Another Teenage Murder, Another Somali Suspect! Lord have mercy

[ScarFace]

the police arrested a 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Friday night and he was charged on Saturday

 

 

just wondering where the man who wrote the article get the IDEA that the youth was somali :confused:

[ElPunto]

Originally posted by Castro:

Now, the article didn't say Somalis were anymore criminal than anyone else for that would be a blatant lie. Per capita, Somalis in the UK wouldn't even register on the radar of violent or petty crime. But in "recent years, Somalis have been

connected

with some of the most high-profile murders in Britain". Well who the fcuk is doing the "connecting"? And who is putting the spotlight on the community? What do they stand to gain from showing the community to be violent and ill-adjusted to life in the UK?

 

Spot on Castro. The reporting of the facts is done in a vacuum. What immigrant/ethnic group is responsible for the majority of crimes? What crimes are we talking about - property crimes or crimes against other people? All sorts of things were omitted on purpose or failed to be mentioned to lend context to that article.

 

Worst of all was the statement of that foolish spokesman. Rageh Omar - the only role model?!?!?! Saying that, he just shat on all of the ordinary hardworking Somalis who entered the country as immigrants, went to school, did well for themselves, support their families and act as real flesh and blood role models for their siblings and other members of the Somali community. Additionally, why didn't he highlight successful Somalis and point them out - at the end of the day, Somalis are not some alien criminal species - we have good and bad in us. Given the slant of this article(criminality of Somalis) that so called spokesman should've stepped up to lend balance to that article. :mad:

[Valenteenah.]

Wholly biased article. The community is an easy target for everyone to pick on.

[Lost-One]

Honestly speaking in all my years of living in London this has to be the 5th or 6th article of this sort, defacing the Somali community as parasites, criminals and just plain barbaric. I’m sick and tired of these bluntly racist articles, slashed across front pages and centre spreads of UK newspapers. Had this been an attack at the black community as a whole, I’m sure there’d be some high profile court battles and apologies. Yet we the Somali community rarely defend ourselves from such bad publicity, where are the petitions? Where are the angry editorial letters to these news papers?

 

Silence…

 

Precisely there are none, we’re obviously not that concerned…are we?

 

I’ve always been bothered about the way people perceive me, considering I’m a Muslim and a Somali I’ve always told myself I was representing these communities and should act accordingly. Obviously I’m alone on this because I’m constantly being embarrassed by the shenanigans of Somali teenagers who are loud, abusive and inconsiderate. So I wonder why am so concerned about people who stereotype and these youths who couldn't care less about me?

 

The way I see it now is…live your life in a way that is beneficial to yourself, follow your deen, educate yourself and raise your children respectfully. Don’t live your life for others; these people will stereotype you either way, that’s their problem NOT YOURS!

[Tahliil]

Time graduates and undergrads take an active role within the community. Atleast that is worth mentioning

.

Great point..I second that...One may ask himself then what is the goal of educating ourselves if we can't get our 16yrs olds off of the streets into their homes, schools and community centers with after school programs like tutoring, mentorship, and counciling? it's about time PARAGON... And no matter how high the ladder we think we've risen, we will always remain, always be reflections of our community...of our 16yrs olds. thanks for mentioning that point.

[Paragon]

Tahlili, thanks for recognizing the point brother. Insha-Allah, I will be doing my bit to create mentoring and inspiring programmes for the young in my free time. Tahlil, you are right there is no point of being educated if we can help our 16 year olds. We must, in our individual capacities, do what we can. As for me, I will try my best, but as for others, it is up to them.

[Animal Farm]

I would agree with the nomads who mentioned poor parenting --- there are parents out there who know what their kids are doing, such as drug dealing and hustlin in other ways, and they actually act as their unofficial banks - they hold the money for them and take some of it too. We don't have enough rolemodels in our communities.

[NGONGE]

I was not brought up by my parents. My parents fed me, clothed me, made sure I was polite in their presence and, occasionally, told me right from wrong. However, all my morals, principles and sense of right and wrong were not learned from them. In their eyes, just making sure that I was alive, healthy and attending school was enough of a job. I could have easily become a criminal, thief or drug addict.

 

My parents were not ignorant or lacking in education. On the contrary, they were reasonably educated and both spoke, understood and wrote in several languages. Still, it was not they that brought me up!

 

 

This might sound absurd but it’s the truth nonetheless. For I was brought up by TV. It was my constant mentor, devoted companion and loving nanny. Many that see me now and suffer my endless preaching would roll their eyes and mutter about how much of an Arab I am! But, it was not Arabs that brought me up (strictly speaking of course). It was the TV.

