Madaxweynaha Soomaaliya C/llaahi Yuusuf Axmed oo Fiidnimadii Caawa si weyn loogu soo dhaweeyay Magaalada Jowhar Ammaanka ayaa la adkeeyay, goobaha Ganacsiga ayaa la xiray, dhamaan Waddooyinka soo gala magaalada Jowhar ayaa la xiray, Jidadka ayaa laga taagay Calanka Soomaaliya iyo Sawirada Madaxweynaha Soomaaliya C/llaahi Yuusuf Axmed, waxaa isu soo baxay oo dad badan isugu yimid Garoonka Diyaaradaha ee Jowhar oo 10 Km u jira magaalada dadweyne aad u fara badan, qeybaha Bulshada sida ardayda dugsiyada Waxbarashada,kooxaha Fanaaniin ah dhamaan dadkaasi muddo 9 Sacadood ah waxay u taaganaayeen maanta soo dhaweynta Wafdiga Madaxweynaha Soomaaliya C/llaahi Yuusuf Axmed oo goor dhaw ka dagay Garoonka Diyaaradaha ee Magaalada Jowhar. Nin-ka dhawaan loo Magacabay Lataliyaha dhinaca Ammaanka Madaxweynaha Soomaaliya ahna Guddoomiyaha Guddiga Siyaasadda ee Jowhar Maxamed Dheere ayaa horkacayay dadka soo dhaweeyay Wafdiga Madaxweyne C/llaahi Yuusuf, sidoo kale Siyaasiyiin uu ka mid yahay Caaqil Koogaar ayaa ka mid ahaa dadkii ka tagay magaalada muqdisho ee ka qeybgalay soo dhaweynta Wafdiga Madaxweynaha. C/llaahi Yuusuf oo markii uu ka soo dagay Garoonka Diyaaradaha Jowhar Salaan Sharaf ka qaatay qaar ka mid ah Ciidamada Qalabka sida ee Soomaaliya ayaa waxaa uu noqday Mas’uulkii ugu horeeyay oo ka mid ah dowladda Federaalka Soomaaliya kadib xiritaanka Shirkii kenya iyo soo afjarida Joogitaanka Dowladda dalka kenya ee soo gaaro gudaha dalka Soomaaliya. Madaxweyne C/llaahi Yuusuf iyo Wafdigiisa ayaa sida ay sheegayaan warar naga soo gaaraya Jowhar waxay ahaan doonta inay joogaan Jowhar Saacado kadibna Madaxweynaha u gudbi doona Magaalada Dooxa ee dalka Qadar halkaas oo berito ka furmi doona shirweyne ay isugu yimaadan 77 dal. Magaalada Jowhar oo Caasimadda Muqdisho sida la ii sheegay u jirto 90-Km waxay ka mid tahay Labada Magaalo ee la qorsheeyay inay degto dowladad Federaalka inta amaanka iyo dala dambeynta Muqdisho laga soo celinayo, hase ahaate go’aankaas oo 11-kii bishii hore ay gaareen Xubno Baarlamaanka iyo Xukuumadad Federaalka ah ayaa waxaa ka soo horjeestay Guddoomiyaha Baarlamaanka, Xildhibaano iyo Wasiirada hubeysan ee muqdisho, sidoo kale Baydhabo oo magaalada Labaad ahayd ayaa waxaa ka dhacay dagaalka salka ku hayo arrimaha Dowladda, dagaalkaas oo guul ka gaaray xildhibaanka diidan qorshaha Madaxweynaha iyo Xukuumadda Maxamed Ibraahim Xaabsade. Madaxweynaha ayaa marka u sii gudbo dalka Qadar uuna soo dhameysto arrimaha shirka uu u socda waxaa la sheegay inay suuragal tahay inuu dib ugu soo Laabto magaalada Jowhar. Dhinaca kale dadweynaha Magaalada Muqdisho ayaa siyaabo kala duwan uga hadleen socdaalka Madaxweynaha caawa ku tagay magaalada Jowhar,waxayna sheegen in Jowhar ay tahay magaalda xarun ka dhigan doona Madaxweynaha, waxaase dadka is weydiinayaan halka ay noqon doonta magaalada Labaad. Warar kale oo naga soo gaaray Jowhar ayaa waxay sheegayan in goobo badan oo ay ka mid tahay Warshaddii hore ee SNAI iyo goobo kale, waxaana la sheegay in Maamulka Maxamed Dheere si weyn u diyaariyeen goobahaas. Sida uu qorshaha uu yahay Ra’iisal wasaaraha soomaaliya ayaa Xafiiska uu ka furan doona magaalada muqdisho waxaa uu noqon doona Xaruntii hore ee Laanta socdaalka dowladdii Maxamed Siyaad Barre oo dad badan u yaqaanan (Habar Khadiijo) waa marka laga soo tago Baar FIAT lana soo gaarin Shineemo Hadarmuud ee Degmda Shibis. Inta uusan ka soo ambabixin Garoonka diyaaradaha ee Magaalada Nairobi Jomo Kenyata, waxaa loo qabtay Xaflad lagu sagootinayay, kadib Isaga Waa C/llaahi Yuusuf Madaxweynaha Kenya Salaan Sharaf qaateen Ciidamada Kenya,dadka Garoonka Joogay waxay ka mid ahaa, Ra’iisal Wasaaraha Soomaaliya Cali Maxamed Geeddi, kuxigeenka Ra’iisal Wasaaraha Soomaaliya Xuseen Maxamed Caydiid. “Umadda Soomaaliyed waxaa leeyahay Cayaartii waa dhamaatay ee na soo dhaweeyaâ€ayuu yiri Madaxweyne C/llaahi Yuusuf Axmed oo baaq u jeediyay Shacabka Soomaaliyed,lama oga inuu isla caawa ka tagayo Jowhar iyo inuu jiifanayo. Midnimo Information Center

Somali National Week in Canada The annual Somali national Week in Ottawa, Canada will be from June 26th to 1st July, 2005. The Somali National Week is the "largest Somali cultural festival in North America". The Somali National cultural week is an annual event arranged by The Somali Canadian Advancement and Integration Center in Canada with guests attending from the Somali Speaking of the Horn of Africa, Europe and neighboring USA. The Canadian Government officials, Provincial leaders, Local Government, Somali leaders, cultural guests as well as local officials and a group of Afro-Canadians Will attend the opening ceremony. Exhibitions of cultural heritage artifacts, and artworks of Somalis, Sports, Somali poetries, Somali Music and songs as well as the screening of Somali and African films translated into the English and French languages are some of the programs of the week-long event. To involve, attend, volunteer or participate this event, Please don't hesitate to contact Organizing task force. There are 3 ways to reach us: 1) You can write & e-mail us at: somaliweek@somalicenter.com 2) you can call SCAIC center: 1-613-736 7252 Website: www.somalicenter.com

