This is funny thread especially the pictures.

Baashi and Muraad thanks for the definition of the Kaftan Dhable word. The book seems very interesting.

Bilan, I don't know about that but you can find it yourself by reading the book since most authors give brief biographies of themselves on the preface of books mostly.

Floods also have killed many people in Somali region of Ethiopia........ ETHIOPIA: Over 60 dead in Somali region floods ADDIS ABABA, 26 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Floods have killed 66 people and the death toll could rise further after a river burst its banks in eastern Ethiopia because of heavy rains, rescuers said on Tuesday. Many of the victims were sleeping when crashing floodwaters hit 40 villages in the remote Somali region, some 700 km southeast of the capital of Addis Ababa. Houses were destroyed and families were swept away, emergency officials said. Rescuers are scrambling to reach the survivors in the area, many parts of which still remain cut off from rescue efforts. The Wabe Shebelle is the largest river in Ethiopia, stretching 1,340 km and with a water catchment area of 200,000 km. It burst its banks on Saturday after two days of heavy rains. Flood waters stretched 10 km and forced survivors to flee their homes for the safety of higher ground. Aid organisations and government officials at an emergency meeting in the Somali region capital Jijiga reported on Tuesday that 900 houses had been washed away. Local officials have also reported that some deaths have been caused by attacks from crocodiles that infest the river. Survivors also were clinging to trees to escape the rising floodwaters, officials in the region stated. And, according to humanitarian officials in the area, in some areas the floodwater is still rising. The rains also hit several thousand displaced people living in two former refugee camps, washing away their homes and leaving many of them in the mud. Rescuers are currently preparing an assessment of the scale of damage, which they expect to finalise by the end of Tuesday. "We need food, shelter and fuel to help the people," Ahmed Abdi, from the UN's World Food Programme in Gode, Somali region, said by telephone. He said 38 people had died in West Imi in Afder Zone while 28 had drowned in East Imi in Gode Zone. The affected population in the two zones is around 110,000. Rescuers also say they fear that malaria could spread. Ahmed said two helicopters are expected to arrive on Tuesday to help reach areas that are still cut off. He added that in some areas the water level was decreasing, but weather forecasters say that heavy rains and thunderstorms are expected in the coming days and over the weekend. The Ethiopian federal government has also sent in two Antonovs aircraft into Gode with food and fuel aboard to help survivors. Flooding regularly occurs at this time of the year in Somali region, where the waters are used to regenerate soil for pasture. In the last major floods in 2003, 119 people were killed. Source: IRIN

What is Kaftan Dhable..? might someone explain the meaning of this word and where it came from?

I am looking forward to reading this book. According to the title of the book, i am assuming that the Yibir Somalis he writes about live in that part of the North. Are there Yibirs in other Parts of Somalia. For instance, In Mogadisho, i had seen so many of them prior to the civil war.

Originally posted by Bishaaro: I thought Somaliland was joining back Somalia. :confused: Tricky title! That is what i thought in my spar of thinking.

Women in 2005: Are They Making Progress? by Lori S. Ashford (March 2005) A decade ago, governments and women’s rights activists from around the globe gathered for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, calling for the advancement and empowerment of girls and women. Since that time, gathering data about women—especially about their health, education, and political and economic status—has become a central part of the effort to monitor our progress on the Beijing plan of action. To contribute to these monitoring efforts, this year’s Women of Our World 2005 data sheet, the fourth edition published by the Population Reference Bureau since 1995, provides updated estimates on women’s status and progress in reproductive health, education, work, and public life. Representatives of national governments and advocacy groups that will be meeting this month in New York to review the progress since Beijing have reason for both optimism and concern. On the positive side, girls and women in developing countries have seen gains in a number of commonly measured indicators over the past decade: • Girls’ school enrollments have risen markedly in most developing countries, and at the secondary school level are now are about 90 percent of boys’ enrollments; • Modern contraceptive use has risen steadily and births per woman have declined in all but a handful of developing countries; • Women’s share of the non-farm workforce has edged up slightly in countries where data is available; and • Women’s share of seats in national parliaments has also risen worldwide, although that share is still quite low. The gains in school enrollments are especially notable. They reflect fairly deliberate and widespread government investments in girls. And the increased education of those girls will have spillover benefits for economies and societies. Girls who stay in school longer tend to marry later, have children later, and bring more skills to the workforce. But women everywhere still face social and economic disadvantages relative to men, and inequalities are most acute in the poorest countries: • Girls’ literacy and schooling lag well behind boys in much of sub-Saharan Africa, and childbearing begins early in this region; • Women hold fewer than 20 percent of seats in national parliaments in much of the world, including more developed countries; • Deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth—notoriously difficult to estimate—show no signs of abating in poor countries; and • Women make up more than one-half of adults infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in the Caribbean, where AIDS is spread largely through heterosexual contact. The data in Women of the World 2005 provide a snapshot of women’s situations in those areas that are most easily measured. The data do not capture all aspects of women’s position relative to men, nor do they cover other issues such as the exploitation, abuse of, and violence against women—likely to be hot topics when delegates meet to review progress toward Beijing’s goals. But eliminating these and other forms of gender-based discrimination is essential for increasing women’s contributions to economic and social development.

lol, i can't figure out a subject and a verb. My excuse for failing to discern the title is that I have been bombarded by the neo-terms of identity that people nowadays employ to identify themselves. I can't believe how pre-tuned audience some of us, including me have become. I am beginning to realize that our ways of thinking have been distorted by pre-recorded views.

