The trauma of conflicting leadership

[Xudeedi]

The trauma of conflicting leadership

Adan Makina

October 25, 2007

 

For twenty one years, Somalis, like the patient vulture, watched with utter dismay at the suppression of the press by the dreaded National Security Service (NSS). They saw how the border conflict with Ethiopia over the disputed Somali region took its toll on life and property. They witnessed coup d'états orchestrated within the ranks of the military smashed and the perpetrators executed by firing squad. They witnessed grueling guerilla warfare coordinated by men who felt they would be better leaders in the aftermath of the regime’s overthrow. They were witnesses to economic monopoly not befitting their known ways of entrepreneurship that terribly handicapped their resources. By and large they saw themselves in the midst of cyclically weird overbearing decrees that caused them untold suffering of the greatest level never seen before since gaining independence in 1960 from Britain and Italy respectively thus causing unprecedented humiliation in the general mental faculties of the general population.

 

After the twenty one years of the military junta and in the midst of a post-traumatic stress disorder, Somalis were thrown into new political imbroglios and crimes of startling frequency that brought about more devastation to their existence and material goods thus ushering in an era of dejection and dreadful conditions that continue to tick the clock to this day with no hope of settlement in sight despite brighter expectations and applause at the fall of the former frightful regime that held them confined for such a long time. Since Siyad Barre’s exit, sanguineous acts perpetrated by a dozen villainous heretics with disproportionate cutthroat drive who perceive themselves as the rightful torchbearers of sublime leadership have reduced the nation into a bleeding mess.

 

Having suffered severe psychological deteriorations and devastating aftershocks, rape, collective maladjustment, physical and mental exhaustion, the country plunged into a new era of wanton obliteration resulting in the death of thousands and dislodgment of millions who are classified as belonging to the internally displaced people (IDP), refugees or asylees.

As was the expectations of her internal and external enemies, Somalia, the great African nation of the Horn that thrilled the likes of Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt, Ibn Batutta, and Sir Richard Burton-the Somalia that was known for its beauty and radiance since time immemorial, has been transformed into the killing fields of the 21st century where sophisticated weaponry is being tested to this day turning brother against a brother thus tearing apart the only known homogenous race in global Africa-homogenous in language, religion, and culture-into cantons administered by men who have lost the ability to reason and govern with instructions from Addis Ababa.

 

Ironically, every crisis intervention and reconciliation rehearsed by the International Community ended in tatters due to Somalia’s strategic importance and political significance further inflicting grotesquely nightmarish feelings of misery for the peace-loving Somalis and exhilaration for the newly-evolved warlords and their foreign cronies who perceive any form of stability in the country as catastrophic to their political intentions. Thus, a myriad of confronting physical and mental upshots with profound results continues to consume the very fabric of Somali society in all localities.

 

With dwindling supplies of medicine, shortage of qualified healthcare professionals and a few existing ramshackle medical institutions for the dispossessed millions, the rate of mental and physical disorders must be skyrocketing and quite alarming.

 

In a country where clean drinking water is hard to come by, the multitude of the population afflicted by disease and psychological disorders is hard to swallow.

 

Even the so-called current leaders of Somalia, for that matter, due to the prolonged unresolved political bickering and armed rebellion, are mentally disordered and require some sort of cognitive behavioral therapy, deserve psychosocial assessment and thorough clinical observation of behavior. It baffles the sober mind how an assembly of men who have collectively undertaken the oath of allegiance to the constitution hastily resort to physical altercations in full view of the international media for the sake of supremacy and voracity without regard for law and order though psychologists would have an explanation for such kind of outbursts. The sudden explosion results from the many years of perceived detachment from the reality on the ground and the complete apprehension of congregating in an assembly occupied by bitter antagonists thus instilling fear in ones’ heart and mind and that of the archrival consequently creating an atmosphere laden with nervousness and panic disorder.

 

They walk on the earth insolently breathing threats, forge intimate relationships with psychopaths of like caliber; they seemingly don’t understand the true meaning of love and affection; and are concerned only with personal enjoyment. These are men who have suffered a variety of psychological disorders either in childhood or in adult life and are ignorant of the enormity of the actual disorder.

 

A government formed in exile whose foundations are inconsistent with the demands of its people; lacks popular support; whose safety is in the hands of an avowed enemy; is not a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. When an inexperienced president takes the helm with schizophrenic, delirious, and hypersensitive figures as advisors and ministers, contracts men of intemperate habits, kleptomaniacs, and hypochondriacs, there ought to be intrapsychic incongruity. (1)“Conceptualizing psychopaths as remorseless predators has helped me to make sense of what often appears to be senseless behavior. These are individuals who, lacking in conscience and feeling for others, find it easy to use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own social needs. They cold-bloodedly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret. Their depredations virtually affect everyone at one time or another, because they form a significant proportion of persistent criminals, drug dealers, spouse and child abusers, swindlers and con men…. They are well represented in the business and corporate world particularly during chaotic restructuring, where the rules and their enforcements are lax and accountability is difficult to determine (Babiak, 1995). Many psychopaths emerge as “patriots and “saviors” in societies experiencing social, economic, and political upheaval (e.g., Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and the former Soviet Union). They wrap themselves in the flag, and enrich themselves by callously exploiting ethnic, cultural, or racial tensions and grievances. (1998B, PP. 128-129)

 

It is worth pondering the political endgame of the likes of Augusto Pinochet of Chile, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Mengistu Haile Miriam of Ethiopia, Idi Amin of Uganda, Samuel Doe of Liberia, and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo)-the man who called himself Kuku Ngbendu wa Zabanga-which means the irresistible one who cannot be challenged-and the host of gluttonous, paranoid pathological gamblers, and disreputable world leaders who coldheartedly pulverized the economical foundations of their nations through contrabandism, deception, and reckless economic strangulation with the crucial aim of enriching themselves and the few megalomaniac acquaintances wholeheartedly holding the keys to their breathtaking Shangri-La while their nations’ citizens either starved to death or became canon fodder every time a revolt took place.