THE WORLD Debtor Nations Freed of Burdens The G-8 agreement wipes out $40 billion owed by 18 African and Latin countries. It is a victory for Britain, which led the effort. By John Daniszewski Times Staff Writer June 12, 2005 LONDON — Building on an accord between Britain and the United States, finance ministers of the world's wealthiest nations agreed Saturday to wipe out $40 billion in debt owed by 18 of the world's poorest countries as part of a major assault on global poverty. The decision by the Group of 8, the world's leading industrial nations and Russia, fulfilled a decades-old dream of anti-poverty activists, who have argued that payments on old loans drain the limited resources of the world's poorest nations, most of which are in Africa, keeping millions of people mired in poverty. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, the major force in putting together the debt-relief package, announced that the poor nations' debt to the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund would be wiped out. Richer countries have agreed to replenish the reserves of the funding organizations as necessary. Brown said the debtor nations would be relieved of $15.6 billion in payments on the $40 billion over the next 10 years, and the savings would be funneled to urgent needs in health, education and infrastructure development. The decision qualifies 14 countries in Africa and four in Latin America for immediate debt forgiveness. An additional 20 countries could qualify over the next two years. Brown said the total size of the debt relief package could eventually reach $55 billion, believed to be the largest such initiative in history. U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, who was in London for the finance ministers' meeting at a conference center near Westminster Abbey, hailed it as "an achievement of historic proportions." Although some African countries that will not immediately benefit questioned the value of the agreement, a spokesman for South African President Thabo Mbeki declared the agreement "good news" for the continent. "We are really encouraged by this decision and want to thank the British government and all the countries involved in this agreement," said the spokesman, Bhelo Khumalo. "It will go a long way to enriching the African continent." The action by the finance ministers was spearheaded by Britain as part of a drive by Brown and Prime Minister Tony Blair to aid Africa and help fulfill United Nations goals to cut world poverty in half by the year 2015. Many parts of the world have made progress in recent decades, but people in many sub-Saharan countries are poorer than they were decades ago and are dying younger. Brown said that the G-8 summit scheduled to begin July 6 in Gleneagles, Scotland, could see additional anti-poverty commitments from the assembled leaders of Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Russia. Among those initiatives could be guaranteed treatment for people with HIV/AIDS by 2010. "I know it is the intention of world leaders to forge a new and better relationship — a new deal — between the rich and poor countries of the world and I believe that the advances that we have made can be built upon … in the next few weeks," Brown said. "This is not a time for timidity, but a time for boldness, and not a time for settling for second best, but aiming high." The deal was seen as a victory for Brown, who in recent months has held long, tough talks with fellow finance ministers to gain support for his debt-relief proposal. In a crucial breakthrough last week, the U.S. and British governments agreed that the debts could be forgiven and the international community would make up the funds that would be lost to the World Bank and the other lending organizations. Britain had originally proposed that richer countries assume the debt payments. Blair pushed President Bush for action in a meeting in Washington last week. British officials reported on Friday that the White House made a significant concession, agreeing that money used to reimburse the lending institutions would not come out of future aid to the poor countries. Over the next 10 years, the additional cost to the United States would be $1.3 billion to $1.75 billion. Britain would pay $700 million to $960 million, Brown said. Writing off the multilateral debts of poor countries has been one of Britain's priorities for its G-8 presidency, which starts next month. It is also pressing for a doubling of foreign aid levels and for the creation of an international finance facility that would issue bonds based on long-term foreign aid commitments, and use the money to pay for vaccinations and infrastructure development in Africa. Loans from international lending agencies are only part of the debt owed by the world's poorest countries but are the most burdensome. The G-8 countries already have committed to completely forgive debt owed directly to them by the world's poorest countries, and for some of the poor countries, the debt is already in the process of being canceled. However, repaying debt to international lending agencies has been a condition for poor countries seeking access to credit markets. The 18 countries that would qualify immediately for debt relief have already been approved under the World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative, in which they commit to good governance, adhering to an IMF-endorsed financial plan and rooting out corruption. Max Lawson, policy advisor with the British charity Oxfam, told the Guardian newspaper that the debt agreement was "a seriously positive step." But he said it amounted only to about $1.5 billion in relief per year for the eligible countries. Western experts believe an extra $50 billion a year is needed by African nations to overcome a legacy of poverty, political instability, corruption and disease. Bob Geldof, the rock singer and activist who has campaigned for the eradication of poverty in Africa since the Live Aid concert of 1985, said he was happy with the decision. Geldof is organizing five concerts in Europe and the U.S. on July 2 to call attention to the issue. "Tomorrow, 280 million Africans will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny from the burden of debt that has crippled them and their countries for so long — money we didn't even know we were owed and never wanted in the first place, and money they could never pay," he said. Snow, the U.S. Treasury secretary, said he hoped the accord would end a "destabilizing lend-and-forgive approach" in low-income countries. By removing "unsustainable" debt and giving the 18 countries increased development aid, they should be able to reach their goals, he said. The 18 countries deemed to have qualified for the debt forgiveness are: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Nine other countries are expected to qualify within the next 18 months: Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe, and Sierra Leone. Daudi Balali, governor of the Tanzanian Central Bank, was quoted by the South African Press Assn. as saying the deal gave hope to his country. "We can expand health and education services with this relief. We will also be able to improve our infrastructure," he said. But officials in Kenya, which has been repeatedly condemned by Western diplomats for failing to sack corrupt ministers, said it was ineffective to provide debt relief only to the very poorest African countries. Nigeria, which is not one of the 18 countries qualifying, recently threatened an Argentina-style default unless its debts were canceled. Nigeria is the continent's biggest oil producer, but it also has the highest debt in Africa and is plagued by corruption. The benefits of oil production have not trickled down to most people. African leaders made a strong call for debt reduction at the Africa Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, held June 1-3. They included Mbeki, who recently met with Bush to discuss the issue. "It is now incumbent upon the beneficiaries that they should ensure that the money will really go to education and health programs," Mbeki's spokesman told the South Africa Press Assn. * * (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX) Lifting a burden The world's wealthiest nations agreed Saturday on a plan to cancel at least $40 billion in debts owed by poor countries. The following is a breakdown of which countries could benefit: • Eighteen countries are immediately eligible because they already have reached targets for good governance under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, set up by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 1996. They are Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. • Nine countries are likely to qualify soon. They are Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Sao Tome and Principe and Sierra Leone. • Eleven countries participating in the 1996 initiative could eventually qualify. They are Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Laos, Liberia, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Togo. Source: Associated Press

nice pictures thanks sky

good news, it is encouraging sign of hope Boosaaso became the commercial city of Somalia

you could be more constructive without saying Puntland will fall apart.

Jowhar: Diyaar garow lagu soo dhoweynayo Madaxda dowladda oo ka socda Jowhar Diyaar garow aad u ballaaran oo loogu diyaar garoobayo soo dhoweynta dowladda Federaalka KMG ah ee Soomaaliya ayaa ka socda degmada Jowhar ee gobolka Sh/dhexe. Qeybaha kala duwan ee bulshada iyo madaxda gobolka ayaa waxay ku guda jiraan diyaarinta barnaamijyada loogu talagalay maamuuska iyo soo dhoweynta madaxda Qaranka Soomaaliyeed oo la filaayo in todobaadkan ay soo ggaaraan halkaasi. Durbada waxaa bilowday in xarumaha Ganacsiga iyo xafiisyada la suro sawirada Madaxweynaha Dowladda Federaalka Mudane C/llaahi Yuusuf Axmed iyo Ra’iisul Wasaare Prof. Cali Maxamed Geeddi. Waxaa magaalada Jowhar ilaa horaanta todobaadkan ku sii qulqulayey gawaari quruxsan iyo aqoonyahano ka tegayey magaalada Muqdisho si ay ugu qeybgalaan soo dhoweyntaas.

Wafti Ka Soo Jeeda Beel Waqooyi Galbeed Oo Ku Soo Fool Leh Gobolka Cayn

Siyaasiga C/qaadir Beebbe oo sheegay in qaabka loo wado isbaaro qaadista Muqdisho uusan ku qanacsanayn Siyaasiga C/qaadir Cabdi Xasan (Beebe) oo haatan sheegta inuu yahay Guddoomiyaha ururka USC/SSA ayaa sheegay in baraha koontarool ee degaannada uu ka taliyo aysan aheyn isbaaro ama jidgooyo loo dhigtay shacabka ama Gaadiidleyda ee ay yihiin kuwo lagu sugo ammaanka, wax dhib ahna aan ku heynin shacabka iyo Gaadiidkaba. C/qaadir Beebe oo kulamo kala duwan la yeelanayay beryahan mas'uuliyiinta degmooyinka hoos yimaada maamulkiisa sida degmooyinka Shibis, Boondheere iyo Shangaani ayaa sheegay in uu taageersan yahay howlaha nabadeynta ee laga wado G/Banaadir, balse uu dhaliilsan yahay qaabka isbaaro qaadidda oo uu ku sheegay in ay tahay mid aan loo marin dariiqii ku haboonnaa, isagoo ku tilmaamay isbaaro nin laga qaadayo oo nin kale loo dhiibayo in aanay macno soo kordhineynin. Dhinaca kale C/qaadir Beebe wuxuu saxaafadda soo tusay xafiisyo gaaraya ilaa 95 Xafiis oo qalabkoodu u dhan yahay, kuwaasoo uu sheegay in dowladda KMG Soomaaliya uu ugu talo galay inuu ku soo dhaweeyo, isagoo xusay in xafiisyadaasi ay horey u qalabaysay dowladdii carte balse ay u suurageli weysay inay degto. Mas'uuliyiinta degmooyinka hoos taga maamulka C/qaadir Beebe oo iyaguna saxaafadda la hadlay ayaa sheegay in baraha koontarool ee yaala degaannadooda ay yihiin kuwo ku saleysan maamul, raalina ay ka yihiin shacabka degaannadaasi degan, isla markaana suga amniga degaannadaa. Cabdiraxmaan Cumar Madoobe (Dalmar)

Siyaasiga C/qaadir Beebbe oo sheegay in qaabka loo wado isbaaro qaadista Muqdisho uusan ku qanacsanayn Siyaasiga C/qaadir Cabdi Xasan (Beebe) oo haatan sheegta inuu yahay Guddoomiyaha ururka USC/SSA ayaa sheegay in baraha koontarool ee degaannada uu ka taliyo aysan aheyn isbaaro ama jidgooyo loo dhigtay shacabka ama Gaadiidleyda ee ay yihiin kuwo lagu sugo ammaanka, wax dhib ahna aan ku heynin shacabka iyo Gaadiidkaba. C/qaadir Beebe oo kulamo kala duwan la yeelanayay beryahan mas'uuliyiinta degmooyinka hoos yimaada maamulkiisa sida degmooyinka Shibis, Boondheere iyo Shangaani ayaa sheegay in uu taageersan yahay howlaha nabadeynta ee laga wado G/Banaadir, balse uu dhaliilsan yahay qaabka isbaaro qaadidda oo uu ku sheegay in ay tahay mid aan loo marin dariiqii ku haboonnaa, isagoo ku tilmaamay isbaaro nin laga qaadayo oo nin kale loo dhiibayo in aanay macno soo kordhineynin. Dhinaca kale C/qaadir Beebe wuxuu saxaafadda soo tusay xafiisyo gaaraya ilaa 95 Xafiis oo qalabkoodu u dhan yahay, kuwaasoo uu sheegay in dowladda KMG Soomaaliya uu ugu talo galay inuu ku soo dhaweeyo, isagoo xusay in xafiisyadaasi ay horey u qalabaysay dowladdii carte balse ay u suurageli weysay inay degto. Mas'uuliyiinta degmooyinka hoos taga maamulka C/qaadir Beebe oo iyaguna saxaafadda la hadlay ayaa sheegay in baraha koontarool ee yaala degaannadooda ay yihiin kuwo ku saleysan maamul, raalina ay ka yihiin shacabka degaannadaasi degan, isla markaana suga amniga degaannadaa. Cabdiraxmaan Cumar Madoobe (Dalmar)

