Needs Solution Urgently Regarding ONLF]

Originally posted by Mr. Somalia: The ONLF needs to start pacifying their lands, instead of pretending to be refugees in Somalia. They must learn to co-exist with their fellow countrymen in Ethiopia.

Disgusting! Walee hooyadii ku dhashay weey kugu qasaartay.

[Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa]

The drought may not make the headlines as often but it is starting to bite hard. Yet another item to add to an already dire situation.

 

Fleeing drought in the Horn of Africa

 

A new kind of refugee has arrived: Those forced from their home regions not by war or persecution, but by the climate. A Kenyan camp is bursting with the displaced, some of whom share their stories.

 

...He's not fleeing warlords, Islamist insurgents or Somalia's 18-year civil war. He's fleeing the weather.

Read More...LA Times Report

[Somali Mentors/Role Models Wanted]

^ Sounds like a worthy cause. I'm hoping that you've received replies from SOL members in London. All the best!

[Miracle or hoax?: Qur'an phrases appear on Russian Baby's Skin]

Ibtisam’s comments are the most sensible of all. Allahu aclam. And in any case - Innallaha 'ala kuli shay-'in-Qadir.

 

Castro, get a grip. Is it just me or is adopting a ‘sceptical’ outlook the current prevailing fashion on SOL?

 

I’d advice you all to tread carefully on matters of Deen. One can stray dangerously close to disbelief without even realising.

[Miracle or hoax?: Qur'an phrases appear on Russian Baby's Skin]

Miracle or hoax? Russians puzzled as phrases from the Koran start appearing 'spontaneously' on baby's skin

 

A baby is sparking a wave of speculation in Russia after phrases from the Koran allegedly began appearing on his skin.

 

Sayings from the Muslim holy book are said to appear on nine-month-old Ali Yakubov's back, arms, legs and stomach - before apparently fading away and being replaced with new sayings.

 

Russian medics claimed they are puzzled over the cause of the marks on a baby's skin, which started when the word Allah apparently appeared on his chin within weeks of his birth.

 

Medics deny that the marks are from someone writing on the child's skin.

 

His mother, Madina, said that she and her husband were not religious until the writings started appearing on his skin.

 

Initially they did not show anyone the unexplained writings, she said, until revealing them to their doctor and the imam in their village of Red October which is in a strongly Muslim region.

 

Now the boy has become a focus of Muslim homage in his troubled home province of Dagestan, close to war-ravaged Chechnya in the south of Russia.

 

Local MP Akhmedpasha Amiralaev said: 'This boy is a pure sign of God. Allah sent him to Dagestan in order to stop revolts and tension in our republic.'

 

The boy's mother claimed: 'Normally those signs appear twice a week - on Mondays and on the nights between Thursdays and Fridays.

 

'Ali always feels bad when it is happening. He cries and his temperature goes up. It's impossible to hold him when it's happening, his body is actively moving, so we put him into his cradle. It's so hard to watch him suffering.'

 

The phrases regularly replace each other on the baby's skin, she said.

 

Local imam Abdulla has told locals that the Koran forecasts that before the end of the world, there may be people with its sayings on their bodies.

 

He said that one sign read: 'Don't hide these signs from the people.'

 

The story has attracted considerable attention from the Russian media and online.

Source, Russian video report

[Shabab Whipping Women For Wearing Bra's. LOL]

Originally posted by nuune:

Many people will think this article will damage Alshabaab, IT IS NOT, it si your pride, and Somalis need to come out in protest about this kind of rubbish being ciruculated by Reuters in the name of Kenyan jourtnalists

I second that. This story is utter rubbish.

[US to make Blackwater-style entry into Somalia]

One ****** decision after another. The TFG should spend its meager resources on developing its own forces, using Somali trainers. Dishing out multi-million dollar contracts to these capitalist killing-machines won't save them. Haven't they learned any lessons from Iraq?

 

 

US to make Blackwater-style entry into Somalia

 

The grounds have reportedly been established for armed American presence on Somali soil with a US security firm winning a contract in the war-ravaged country.

 

Michigan-based CSS Global Inc., secured the contract under the plea of 'fighting terrorism and piracy' and 'protecting' Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), reported Michigan Live citing The Grand Rapids Press newspaper.

 

"It is going to be a huge challenge," said Chris Frain, chief executive officer and co-owner of CSS Alliance, to which the CSS Global Inc is affiliated. "This is a brand-new government being stood up with the help of the international community."

 

The contractor's operations team was composed of former military and law enforcement personnel, including Special Forces, Michigan Live added.

 

The US firm has been involved in other African nations as well as in Iraq, where 17 civilians were killed in 2007 by a similar licentiate, Blackwater, currently known as Xe Services.

 

Washington has been exceedingly deputizing the companies, which are notorious for misusing their State Department-issued gun licenses as excuses for trigger-ready atrocities. The move has been denounced as an effort at putting a non-military face on the US pursuits in the respective countries.

 

US officials have, at the same time, been strongly arguing that there is an alleged al-Qaeda presence in Somalia and a reported militant-run recruitment network which, they say, could ensnare the Somali-American community.

 

Special Somali envoy to the United States, H.E. Ali Hassan Gulaid, however, said they were "confident the expertise of the CSS Global senior staff will prove to be a valuable asset to us in our efforts to establish a safe and secure Somalia for our citizens."

Source