The Yibir of Las Burgabo By Mahmood Gaildon Red See Press INC. This is the story of a Yibir family in Somalia. In this novel, after an out-of-town trip on foot, Geeddi never returns home. Instead, his two children, Amina and Ali, are greeted with news of his death. His teenage daughter, Amina, assumes the role of parent to her nine-year-old brother. As Ali grows up he becomes an excellent student, but his private thoughts leave him frustrated and confused. He knows Yibirs are shunned by society, but doesn't understand why. This is the story of a boy searching for a role in a society determined to keep him out. Afgarad.com Reviewed by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf In 1851, Uncle Tom's Cabin the most popular, commercially successful and politically influential book in its time was published in the United State of America . In its first week of release, the book sold more than ten thousand copies in the U.S.A. alone (an astronomical number then) and later, Britain was not far behind. But it was neither the commercial success nor the popularity of the book that shocked the world. It was simply what the book was about and who the author was. The book was about the malevolently malicious practice of human bondage. The author was from the mainstream Americans (white). The book exposed the demonic cost that slavery was inflicting on people of African descent in servitude by humanizing their pain for white Americans who had so much to gain or lose from that human tragedy. Though the book had lost some of its literary status on racial equality enlightenment when in the early twentieth century prominent scholars and writers, both black and white, began to criticize it. Yet even today, it still towers of over the American classical literature. In a similar fashion, almost hundred and fifty years later, a scientist from the mainstream Somalis, Mahmood Gaildon, with double Masters in Physics and Medical Physics from Columbia University, rolls up his sleeves, dives into the damp of Somali-dirt and digs-out a decomposing body about indignity that the rest of us dare not to touch. In his debut novel, The Yibir of Las Burgabo , Mahmood wades through the forbidden as well treacherous territory of Somalis ' social order, built on an arbitrarily brutal class and clan segmentation that bears sham and shame. Sham because we pretend to be all draped with natural pride; shame because we practically preclude part of us from that pride and boast about it. But Mahmood chooses to ride a road that no Somali writer, scholar and a very few Poets deemed necessary to test, by disposing the pernicious treatment that we exact on our minorities for all to see. Mahmood, tapping into not-so-tasking prose, threads the plot of the book by mapping out the mold of Somalis' social injustice and how we methodically administer oppression on our minorities: Midgan, Tumal and particularly Yibir. Not mentioned but palpably present are also the Bantus. Mahmood notes Midgan and Tumal clans but deliberately glosses over the indignity imposed on them, only to highlight the devastating darkness of unfairness dumped on the Yibirs. As though he is holding the reader's hand, Mahmood takes us into the trenches, points to the pain we want buried and paints the picture of how the socio-class order puts the Yibir at the bottom of Somalis' social ladder. “... the young boy lived in a world of loss and agony with no one to care for him except his sister who had little to offer besides love and tears,†in the voice of the narrator, Mahmood shadows us to share the woes of an innocent boy, the protagonist of the book. In the book, two parallel plots are running simultaneously. One Ali, an orphaned Somali boy who was born to a Yibir family, only knows, in the beginning, that his father took a trip that claimed his life. On the other, Ali's sister Amina who had conspired with their father to keep a family secret from Ali as well tries to protect her brother from egregious, social prejudice that could break him down or scar him for life while nursing her grief ridden, social injustice wounded self, back to a mundane life. Yet is it's the family secret that she astutely guards, as the narrator wails, reminding us of what both, the sister and father had known prior to his death, stating “Unlike Ali, Amina and Geedi [the father ] knew what all three of them had lived through years earlier. And the two, father and daughter, colluded to protect Ali from the secret they guarded carefully. ‘Too young' the father would say. ‘Too young'.†Swimming against the viscous current of social bias, Ali tries to be a normal child, but is submerged, at times, within the waves of despair, let loose by a cruel culture trying to keep him down. “Dark shame of his Yibirness followed him like a shadow. And he was made to feel that, somehow, it was his fault that he was a Yibir,†Mahmood illuminates the point elegantly. Ali's sister Amina however, refuses to let her brother swallowed by social whirlwind of gloom. She gets a job as a maid to feed him and courageously brings the principal of his school into the fold. The principal succeeds investing on Ali's passion for the game of succor. Remarkably, Ali responds rewarding both the principal and his sister by triumphantly excelling in academics as well as athletics. On the other hand, what is no less remarkable and utterly creative (though not commercially stylish, as we know that English speakers are inclined to ignore the names they can not pronounce) is how Mahmood came up with the title of book. The Yibir of Las Burgaabo is the combined names of Laasqoray, Burco and Ceerigaabo, (three major cities in the northern Somalia that shaped the author's luminous mind); lest anyone lashes out against yet another victim if the city is known. Though the book is small in size, its resonant writing style bares the unjustifiable pain we inflict on Yibirs. It should have been written a century ago, but now that it is here, every Somali should read it, every learning institution in Somalia ought to make room in its curriculum and it should be taught in every classroom. The crimes that we have committed against Yibir as well as Midgan, Tumal and Bantus are a mountain high. There is no way to compensate their loss of dignity and the psychological trauma they suffered for centuries. But what we can do is to start learning about their plight of pain. This writer has done his part by paving the way. Recommend the book to anyone you know or pass a copy on to a friend. Tell him/her that his only a mirror to hold up against a tainted social conscience of S oomaalinimo (Somaliness) and Somali culture. Tell him/her that is not a solution but a beginning. Ahmed Ismail Yusuf Yusuf006@umn.edu Contact: Afgarad if you like to order the Book or Amazon . The Yibir of Las Burgabo By Mahmood Gaildon 153 pp. Red See Press INC. $19.95. Source: WardheerNews

Jamaal-11, I can't seem to understand the title? Is this the way the article was published? Other than that, i am glad that Somalia turned down to grant refuge for the deported man. It deters other acts of unfair deportation.

Originally posted by big j: IT BETTER TO BE A FOLLOWER WHO KNOWS LEFT FROM RIGHT THAN A LEADER WHO DOESN'T. BE IN FORMED BE IN FORMED what do you mean? elaborate your point..