 

I grew up watching cartoons such as Tom & Jerry, Woody Woodpecker and Popeye. They were childish, pointless and silly. But they still taught me that if you’re big and strong (like Tom) you could easily bully and beat up Jerry. They taught me that if you’re clever, you could easily confound Tom. They taught me that eating vegetable and healthy food makes you stronger.

 

The older I got, the more advanced the message became and more sophisticated the cartoons were. As children, these cartoons were teaching us a universal set of morals and ethics. Yes they were all dubbed in Arabic but the ideas applied to every culture and faith.

 

 

They taught us the meaning of loyalty, friendship, love and respect. Often times, whilst in my religious classes and the strict stick-wielding mullah would attempt to explain verses from Surat Luqman. I would cast my mind back to one of those cartoons and remember how one of the characters treated his mother or how patient he was in the face of all the trials and tribulations! It was a childish way of understanding life but, surprisingly, it easily helped unravel all the mysteries and complications. The opposite (as in remembering verses from the Quran while watching one of those shows) was also always true.

 

By now, I suppose anyone reading this is wondering what my aim here is and why am I rambling so! Patience, dears, patience.

 

For many years now, It has been my belief that what the Somali community lacks is Television. Don’t think of it as a medium that transmits songs and trivial dramas (though that in itself is not something to scoff at). Think of it as your local coffee shop or mosque (or wherever people of a village would congregate to hear the latest news). View it as the central point in any given town or village. A place where the whole community would go when faced with a quandary.

 

In a small town or village, when a mother/father has a rowdy child that can’t be controlled, they would speak to relatives, friends, elders in the local coffee shop or the Imam in the mosque. They’ll receive advice about putting the child to work, sending him to evening school or introducing him to new things that would fully occupy his spare time and keep him away from trouble! Yet, not all villages are the same and not every solution would work on every child.

 

We as a people don’t live in small villages or towns anymore. The actual landmass of Somalia might be in Africa but, nowadays, Somalia almost exists in every part of the world. You might agree with this but counter back with the argument that mosques, coffee shops and elders can also be found in every part of the world. I would happily concede the point but question the uniformity of their ideas and interpretations of situations.

 

Seldom have I heard of troublesome Somali children in Scandinavia, India or the Arab world. Yet, I’m quite sure that all three destinations are full to the rafters with Somalis! Have they devised new ways of dealing with their children? Is it the societies they live in? Is the schooling better? Why are they not making similar waves to the ones the Western Somalis are making?

I believe that such things should be investigated, sought out and reported back to all of us in a truthful, acceptable and honest manner (and without the untrustworthy Somali style of Waxa la Yedhi).

 

Whenever we speak about wayward children and reasons for their unruliness, people speak of bad parenting, lack of role models and weakness of the community! Humbug says I. Parenting is not a skill that comes to anyone naturally. No mother or father is born with the ability to bring up children. It’s a skill that one learns with time and experience. But what helps accelerate the learning process is the adoption, exposure to and the sharing of the experiences of other parents. When a community only exists as an idea with no physical central point of reference, it’s impossible for such an exposure to take place. In other words, when parents do not have the opportunity to mix with as many other parents as possible and specifically discuss such problems, their chances of learning new skills diminish. It’s very easy to blame bad parenting for those that have not had to cope with these problems. Walk a mile in their shoes I say, walk a mile in their shoes.

 

The second point here was the one about role models! Again, that too, I fear, is a flawed argument. Like an actor needs a stage, a surgeon an operation theatre and a teacher needs a classroom, a role model too needs a medium! In addition, we need to define what is a role model to Somali youth! Surely it’s not going to be some great poet! It certainly is not a singer or actor. Could it be a businessman? A graduate? A professor? What if it were a religious man? How about a gangster?

 

If one wanted to meet and find out about any of those above, one would need to go and visit them in their different environments. But, what if one brought all these people together in one place! Let’s say a Television studio?

 

Admittedly, Television would be more beneficial and would give more exposure to writers, singers, dramatists and poets. But then again, in most societies, these are the exact people that have their fingers on the pulse of their communities and know how to present to us the ugly truth in a benign way.

 

Do think about this please. You never know, one of you might have the resources and vision to bring this idea to light. At least then, when we’re faced with problems such as the murder above, those seeking to speak to Somalis will not need to pick out someone at random and would instead speak to the voice of the community.

[-Lily-]

You give too much emphasis to the TV, althought I see where you are getting at. Teachers, friends & neighbours equally influence children. At most you spend a couple of hours each evening with your parents and maybe the weekend, not nearly enough time to decode all the 'bad' that they have picked up.