Siyaasiga C/qaadir Beebbe oo sheegay in qaabka loo wado isbaaro qaadista Muqdisho uusan ku qanacsanayn Siyaasiga C/qaadir Cabdi Xasan (Beebe) oo haatan sheegta inuu yahay Guddoomiyaha ururka USC/SSA ayaa sheegay in baraha koontarool ee degaannada uu ka taliyo aysan aheyn isbaaro ama jidgooyo loo dhigtay shacabka ama Gaadiidleyda ee ay yihiin kuwo lagu sugo ammaanka, wax dhib ahna aan ku heynin shacabka iyo Gaadiidkaba. C/qaadir Beebe oo kulamo kala duwan la yeelanayay beryahan mas'uuliyiinta degmooyinka hoos yimaada maamulkiisa sida degmooyinka Shibis, Boondheere iyo Shangaani ayaa sheegay in uu taageersan yahay howlaha nabadeynta ee laga wado G/Banaadir, balse uu dhaliilsan yahay qaabka isbaaro qaadidda oo uu ku sheegay in ay tahay mid aan loo marin dariiqii ku haboonnaa, isagoo ku tilmaamay isbaaro nin laga qaadayo oo nin kale loo dhiibayo in aanay macno soo kordhineynin. Dhinaca kale C/qaadir Beebe wuxuu saxaafadda soo tusay xafiisyo gaaraya ilaa 95 Xafiis oo qalabkoodu u dhan yahay, kuwaasoo uu sheegay in dowladda KMG Soomaaliya uu ugu talo galay inuu ku soo dhaweeyo, isagoo xusay in xafiisyadaasi ay horey u qalabaysay dowladdii carte balse ay u suurageli weysay inay degto. Mas'uuliyiinta degmooyinka hoos taga maamulka C/qaadir Beebe oo iyaguna saxaafadda la hadlay ayaa sheegay in baraha koontarool ee yaala degaannadooda ay yihiin kuwo ku saleysan maamul, raalina ay ka yihiin shacabka degaannadaasi degan, isla markaana suga amniga degaannadaa. Cabdiraxmaan Cumar Madoobe (Dalmar)

Maxamed Dheere ayaa ku baaqay in Doorashooyin laga sameeyo Jowhar Jowhar:-Gudoomiyaha gobolka Sh/dhexe ahna la taliyaha madaxweynaha dhanka nabadgelyada ayaa wada kulamo gooni gooni ah oo uu la yeelanayo odayaasha magaalada Jowhar asagoo kala hadlaya sidii ay u dhici laheyd doorasho lagu soo dooranayo gudoomiye cusub oo uu yeesho Gobolka Sh/dhexe. Maxamed Dheere oo asagu ka dhawaajiyey doorasho in ay ka dhaceyso Magaalada Jowhar oo lagu dooranayo gudoomiye cusub ayaan illaa iyo iminka uusan shaacin in uu isa soo sharixi doono iyo in kale . Ku dhawaaqista hadalkan uu ku dhawaaqay ayaa soo baxday ka dib markii maalintii Khamiistii loo magacaabay in uu noqdo la taliyaha Madaxweynaha dhanka Nabadgelyada. Maxamed Cumar Xabeeb (Maxamed dheere) ayaa awood ku qabsaday gobolka Sh/dhexe 14 kii maarso 2002dii asagoo xiligaa xubin ka ahaa dawladii Carte lagu soo dhisay. Radio Midnimo

Nothing new Somaliland conspiracy: seccesnists hope that mayhem and lawlessness will prolong in Somalia and Somaliland Administration vigorously working to dismantle every Somali peace process.

Somali gunmen re-erect roadblocks in blow for peace 09 Jun 2005 16:12:00 GMT Source: Reuters By Mohamed Ali Bile Women from Somalia cheer at a concert for aid for Africa in Rome. Photo by ALESSIA PIERDOMENICO MOGADISHU, June 9 (Reuters) - Mogadishu gunmen on Thursday re-manned roadblocks that were dismantled just two days ago in an unprecedented drive to prove the violent Somali capital is safe enough to be its Kenya-based government's home. The checkpoints, where heavily armed militias extort money from passing drivers, re-appeared in a few locations around the coastal capital in a blow to the peace effort, witnesses said. It prompted a strike by bus drivers -- regular victims of the extortion -- who demanded the roadblocks be completely removed. A little more than a dozen checkpoints, major sources of income to warlords who have dominated the anarchic Horn of Africa nation since militias deposed dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, have been taken down since Tuesday. Independent sources said earlier reports that as many as 25 of the roughly 50 in the city were dismantled were mistaken. On Wednesday, residents threw rocks at a re-established roadblock near the Bakara Market in a unprecedented display of civil anger. Though the militia refused to leave, drivers have since avoided the street to deprive the gunmen money, said Jabril Ibrahim Abdulle of the Centre for Research and Dialogue think-tank in Mogadishu. The roadblock removal effort, backed by civilian groups working with warlords, was part of a plan to pay gunmen to disarm and re-train as police or security at camps around the city. GOING HOME? The interim Somali government, still based in Kenya where it was formed at peace talks last year, is deeply split on where it should first make its home. Mogadishu warlords in the government and allied MPs, including Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, insist on Mogadishu, and have travelled there to make the case it is safe. Others allied with President Abdullahi Yusuf plan to first return to Jowhar, north of the capital, and the southern town of Baidoa, with a liaison office in Mogadishu. They argue the capital must be pacified before the government can fully relocate there. Somali officials in Kenya plan to leave next week, after the Kenyan government hosts a farewell on Monday, Kenya's Ambassador to Somalia Mohamed Affey told Reuters. "There is no deadline. The proposition is that we have a final farewell ceremony hosted by Kenya as the host government for the Somali transitional institutions," Affey said, adding that MPs still here would soon go home. The Somali government has repeatedly delayed its return date. Donors are still paying the MPs' bills at Nairobi hotels. On Thursday, Somalia's cabinet appointed former diplomat Dr. Elmi Ahmed Duale ambassador to the United Nations. His appointment came as the cabinet approved an as-yet unfunded budget of $279.5 million, the appointments of other presidential advisers and an ambassador to China. Meanwhile, a long-running fight between two subclans over control of southern town of Garbaharrey flared on Thursday, killing nine and injuring 16, people who fled the town told Reuters by radio. Militias with heavy machine guns battled for control of the town, considered a strategic business hub because of its location near the Kenyan border in Somalia's southwest. (Additional reporting by Bryson Hull and William Maclean in Nairobi)

Ugandan president meets Somali PM over peace processKAMPALA, Jun 10, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Friday afternoon held a meeting with Somali transitional government Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi in Kampala, reported Radio Uganda. "The president and the Somali premier discussed matters concerning the ongoing peace process and restoration of the Somali nation in which Uganda is playing a major role," the Ugandan government radio said. "Premier Gedi expressed gratitude to President Museveni for the effort he is in putting in the peace process. He assured him of the transitional government's commitment to the rebuilding of Somalia," the radio added. Gedi came to Uganda to discuss the Somali process with Museveni, who is also chairman of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development before foreign minister of the seven-member group meet in Kenya on Sunday to endorse the Somali interim government's new relocation plan. According to a report reaching here on Friday, the east Africa regional ministers will discuss issues of finances, deployment of peacekeeping forces, and security situation in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. The Somali transitional government was established in Kenya last year. Somalia has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Somali government names first foreign ambassadors NAIROBI, June 10 (AFP) - Somalia's government-in-exile has named its first foreign envoys in a bid to put the war-shattered country back on the international diplomatic scene after a 14-year absence, officials said Friday. The transitional Somali cabinet, sitting in the Kenyan capital on Thursday, appointed ambassadors to the United Nations and China and announced plans to name other diplomats soon, they said. "This is part of a government plan to have its own ambassadors across the world who will assist in putting Somalia back on the map," a spokesman for transitional Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told AFP. "These two are the first lot, others will be named in the future," said the spokesman, Yusuf Ismail Bari Bari. Since the 1991 overthrow of the regime of strongman Mohammed Siad Barre, the Horn of Africa nation of about 10 million has been in chaos without any functioning central authority and has had only limited representation abroad. Elmi Ahmed Duale, a physician and World Health Organisation official, was named as the government's permanent representative to the United Nations, he said. Mohamed Awil, a Somali exile close to Yusuf and a political newcomer, was appointed ambassador to Beijing, Bari Bari said. In addition to the appointment of the new envoys, he said the cabinet had also approved a 279.5-million-dollar (229-million-euro) budget although it has no means of raising revenue and is entirely dependent on foreign aid. Observers said the budget was less a spending plan than a request for international assistance to help the government relocate from exile in Nairobi and establish itself in Somalia. Yusuf, who was elected late 2004, is trying to give his government legitimacy amid a power struggle with warlords who control Mogadishu over the relocation of the government. The president and Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi have backed a plan that would see the administration first move to the towns of Baidoa and Jowhar and stay away from anarchic Mogadishu for security reasons. But warlords in the capital are demanding that the government move there. The Kenyan government is set to host a farewell party for Yusuf's government on June 13, but it is not yet clear exactly when and where it will relocate. bkb-amu/mvl/mb Copyright © 2005 Agence France-Presse Received by NewsEdge Insight: 06/10/2005 04:48:49