 

The irony is that, if the ostentatious leaders of Somalia are entangled in a panic cycle; trigger internal and external stimulus; demonstrate symptoms of “fear of fear”; have apprehension and worry; are a high risk, in that case, the mass who depend on them for guidance will obviously feel neglected and live stress-filled lives, suffer major depressions, show signs of antisocial personality and psychopathy, and feel alienation if precautionary interventions are not applied in the long run. The deceit and manipulation applied by Somalia’s camel-boy leaders is a clear indication of psychopathy and remorseless predation; their inability to maintain good relationship is a sign of egocentrism; their rejection of authority and abuse of law a precursor for capriciousness; their failure and lack of ability to impress the mass duplicity reflecting dimensional antisocial deviant behavior.

 

Paradoxically, top echelons of the Somali nation have varying combinations of oppositional behaviors, difficult temperaments, and unprincipled psychological illustrations not found in any other world leader and conceivably may possess strange genes and opulently afflicted intelligence. According to history, many prominent and talented figures have been affected by neurobiological disorder (NBD) which is characterized by figment of the imagination, phantasm, higgledy-piggledy speech, and anomalous social behavior. (2)“Those who do go on to develop NBDs become part of a crowd that includes Socrates, Newton, Beethoven, Darwin, Lincoln, Poe, Dickens, Tolstoy, Van Gogh, Freud, Churchill, Einstein, Picasso, Woolf, Hemmingway, and Nash” (Starr et al. 186). Despite developing NBDs, the above-mentioned figures have their names written in the golden pages of history while current Somali leaders and those who preceded them have nothing of benefit to their names.

 

The negative behavioral mannerisms displayed by Somalia’s charlatans are upsetting, stomach-churning, and nonsensical. A penumbra of political, social, and economic humiliation bedevils Somalia in the presence of these bogus leaders who possess distorted minds, apprehensive imagery, ingrained adult criminality, genetic transmissibility, and intellectual deficiencies inherited from parents or probable factors in drug and alcohol abuse.

Obviously, the use of qaad or catha edulis is a major factor in the detonation of adrenaline that accommodates anomalous addictive behavior causing estrangement, aggression, avoidant personality disorder and agitation.

 

Hardly a day passes by without Somali leaders showing signs of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)-a disorder that portrays symptoms of depression emanating from the consumption of the nutritiously stimulating herb (qaad) that is capable of easing frustrations and uncontrollable obstacles facing a consumer which is abundantly available as shipments arrive from Ethiopia and Kenya on a daily basis if not hourly with cathonine-the major drug content that induces euphoria, hypertension, and hypersensitivity still unbroken.

However, the prolonged use of qaad results in negative drug interactions and ineffective stimulus. Therefore, combining qaad with benzodiazepines (popularly known as Muslim beer among the youth) and other antianxiety drugs is a temptation chewers can’t avoid because of the promising double drug interaction it has on the brain. In Kenya, among the youth hooked on drugs, chewing qaad with mosquito coil has been found to induce promising wholesale stimulation regardless of the toxic effects. Mosquito coil is made from pyrethrum making Kenya the leading producer in the world.

 

Because there is no ministry to regulate drug production in a malfunctioning government, marijuana, a hallucinogenic drug that is readily available due to its unprecedented growth, and methamphetamine hydrochloride (also called speed), may be the driving force behind the induced buoyancy found in the dreaded militia serving the narcissistic warlords.

 

Despite excelling in the art of excretal consumption, chicken are known to have mastered the art of mouth wiping. These men have resorted to washing their dirty fabric in public, demonstrate no sign of repenting, and seem not to come up with remedial measures to save the nation from absolute ruination. Millions of dollars belonging to the starving mass end up in their pockets and the rate of misappropriation is definitely startling. Some ruminants are known to preserve some fodder for the next feeding session and at night they prudently regurgitate the day’s preserves in their stomachs enjoying incessant cud chewing until daybreak.

 

Imagine the millions of dollars being spent on drugs and buying votes while our children die of marasmus and dehydration; ponder over the army of shoeless child soldiers dying indiscriminately in the battlefields; brood over the deteriorating state and health of our innocent women; and think over how agape the world is at our failure to find a solution to our problems.

 

Regardless of whether one is a non-commissioned officer, a decorated five-star general, a former diplomat or a distinguished professor of literary repute, powerful psychological factors and environmental influences reinforce intolerance and other forms of maladaptive behaviors that have become inherent in the psychological make-up of Somalia’s leaders opening a pathway for unending conflict.

 

The agony is these leaders suffer from personality muddles that are difficult to detect with no convincing psychopharmacological remedies.

 

Adan Makina

E-Mail:adan.makina@gmail.com

 

Reference:

 

(1) Carson, Robert C., et al. Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life. Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon. 2000

 

(2) Starr, Cecie, et al. Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life. Belmont. Thomson, 2006.