 

TV is a wondeful teacher, until that is, it wants to teach everything that you don't want your kids to see as normal. Cartoons are harmless, what about soaps or dramas that tell you its ok to be G*y and the world won't end if you have an abortion or have an affair with your teacher? I'm sure the TV of your childhood was sensored.

[N.O.R.F]

^^I dont think you are allowed to watch soaps in Sharjah

 

NG

 

Our problems as Somalis will never be absolutely eradicated but understanding as a community is whats severly lacking. We have an 'everyman for himself' attitude within our communities which needs to be tackled. We are all in the hope of our brothers and sisters not being involved in any of the above problems but that hope can easily be shattered.

 

The older generation of Somali ‘Ex-pats’ grew up/spent some time back home or in places like the middle east. This short period of time was enough to engrain some sort of value - religious, family and responsibility into our minds. Where we seem to have failed is the expectation that these same core values would automatically rub-off onto the younger ‘western grown’ generation. With MTV, Tim Westwood and Garage Music taking over.

 

I think the surroundings in which these kids grow up in also plays a prominent role in their mental make-up. I know that the kids in the north of England are not exposed to as much street ‘hype’ as the kids in London. This ‘hype’ becomes the norm in the school/college corridors aswell as on the streets. Before they know it they become obsessed with defending their ‘ends’ while the kids up north are busy playing football.

 

Replacing your culture with that of others has become almost ‘accepted’ wherein kids feel the need to be ‘hard’ or part of a gang is the only way to be accepted.

 

Yes we have major problems, but we are not communicating and this (not communicating/sharing info) is leading us further down the road to perdition.

[NGONGE]

WaterL,

 

The TV of my childhood was not censored simply because the ideas and acts you fear were not ones that the society wanted to glorify. Likewise, a Somali Television station is very unlikely to go down the path of venerating homosexuality or abortion (our value systems do not look kindly on such practices).

 

Television has its bad uses and can be very corruptive. Yet, if used correctly, it can also be every educational. Take soaps for instance; you may turn your nose up at that sort of art and consider it misleading and false, and for some types of soap you would be absolutely correct. But that would depend on the story being told and the moral of that story.

 

Suspend your disbelief for a minute and picture a drama about a teenager being caught in the recent fighting in Somalia. Imagine a soap that documents the life of that youth days before he got involved in the fighting. Watch him play football with his friends, chat a young beautiful filly up, trouble his mother and take most of her money. Delve into his mind and listen to his dreams and aspirations. Hear about how he wants to find a way out of that wretched city to go and make his fortune. Or maybe how he wants to have his own army and become a respected warlord. Follow him as he decides to join a militia and is provided with his own submachine gun! Observe his younger brother copying his footsteps and waving a wooden stick about the place in the childish pretence that it’s a gun! Recoil as you witness the first bullet of this pointless fighting being shot. Spot our male protagonist sallying forth to make a name for himself as a brave fighter! See the fear in his eyes and the misguided resolve in his demeanour. Look at his savage triumph as he brings down his first prey. See doubt and guilt building through his shaken body. Watch him as he slumps down on the floor and reflect on his first kill. Have a birds eye view of a bullet flying through the air and heading towards his sweaty skull! Weep as you see him inhale and exhale his last few breaths. Pan your gaze out over the smoky city all the way to the sunny sky, now zoom down on his house and watch his mother receiving the news of her son’s death. Wipe a tear from your eyes as you watch her let hers fall freely. Wonder if she’s the type of mother that would denounce all wars and ask for her son to be brought back to her or one that will ignorantly rejoice the death of her son in what she thinks is a just war! See the little boy throw away his wooden stick and vowing never to die like his brother. Would he pick up a gun instead or will he avoid all forms of war and fighting?

 

Now back to our topic, as you can see above, I quickly sketched out (an albeit weak but possible) scenario of a drama or even soap (you can stretch the details to a hundred episodes if that’s your wont). Still, the unmistakable moral of this story is that war is wrong and that many innocent lives are ruined by it (even some of those that take part in it). A soap or drama has the power to present events to you in a more succulent and indirect way. It does not tell you anything you didn’t already know about but it engraves in your mind an imaginative process of events showing you how things could have possibly got to the stage they’re in! It’s possible that the next time you think of war, you might not have a blank image in your mind or think of destroyed buildings but, instead, wonder about lives and how each that is caught up in such situations happened to be there.