The tribal name change shouldn't be construed as an epithet but a way to make it appear on the censored screen............. THE MAJIRTEEN. EMBARRASSMENT By: Prof. Said S. Samatar April 19, 2005 Editor's Note: This is the last piece of a 4 part series that Professor Said critically analyzed the Somalia condition since the destruction of what once was a dynamic nation State. This last piece was written prior to the establishment of the regional State of Puntland , and as such challenged the Majirteens who were economically, politically and historically in a more advantaged position than many other clans. His focus on colonel Abdulahi Yusuf, the current president of the Transitional Federal government, as “ Somalia 's ba.stard †has proven to be splendidly prophetic . A Poet is by definition a prophet, too. More to point the gabayaa, or singer of verse, is in Somali tradition believed to possess a figurative third eye, the prophetic eye that avails him of the powers of clairvoyance. Consequently, we thought we were on to something when the late Khaliif Sheikh Mohamuud, indisputably the greatest Somali poet in the 1970s decade, prophesied in his remarkable Hurgumo, or Festering Wound, these noble lines: 1. Hadalka hayga moodina inaan maarawaa nahaye, 2. Sidaan maanta nahay yaan la oran laga mil roonaaye, 3. Mar un baannu mowjada xirmiyo maayad soo kicine, 4. Nabsigaas mugdiga gudahayaan mar un helaynaaye, 5. Caruurahaan maryaadahaya iyo dumarkan mowleyey, 6. Mar un baa marwada Maxamad qabo noqon mataalkoode, 7. Mar un baa mid lagu meelmariyo maahir nookicine, 8. Mar un baa rag wada miigan iyo miidi soo bixine, 9. Mar un baa malkada Caabud-waaq miigu soo dagine. 1. let no man presume that I sing out of despair on account of the devastation visited on my Majirteen. kin, 2. Let no man say, because of our sorrowful state today, that we Majirteen. have been trounced for good, 3. The day will come when we shall surge forth like a thunderous hurricane, 4. The nocturnal visitor of fortune shall yet smile upon us, 5. The weeping children and widowed matrons, whose husbands have been wantonly slaughtered, 6. The time will come when Mohamad's wife will likewise be deprived, 7. The time will come when a great hero shall arise amongst us and shall redeem us, 8. Then there will sally forth men of honor and valor for our salvation, 9. Then the Mig fighters will descend on the Mareehaan village of Caabud-waaq. Some exegesis of a couple of lines in the extract which is of interest for this discussion: the poem which, like many a good poem is about a great many things, was composed as a weeping jeremiad over the sustained harrying and persecution of the Majirteen. during Mohammed Siad Barre's military dictatorship, especially after the Majirteen.-inspired-failed-coup attempt (April, 1978) against Barre. He is the Mohammed referred to in line 6, whose wife is promised a terrible fate for Barre's brutalization of the Majirteen.. Despite the then inhuman cruelties visited upon the Majirteen. for resisting Mr. Barre's tyranny, the poet envisions a time "when a great hero shall arise "amongst us" to "save us." Then the jubilee (time of peace and prosperity) itself will be ushered in when "men of honor and valor shall come forward to bring our salvation." In short, the poet envisions a coming millennium under a Majirteen. guidance. Who are the "us" in the poem that are promised salvation from the ashes of present hardship to a redeeming future? Clearly, at the immediate level, the poet prophesies salvation for his kinsmen, the Majirteen. clan. But at a more poetically profound level, the "us" refers to the entire body politic of the Somali nation laid waste by oppression but now to be redeemed, presumably under Majirteen. tutelage. It is now 30 years since the poet prophesied salvation for Somalia under Majirteen. midwifery: Siad Barre's dictatorship has vanished; Barre himself has given up the ghost in an ignominious exile among Nigerian Hausa; Somalia has sunk into civil war and misery, and there is no sign of the Majirteen. either saving themselves or their nation. Khaliif would no doubt be turning in his grave with bitterness and embarrassed disappointment! But why, of all the vipers’ brood that makes up the Somali polity, should the Majirteen. be selectively targeted for blame and name-calling in the general collapse of the land? Principally for two reasons. First, the Majirteen., of all Somali clans, have a history of government with a ruling elite, structured bureaucracy and economic stratification along with the skills of statecraft. In precolonial times the only states worthy of the name in the Somali peninsula had been the Majirteen. Sultanate of Boqor, or king, 'Ismaan Mohamuud in the Baargaal-Boosaaso region on the extreme eastern coast and the kingdom of Obbia (Hobyo) belonging to 'Ismaan's nephew, the dour Yuusuf Ali Keenadiid. These were both highly centralized states with all the organs and accoutrements of an integrated modern state--a hereditary nobility, titled aristocrats, a functioning bureaucracy, a flag, an army and a not insignificant network of foreign relations with embassies abroad. Nowhere else in Somalia did anything even remotely comparable ever arise, except perhaps the Ujuuraan on the Shabeelle valley and Adal on the northwestern coast, both states having reached the apogee of power in the sixteenth century. In modern times the Majirteen. stand alone, absolutely alone, in having created a centralized state. This means that the Majirteen. clan in general, and the Majirteen. elite in particular, have a seasoned, unique experience in the nature and processes of statecraft that no other Somali group possesses. Second, when independence came in 1960 the Majirteen., owing to their superior skill in governance, merchant capital, education and urban experience, easily began to dominate power and privilege in the new state. As a result, in the eight plus years between independence and Barre's coup in October, l969, the Majirteen. towered supremely over all other clans in dominating the national life. Majirteen. merchants grew rich (by Somali standards) and prosperous while Majirteen. politicians acquired a commanding mastery over the reins of political power. (Here a caveat: Majirteen. ascendancy stemmed more from political astuteness than from coercion, managing as they did to forge alliances alternately with the elite of the H.a.wiye ,Is.aq and Ra.han.weyn , thus ensuring their preponderance during civilian administrations.) Over-enthused with an understandable sense of self-importance, the Majirteen. began to become intoxicated (in Somali, "waa qooqeen") with their success, flaunting their power and prestige openly, perhaps too openly, to the anguished envy and hatred of other clans. Thus did the Majirteen. coin a new proverb, boasting of their numerical superiority over all other clans: "Intii madax madaw iyo Majirteen. baa siman"; thus did Yaasiin Nuur Hasan Bidde, the new aristocratic minister of the Interior during Abdirashiid's presidency, brag: "I have just turned thirty-three years, and I have managed to stash away thirty-three million shillings"--then equivalent to $5.5m. Presumably Yaasiin boasted so in order to rub it in the face of rival clans, and the lean and hungry among the latter no doubt responded with a mouth-watering envy. The political process was so fatally abused beyond redemption during the Majirteen.-***** alliance of president Abdirashiid Ali Sharmaarke and premier Mohammed H. I. Igaal. The personally honest but low-of-IQ Abdirashiid and the high-of-IQ but personally irredeemably crooked Igaal, between them, presided over the most corrupt and predatory administration in the annals, up to then, of African governments. (Nigeria, it appears now, holds the dubious distinction of topping the list of the most corrupt nations in the world). It was during Abdirashiid's and Igaal's administration that the mass of Somalis became irrevocably alienated from the political system. In particular, the election of 1969 that enshrined Abdirashiid and Igaal in power was so outrageously and blatantly rigged that it thoroughly degraded the Somali body politic, inspiring a deep sense of betrayal in the public. Consequently, when Barre seized power in October 1969, the coup was welcomed with widespread jubilation and thanksgiving with masses of people wildly dancing and celebrating joyously in the streets. In the event, this was to be short-lived, but for the time being few Somalis, other than their cronies, shed a tear for the fall of premier Igaal and president Rashiid, the latter being assassinated a week or so before the coup, thus being spared the ignominy of a long-term jail, as Igaal was to suffer. In fact it could be argued, convincingly in my view, that the outrages and venality of the administration of Abdirashid and Igaal did much to pave the way for Siad Barre's coup. If they fared better than any other clan during the civilian administrations, fairness would require to point out that the Majirteen., especially the 'Umar Mohamuud sublineage, suffered far more inhuman cruelties than any other ethnicity except perhaps the ***** . And if the ancient Greeks believed that excessive arrogance leads to destruction, they also believed in the possibility of redemption under suffering, specially that pain and suffering lead to