Warlodism, Oralism, CLanism and The Murky Waters of Somali History Ismail Ali Ismail June 7, 2005 “Prejudice is the ink with which we write history†Mark Twain Wherefore Art Thou History? Those Somali Anglophiles who must have read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet will find a familiar ring about this subtitle. I feel much the same way about our history as Juliet did about Romeo when she cried, “Wherefore art thou Romeoâ€, and I am always bothered whenever I recall the belligerent harangue of a certain Debela Dinsa who, as a member of the Dergue, had been put in charge of mobilizing the Ethiopian masses against our country in the 1977/78 war. In war one can understand the incendiary role of the propaganda machine, but what bothered me most was his well-publicized and so frequently repeated assertion that the war was “between people who have history and people who have no historyâ€. On reflection, however, I find his assertion plausible and I ask myself: ‘Where is our history?' The Ethiopians claim a history of three thousand years even though we know that Abyssinia , the previous name of Ethiopia , was established by Menelik only in the 19 th century. Menelik claimed that Ethiopia extended from Khartoum in the North to Lake Victoria in the South and many Ethiopians believe that to be true. Similarly, Haile Sellassie claimed at one time that Somalia was part of Ethiopia prior to the advent of European colonialism which, as he said, carved up Somalia out of Ethiopian territory. This claim, fictitious though it was, was supported by Sylvia Pankhurst, not only in her book, Somalia , but also in a number of her campaigns in promoting that claim. We would have probably become Ethiopians had it not been for the SYL which at that crucial time awakened Somali nationalism in all Somali-inhabited areas – including what is now the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia. The British Labor Government had also a different idea – a plan for the formation of a Greater Somalia. That plan was killed at infancy by the Soviet Union. But, the Governor of Somaliland, Sir Gerald Reece (known to the Somalis as Kama Kame) was also fiercely opposed to Ms. Pankhurst and served as her antidote. Prior to his appointment as Governor of Somaliland Sir Gerald was the Provincial Commissioner of the NFD where his pro-Somali leanings were very well-known; for he was an admirer of Lord Delamere, the founder of Kenya, who owed his life to a Somali, called Abdalla Ashour, who saved him from the grip of the lion that was mauling him. Lord Delamere was so grateful that he used to say (and this is documented, by the way) that any colonial officer who disliked Somalis was one who hated him. Sadly, all that happened in that era is recorded in scattered bits and pieces and in books which have long been out of print. But, we Somalis have been independent and sovereign for nearly half a century. We may dismiss the last fifteen years as sheer wastes, but they are none the less part of our unrecorded historical record. We have been making history all along; for the wheel of history can neither be stopped nor slowed down. But no one can tell the likes of Debela Dinsa when our history began or where they can read about it. The Makers of Somali History. Our history is made by us but recorded by others piecemeal with all their prejudices, distortions, misconceptions and misunderstanding. World historians showed no interest because in their eyes Somalia, unlike Egypt for example, was never fertile or rich in history. To my knowledge there are no Somali historians, excepting Professor Sa'id Samatar, though there are quite a few Somalis who specialized in history as a subject. It is my view that to read history is quite different from becoming a historian, but I do appreciate the enormous difficulties that discourage our history specialists from rising to the challenge of writing our history. The dearth of historical material comes readily to mind. Even whatever little we had of colonial records have been permanently locked away and allowed to be devoured and reduced to dust by the termites. Those records were, of course, of no value to our policymakers who were largely uneducated and some of whom were even barely literate. And those very few administrators who were literate enough to make use of those files, surveys, studies and other documents merely succumbed to the oral tradition which made them averse to reading and researching. It has been alleged that Bille Rafle incinerated, when military governor of Hargeisa, the “entire collection of the library†which the British bequeathed to the new State because, being, as charged, an “ignorant†person ( jaahil ) he could not understand that he was setting a national treasure – something of a heritage – on fire. The truth is that the British did not leave anything of value for us. First, they burnt, with some justification, all the important, sensitive and therefore secret files which would have given us some valuable insights into their designs and policies. Secondly, they left some open and confidential files which gave no inkling as to their secrets. Thirdly, they also left behind few journals and books of a general nature and stocked them in a very small room which they called “Secretariat Libraryâ€. Scarcely anyone made use of that room since the British left. I even doubt that it was ever opened, except on rare occasions when somebody would venture inside to see what was available. I first saw this library in 1960 when I started my service with the Somali government in Hargeisa upon graduation from secondary school in Aden . It was then in a very good shape. I also saw the ‘library' on a number of occasions when I was District Commissioner of Hargeisa in the mid 60s and found it to be in a sorry state. But when I approached Bille in 1975 to let me borrow some of the reports or documents he told me “that place is a stinking garbage; what can you get from it?†I insisted and managed to get two reports on salary surveys and a dilapidated and torn copy each of the Local Authority Ordinance of 1952 and the Indian Law of Evidence which I have kept since then. Bille and I have been on the best of terms since the days we served together in Burao – he as the military governor and I (a civilian) as his deputy. Those were the days when the top positions in the field administration were the exclusive preserve of military officers. This story, however, does not only exonerate Bille but it also demonstrates, like so many other stories, which are without any foundation whatsoever, how events are misconstrued or distorted by people who neither witnessed them nor heard them from authentic sources. I sometimes wonder in total amazements how young people write distorted versions of our history in the websites, and I have seen contradictory accounts being portrayed as authentic historical rendering. I do not blame those people, for the fault lies , first and foremost with those who themselves made history but left nothing in terms of written memoirs or even oral recordings for posterity. I have in mind people like Abdullahi Isse, Mohammed Haji Hussein, Adan Abdulle Osman, Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, Abdurazak Haji Hussein, Abdurasheed Ali Sharmarke, Ahmed Haji Du'ale, Michael Mariano, Jama Abdullahi Ghalib and others who made history and have not left anything for us. Some of them are still with us in fact and can be and should be persuaded to leave something of a heritage for the country. I remember having a post-prandial conversation with the late Michael Mariano in my home in Addis Ababa some decades ago in the course of which I earnestly asked him to pass on his rich historical experience to the younger generations but he complained about the government putting obstacles in his way. I had a similar discussion with Jama Abdullahi Ghalib (first Speaker of our National Assembly) who now lives in Lusaka ( Zambia ). Jama and I became good friends (although we belong to two different generations) when I took up residence in Zambia upon transfer from Addis Ababa in 1998. He has a lot of history to tell, but he was not also in the mood of leaving anything behind. I understand that the late Mr. Egal left behind so many historical documents which are now in the possession of his widow. Someone, perhaps his children, should weave the various parts together and give us a coherent historical record from the perspective of the late Mr. Egal. Luckily we also have living historical repositories in Abdurazak Haji Hussein and Ahmed Haji Du'ale. Both live in the United States and have the facilities to enable them give us their versions of history. But I think it is safe to assume that because of his advanced age former President Adan Abdulle Osman is not in a position to write or even dictate his contribution. Maybe his sons are in a position to write about their father just the same way Margaret Truman wrote about her father- President Harry S. Truman. But twenty-one years of military rule must have their place of history. The primary source for this period is, without question, those members of the Supreme Revolutionary Council who are still alive. We need someone who can tell us objectively how the revolution was planned and executed and the role, if any, of the Soviet Union in it. A key figure is, of course, Gen. Mohammed Ali Samatar who was as instrumental in changing the direction of the country as he was in the military buildup. He also directed the war with Ethiopia and entered into negotiations to reassure and neutralize the Soviet Union. That was a time when the West was also keen to extricate Somalia from the Soviet block and was believed by to have made some overtures to the Somali regime which the latter was not quick enough to grasp. Ali Samatar was privy to and a key player in all that happened behind the curtains in that crucial period when huge and more powerful forces were arrayed against us comprising Soviet generals and materiel as well as South Yemeni and Cuban forces beside the Ethiopians. After our defeat – we prefer to call it withdrawal – an Ethiopian colleague said to me jokingly, “ Ismail, we taught you Somalis a lesson†and I replied to him, also jokingly, “Yes, but the lesson was in Russian, not in Amharicâ€. He looked at me and simply walked away. Today, all I read about that war was that the Ethiopians routed the Somalis. Ethiopian academics spread that lie every day. We never see a Somali version of that bit of our history anywhere; even Somali writers echo the same lies. Ali Samatar can put the record straight by providing a written and authoritative account of what actually happened. We also need to know – and posterity will need to know – his answer to the serious accusations that have been laid to his account, particularly in so far as the strafing from the air of women and children fleeing from the fighting in Hargeisa was concerned. The public have heard from the accusing side and it is only fair to hear also from Ali Samatar. He is gifted with cogent reasoning and lucidity of presentation, and he can surely make a great contribution in filling the yawning gap in our history. It cannot be gainsaid that our leaders – military and civilians alike – have put a lid on our history and by so doing have kept us in the dark. We badly need explanations and clarifications; otherwise, rumors will establish themselves as history. An example of this is a story which was circulated in the sixties within the informed circles of our society to the effect that when the late Abdullahi Isse was in Rome in late 1962 or early 63 negotiating, as foreign minister, the transfer of the NFD with his British interlocutor the British offered us three instead of the six districts. It is said that Abdullahi was inclined to accept the proposed compromise except that the late Abdurasheed Ali Sharmarke who was Prime Minister then flew all the way from China where he was visiting to Rome where he joined the talks and took the position of ‘all or nothing'. The talks broke down as a result and we ended up with nothing. I have also been told that Kenneth Kaunda in his later efforts to mediate between Somalia and Kenya managed to convince Mr. Kenyatta to give away the three purely Somali districts in Northern Kenya to Somalia . But, I am told, when the two sides (the Somali side and the Kenyan) met in Arusha Mr. Egal forestalled the process of negotiation by making a hasty declaration that Somalia had no claim against Kenya. I am told Kenyatta was so ecstatic that he jumped to his feet and embraced Mr. Egal calling him “My Brotherâ€, that and one could see Kenyatta shedding tears of joy. The Arusha Memorandum of Understanding of 1967 actually states that the dispute between the two countries would be solved amicably. The text of the Memorandum contradicts this story. However, I am not sure if the two leaders met again, but if the storey is true (and the person who told me says he heard it from Kaunda himself) it would mean that the same opportunity presented itself once more and was bungled by a Prime Minister. I cannot say whether any of these two stories is authentic or apocryphal but they underscore the fact that we have no factual accounts to go by. Another group that can shed some light on the happenings of those two decades of military rule are those civilians who served as ministers in that era. None of them – with the sole and single exception of Jama Mohammed Ghalib – wrote anything about that period. It has been said that “History is nothing more than the defamation of the dead†and this more true where dictators are concerned. It is safe now to write anything about that period but if a writer elicits some bitterness the intelligent reader will still be able to see the wood for the trees. Bitterness, like lavish praise, will, without doubt, detract from the quality of the work and should be avoided. In any case, we need this group to give us and the future generations the benefit of their experience. The Collaborators of the History Makers This group comprises the higher civil servants such as permanent secretaries, ambassadors, legal experts, advisers and in some instances party functionaries. Here is a class of old fogies who can help us narrow our historical gap. They did not only help the politicians to make history but they also have what many of the politicians lacked: the ability to write and analyze. They are better educated and many have coupled solid experience with their university education and/or professional qualifications. Nor were they constrained by an official secrets act as are British civil servants. Sadly, again, none of them gave us the benefit of his or her experience. Here in the United States we all know that officials give their own versions of history; examples abound: Harry Hopkins, Sorenson, Schlesinger, Kissinger, Brezezinski and so many others all wrote about the historical events they were party witnesses to. In our case, I think Ambassador Ahmed Mohammed Adan (Qaybe) was privy to many negotiations with the Soviet Union and he was our ambassador to Washington, ambassador to the U.N. and U.K. , permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and last Foreign Minister of the Said Bare regime. I feel sure that he has a lot to tell us. I know he can write and he writes beautifully. He is now making history in Hargeisa and I think he should consider it a national duty to write his memoirs before his pen and his memory run dry. I can also think of Ambassador Abdullahi Sa'id Osman who was privy to many occurrences and has that lawyerly ability to write lucidly and put things into their proper perspective. Ambassador Abdullahi Addo (twice a presidential candidate) was our man in Washington at the crucial time we needed the United States to be on our side – a time when the Carter Administration was divided between helping us and throwing us to the wolves. He too can illuminate many of the dark crevices for us. What Can We Do? I think we should take our history seriously. It is important. I know we have destroyed whatever records we had, but at least we have the people who know much about methods and means of historical research and how to get the necessary funding for it. Such people can start the nucleus of a Somali Historical Society. I am thinking about Prof. Sa'id Samatar and Dr. Ali Abdurahman Hersi who can no doubt go into some research and chronicle our history. But there must be many other qualified compatriots who will also consider it a national duty to retrieve and save our history. However, I do not know whether there are any Somali archeologists, but I will be surprised if there are any. Archeology is not a field, I suppose, which can attract Somalis. But if there is sufficient funding and a government that will invite and encourage archeological surveys and excavations we should be able to find new discoveries which can put our country on the maps showing the loci of old human civilizations. Alas, it is not likely for many years or decades to have a Somali government which will take due interest in such matters. Our oral tradition has cost us a great deal, and the writing of the Somali language in 1972 did not transform us after thirty-three years into a truly literate society. We are just beginning to have newspapers and even books in Somali. But still we are oralists to the bone. I remember visiting a friend in the Presidential Quadrangle in Mogadishu in 1987 and I was petrified by the fact that no typewriters were clicking, no papers were shuffled , no one was drafting anything and no files were visible – things which we usually associate with bureaucrats. The desks were clean and clear of pens, pencils, ink etc. and the “bureaucrats†sitting immobile behind them were sipping tea or coffee or else talking on the telephone. They were the most unbureaucratic bureaucrats I have seen in my long public service. The oral tradition has relegated the mechanics of administration to the past and I knew that that was yet another sign that our State was taking a downward spiral. The other factor which has a fatal effect on writing our history objectively is clanism. Clan sensibilities are avoided at the cost of the facts or else a clear clan bias is exhibited. And there is always the danger of dismissing objective accounts as expressions of clan prejudice. Our educated men and women are, unfortunately, blindly loyal to their respective clans. It seems that their education was not strong enough to liberate them from the shackles of the clan system and to open their minds to the unlimited opportunities we could all have if we widen our horizons and work in unison. It is not possible to write our history without the mention of clans and even when we write a critical essay about a national figure his clansmen and clanswomen will be offended. Clanism continues to cloud our judgment. Those who praise Sayid Mohammed Abdalle Hassan to the sky are blind to his faults; conversely, those who see him as a villain are blind to his virtues. What is interesting is that the division is along clan lines – and so it is with other persons of stature as well. Can we then objectively write our history? My answer is ‘yes'. The History Society can play a role in this by vetting submissions, by seeing to it that claims and counterclaims are fully substantiated and by arranging scholarly debates. I think this is one way of getting around the clan bias. But the Historical Society itself must enjoy a reputation for fairness and scholarly search for the truth. The warlords are a new and hopefully transient phenomenon. But I think the less said about them the better. Warlords will themselves pass into history soon but it will not be easy for the present generation of Somalis to write objectively about them because objective writing requires some degree of detachment. Similarly, we are unable to write dispassionately about Siad Barre and his regime even though we have welcomed to our midst and accommodated those closest collaborators of his who belong to our respective clans. Time will see to it that passions dissipate and cool heads prevail and future historians will give their generations and the generations that follow them unsanitised accounts of our history. Finally, one of the main reasons that impelled me to write this article is the failure to respect our time-honored tradition of passing our experience from generation to generation. Nowhere is this failure more apparent than in the contributions some of our young people send to the websites. It is as if these young people have not been told anything at all about how and why things happened. For instance, there are those who contend that the North in its entirety rejected the constitution in the referendum of 1961. I served as the chairman of one of two polling stations in Las Anod (now Sool) at that time and the vote for the constitution was truly overwhelmingly. The constitution was similarly approved by Borama/Zeila (now the Awdal Region) and by what is now Eastern Sanaag . Only the rest of the North overwhelmingly rejected the constitution. The voting laid bare the clan divisions in the North and was revealing of the political alliances that existed then. But the constitutional referendum itself had nothing to do with the union between the North and the South. Furthermore, it was contended by one of the contributors that the late Ian MacLeod, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies wisely advised the Somaliland delegation not to enter into a hasty union with Somalia . I have no doubt that this is true, but the Italians too were giving the same advice to their friends in Somalia. These machinations were known to the public as a concerted ploy to forestall the union and if Egal and his ministers had heeded the advice of the British Colonial Secretary they would have been stoned at the airport in Hargeisa upon arrival; for such was the mood of the public. The British, perhaps feeling guilty about having neglected the Cinderella of the British Empire (as Somaliland was nicknamed then), had asked earlier to stay on for eight more years in order to build the country and prepare it for the challenges of independence. This was turned down because the British had been perfidious as evidenced by their transfer of the ‘Haud and Reserved Area' to Ethiopia . It is interesting to know that British had asked the Indians about a decade earlier for an extension in India on the same grounds to which Nehru replied, ‘I have never heard of a vegetarian tiger'. I am not talking here about the merits or demerits of secession; that is a different issue altogether, but we have a responsibility to set the record straight for our younger generations. But, if the generation that led us to independence and those who came after them did not leave any records behind, they did not proffer their experience and wisdom to the rest of us orally either. I therefore sense that there is a gap in the communication between the generations, which I think is wrong and dangerous. I think further that the websites can play a significant role in facilitating the dialogue between generations. The break in communication is partly due to the older generations' feeling that the articles published on the websites are merely idle talk which some of them, incidentally, are. Others may think that it is below their dignity to argue with the age cohorts of their children or their grand children. They could not be more wrong. I recommend that the websites should rise to the challenge and promote a dialogue between the generations.