 

I appreciate that the topic here is not about the fighting in Somalia but thought that giving a topical example would send the message in a much better way than if I told a story about a youth in the streets of London of Minnesota. I’m sure you can draw your own biased picture of one of those, if you wanted.

 

Now, spread your net a little further and try to apply the power of drama to other situations and problems. Conceptualise them, package them, give them a beginning and an end. Make them come alive and imagine if everyone else could see them the way you do.

 

In addition, and to move away from drama a little, Television has the power to also display factual achievements and struggles to a wider audience. Lets look at the idea of graduates helping out and becoming mentors. Or good and clued up parents giving their children the proper guidance or even heroic teachers putting in the extra effort to make sure their pupils do not become wayward and criminal! Where such stories would be heard and seen by dozens (at best), Television has the ability to make them known to millions.

 

In a stable and organised society Television might not be of paramount importance. However, in a broken up, scattered and extremely unorganised society, Television (in my opinion) is a must. Of course it could easily be turned into an instrument for spin and propaganda but that, when all is said and done, will never be as bad or confusing as the ‘waxa la yedhi’ disease we have now.

 

The biggest advantage on the side of Television is our inherent addiction (as Somalis) with news. I’m sure most of the readers are aware of the current Somali channel being broadcast through Hotbird. At the moment, sadly, it only shows a bit of news, occasional films and an endless number of repeated adverts. Yet, most Somali houses that have access to it (I’ve observed) follow it religiously and not even those hideous adverts would put them off from watching. Because seeing is believing and because it’s a link to home.

 

I’ve only touched upon a tiny area of this and could go on championing its cause until I go blue in the face but, I suppose it’s best I take a break now and let you digest what I wrote above first.

 

Northerner,

The London style is easily creeping into all the northern cities now. They’re all rude boys to a man.

[Naden]

I agree with Ngonge on this one. I spent hours watching dramas, gameshows, cartoons (Tom & Jerry reruns were my life), nature shows, the news, debates, interviews and so many other shows. Even as a child, I didn't realize that I was a child as I found myself 'plugged' into world affairs and aware of so many people and cultures around the world. I still recall a show on Australian aborigines I watched at 12 or 13. I was absolutely struck by these short, dark people with the straight hair. WTF? Where did they come from? How come they're so short yet their feautres African and their hair Asian?

 

I wish more Somalis watch TV, especially adults. They might learn a thing or two about raising and guiding children from the hundreds of hours dedicated to parenting skills. Whenever I visit a Somali house and want to catch up with HardTalk or a PBS show or an episode of LOST, I realize that the remote is nowhere to be found, the set hadn't been opened in ages and even if turned on by some miracle, you can't hear anything. Why? Because in their cocoon, the family and their guests are talking about what's happening to the TGF :rolleyes: , who brought new gold from Dubai, and where the next independence party is going to be. Just how many different independence celebrations can one group of people numbering less than 10 million have?

[Castro]

^ You mean the TFG? Yeah, the loud sucking noise in Baidhoa? LOL. I dunno about TV but asking kids questions works great. Things like "did you eat your lunch today and with whom?" or "when's your science test and why did you only score 88% on the math test?". That and loads of cartoons.

[-Lily-]

I still think you give TV too much emphasis. I watched lots of TV as a kid but my parents didn't like its power over us so we read and played outside and rode our bikes.

 

Castro's approach works too.

[Tahliil]

i don't get it...the inventors of this medium, the holywood spinners, the law-makers on the hill and the doctors all together are ganging up on TeleVision...recomanding restrictions and parental guidance. In good faith, they say they are concerned, worried to death about the influence this device is having over their kids...the filthy and the junk it's spreading all over...And here we are preaching and recommending and encouraging the xposure of tv, too much tv, lots of tv for our youngsters and kids...No, I don't get it.

 

It's been two years since I had one at home and four years since I had cable at all...

 

I think parenting is a huge responsibility that includes to be aware of every movement, almost every thing a child does at home and away. I used to think that my parents were never aware of whatever I did while I was away in the field but it always caught me by surprise, I always got shocked to the core...when they confronted me with the conducts and actions I was engaged in the field... how they were sure and correct, how they detected and read my patterns, how they knew what I was up to out there all day long. I am sure they employed everything in their capacity to track me down including phone tappin and wireless surviallance. There is no specific formula to follow when you are parenting i guess. But I am so positively sure that what works for one does not necesserily mean to work wonders for another. TV could be for the brave parents and smart kids like my buddy here who at the age of four I am again sure could tell the diference between a womans breast and her elbows...not for me or for my kids. We are not that smart...