wisdom, and therefore possess a therapeutic quality. It was reasonable to expect therefore that the combination of experience in governing, erstwhile preeminence and subsequent debasement under Barre's persecution should have produced wise political leadership from amongst the Majirteen. after the general collapse--Majirteen. heroes, as the poet anticipated, ready, able and willing to serve the nation. Alas, it did not. Instead, the world watched the humiliating spectacle of the Majirteen. falling on one another into internecine bickering and base political squabbling, failing utterly to establish an orderly administration in their corner of the country. And yet, to free ourselves from bias masquerading as political discourse, the Majirteen. did supremely triumph in preserving the peace and some measure of prosperity in their areas, a great achievement considering the curse of violence and vendetta that seem to prevail in other clan territories. (Here it should be mentioned the Gadabursi have also admirably established security to life and limb in their northwestern side in and around the town of Boorama, though they did have one scary eruption last summer.) Boosaaso, the capital of Majirteen.ia, today remains not only the envy of other clans in peacefulness and tranquility but also the astonished admiration of the international community, "port in a storm," as the Washington Post gushingly intoned. The Italian scholar and philanthropist Martina Steiner stated recently after a fact-finding mission to Somalia: The northeast (i. e. Majirteen.ia) remains practically the only spot in Somalia where the foreign traveller can freely move about throughout the length and breadth of it without fear of being molested and without need of an armed escort. By contrast, as soon as you cross Majirteen. areas, say, west of Galka'ayo into Ha.w.iye territory or past Erigavo into I.saq , welcome to robbery and hooliganism; then you must have an armed escort. Boossaasso is booming having attracted the migration of merchant capital and entrepreneurial talent from all over Somalia. A considerable number of Isa.q magnates have moved their operations to Boosaaso. Surely the Majirteen. deserve great credit for maintaining the peace in their mountainous patrimony. Their example of peace and relative prosperity has even set the standard for the Internet banter and chitchat amongst Somalis in Europe and north America. Thus when Mohammed Abshir recently stated on the BBC something to the effect that "we in the northeast argue heatedly, but we do not shoot one anther," his words have drawn vigorous exchange among Somali Internet users with some being bitterly envious over Abshir's claim that the Majirteen. argue over issues to a solution like civilized men; but do not "shoot" one another as other clans are addicted to doing. In other words, whereas previously clans used to boast of their fighting capacity to inflict violence on others, now the Majirteen. have set the standard that the only thing worthy of boasting does not lie in one's capacity "to shoot but in one's patience and prudence to talk" in order to solve political problems peacefully! That in itself is no small achievement. Still, if the truism is true, "to whom much is given, much is required,' the Majirteen. should have done better, for much is required of them; Somalia calls on them to play their historic role in reconstructing the country. To be sure, the Majirteen. could justly retort: "Easier said than done. How do you propose to bring other clans onboard, clans that find it more profitable to shoot for bililiqsi (looting) rather than talk?" The answer would be obvious: what the Majirteen. need to do--and so far have dismally failed to do--is to get their house in order first, by establishing a constitutional provincial administration in their region. Possessing as they do a large pool of political talent and material wherewithal, they ought to have constructed a well-oiled, efficient administration with modest but respectable state organs--a provisional head of region, police, school, medical and municipal services, etc. If they had done so successfully for all the world to see, this surely should have aroused the envy of other clans and inspired them into setting up their own mini-states. These mini-states could in turn be joined together into some sort of mutually agreed federal arrangement. There is, however, no sign of their doing this. It appears that, politically, the Majirteen. are just as fecklessly unimaginative and as crippled by the same Somali sickness that paralyzes other clans: lineage segmentation: the Majirteen. are segmented along three principal sublineages--the 'Ismaan Mohamuud, 'Isse Mohamuud and 'Umar Mohamuud. Abdullahi Yuusuf, the flamboyant war lord, who bragged lately that the liver newly transplanted into him from an Irish youth has given him a renewed vigor and vitality, is from the 'Umar Mohamuud; Abshir belongs to the 'Isse, while a certain Abdullahi King-Congo (the name is colorful enough)--a prince (now king?) directly descended from Boqor 'Ismaan and very much in the running--hails from the 'Ismaan Mohamuud. The three have been locked up in a cloak-and-dagger power struggle that prevents them from forming a provincial administration. Of the three Abshir is manifestly the most deserving: a deeply religious man of a mystical turn of mind and hence blessed by an unblemished personal integrity (remember then General Abshir, commander of the police force, instead of obliging 'Igaal and 'Abdirashiid to steal the l969 election, chose--some say unwisely--to retire from government, thereby leaving himself to the tender mercy of wolves, most especially to the untender mercy of the jackal that went by the name of Mohammed Siad Barre.) Patriotic to a fault, genuinely interested in the welfare of the Somali people and with a great international name recognition, Abshir must be the logical choice to lead the northeast. But these qualities, which would have been a great asset for leadership in a sane people, are in fact a singular liability among crazed Somalis. Most Majirteen., and most ******* for that matter, obsessively fear that if they entrust their interest and welfare to Abshir, he might, in his eagerness for the nation, give away too much to other clans, and hence endanger their future. Once bitten, twice shy, so many ******* feel. Instead a large number of Majirteen. want Abdullahi for the same reason the Americans wanted Richard Nixon for president during the height of the Viet Nam and Cold War. A prickly British scholar with an earthy humor explained Nixon's overwhelming victory over the pacifist Senator George McGovern in the crucial 1972 election thus: "Granted Nixon is a ******* ," quipped the Englishman, "but you need a ******* in dealing with the Russians." A not insignificant number of ******* feel they need a ******* in dealing with the Aydiid types in the south--which ******* Abdullahi Yuusuf is! (Might this remark of mine bring down on me the furious wrath of Mr. Yusuf someday? So often it is that my written words have caused me vexatious trouble. Yet a writer must write his reasoned opinion regardless of consequences, if he deserves the name at all. Actually, the word ******* in this context, far from being an insult, is a term of affectionate endearment. I am obliged to explain all this because most Somalis, given their bigoted propensity and sensitivity to imagined slight, to say nothing of their limited grasp of English, are likely to misread Somali meaning into an English idiom.) As a result, vacillation between Abshir, who is the more deserving, and Abdullahi, who is considered a better defender of ******* interests in a future negotiation with other clans, has paralyzed the Majirteen. into political inaction since 1992. In a search for a way to circumvent this deadlock, the Majirteen. two summers ago invited the internationally respected (but not given the honor due to him at home), former prime minister Mr. Abdirizak H. Hussein, in hopes that the three rivals would step down in favor of him and that Abdirizak's prestige would be enough to stymie political squabbling. Disappointingly, this has not happened. After six months of heroic effort, this tired, penniless and unwell man (who once ran the only Somali administration deserving the name) gave up in disgust and returned to lonely exile in cold America. His experience proves that when, in the end, it comes to political vision, the Majirteen. are as bleakly barren of it as other Somali clans blinded by unyielding greed, short-sighted selfishness and the mindless propensity for bililiqsi, which translates as atavistic criminal looting, which re-appears among Somalis every sadex-guura, or third cycle. Given their historic place in Somali history, surely the Majirteen. could have done better by themselves and by the country. Last word: to the Majirteen.: where is the miid (penetrating foresight) that the dead poet so soulfully sang about, and so passionately yearned for? Or might this be a case of: "Aw Muuse gabayguu marshaa / meesha soo gelaye!" Every reflective, thoughtful Majirteen. should appreciate, to their challenge, the evocative allusions, indeed the powerful literary-historical land mines that lie hidden beneath the surface of that solitary versicle. Said Samatar New Jersey Source: WardheerNews

