Excellent opinion piece! "No amount of cosmetics can beautify a baboon"

The Hope is still alive despite many obstacles. Link

Link

Salaan Sol, The framers of the Somali constitution who envisioned federalism as a workable model for future Somalia had created parameters that in fact put certain communities at a political disadvantage. There needs to be the readoption of the UNISOM I model, which would have restored the Somali statehood hadn't President Clinton pulled the US peacekeeping troops from Somalia. There are 18 regions and the federal government should allow the devolution of power into each one of them. Each region will create its own regional charter and there will be an independent and just periodic elections for regional presidents. The Taleh convention is a victory for the community concerned, while benovelent in its outlook of self-government & independence from the secessionist aggression, defining tribal borders will be a thorn issue to deal with. I believe the only probable long-term solution to the Somali catastrophe would either have to be a complete constitutional amendment from the current legal prerequisite which obviously favors certain communities over others into the UNISOM model of 1992.

Asalaamu Caleykum SOL, The framers of the Somali constitution who envisioned federalism as a workable model for future Somalia had created parameters that in fact put certain communities at a political disadvantage. There needs to be the readoption of the UNISOM I model, which would have restored the Somali statehood hadn't President Clinton pulled the US peacekeeping troops from Somalia. There are 18 regions and the federal government should allow the devolution of power into each one of them. Each region will create its own regional charter and there will be an independent and just periodic elections for regional presidents. The Khaltuma convention, is a victory for the Dh community, but while benovelent in its outlook of self-government and independence from the secessionist aggression, defining tribal borders will be a thorn issue to deal with. I believe the only probable long-term solution to the Somali political catastrophe would either be a complete constitutional amendment from the current legal prerequisite which obviously favors certain communities over others into the UNISOM model of 1992.

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."MLK

President Obama should re-read Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail or Nelson Mandela's memoir. The 1st year of Obama's admin was a break from the past as it actually pursued an aggressive foreign policy to halt illegal settlement by Israel and a two-state solution. AIPAC must have succeeded in changing or reversing that policy direction.

"Somaliland" has been one-clan driven failed project. What amazes many Somalis, notwithstanding, is how Puntland itself emulates the political fearures and the delusional dreams upon which that shaky edifice was built merely on the basis of the anarchic condition in the South and the foibles of the transitional government leaders. I've even heard PL diaspora in secret forums urging their members to watch painstakingly the policy track & actions of the separatists. I do sincerely believe PL also shares a big part of the problem and is therefore complicit in the erosion of Soomalinimo. It also inspires and advocates for the balkanization of our homogeneous society. God Forbid!

Abtigiis, Keep up the good work!

Nuune, the loyalist tribes of Qaddafi won't give up their resistance until they are given some type of deal resembling the 'Sunni Awakening ' agreement of Iraq. They should be treated not as criminals but as a separate and legimate stakeholders in the future of Libya. Recall the Sunni Awakening paved the way for the ultimate defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq. I think it's almost impossible to reconstitute the complete breakdown of institutions and of law & order. Takes a long time....

Abtigiis, Interesting discussion & Well written, robust argument and you were wise enough to spot and avoid the baits of the red herring, the character attacks and the non sequitur. You & I share common viewpoint against the dismemberment of Somalia and the false victim-playing rhetoric coupled with the revisionist campaign oftentimes put forth to sustain it. I wrote two pieces with a strong and vehement language as an indication of my sense of urgency, for the fragile secessionist case had been slowly gaining currency among the uninformed, pseudo foreign pundits and those who are extremely ignorant of the complexity of Somalia's political history & the prevalent premeval mentality within our society that champions the interest of one's clan over the national interest, least of the freedom of our people under the brutal subjugation policies of Ethiopia. However, as you repeatedly emphasized, most other Somali victims have shown a disproportionate willingness to forgive and mend fences with their brethrens. Only the enemy knows and accentuates the division of our society.

Haha. Funny exchanges. Allamagan, Dabshid and Baashi, Thanks for the brief intermission of light. We're slowly learning from the past.