Whispering nationalists: a rejoinder By Mohsin Mahad Abdulkair Idan's reaction to Ali Bahar's article in Awdalnews.com , entitled “Whispering Nationalists: Breathing Life into the Dying Somali Nationalism†was pompous and in some places downright insulting (his reference to Somali parliamentarians appointed in Kenya as “baboonsâ€!!). What Mr. Ali Bahar lucidly stated was merely to underscore the fact: that our common bonds as Somalis, such as our race, religion, language, culture and shared territorial homeland in the Horn of Africa, had been in the past at the heart of our nationalism and were the driving forces that brought about the liberation and unity of the former British and Italian Somalilands in July 1960. The undeniable trend towards integration, both economic and political, that has been sweeping many regions of the world was given by Mr. Ali Bahar merely as a reminder of our own tragic disunity and collective self-destruction when most other people in the world were moving in the opposite direction. Mr. Abdulkair Idan, in contrast to Ali Bahar, sees the world through the distorting glasses of a secessionist for whom unity and integration among the Somalis or any where else in the world are an anathema. Thus, for him, the world reality is dominated by the absence of nationalism or unity, even among regions that otherwise speak the same language such as North America (speaking English) and the Arab world (speaking Arabic).As he sees it, these regions are going their different ways despite sharing common heritages. For a proof, he cites the recent rejection of the constitution of the European Union (EU) by French and Dutch voters which he presents as a rejection of the EU treaty itself. That is not the case. The rejections of the constitution in both countries were not against the European integration per se, contrary to Abdulkadi's assertion, but rather an _expression of discontent with their governments on other issues such as unemployment, immigration to the EU (especially Muslim immigrants) and the possible enlargement of the EU to include Muslim Turkey. As for the Arabs, it is true that they have not succeeded to create a union of their member states. But all the same, there are many cooperative arrangements among them in the economic, political, social, and cultural fields. In South East Asia , ASEAN is a successful regional economic and political grouping and it is not the only one among Asian countries. North America has its own economic grouping as do a number of Latin American countries. So what Ali Bahar has said is basically true even if nationalism is not every where the main driving engine towards economic and political integration in these regions of the world. Even if some regions or countries unfettered by nationalism and common heritage were going their different ways, as Abdulkadir would have us believe, what has this got to do with the case of Somalia ?. Nothing. Somalia is not a region but a single independent country, which is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the African Union. What Abdulkadeir and other secessionists would like is simply Somalia 's disintegration so that what he calls Somaliland can then go its own way and be recognized as the only functioning entity. For all secessionists, our common shared heritage is irrelevant. What counts most for him is the fact that we were once upon a time two distinct colonial countries prior to the union. As they see it, the history of the land he calls “Somaliland†begins from the date of British colonisation and ends on the date of its independence on the 26 of June Its history before colonisation as part and parcel of the overall Somali homeland with no borders is conveniently forgotten. The inviolable act of union is now unilaterally considered by the secessionists as null and void. Needless to say, there was no such a land called Somaliland before colonisation. Like everywhere else in the overall Somali homeland, the clans now inhabiting the N.W region had no separate identity different from other Somali clans in the Horn. Loyalty was not to a non-existent Somaliland but to the clan and related wider clans beyond their traditional grazing areas. Our common bonds are indivisible. They cannot hold for Somaliland and not for the whole of Somalia . We are either one people or nothing. For the secessionists, it is the British connection which counts and nothing else. How can the mere common experience of having been former British subjects in the last century serve as the basis for national identity and outweigh our common heritage of shared religion, language, race and culture?. And if you reject our common heritage, then you automatically reject the basis of a nation state. And without the attributes of a nation state, we will simply remain scattered clans- Isaak, ****** , ****** , Digil, ********** , Issa, etc,-just as we had been before and during colonisation. A better example of disintegrated countries is not those given by Abdulkadir but rather the former Soviet Union , the former Yugoslavia and Ethiopia . When the Soviet Union collapsed, the former satellite nationalities become independent. Yugoslavia was similarly composed of various nationalities having different languages and religions. They too fell apart after the death of President Tito and the subsequent bloody civil war is now a matter of history. Ethiopia is an empire that had swallowed other territories and nationalities including our own. Eritrea has succeeded to liberate itself through armed struggle. As for the ****** liberation movement, it had admittedly its ups and downs but is all the same alive and kicking, and it is only a matter of time before they too liberate themselves. Only the pessimists, defeatists or downright secessionists can doubt this The Somali case, now as it is, or as it was during its colonisation, cannot be compared to those regions or countries that are either integrating or disintegrated. A good comparison for Somalia would be the case of the former East and West Germany . Following the end of the Second World , Germany was divided by the victorious powers into two parts: West and East Germany . When the Soviet Union collapsed, East Germany , which was nothing more than a Soviet colony, immediately reunited with West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Somali homeland had gone through more or less similar experience. The European powers together with Ethiopia had partitioned the Somali territory into five parts. When two powers, Italy and Great Britain , gave independence to their respective parts, their former colonies immediately reunited thereby ending a century -old artificial colonial division. Just as East Germany , or parts of it, cannot today secede from the rest of Germany , so is the case with Somalia . The former British Somaliland or parts of it cannot break away from the union despite their declared secession. That is why no single country has recognized the secessionists' self-declared independence. Mr. Abdulkadirs article is full of animus towards the Somalis in general other than his Somalilanders (a camouflage for his secessionist clan). His condescending sermon is particularly directed at the Southern Somalis who he sees as good for nothing. This arrogant, chauvinistic attitude is common among certain clans in the North West . Apart from his objectionable attitude, he claims that it was the Somalilanders who culturally civilized the Southerners (gave them the national anthem) or brought nationalism to them. Bravo! Such is the distorted view of our history - a mixture of sheer ignorance and clan chauvinism. Every one should read the brilliant article by Ismail Ali Ismail which appeared in Wardheernews few days ago. Needless to say, it was the South, through the S.Y.L movement, which has spawned and spread Somali nationalism throughout the Somali homeland in the Horn Africa. And it was Sayed Mohamed Hassan before them who fought the British for over 20 years but was finally defeated by overwhelming superior forces and technology. Mr. Abdulkadir's heroes in British Somaliland , were at that time mercenaries for the British. He should listen to the Sayid's poems and what he had to say about what he considered as traitors. Those of us who come from the cradle of the Darwish movement have much to be proud of as true nationalists. As Ali Bahar advocated, let us breathe life into our dormant nationalism. Mohsin Mahad

