Can Returning Ministers Restore Glory Days?

[Jacaylbaro]

After 20 years of almost non-stop warfare, Somalia's capital Mogadishu is not an easy place to get to.

 

We're tearing along a pot-holed street, squeezed inside one of the heavily armoured trucks that the Ugandan peacekeepers use to patrol their territory. In our flak jackets and helmets, we jolt against each other like beer cans in shopping bag. The reinforced windows bear the cobweb-like scars of bullets. The Ugandan troops stand, heads through hatches in the roof, manning three big guns.

 

Through the windows, two strong, conflicting impressions: Mogadishu is rubble, and Mogadishu is impressively busy.

 

Two decades of litter and debris cover the roads. Many buildings are in ruins, others pockmarked with an acne-rash of bullet holes. It is impossible to look in any direction without seeing a Kalashnikov - slung over a shoulder, resting at someone's feet, brandished on a street corner. Some men stand swaddled in bandoleers of bullets. In a side-street, an anti-aircraft gun sits welded to the back of a truck. It all feels - just like it did a decade ago when I first came to this city - like wandering into a Mad Max movie.

 

And yet, look past the guns and the ruins and there is also another city visible from the armoured truck. We pass a market - its stalls full of oranges and mangoes. A crowd of elderly men are sipping tea in the shade of a tree. Small shops are open. Goats foraging in the rubbish. Adverts for mobile phones.

 

After about 15 minutes, the sea comes into view again on our right, then we dip down a hill and our convoy of trucks turns ponderously up towards Villa Somalia - the country's once-elegant state house that is now home to the besieged inmates of an unelected Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that would probably be overrun within hours by al-Shabab, the Islamist mlitia which has links to al-Qaeda, if it weren't for the Ugandan peacekeepers manning the front lines a few blocks away.

 

A boom of artillery, and a few close pops of automatic gunfire greet us as we climb out of the truck. It might well have been this incident.

 

Inside, in a dark, gloomy but elegantly furnished room, we are introduced to half a dozen members of the country's new, streamlined, technocratic cabinet. Many have just returned from years in exile in the hope that change is finally coming to Somalia.

 

I struggle to contain my scepticism. Ten years ago I covered my first major Somali peace initiative on a sweltering hilltop in nearby Djibouti. Everyone seemed convinced it would work - that this time, things would be different. The diaspora was thrilled. It all went nowhere.

 

But Doctor Maryan Qasim tries hard to convince me things have finally changed. She got off the plane four days ago from Birmingham, UK, after over 20 years in exile there.

 

"My family said: 'You're mad,'" she admits. "But my country needs me. I told them it's challenging but I have to make a sacrifice." After years as an English primary school teacher, she suddenly finds herself waiting for the transitional parliament in Mogadishu to confirm her as Minister for Women's Development and Family Affairs.

 

"If we are optimists and work hard, the rest will follow," she insists, claiming that "now is the right point. People have suffered a lot and now for 20 years they don't want this to carry on more and more. I have a big hope this is a turning point."

[Jacaylbaro]

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[xiinfaniin]

Oodweyne soo dhawoow

 

Somalia will be back in sha Allaah, habaarkii reer waqooyigana ilaah aqbali waa

[Abwaan]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

Oodweyne soo dhawoow

 

Somalia will be back in sha Allaah, habaarkii reer waqooyigana ilaah aqbali waa

looooooooool.........Oo ma waxay ku habaartamayaan baad leedahay Soomaaliya Ilaahoow ha hagaajin...xiin waa iga qoslisay runtii.

[xiinfaniin]

^^Yes Abwaan, NGONGE aa afcarabiga yaqaan oo habaarka u qora , markaan niri war maxaa kugu kalifay na wuxuu yiri : CLAN IS EVERYTHING .

 

There was a SOL post i created about Oodweyne's prayers ---and they are not nice

[Kool_Kat]

Xiin is too funny, at times! Wouldn't it funnier haduu habaarkooda iyaga alle ku celiyo?

[Mr. Somalia]

^

Walaaley, habaarkoodii mar hore ayuu Alle(Subxaanu Qaadir) ku celiyey, oo waa taas Ceesaantii ey dhihi jiriin wey duushey Marfashyadooda dhaafi weydey.

[NGONGE]

Originally posted by xiinfaniin:

Oodweyne soo dhawoow

 

Somalia will be back in sha Allaah, habaarkii reer waqooyigana ilaah aqbali waa

Ameen ya rab.

 

Lakin the guru warkaaga lama socdo dee. He doesn't know that you withdrew your support from Sharif's Caravan and are now backing Farole's wooden horse.

[xiinfaniin]

^^You are misleading Oodweyne there

 

We still recognize Sharif as the legitimate leader of the current political arrengement in Somalia, wa naquulu adhaalalaahu cumraha, waa xafithahu min sawaariikh alshabaab

[Jacaylbaro]

Oo sheekaduba ma waa nala habaaray bay ku soo ururtay ? :.... waan garanayay Ahlusunna Waljamaaca inay Shariifka waalayaan

[xiinfaniin]

^^

 

You are feigning ignorance on a subject you are well-versed in. The cursing I referred to is nothing but a perfect analogy of secessionist’s frustration with Somalia’s legal construct, which, to their surprise, managed to hold them in the fold of what they see as a failed UNION.

 

Imagine, if you will, the effort of a goslings trying hard and fast to escape to the waters, and from the strong wings of the ever caring Mother Goose.

[xiinfaniin]

Originally posted by Oodweyne:

As for the political score of where this argument of the old union of the Somali Republic is heading to, all one can say is that, it will behoves you to watch this space. Knowing, as you know now, as to how soon a whole kettle of fish is about to be open with the

"liquidation" of the old Union of

Sudan

; which is on the political cards for next year. And how that will be (

shall we say

) very interesting development in so far the case of Somaliland and her undeniable independence is concern, indeed.

 

Regards,

Oodweyne.

When put in context, South Sudan’s looming independence represents a false hope for our separatists in the north.It’s not surprising however that you arbitrarily hang your secessionist’s hopes on other’s political experiences despite apparent deference in historical background, underlying drivers, and the level of involvement of world powers. The significance of such differentiations has eluded you before, and I am not surprised at all to see you get excited again for another false dawn---remember it was Kosovo before .

[xiinfaniin]

^^Oodweyne as ever is holding the secessionist fort

 

Your assessment of today (2010) is not that much different than your assessment of 7 years ago (2003). In other words, we are looking at the same data, but because of your biases and separatist beliefs, you are drawing far-reaching conclusions than I am.