I have credible doubts that, a place still unmanageable and resistant to authority, Al Itihad factor in Somalia's politics created an atmosphere of peace and order. The moral decadence of which perhaps every one associates with the work of Al Itihad in Somalia is forcing its way out to the surface as lava released by the compression of two grinding plates. It is astonishing to see how they advance their subtle stratagem of Islamic rule while standing corrected at the outright blight of people in Mogadisho. They do have important and chivalrous political figures as members who justify their occupations on innocent and peaceful loving Somalis. Well Shariif Xassan and Omar Faaruuq are both Al Itihad regardless of thier learned peak status. One would wonder whether they are using this privilege to amass impassioned appeals.

Somalis unjustly beheaded by the Saudi Kingdom : A Case of Race, Absence of Rule and a Regime of Theocracy WardheerNews Editorial April 17, 2005 Abdelfatah Ali Hassan, Ali Sheikh Yusuf, Abdullah Adam Abdullah, Hussein Haroon Mohamed, AbdiNur Mohamed Weli and Abdullah Hassan Abdu, may Allah bless their soul, were from the war ravaged country of Somalia who unfortunately found themselves under the wrath of a barbaric sword unleashed by merciless Saudi judges, who ordered their senseless brutal execution. These men, who escaped from the poverty and lack of peace that had engulfed their home country – Somalia - were found to be an easy prey with no Government to defend or plead for their release. These individuals regrettably were denied their fundamental right to legal representation as prescribed in the universal charter of human rights. On April 4, 2005, the authority of the Saudi Kingdom beheaded six Somali men accused of robbery. This act was not only unfair, but also inhumane and barbaric. Above all, such action by the most powerful and richest Muslim nation on earth is a reminder that Said Samatar's critical and soul-searching questions about Muslim countries (see Unhappy Masses, WardheerNews) deserve all the more urgent attention. Saudi Kingdom 's killing of six poor and street criminal Somalis is contrary to the established principles of law and civilized international behavior. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have raised legitimate concerns about the legality of the harsh sentence imposed on the defendants for a crime of robbery. According to the Saudi officials, there was no charge of murder attributed to the accused persons but only a robbery crime, and this crime's punishment is not the death penalty. The killings of the six Somali men by the Saudi Monarchy clearly demonstrates a serious flaw in the trial proceeding of the defendants, and is a flagrant violation of Islamic laws and international standards. We at WardheerNews, as with many other Somalis, and concerned organizations such as Amnesty International, strongly condemn the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for committing such a horrific execution of the Somalis without due process of the law, following International Standards of fairness. We also express our concerns on the treatments of many Somali citizens living in Saudi Arabia who face intimidation, torture, arbitrary arrest and deportation to the lawless Somalia , which is currently in a state of anarchy and has no functioning government today. One may recall the tragic incidents that occurred in mid 1988, during the Somali civil war when Saudi Authorities forcefully deported 1000 Somalis, who subsequently became the victims of persecution and imprisonment of the former regime of Siyad Barre. This shows the indifference and the lack of sensitivity and compassion by the Saudi administration on the fundamental issues of human rights and blight of Somalis who have been displaced and uprooted from their country as a result of a bloody civil war and conflict. The 6 accused men were initially sentenced to five years imprisonment and 3000 lashes By May 1999, which they fully served. Amnesty International raised justified concerns on the secrecy and unfairness that was associated with the court decision, which made these executions worrisome and most unwarranted. According to Amnesty International, the defendants and their families were not informed of their fate until the executions were about to occur. In this connection Abshir Hassan, a brother of one of the beheaded individuals, told the British Independent newspaper on April 10 that “The accused were forced to sign a confession written in Arabic which they did not understandâ€. It's important to note, that the Saudi justice system reserves such harsh executions for citizens from mostly poor developing nations. According to Amnesty reports since the beginning of the year, 40 foreign nationals have been executed, mostly from poor developing nations such as Somalia , Sudan, Pakistan and the Philippines . Western nationals were often treated with leniency . Consider the case of William Sampson a Canadian citizen, who has been convicted of carrying out bombing that killed a British man and injured a few others in Riyadh in Nov of 2000. After the Canadian foreign affairs office threatened to expel the Saudi Arabian ambassador, Mr. Sampson was released in 2004. Prince Charles also got involved with Saudi authorities to release this Canadian as well as five other British citizens who were convicted with him. In yet another case, the Australian nurse, Yvonne Gilford, was brutally murdered by her colleagues, British nurses Deborah Parry and Lucille McLauchlan according to Saudi authorities in 1996. They were saved from the sword once again by the heavy involvement of the British Government on their behalf. Although no one can attest as to whether these individuals committed such crimes or not, they were pardoned precisely because their governments lobbied the Saudi Authorities so heavily and placed so much pressure on them, these individuals were later released to their respective countries. There was no such luck for the 6 Somali men who were from the lawless country of Somalia . These men did not have a Prince or a competent government to help their release. Their fate was unfortunately placed in the hands of an unjust legal system and a barbaric theocratic government that beheads individuals under the auspices of the Sharia Law. We at WardheerNews urge Somalis and other concerned human rights organization to raise their voices and call or write to the local Saudi authorities and your representative such as your senator, congressman or member of parliament (MP) to highlight this inhumane execution of the Somalis, so similar incidents can be avoided in the future. Following are the contact information for the US and Uk Saudi Embassies: Royal Embassy Of Saudi Arabia, Washington DC General: (202) 342-3800 Information Office: 202) 337- 4076 Email: info@saudiembassy.net Royal Embassy Of Saudi Arabia, London, UK Tel: 44 (0)20-7917-3000 Email: ukemb@mofa.gov.sa

It is not fair to say that they stand for greed alone but this is an avenue for them in which they will pursue their mission....Just like the rulers of Somali towns today. I highly estimate that they employ tactics to discipline their followers from the perspective of ruling Somalia according to the way the earlier Muslim empires and Caliphs did. Their affiliation to Major warlords is obvious, for instance, Idha Cade.