Whispering Nationalists? What Whispering Nationalists? One article of profound ineptness and common humour was “Whispering Nationalists: Breathing Life into the Dying Somali Nationalismâ€. This article and its writer failed to highlight were in Asia, Europe or North America the rise of nationalism was happening. To take Europe as an example, countries within the European Union have begun to understand that as the European Union expands their unique identity is threatened. In the last few weeks not only France, but Netherlands rejected closer integration of the European peoples. This is due to wanting and protecting their separate sovereign identity. In Asian were more then 50% of the worlds inhabitants reside countries are also mistrustful of each other. The Arabs in particular more then a dozen different nations, all speaking the same language, have a similar origin and share the same religion yet view one another with mistrust and some even holding deep resentment for one another. According to the writer of the above article supposedly not only is “nationalism†taking root here but these countries who all speak the same language and have a similar origin and share the same faith want to be one country. I don’t know which fairy tale the writer is living in but this is not true. Syria and Egypt are similar yet they are different. They have a different history from Ancient Egypt to Syria’s Assyrian civilisation.The Arab league has shown the world what arabs can achieve when they get together, nothing !The Arabs quest for pan-arabizim failed to materialise and both Eygpt and Syria returned to their colonial bounderies. What the writer shares in common with some section of Somali society is the belief that because you speak a similar language that you should be one country. Germany and Austria speak a similar language yet are different nations, U.S.A and Canada, most of latin America speak spanish and more yet all these nations are seperate. The Writer also failed to declare that Somali nationalism was an export which Somaliland exported south, Somali nationalisms birthplace was in Somaliland and before Somaliland initiated and taught other Somali’s little did they know about nationalism, a common identity or a common cause on a national level. It was fed to them like all things.When the writer refers to the old failed state is he referring to the very state which supported, created and backed the qabilist cause which the writer is claiming to appose. Does the writer secretly want the return of the qabilist state which fed a section of Somali people the revenue and wealth of the old state? A state which supports one group of individuals over the rest is not a nationalist state. Can the writer name me one major nationalistic objective the old former Somali republic succeeded in accomplishing in its entirety? If there are any Somali’s who knows about Somali nationalism it is the Somalilanders. Not only were we the initiators of the failed and now collapse union. Somalilanders were the architects behind the dream of a greater Somali state. Somalilanders were the creators of the national anthem which the baboons in Kenya sing on a daily bases as they swear to serve their nation. The belief that federalism can hold Somaliland is a great misconception. Nor federalism nor federation can hold Somaliland back from its destiny. Just because the nationalism of the past has been transformed doesn’t mean nationalism is none existent. Nationalism exists today more then ever, but as before mothers and fathers who once taught their children about Somalia are now teaching their children the love of Somaliland. Somalia in its old form does no longer exist. Somali’s in Somalia should open their eyes, wake up to the reality. Take their future into their own hands. Be the commanders of their own destinies. Stop waiting around for a government which exists only in name, which controls nothing and like all the rest is doomed to fail. The vast majority of Somaliland’s young generation are articulate, and embody a nationalistic ideal stronger then any other. Their only requirements are better facilities and more opportunities and god willing these will be provided in the near future. Your problems include the failure to adapt to changing times. A failure on the Somali’s to take control of their own destinies and criticise those who do. Your problems include the fabrication of history and politics to meet your interests instead of declaring the truth. Your problems include the failure to bring about order and justice to your country and a desire to drag in all elements regardless of their rights. Your failures are numerous and if their was anything such thing as southern Somali nationalism it wouldn’t be in the mess that it is in now. Nationalism isn’t just a word it is present in the society and it shapes it. A people’s nationalism is determined by the strength of their nation. The infrastructure of their nation and the values it adheres to. Abdulkadir Idan London, England abdulidan@hotmail.com

University’s Medical School graduates first Somali student - Thursday, June 09, 2005 at 00:15 Mohamed Ibrahim is the first Somali to graduate from the Medical School. Ibrahim will soon start as a surgical resident at Hennepin County Medical Center By Jerret Raffety When civil war broke out in Somalia, Mohamed Ibrahim felt he lost his only chance of going to medical school in his home country. More than a decade later, Ibrahim is half a world away and is accomplishing his dreams. In the process, he became the first Somali graduate of the University Medical School in May. Ibrahim will start a residency to become a general surgeon at Hennepin County Medical Center later this month, he said. Originally, he never counted on moving to Minnesota to attend medical school, he said. He had already been accepted to medical school in Mogadishu, Somalia. Then, he said, he watched the nation erupt into violence and the U.S. Embassy, where he worked, evacuated in 1991. “The whole country disintegrated,†Ibrahim said. “The violence was happening everywhere — there’s artillery fire that could land on your home.†As the streets filled with tanks and violence between rival clans escalated, there were fewer safe places for someone caught in the middle, Ibrahim said. “You’d be trying to walk into a safe zone, where you think there’s no fighting, and someone with a gun would approach you and ask you which clan you belong to and could kill you right there and then,†Ibrahim said. Ibrahim said his only option for survival was an escape to neighboring Kenya. After a month on foot, cars and a boat, Ibrahim arrived in Kenya. His U.S. Embassy-issued identification was one of the things that made his admission into the African nation possible, he said. He went on to work in Saudi Arabia for two years before returning to Kenya, where he learned about a program that allowed former employees of the U.S. government a chance to resettle in the United States. Ibrahim said he was inspired to pursue medicine after witnessing a close cousin suffer from a leg injury because of an explosion and then suffer more from improper medical treatment, including a leg amputation without proper pain medication. “Visiting him and seeing him in such pain was one of the reasons I thought, in my mind, there must be a better way,†Ibrahim said. After arriving in 1993 in the United States, he found getting involved in medicine was more of a challenge than he anticipated, he said. “I didn’t have anything to get into medical schools — not even a certificate that I’d graduated from high school,†Ibrahim said. “I had to write persistently to the State Department to corroborate that I had graduated from high school.†To pay for an undergraduate degree, he attended vocational school to learn to be a dialysis technician in Washington, D.C. and eventually got his associate’s degree in nursing at a community college in Maryland, where he met his wife, he said. Using this training, he said, he worked full time while getting his undergraduate degree from Kennesaw State University in Georgia. He did well on his Medical College Admission Test and was attracted to the University of Minnesota Medical School because of a partial scholarship and the close relationships between professors and students, he said. He was also attracted to the Twin Cities because of the large Somali population, which he said is good for his wife and four children. “(My children) will be able to maintain their American cultural identity while being exposed to Somali values, culture and language,†he said. Mary Tate, director of minority affairs and diversity of the Medical School, helped recruit Ibrahim. “He’s the type of person who is certainly a role model, not only for the Somali community but for others as well,†Tate said. “To balance going through four years of medical school, working full time and having a family is not a small task.†She said approximately 15 percent of students in most medical school classes are multicultural students, adding that she hopes Ibrahim’s example will encourage more minorities to apply to the Medical School. Ismail Mualin, resident at the Medicine Education Office at the University, met Ibrahim three years ago. “(Ibrahim) frequently makes time and is available to help others despite his own obligations,†Mualin said. “I think he’s a very intelligent guy who knows what he wants and is determined.†Source: MN Daily

