Sheikh Sharief on A Rickety Perch

[baalcade]

The Somali tragedy continues being played on the open stage of the Horn of Africa without an interlude. Of late, only the dramatis personae have changed: exeunt Abdullahi Yusuf, Nur Adde ,et al; enter Sheikh Sharief, Omer Abdurashid, et al. The new cast of actors are supposed to work under the label of “Transitional Federal Government” but prefer to call themselves a “Government of National Unity” – an empty claim that bears no relation to the reality on the ground and is devoid of any legitimacy derived from the inflated parliament, much less the ‘National’ Reconciliation Conference held in Djibouti early this year.The organizers of that conference, haughtily overconfident, dismissed outright some important players and ignored the administrations in Hargeisa and Garowe.

 

Foreign hands were as ubiquitous as ever, and none was so ubiquitous as the hand of Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Somalia, and a previous protégé of Boutros-Ghali who called him an ‘eel’ in his memoirs, Unvanquished, and whose aide called Ould Abdallah (as related by Boutros-Ghali in the same memoirs) a ‘despicable turncoat’. The Somali people together with their politicians, warlords, TFGs and spectators of their drama have long lost confidence in and respect for the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS). They consider it a place where the considerable monitory assistance earmarked for building peace and advancing reconciliation in Somalia is mismanaged and misappropriated on a scale hitherto unseen; and where every effort – including bribery and corruption – is employed to thwart honest efforts in order to prolong the life of the goose that lays the golden egg on a regular basis. In fact, neither the UNDP office for Somalia nor UNPOS (both of which are based in Nairobi) has been spared the execration of enlightened Somalis.

 

Ordinarily, Somalis have a soft spot for their co-religionists and had therefore high hopes at the outset that their brother, Ould Abdallah, would change the old ways and embark on a dynamic, fruitful course in order to push the peace process forward relentlessly and without fear or favor. His long diplomatic practice and his experience in similar situations in Burundi, the UN Office for West Africa and as a ‘Special Envoy’ to the Sudan on Darfur also suggested that he would apply some tested skills to the gnawing problems staring him in the face.

 

His job, before all else, was to gain the trust of all parties and establish himself as a neutral, impartial arbiter; his method should have been the use of the force of persuasion; and his influence should have emanated from the force of his example. To do all this, a certain degree of detachment was required of him – not too close to anyone and not too distant from anyone. He was required to put himself far above the petty quarrels of his daily interlocutors on the Somali side, but far below the dizzy height of his exalted bureaucratic level. It is a difficult balance to maintain, given the intensity of interaction and the human capacity to love and loathe.

 

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[Naxar Nugaaleed]

this paranoia about outside meddling is tired and wholly unwarranted assessment of what ills Somalia when the "internal" factors have done a fine job of destroying country. You know they say: History repeats itself especially if you keep doing the same tired assessments and prescriptions.

[Reer Banaadir]

MR. NAXAR NUGAALEED IT'S NOT A PARANOIA IT'S FACT THAT OUTSIDERS ARE NUMBER 1 CULPRIT OF THE SITUATION IN SOMALIA, UNFORTUNATELY THE SO CALLED SOMALI ELITE WHOM WERE TRAINED BY THEM ARE HELPING THEM 100%, THE REST OF THE PUBLIC NO ONE ASKED WHAT THEY WANT AND NO ONE CARES TO ASK THEM. THE SAD REALITY IS WE AS SOMALIS HAVE NO INTELIGENSIA WHO ARE ABLE TO RESQUE THEIR PEOPLE FROM THE ABYSMAL SITTUATION THEY FIND THEMSELF. WE DO NOT APPRECIATE THE GRAVITY OF THE SITTUATION WE FIND OUTSELF. MOST OF US HAVE A TUNAL VISSION AND DO NOT SEE WHAT'S ON OUR PERIFERIES, AND CAN'T SEEM TO RECOGNIZE WHAT'S COMING OR WHY ARE THESE FORIEGNERS DOING WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO US. WE ONLY WHAT WE DO TO EACHOTHER, AND NEVER SEEM TO ASK QUESTIONS TO WHY, HOW, WHEN , WHO AND WHAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL OF THIS. SO PLEASE DON'T DISMISS THINGS THAT YOU YOURSELF DO NOT RECOGNIZE, SEE OR FEEL. IT'S LIKE SAYING WIND OR AIR DOES NOT EXIST THAT WOULD BE REDICULAS. WE KNOW IT EXISTS CAUSE WE FEEL THE COLD OR DRAFT. OUTSIDER ARE IN BERRIED IN THE SOMALI AFFAIRS AND HAVE A LOT OF VESTED INTEREST TO SEE IT WORKS IN THEIR FAVOR. THEY HAVE SAID IT PLAINLY, IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WHAT THEIR INTENTIONS ARE TOWARDS SOMALI AFFAIRS AND WE DON'T WANT TO DEBATE WHAT THEY'VE SAID OR DONE ON HER CAUSE THE PROVE IS OUT IN THE OPEN IT'S UP TO YOU TO LOOK AT IT WE CAN'T MAKE YOU BELIEVE OS SEE IF YOU CHOOSE TO NOT SEE IT, BUT PLEASE DON'T JUST DISMISS IT SO CARELESSLY IT'S AN AFRONT TO OUR INTELIGENCE, AND VERY DISRESPECTFULL TO YOUR COUNTRYMEN. HAVE SOME DECENCY AND PATRIOTISM LEFT IN YOU. I AM SURE YOU CAN DO THAT SMALL GESTER TO YOU COUNTRYMEN, IT MIGHT OPEN A SMALL WINDOW OF HOPE THAT WE CAN ATLEAST START TO COME CLOSER ON THE CIVILIAN LEVEL FORGETTING THE POLITICIAN ON THE TOP. PEACE!