WHY NOT AYDIID By: Prof. Said S. Samatar April 14, 2005 Editors Note: This is part 3 of a 4 part series. This piece is bold and shows one can write scholarly, while at the same time showing that the intelligentsia has responsibility in the struggle for national unity. Additionally, it shows that fending off from potential dictators is a matter of national responsibility. Professor Said's campaign against the late Caydid seems to have carried the massage to its targeted audience. Drafted while general Aydiid was still alive, this section can now only be addressed to his shadow which, no doubt, still stalks what is left of Somalia's soul and surely haunts the dusty streets of south Mogadishu . A case can be made that Aydiid was the right man to take over turbulent Somalia at that critical juncture of Siad Barre's fall. Here is the bill of particulars that constitutes Aydiid's case: first, he resisted Barre's dictatorship; whether his resistance was motivated by personal frustration for failing to receive his fair share of the loot of the Somali treasury, as some claim, is beside the point. The fact is that he opposed Mr. Barre, a most dangerous undertaking and was consequently flung in prison where he languished for more than four years along with other fallen officers. The strictures of solitary confinement must have proved too much for the formerly roving nomad, for all accounts say that the incarceration traumatized the general, driving him to bouts of dementia and hysteria by turns. In one deranged outburst, he was seen nibbling on a bar of washing soap like a delicious piece of cake. Unquestionably, the man suffered badly. It may be objected that he suffered all right, but he did so for greed and ambition, the twin curses of nearly all so-called Somali "big men" and that his conspiracies caused him to run foul of his old patron saint, Siad Barre, who, no longer being able to abide Aydiid's incessant plotting, finally had had enough and proceeded to consign him to the tender environs of confinement. To fault Aydiid thus is to indulge in selective judgement. What Somali leader-type was ever punished for purely altruistic interest in behalf of Somalia , except perhaps that mild-mannered mystic, General Mohammed Abshir? Second, Aydiid roughed up the D.a.r.o.d , a most salutary undertaking. After years of dominating the political scene, the D.a.r.o.d had grown arrogant and it was time to put the fear of God into them. Aydiid's savaging of them had done just that. But his tragedy was that he did not stop there; imbued with a congenital bloody nature, he went on to bloody the H.a.w.i.y.e , his own kin, even more savagely. Aydiid in fact brutalized all and everyone who crossed his path. What his mind was too simple to understand was that brute force alone seldom provides the answer to all human problems, least of all political problems; that in the pursuit of power, force can be useful only as an extension of diplomacy. Even so, the D.a.r.o.d must have been sobered to respectful attention by Aydiid's clobbering. Third, Aydiid inherited almost the entire armory of the national military, including state-of-the-art weaponry, and therefore was the only warlord possessing enough fire power to break the back of the Somalis and to bend them to his will. Just take a look at the other warlords--they are either weaklings or unacceptable. Abdullahi Yusuf, the only other warlord with as forceful a personality, and as ruthless and blood-thirsty, as Aydiid, would have been too far away in the northeast; Morgan would have been too far away from the center of action too, and in any case unacceptable as the author of the infamous "Letter of Death;" Osman Ato is a spoiled civilian boy grown rich from the loot of the national physical plant; Ali Mahdi is too weak and feckless to rule unruly Somalis. Clearly Aydiid was the man of the hour. Somali heads needed bending if the anarchy and bloodbath that ensued were to be avoided. If Aydiid seized power, he'd probably have imposed a brutal regime that would have made Siad Barre's look like a sunny outing, but it is a proven law of human society that tyranny with stability is infinitely superior to liberty with anarchy. Nothing grows in anarchy, least of all a nation's soul. Fourth, Aydiid fought and sacrificed for the pursuit of power more than the rest of the lot put together. His passion was power and nothing else mattered to him, for in his personal conduct and private life, he was the most temperate of Somalis. While those others who could afford vice lapsed into sickening heights of debauchery, he neither smoked, nor drank, nor drugged; he did not even chew khat, an incredible abstention for an urban Somali of means. His only pleasure vice was women, and in this he exhibited a marked bias for ********** women, whatever Freud would have made of this. In the various confrontations, alternately, with the M.a.j.e.r.te.n , the A.b.g.a.l, the Murursade, the Hawaadle, and,most brazenly, with the Americans--Aydiid showed surpassing military resourcefulness and incomparable personal courage. He was indeed a brilliant combat man. But therein lay his strength as well as his tragedy. Militarily, Aydiid was on the order of genius but, politically, he was on the scale of a jackass. Autistic of mind and congested of spirit, he could not perceive the subtle complexity and clumsiness and maddening craziness of human existence; he tried to solve political obstacles requiring political solutions with a hammer. He forgot--or never learned--that the use of force in governance is to achieve a political objective, and that arms avail nothing in themselves, especially when counter-balanced against other arms. This was fatally brought home to him when the ******, who had been repeatedly harried by him, finally resolved to fight back. Still, Aydiid's valor was supreme, in marked contrast to the cowardly Barre who panicked and fled at the first sign of trouble. By contrast, Aydiid would be mortally wounded in action while charging at the head of his men. In short, Aydiid was, tragically for Somalia , what the Somalis call a macangag , which may be translated as "asininely stubborn." Here, a vignette related by a number of Somali informants serves to illustrate the point: according to these, when a couple of years back, Aydiid the father invited Aydiid the son to Mogadishu to start him up as his viceroy, the young Aydiid's mother begged him not to return to Somalia and revisit anew on that unhappy country his father's brutal ravishings. She is reported to have added: "Your father's macangag ness is such that if he takes a fancy to anything, he must have it or he would wreak havoc on all and everything that is even remotely related to the object of his desire." "Once," the lady is reported to have explained, "he took a liking to my shawl, and commenced to grab on its hem. No pushing, shoving or pleading could break his grip. I had to reach for a knife and cut up the shawl in half in order to break loose from him." 6 Unless this be apocryphal, the American Rangers can appreciate posthumously what they were up against in Aydiid. A fearful macangag indeed. If so, why would I wish him so ardently on Somalia ? Partly on the reasoning that a jackal nation deserves a jackal leader. The wildly fractious Somalia of the 1990s needed a human pit bull to bury its teeth in every Somali neck in order to terrorize them into submission. Partly also because I feel a twinge of remorse over the fact that I had a hand in Aydiid's being cheated out of his prize. The story of my close call with the General has been too widely covered by press and TV to require a full-blown recounting. Briefly, I accompanied, as an interpreter and field expert, an ABC TV crew led by Nightline's legendary anchor man, Ted Koppel, to cover the landing of the American marines. Five days later the General ordered me out of town under threat of death. Why he declared war on me remains something of a puzzle to this day, for up to that point I was thoroughly of goodwill towards him and in fact was rooting for him. I was seduced by his dash, pluck and portly flamboyance, his impeccable suits and flashy teeth, even his cold, reptilian eyes. Having no understanding of his motive for ejecting me, I can only resort to conjecturing: did he conceive that I was part of another machiavellian ******* plot to snatch power from his grasp? Did he, unable to appreciate the separation of press and government, believe that I was the advance man for another American scheme designed to foist a U.S.-favored Somali clique on power? Whatever his motivation, instead of attempting to coopt me as a service intellectual (and I might have obliged), he chose to create a state of war. But war can be fought on different fronts, and my front lay in the direction of information-processing. Upon return to the U.S. , I at once commenced to launch a spirited, sustained denunciatory campaign against him, blasting him, in reasoned terms I hope, in virtually every major American newspaper and magazine as well as on the principal TV networks. I also went frequently to Washington to speak at State Department policy briefings on Somalia and to lobby key congressional committees where I did my best to paint an unflattering picture of him. To suggest that the result was electrifying would be to draw attention to my own inflated ego. But if Thomas Jefferson was right in opining that the "pen is mightier than the sword" in a literate society, I believe I am entitled to claim a small part in the turning of American public opinion against him. Said Samatar New Jersey