Cali Maxamed Geeddiâ€13-ka Bishan wixii ka dambeeya waxaan u soo guuraynaa goobihii Barlamaanku uu go’aamiyay ee Jowhar, Baydhaba†Ra’isul wasaaraha dowlada federaalka Soomaaliya Cali Maxamed Geeddi, ayaa sheegay in ay jirin cid fashil ku keeni karta dowlada Federaalka Somalia, isla markaana, ay ka howl galayso gudaha Somalia 13ka bishan wixii ka dambeeya, oo aaney ka baaqsan doonin goobihii Barlamaanku uu go’aamiyay ee Jowhar, Baydhaba, iyo xafiis laga furayo magaalada Muqdisho, in kastoo hadalka Geeddi uu yahay midka muranka badan ka dhex dhaliyay xubnaha Labada Gole. Waxa kale uu intaasi ku daray in iyaga waa dowladda KMG ahe iyo Kenya ay isku afgarteen in la soo afjaro sii joogista dowlada Soomalida ee magaalada Nairobi ee dalka Kenya, iyadoo oo la siiyay buu yiri xubnaha dowlada ee jooga Nairobi dhaqaale ay isku sii dabari karaan, wixii markaa ka dambeeya ay u ambabaxayaan gobolada dalka, oo la magacaabayo gudi kormeer oo aan madax ka ahay ayuu yiri oo u kuur gala howlaha nabada ee ay bilaabaan, waxana uu meesha ka saaray in ay jiraan xadgudub loo geystay shaqsiyaad ka tirsan dowlada oo Nairobi meelihii ay deganaayeen laga saaray. Ra’isul wasaarahu waxa kale uu sheegay in Kenya ay casuumaad u fidisay xubnaha dowlada ka tirsan ee jooga magaalada Muqdisho, si ay uga qayb qaataan munaasabada lagu soo sagootinayo dowlada Soomaliya, isagoo markii ugu horaysay kooxda muqdisho ugu yeeray xubnaha labada gole ee ku sugan muqdisho, waxana uu intaasi sii raaciyay in boqolkiiba sagaashan iyo sided 98% ay ku shaqeynayaan siyaasada dowlada, laakiin arrimaha muqdisho yaala ay sidoo kale u baahan yihiin in xaqiiqda laga sheego. Waxa uu ka hadlay xiriirka kala dhaxeeya xubnaha gudoomiyaha Barlamaanka Soomaaliya Shariif Xasan Shiikh Aadan, oo uu sheegay in gudoomiyaha barlamaanka Soomaliya loga baahan yahay in uu howshiisa ka soo baxo, anigana waxaan ku taaganahay ayuu yiri fulinta xilka aan qaranka soomaaliya u hayo. Nuuradin Macalin Mukhtaar (Dinow) nuradin007@hotmail.com Xafiiska Midnimo ee Muqdisho Midnimo Information Center wararka@midnimo.com

Suldaanka, who was talking about tribalism!!! Please don’t spoil the thread I guess the topic was “My Favourite Somali everâ€.

1)Sayid Mohammad Abdulaah Hassan, was the greatest Somali ever alive, true he was a hero for all somali people,yes he was sheikh, poet,leader, politician, and warrior. See even the British sources giving the credit he deserves; The Mad Mullah The Mad Mullah was a national hero and a freedom fighter in somalia. He fought the Great Britain army stationed in somalia in the early 20th century. His struggle against the colonist forces started in 1899 and ended with his death in 1921. The Mad Mullah successfully fought agains the Great Britain troops for more than 2 decades until his army, better known as the Dervishes, were bombarded heavily by RAF planes, that attack was the first time in which airplanes were used in an attack as the principal tool, the attack took place in 1920. Sayid Maxamad ( Mad Mullah was a nick name given to him by the British ) was a scholar in islamic teaching ( shiekh ), and he always despised how the christian British were ruling the Somali land. In 1899, the Mad Mullah managed into convincing some of the nomads in the area to join him in his fight against the christian British colonialist, the Mad Mullah. He organized an army of few thousand nomadic Somalis, he then invaded some of the territories that were ruled by the British. The british rulers in somalia decided to finish off the Mad Mullah's threat before it grew bigger. They sent many different expeditions and british armies against the Mad Mullah in many different years, but the Mad Mullah was able to win many battles against the english and always evade being captured. The long military campaigns against the Mad Mullah were costing the British government large sums of money and effort, and the Mad Mullah wasn't killed or captured in a span of two decades, also the British Rulers and army in somalia were losing grip over much of the country, leaving it in the hands of the Dervish warriors. All those reasons compelled the British Government to send 12 dh9 type of RAF airplanes to somalia to bomb the Dervishes in their forts. In the year 1920, 12 RAF airplanes bombed all the Dervish forts in jidale, medishi, badhan and taleex. 100s of Dervish warriors died as a result and most of the forts were destroyed by the airiel bombardment, the Mad Mullah had to flee his headquarters at taleex with only few well known Dervishes, he sought refuge in current day ethiopia in a little town with the name of Imey. It was in Imey were the Mad Mullah has finally died due to influenza sickness. The Mad Mullah is a national hero to the Somali people today. He fought with bravery against the colonist british troops for over 21 years. He also was a great Somali poet who added to the poetry field in somali history and enriched the all ready rich Somali langauge. All Somalis today are proud of the Mad Mullah or Sayid Maxamad for his bravery and defiance to the colonist forces. 2) Somalia' First president set good example H.E. Aden Abdullah Osman Aden Abdullah Osman: H.E. Aden Abdullah Osman was born at Belet Weyne (Hiran Region). After receiving education at State Schools, he acquired administrative experience in Government oficies. He subsequently devoted himself to his own business. In Febraury 1944, he joined the Somali Youth Club (subsequently called Somali Youth League), became a member of the party's steering board and in 1946 was appointed Secreatry of the Belet Weyne section of the party. In 1951 the Regional Council of Mudug designated him for the Territorial Council on which he served uninterruptedly (up to February 1956) as the representative of the S.Y.L. In 1953 he was appointed Vice-President of the Territorial Council. In 1954 he became the President of the Somali Youth League and remained office untill 1956. Re-elected to the same position in May 1958, he occupied this post simultaneously with the post of the President of the Legislative Assembly until 1st July 1960. In 1956, when the Territorial Council was replaced by Legislative Assembly, he was elected member of the National Assembly for Belet Weyne District at the general political elections, and in meantime the Legislative Assembly appointed him its President. In the 1959 general political elections, he was again elected member of the National Assembly, which again appointed him Presedent. He maintained this post when the Legislative Assembly was converted into the Consituent Assembly. In his capacity as President of the Constituent Assembly, on 1st July 1960, he proclaimed the Independence of the Somali Republic and following the unification of the northern and southern territories - former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland. The National Assembly chose him as Provisional President of the Republic for period of 1 year, and in 1961 re-elected him to the same mandate for 6 years. He devoted his interest to legal, social and economic studies. Besides Somali, he speaks Italian, English and Arabic. According to the Constitution of the Republic, the out-going President enjoyed life-membership of the Somali National Assembly (Article 51, paragraph 4). 3) Abdirashid Ali Shermake: H.E. Abdirashid Ali Shermake was born in 1919 at Haradere in the district of Obbia. After having attended Quranic schools, he completed his elementary education 1936. From 1937 to 1943 he became a trader and later a Civil Servant in the then Italian Administration. At the same time, he brought his educational standard up to Intermediate level. He joined the Somali Youth League (SYL) immediately after its foundation in 1943. He entered the British Administration Civil Service in 1944. He completed his secondary education in 1950-53 while still Civil Servant, and got a scholarship to the University of Rome where he graduated in political science in 1958. One year later after returing from Italy, he was elected to the then Legislative Assembly from Gardo as SYL member in 1959. He thus terminated fifteen years in the Civil Service. Immediately after Independence on July 1st 1960, he was nominated by President Aden Abdullah Osman as Prime Minister, a position he held until March 1964 when the first General Elections were held. He was re-elected to Parliament from his old constituency. On August 20, 1959 he had been among the first politicians who demanded independence before the targeted date of 31st December, 1960. As Prime Minister, Abdirashid travelled abroad extensively in pursuit of a non-aligned and neutral foriegn policy. Although the ruling SYL Party recommended him to be re-nominated as Prime Minister by a large majority, President Aden Abdullah Osman invited Abdirazak Haji Hussein to form a cabinet in which Abdirashid was not member.