Well said xiinfaniin !

I'M still laughing @ 'Madaxweynaha Kililka 5naad" Very funny portrait of an ugly reality.

"The Ethiopian army invaded a civil-war-savaged Somalia in 2006 and, after a hard-fisted occupation, installed an unpopular and only partly successful transitional federal government. Assorted militias, such as the oft-mentioned al-Shabab (“the youth”), retained the hinterland, where conflicts, raids and molestation of citizens by both sides have been common ever since."

The Zack;744258 wrote: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL EXACTLY!!!! Mahiga's Facilitation + Clan leaders meeting + Meeting held in an Airport lol + Guarded by AMISOM brothers = Fruitless. Lol. Why of all places they decided to hold this meeting, by supposedly CEO Mahiga consulting with the important stakeholders, at the airport? As an easy escape route in the unlikely event of an attack? What about Villa Somalia?

Ugaas, Amin Amir is a true patriot. He'll forever be remembered as a hero in the Somali struggle for peace , unity and dignity.

Somalina, I am not supporter of IlkaJiir. Wrong assumption there

The United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) seems to regard "Somalia" as the former Italian Trust Territory? * A vague explanation of the main objective of the planned High Level Consultative Meeting for Somalia to be held in Mogadisho is how to "forge widespread agreement on how to end the Transition and how to build peace, prosperity and security." But the UNPOS has not taken a clear and firm stance as to who are the major stakeholders. According to the "Statement of High Level Consultative Meeting" , only two peripheral regions (Puntland & Galmudug) are considered major stakeholders and they are in contention with the TFG over the agenda of the meeting and its priorities. Has "Somaliland" been given the chance to be part of the national dialogue? Mr. Mahiga can indicate in his information & testimonial briefings of which entity or region has rejected the invitation. In like manner, has the UNPOS taken an unequivocal position on the question of Sool (Las Anod) and Sanaag (Maakhir) regions similar to what the UNISOM I&II had done? I think the start of this process gives the UN Special Representative ample opportunity to rectify the policy failures of the UNPOS. Burying outstanding issues will complicate and prolong the crisis and instability in Somalia - a festering situation for the extremists to capitalize on.

'Consultative Clan-based meeting' is the correct title. We're back to the pre- Islamic Courts era: Warlordism.

"As many as 60 per cent of North Korean children aged six months to seven years were malnourished in 2010, so they were set up to become the victims of famine over the past year. Once again, ideology and military priorities offer a better explanation than mere food shortage: The regime's re-evaluation of its currency wiped out the spending power of families, all to sustain itself and its army." Good point -- What's known as starvation policy.

long article....read & react to the author's premises. Does he have a strong point?