It is not that the author is highlighting the extremism of Alitihad group but its emerging threat to Somalia since their influence in Mogadisho have grown rapidly. It all started from Kismaayo to Boosaso to LasKorey to Gedo and now in Mogadisho.

The Al-Ittihad factor in Somali politics Mohamed Jibrell April 17, 2005 The recent demonstrations organized by the Al-Ittihad leadership in Mogadishu and the call for Jihad against foreign peace keeping troops proposed by the Federal Transition National Government was a clear manifestation of their extremism . The concept of jihad ranges in definition from the personal struggle against temptation to holy war. No holy war needs to be waged in Somalia; there is no clear and present threat to Islam; the only war that needs to be waged is one against extremists like Al-Ittihad. Their earlier abortive militia campaigns to take over parts of Somalia, including Bossaso and Laskorey were shameless perpetration of crimes carried out in the name of Islam. Their current occupation of parts of Mogadishu and periodic pillaging forays into many parts of Southern Somalia is an example of their un-Islamic methods. This is time for all Somalis to expose that Al-Ittihad has taken roots in Mogadishu and the Shabella area. More importantly, we need to realize that Al- Ittihad in Mogadishu and Minnesota are misleading people, especially those who are not aware of the consequences of fanaticism. Those loyal to Al-Ittihad leader, Mr. Aweis have created hatred and sectarian violence. We cannot afford to have lawlessness in such a big area where foreign terrorists can easily penetrate. So far, very few Somalis choose to speak up against Al-Ittihad and some said that they have faced threats of violence and accusations of being anti-Islam. In effect, the message disseminated by Al-Ittihad is that merely discussing Al-ittihad Political agenda to be construed as an attack on Islam. The root cause of Al-Ittihad ideology is a desire to create a Muslim fundamentalist state, like the former Taliban government in Afghanistan. Their perception is based on the idea that the Muslim community has strayed from God and if they were to turn to Wahabism and its strict interpretation of Islam based on Sharia (Islamic Law), the problems of the Somali people would be solved. Hence, they have established the Mogadishu Islamic courts to dispense their harsh reading of “Islamic†justice. It is this mentality of fake exactitude that spurns the true Islamic tenets and replaces it with paranoia, ignorance, fear, and a rejection of centuries of Islamic scholarship that inspires Al-Ittihad's political goals. It seems to me that the agenda of the Somali community in Mogadishu has been hijacked by Al-Ittihad radicals, causing sympathy in the community towards terrorist organizations. We need to cooperate and support the newly formed Federal Transitional Government. We cannot allow Al-Ittihad extremists to blackmail Islam and derail our last hope for a genuine secular government. Mohamed Jibrell Mjibrell@mn.rr.com Minneapolis, MN Source: WardheerNews

Let her work transcend time. She will join the high ranking Somali Human Rights activists N Experts.

It is surprising that you are still debating the miscarriage of the clannish ideologies, its blatant human rights abuses, nepotism, promiscuous killings towards its dissents, innocent civilians, and its leading cause to the current anarchy I have just listened to the BBC, Somali section. I was saddened that thousands of people were displaced of their permanent houses in El Wak and now are using under trees as shelters. Many of them are suffering from malnutrition, chronic diseases and the lack of basic necessities. They are crying for help. It is such a deplorable thinking of yours that is making these people continue to suffer.

Thanks Abwaan ,keep it on coming.

Someone should update all the activities. Let us have a peaceful demonstration though the Arabs care less of the concerns of Somalis. The Saudi family should be exposed.