Changing the way we think! Mohamed Jibrell June 6, 2005 It is hardly news that the issue tormenting Somali people is the struggle to overcome sub clan divisiveness that could lead to building a nation state. The shock is after a decade and half of wrestling with this enigma, the obvious answer is that no one has been able to explore- changing the way we think. There's only one problem- getting out of our mess and establishing a nation state requires influencing how people actually think. Yet when the habits of persuasion have been buried, the possibilities of developing relationships across the lines of division become far removed. Is it possible for Somalis today to convince anyone of anything he doesn't already believe? If so, are there enough places where mingling of minds occurs to raise questions and influence one another? The signs are not good. Ninety percent of political conversation among Somalis amounts to dueling sub clan points. The purpose of most political debates is not to persuade but to win as our reactive sub clan dynamics spark fear and sharply increases the level of polarization. Like Sisyphus, we continue to keep rolling the rock uphill. To escape the crisis in which we are trapped, people must imagine and articulate the kind of community they desire. We must establish a new of way of thinking. We must not envision the future as a final destination that is mechanistically planned, bust instead engage one another not as hostile clans, but communities, in the process of looking toward a horizon of reconciliation, toward the place where we can envision living in an interdependent and commonly defined future. As it is now, marshaling a case to persuade those who start from a different position is a lost art. Huddling with like-minded sub clan souls, it is inconceivable to honor what's right in the other side's argument which often seems a superfluous thing that can only cause trouble. But the embarrassing truth is that the self appointed clan politicians are impervious to facts and often get it wrong. Beyond this, the gap between the sub clan leadership political ambitions and the pragmatic yearning of the average Somali person for sound , secular, and democratic government explains why so many people are feeling despair and hopelessness. We can only change how we think if we can create a commonly shared future and to develop a clear understanding of, and practical response to, the existing realities and crises. The resurrection of persuasion will not be easy. Sub clan demagogues who've learned to exploit divisiveness to perpetuate their survival, may not feel safe with creatively engaging on substance. But if you believe that meeting our collective challenges requires greater collective understanding, we've got to change how we think. We need a cultural breakthrough that creates new possibilities. Mohamed Jibrell Minneapolis, Minnesota

Whispering Nationalists: Breathing Life into the Dying Somali Nationalism Ali Bahar June 6, 2005 In today's world, even with the seemingly universal cooperation and free trade among most civilized world, nationalism is finding its way back into the hearts and minds of people in every conscious society and is getting stronger than ever. All over Europe, Asia, and the Americas as well as the Oceania, people are reclaiming their countries and recommitting their loyalties to their nation----- Nationalism is in the rise more than ever, a new social movements of some sort, where people of the same origin are regrouping, realigning or uniting again to claim their oneness and their shared common cultural heritage. The full impact of these tendencies of renewed nationalistic sentiments are felt in all over the world, unless of course the country in question is Somalia, where the Somalis are relentlessly trying to bring back the colonial state structures to re-divide and redefine their nation into fiefdoms and tribal enclaves--- the pre-historic tribal groups, asserting that they have always been some sort of de facto federations of different peoples that have barely anything in common, ethnically, religiously, linguistically or otherwise. In short, No common bond!! Perennialism is I belief that nations exist throughout long periods of history either continuously or recurrently and focus on ethnic ties, myths of origin, and symbols as the source of nationalism's vitality throughout the ages. Well, I don't intend to teach history in this short article and I rather not to challenge that claim of superiority of certain clans to the others in Somalia, however, one wonders whether a failed political arrangement was the only thing the Somalis ever had in common or whether there are apparent perennial ties that we share. A government, was that all? The extent to which our social order or life is harmonious or whether we share a common heritage; and to the extent that we share common moral and social values; or conflict-ridden social order that underscores our tribal difference, the prevalent degree of grievances that we have today focuses more not on what we share but what possibly disunite us. Granted that governing different peoples with different interests and localities, with necessary local concerns and or regional goals and triumph of many interest, as is the case in every country, will require careful arrangements that lead to sense of being part of nation and the feeling of pride and nationalism where all constituents, big and small, should have the same basic rights and privileges. Ironically, nonetheless, that is the basic agreeable components of federalism, and it was the responsibilities of us all, as all other creatures do, to make it work towards that goal. Under federalism and under one national umbrella, each region in Somalia could have worked towards developments and achievements to reach their individual potential and capacity without sacrificing, sabotaging or fostering into the death of our nation and national pride that we lost today, and at the same time would have remained a viable nation with dignity in the eyes of the rest of the world society. What we have today are disgraceful tribal enclaves constantly on the throat of each other, where all of them miserably failed to take care of the welfare of their individual regions. More than two decades of observing this tragedy in today's society in our country should be considered as a convincing reason to believe that our nation has nothing to expect from today's political elites, the warlords and alike, who all failed to sway the political squander that they have themselves created. Their unwillingness to yield is a testimony that their greed and competition for the control of our national resources are pushing the whole country into destruction. The genuine Somali nationalists, the whispering few that are consciously active today, is a small fraction of what once was the main core of our national treasure. The absence of a vocal, organized, strong movement with vision to save this nation opened the doors for warlords, regional chauvinists, tribal segregationists and opportunistic inept politicians that sucked the life out of our once vibrant nation and its beautiful people. Tragically, the most discouraging reality in all this is the inescapable fact that these new waves of problems that beset the Somali nation are just the beginning of unfortunately dismal future that has already destroyed the precious lives and the hopes of our youth, and the beginning of the end of the nationalistic sentiments among the Somali youth that was once the dream of every proud Somali family to raise their children to become the defenders of this nation tomorrow. The few surviving nationalists are mostly in their 50's or older and may or may not be around for another decade or so. However, had they been forthcoming in organizing themselves in order to breathe life into the dying nationalism in this country, it could have helped today's youth to have a sense of nationalism and a clear understanding of what it means to pass it on to the next generations. What we have today is a situation where, after 15 years of rampant destruction and tribal chauvinism in our country, the surviving youth are either a confused bunch, some of whom are either the least educated or blinded by non rational, Godless religious belief in void of convincing and solid tradition, which itself constitutes an impediment to understanding a good society's history and social values. Most of today's young generation has no nationalistic connection to their country, and many, not a fault of their own but because of the predicament they found themselves growing under, lack the required social consciousness. Others either loath today's existing conditions and are distrust with the coercive ruling warlords or have otherwise become the propellant of this besieging warlordism and regional segregation that have replaced yesterday's society and its cultural values. This latter group is the most dangerous and the most antinationalism group, who is not willing to partake in any national discourse that proposes peace and reconciliation, flexibility, cooperation, rationality or shifting of their loyalty in this political quandary, materialistic and moral flawed situation that currently prevail in our country, which they have been part of throughout their lives. Thick walls of illiteracy, tribalism, cycle of wars and lack of leadership that shattered their lives and obscured their vision to escape from this grip of helplessness currently surround them. Battered by rampant regional wars, and local civil strive, they grew up in today's Somalia where nationalism is nonexistent or remains something of the past. With declined social values; unabashed suppressions of certain groups and the silencing of public opinions, their acquired experience in governing and social responsibilities are the misguided social destruction orchestrated by ignorant remnants of yesterday's army officers, unintelligent bureaucrats, and likeminded warlords attempting to change the course of history by fostering into a social disarray driven by a highly propagated clannish mindset of their own and greed for power, a fatal combination that put the whole country into coma. In the absence of true and functioning democratic political parties that could help them shape their future dreams, enlighten their public opinion and national responsibilities, our youth of today lack the acquired experiences of healthy public and political discourse and the necessary critical evaluation of their required collective contribution towards building a nation for their children and generations yet to come, as their grandfathers did for today's passing generation. It is a national tragedy that today's few whispering nationalists should take a note of, if at all they are willing to help this lost generation before this older generation passes away;….., one by one, few here and there, without much of note taken by the rest; leaving behind a nation whose future is in the hands of this confused and lost generation themselves. For Somalia to reenter back into the peace-loving countries in the world, today's generation should think very seriously about their responsibilities and their role in becoming the guarantor of peaceful society that is respectful of individual governmental and human rights, and above all to build and protect a viable Somali nation with fully protected sovereignty and an earned respect among the nations in the world that we should be in it and of it. The role that the whispering few nationalists should play, and urgently I may add, is to change the course of Somali politics before it is too late. We should transform our conscious young generations from an orally debating tribal society, controlled by warlords, to a society with political ideals and political independence that could be hammered into the minds of today's young generations and the generations to come. This, as I see it, is a way to help our society to escape from this seemingly inescapable grip, if not today possibly tomorrow, and become a strong nation that could succeed in its political mission to join the free world and gain the dignity it so deserves. Only such movement with national fervor and enthusiasm, with unique political creed of nationalism, could liberate our people and could guarantee pride in accomplishing one's motherland. Such movement, should have the courage not only to defend our culture against abuses and destruction, but should have the wisdom to correct what is wrong with it. We should revisit our traditional models, critically study all its strength and weaknesses, and develop a strategy to recommend the required changes. Our problems, I believe, are not our regional differences, as that is common in all mankind, but I believe it is the destruction of what we once had, oneness in nationalism. What we need is not an empty self-glorification of regional enclaves, but a real country and its people, a unity within and with the rest of the mankind.