War and corruption are responsible for famines, not droughts 2 Sep 2, 2011 - 11:01:54 PM BY THOMAS KENEALLY The first part of a week-long look at the crisis in the Horn of Africa I have never quite believed that simplistic formula invoked in so many modern famines: “caused by a severe drought.” Not that there isn't a severe drought now in southern Somalia, neighbouring Ethiopia and parts of Kenya. There undeniably is. Last October to December, rains did not appear at all in the area. The March-April rains this year were late. My skepticism arises, though, because I come from perhaps the driest continent on Earth, which has suffered recurrent droughts from earliest settler experience, including the El Nino-influenced drought that seemed to run nearly non-stop from the early 1990s to last year. Many of our farmers were forced off land their families had held for generations. There has always been drought-induced anguish in the Australian bush. But no one starves. Malnutrition, undeniably, and particularly in indigenous communities, but no famine. How is it the citizens of drought-stricken homelands in Somalia and the “triangle of death” have none of the guarantees my drought-stricken compatriots have? It's because, as the famed aphorism of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen puts it, “no famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy.” Similarly, an Irish friend of mine, a respected historian of famine named Cormac Ó Gráda, writes, “Agency is more important than a food-production shortfall. Mars counts for more than Malthus.” In contrast to Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus, the 19th-century population theorist who blamed overpopulation and land overuse for the Irish famine, Mr. Ó Gráda sees war and other human actions as the engines of famine. His point is evident in the Horn of Africa now. One of the affected areas of Ethiopia is, for example, the ******, whose people consider themselves kinsman of the Somalis and are similarly Muslim. It is in their territory that conflict between the Ethiopian army and Somali rebels has occurred over recent years, with many savageries and violation. The central regime in Addis Ababa has never felt kindly or acted tenderly toward the ******ians anyhow, nor given them a decent share of roads or clinics or schools. Is it a priority now to feed and care for them? All famines share common qualities, a similar DNA, that reduce acts of God like drought from real causes to mere tipping or triggering mechanisms. Famines often occur where farming and grazing are suddenly disrupted to fit some ideological plan of the leaders of the country, as in Mao's Great Leap Forward in the 1950s, Ethiopia in the 1980s and North Korea repeatedly since the mid-1990s. Famines also strike in areas where people live in hunger and malnutrition year after year. Malnutrition is a sensitivity-numbing word – it does not capture the swollen joints, flaking skin, retarded growth, porous and fragile bone, diminished height, lethargy and disabling confusion of soul that characterize it. As it's been said, a malnourished child can still howl out; a starving one has no strength to. As many as 60 per cent of North Korean children aged six months to seven years were malnourished in 2010, so they were set up to become the victims of famine over the past year. Once again, ideology and military priorities offer a better explanation than mere food shortage: The regime's re-evaluation of its currency wiped out the spending power of families, all to sustain itself and its army. Similarly, southern Somalia, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, had the highest level of child malnutrition on Earth in July this year. A few unlucky factors, and malnutrition becomes famine. People in that rural hinterland already lived off only a few food staples. Among some pastoral people who survive by livestock holdings, death of animals by June this year was reaching 60 per cent. The value of a cow relative to how much grain a family could buy with it had fallen by two-thirds. Grain and lentils are what farmers live off there. As with the Irish and their buttermilk and potatoes long ago, the East African diet is balanced on a two-legged stool. Still, if drought were the cause, we could just help them until the rains returned. But it's the helping that is complicated. Climate isn't the complication; humans are. REFUSING AID FROM AN IDEOLOGICAL ‘ENEMY' The Ethiopian army invaded a civil-war-savaged Somalia in 2006 and, after a hard-fisted occupation, installed an unpopular and only partly successful transitional federal government. Assorted militias, such as the oft-mentioned al-Shabab (“the youth”), retained the hinterland, where conflicts, raids and molestation of citizens by both sides have been common ever since. Al-Shabab has been driven from Mogadishu, but it is the most commonly cited military villain in this famine. Al-Shabab believes that many Western agencies oppose it because of its desire to make Somalia an Islamist state. Therefore, it restricts the entry of agencies and non-governmental organizations into its area to those it considers neutral – Red Cross and Red Crescent in particular. It rules out the World Food Program and UNICEF and agencies such as CARE. It has created its own Office for the Supervision to Regulate the Affairs of Foreign Agencies. There is denial that famine actually exists too. “The UN wants Somalia to be in famine,” a spokesman, Ali Mohamud Rage, has said. “They want push pressure on us through such calls. We agree that there is hunger in some areas, but there is no famine in Somalia.” Agencies and aid bodies are not always without their flaws, but it is al-Shabab, not drought, that stands between the starving and the food. Al-Shabab not only threatens aid workers but tries to prevent and punish refugees who try to cross into so-called Christian countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya. It must be terrifying for the men, women and children now trying to get into Kenya to find themselves surrounded by militia men emerging from the thorn trees. Is the transitional federal government in Mogadishu an improvement or another face of the problem? It seems that it is either too venal or too powerless to prevent the plunder of aid food. Joakim Gundul, a Kenyan assessor of aid results, says, “While helping starving people, you are also feeding the power groups who make a business out of the disaster. … You're saving people's lives today so they can die tomorrow.”

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Indeed. Well said.