Somalis in Jigjiga Experience Massive Looting by a Government Military Raid WardheerNews, April 14, 2005 ( WDN) - Forces of the Federal government of Ethiopia have undertaken massive looting in Jijgjiga in the wee hours of Sunday morning. This latest government act is testament to the absence of basic human rights in this region. According to reports from Jigjiga, approximately 14 stores have been looted and the total lost is estimated to be over one million Eth. Bir. The people of the Somali Regional State (Somali Galbeed) is one of the most oppressed peoples that humanity has ever seen, and share a lot with the Kurds in the Middle East, the Palestinians in the Arab world and the Afars in the Horn of Africa. An Arab sociologist once wrote that the most oppressed groups in the human race are the Jews in Yemen (who lived like rats) and the Moslems, including Somalis under Ethiopian rule (who live with no human right.) Ethiopia colonized the Somalis in Ethiopia in the later parts of the 19 th Century and since then has maintained an open policy of wanton feudal looting of local resources. Emperor Menelik II brought the Somalis violently into his feudal fold in the later parts of the 19 th Century. With his mercenary Yemeni forces, headed by Al Sayid Abdala Daha, Menelik II and his cousin and ruler of Harar, Ras Mekonin, father of Haile Sellasie I, captured Jigjiga in the early parts of 1890s. The colonizing army of Menelik II was charged to loot livestock as part of raising their own local funds for their soldiers' sustenance since the feudal court could not sustain such an expedition. Hence Ethiopian soldiers' loot of Somalis started in the 1890s. When in 1962, Girma Neway, who was a graduate of Colombia University and a relative of the late emperor Haile Sellasie I, was assigned to assume the mayoral post in Jigjiga, he then officially commented on Ethiopia's official looting campaigns in Jigjiga. Within weeks of his assignment to Jigjiga, Girma Neway was presented with official papers to authorize a raid on the City's bustling shops. His first question then was: Are not the owners of the shops to be looted Ethiopians? The answer given to him surprisingly was that these people are “Somalis and smugglers.†A left-leaning intellectual, Girma Neway was radicalized by this experience and was killed later on while he was escaping to Somalia after a coup that he has organized, along with his late brother, Mengistu Neway, had failed. Mr. Neway did not like the way Haile Sellasie's imperial court treated the Somalis and drafted the now-famous Jigjiga policy papers . In his papers, he proposed that the imperial government stop looting the Somalis and instead craft a mechanism to help the government return all looted properties to their lawful owners, either by taxing the looted properties or by returning them through some kind of amnesty. By talking to elders of the city, Girma Neway found out that Somalis, when given a chance, will always welcome the opportunity to reclaim their looted properties if they are adequately taxed . The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were years of perpetual looting and raids in several Somali cities including Jigjiga, Harta Sheikh, Dhagaxbuur, Wardheer, Awaare, Qabridahar and many other commercial towns. The Derg regime put to a temporary halt to this policy mainly because of the security conditions in the region at the time. This practice of illegal raids and looting of private properties have been given a new life under the Tigrean-dominated government of Meles Zenawi. Two years in to its rule, Jigjiga cattle traders lost about five hundred cattle to Tigrean soldiers. Somali quarters in *** Dhabe were massively looted last year. And now, in the early dawn hours of April 10, 2005, a well-orchestrated EPRDF army systemically raided Babile Dhagaxle and Jigjiga. Under EPRDF, the geography covered by the loot is expanding. This is a primitive public policy. And, as the case has always been, Ethiopia's primitive policies towards the Somalis seem to be resilient to change. Even at a time when the Soviet empire perished, or when Iraq chose a Kurdish president, Ethiopian feudal policies in the Somali region designed to break down the Somalis continue. Or worse, when Israel, with all its might, is on the verge of bowing down to the stone-throwing, iron-willed Intifada teenagers of Palestine, Ethiopia's primitive rule, bereft of human rights accorded to what Ethiopian authorities call “aramanaw ya qola Agar Somale,†meaning pagan low-lander Somalis, proves to be tenaciously resilient to change. Nearly Fourty (40) years after Girma Neway scolded the reactionary policies of his Ethiopia government visa vi its Somali subject, Meles Zenawi's autocratic government gets a green light from its puppet regime in Jigjiga to loot the city. As a result, helpless Somalis wake up to a raid on March 10, 2005 that started around 4:00 AM and continued to the morning hours of the next day. About 14 major stores of the city (selling electronic, rugs, food whole sellers, clothes and farm equipments) were looted by heavily armed troops that descended on this helpless, naked and often rapped, city from Dirir Dhabe. In the summer of 2003, the US Ambassador in Ethiopia, her Excellency Mrs. Brasilia visited Jigjiga and toured the main streets where these stores are located. The Ambassador, aware of the lack of any capital investment by the federal government, was overwhelmed by the strength and the go-get and stick-to-it nature of the Somali entrepreneurship that is, as she said at an official dinner, unmatched by any other state in Ethiopia. When she conversed with some women who were running some of the business looted by the Ethiopian authority, she learned that most of the local businesses are directly linked to Somalia's coastal towns of Berbera and Bossaso. It is reported that the Ambassador promised investment in this sector to the tune of US $15 million. What Ethiopian government did on this fateful day of April 10, 2005 to the Somalis in the Somali State of Ethiopia must shock the Ambassador and her top officer at the US AID in Addis Ababa who accompanied her in this trip. This latest raid has totally undermined the kind and feminine hand and blessed touch that her excellency lent to the hard-working Somalis in this region where Ethiopia has always carried extra-territorial policies. The hard earned pennies of Somalis always get easily transferred to the pockets of Ethiopian soldiers and their families one way or another. It is a primitive lopsided re-distribution system that favors Ethiopian looting against hard-working Somalis Looting the properties of law-abiding citizens is illegal and an outright violation of rules that govern both human and property rights. It also throws a chilling blanket on one of the few thriving economies in this empire that is still haunted by the limitations of feudalism and its attendant and penchant oppressive rules against Somalis. WardheerNews is startled at the level of anger detected among the Diaspora community. Some of the questions that are boggling in the minds of the community include: who authorized this hideous act, which Girma Neway resisted to authorize half a century ago? What is the role of the Mayor of Jigjiga in this matter? How could the president of the region authorize this illegal act, especially in light of the fact that he illegally authorized the transfer of almost one third of the original Somali land to the Oromo/EPRDF coalition? Are we good enough to be Ethiopians? What option to looting is the government of Meles Zenawi giving to the lawful residents to reclaim their properties? Is armed struggle to protect your family, your land and your property rights the last option facing Somalis? The Somali Regional State and its meek (fadhiid) government must feel the waves of the city's anger sooner than later. What is bothersome about the looting of Jigjiga is that this is a policy that is more than one hundred years old, and is only implemented against the Somalis. This new looting is an indication that Ethiopia is resilient to democratic changes and it is more comfortable with its feudal past.

^^^ Oromo or Garre, which one is involved in this war? The Oromo and other tribes in Ethiopia have already taken over large territories from Somalis. There appears to be a rising enmity between the Oromo and Somalis with regard to their politicial affiliation with the Federal government of Ethiopia. Oromo, in this casa, is favored over the Somalis and given military and economic support for land expansion. The Federal government of Ethiopia sets the rules and regulations of the Somali region based on military intelligence, baseless allegation that often falls outside the constitution and the law. As such, the Federal Government dictates the affairs of the region and often satisfies the outlook of few interested groups. Hereby, the Somali Regional State became the whipping boy of the Ethiopian Federal Government, the oppositions and local insurgents. Eng. Omar Ali