My petty Somalis - Demography is Destiny - hadaad dalshishaeeye joogtaan, damiir la'aan

[OdaySomali]

How do you genuinely feel about the state in which your people find themselves today ?

 

I was speaking with my Nigerian friend the other day and he was of the opinion that Somalis are "still in colonialism". He is right. The Somali-galbeed region is controlled by Habasha and NFD by Bantus, with utter disregard for the people. Foreign countries run Somalia, whose inhabitants are divided and weak - shilst hundreds of thousands perish in famine/war/tahriib.

 

The Ethiopian problem is undeniable. Ethiopia-Eritrea-Somalia-Djibouti are entangled in a web of war - there can only be one winner... will the old age adage of "demography is Destiny" hold true ?

 

Here are some comments I collated from various websites about Somalis and the wider political region (mainly by Ethiopians, Kenyans). Ethiopians have particularly fascinated me, they have a very skewed view of the reality... in their minds, any geograpic locality that has ever been controlled by the abysynnian empire, whether directly or, as they say, 'indirectly' (confused?), is/should be part of ethiopia today. The only problem they have with their dictator is that he is too soft, not extreme enough... the opposiion of the country, the only opposition, are oppsition because they consider Zenawi anti-Ethiopia because he "gave away Eritrea and Assab", he is "unwilling to get back what rightfully belongs to Ethiopia".

 

We (Ethiopia) have the right to claim is the rightfully port of Ethiopia, namely "Asseb", It's just a question of when.

Djibouti was once part of Ethiopia/Abyssinia,

Here's the true story of why some people believe

Jibuti (it's just easier spelling it that way) belongs to Ethiopia.

Jibuti has always been a rather sparsely populated reigion, sometimes part of Muslim sultanates (Ifat, Aussa, ect), at times under nominal control of the Ethiopian emperors through vassal rulers. In the mid-19th century these were the sultans of Raheita, Tadjoura, and Gobaad. In 1862 France purchased the port of Obock from these rulers, and eventually expanded its domain under a protectorate, named French Somaliland(which meant the local rulers technically retained domestic control under French supervision, but it was basically an outright colony).

As the following map shows it was originally larger than it is today, its size was reduced by Franco-Ethiopian treaties after the First Italo-Ethiopian War. (As were virtually all other neighboring colonies)

 

Ethiopia had always been deeply involved in French Somaliland, and of course we have the Addis-Dire Dawa-Jibuti railroad to attest that, as well as the fact that the central square in Jibuti (was/is?) called the Place Menelik. After French Somaliland became the territory of the Afars and Issas in the late 60's, there were some in the Ethiopian government that reminded the French that the local rulers whom the French had bought their territory from were technically Ethiopian vassals. But by the time Jibuti finally gained indpendence in '77, Ethiopia had had a revolution and was at war with Somalia, and in no state to go claiming territories. It also had no reason to, with Massawa and Assab.

But after Meles gave away Eritrea (yes, I won't just accept Assab, we deserve it all; don't get me started), people yearned for acess to the sea, and people looked to Jibuti as a way to expand without conflict.

But let me make it clear, it's just nostalgia combined with the need to find an outlet for their frustration, everyone knows that an invasion would be economic (closure of the port) and political (Camp Lemonier, anyone?) suicide.

 

Now a Jibuti-Ethiopia Federation would be interesting, but how would that work?

 

 

I just don't understand. Eritrea was the ex-italian colony right, and Asseb was part of that italian colony, so Asseb should be Eritrean right?

 

What was Asseb part of before the Italian colonization? And who operated the port after the Italians got defeated?

 

The TPLF mafia in Ethiopia sold our souls when they gave away our only sea port and now they are continuing selling us out by giving away huge land to Sudan.

 

Djibouti was once part of Ethiopia/Abyssinia, but if I am correct, they were allowed to vote for independence and they choose to.

 

But 80 million Ethiopians will never forget Asseb.

 

Come on you cannot compare Djibouti and Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is country of 80 milion people and I don't think Ethiopia would like to depend on such small nation as djibouti,this is about national security. I cannot deny that most Ethiopians consider Assab an Ethiopian port.

You can't just preach peace when things are upside down.

Countries have intrests and Ethiopia's interests do not differ anything with those of Americas. With a growing population and growing market Ethiopia will be forced to seek for her own port. As said it's an military and economic advantage and Ethiopia as a big country will certainly not lie low. Many Ethiopians felt betrayed by Meles when he gave away Assab. It's hard for you as non-Ethiopians to understand this but i think i speak for the majority of the Ethiopians here but we will see what the future holds

Do you know that Djibouti recently increased their port taxes? Are we just supposed to sit and accept that, what if Djibouti increases their taxes every year?

 

What if Djibouti and Ethiopia have an "politcal dispute" one day and we are refused port access, what will happend to us then?

 

Ethiopia, with or without Asseb will still have an interest in Djibouti. Asseb can serve the northen part of the country, Djibouti the east and south. Besides, you have a small populaton.. you can easily educate your population. You also probably get a lot from those French and American military bases too. Djibouti is the only country in Africa with an American military base.

 

Wishing a 80 million population, poor country, to be landlocked is imo very selfish.

Besides, isn't Eritrea currently occupying Djibouti land? You are indirectly siding with them.

When Ethiopians talk about Asseb they mean the whole area inhabited by Afars, that is the whole area from south Missewa to the Djibouti border.

In addition Djibouti belongs to Ethiopia too as it was leased 1878 to France for 99 years, just like Hong Kong.

There is no doubt with the change of government in Ethiopia this issue will be raised.

The large majority, including the Oromo speaking population feel Ethiopian. There is no question about that. There are some small separatist groups making noise in the West, but they are irrelevant in Ethiopia.

 

We have read about the attacks by the ONLF, when was the last time you've read anything about the OLF? Wouldn't you think that OLF would make larger damaged considering that the Oromos are a much bigger group in Ethiopia than the Somalis? If the OLF would had the support you think they have, believe me, Ethiopia would had looked like Somalia a long time ago.

 

Also, you should know that Half-Amharas and Half-Oromos, if the father is Oromo, is only stated as an Oromo in the official statistics and everyone know that marriage between Oromos and Amharas is VERY common in regions around Addis.

 

About ******.. as long as you don't give back South Somalia to the Oromos, you can continue dreaming about ******.

Dream on ONLF. Your movement is on its last legs. We have unlimited resources. We just have to fight for another 10 years before the forces of globalization and economic development make those pathetic little nomads irrelevant.

I don't know what they will agree upon. ONLF won't settle for anything but indepence, are TPLF ready to give them that?

 

I don't think TPLF would repeat the same colossal mistake again...but you never know with this primitive minded village ******. IMO, there shouldn't be any referendum whatsoever. Everybody knows the people would vote for secession in heartbeat.

The somali state has never been a part of the country of Somalia and has only been a part of Ethiopia. That is a fact.

 

Lets have somaliland, puntland, Garowe secede as well. That is also the desire of those people. Lets be real, somalis cant even share a country with themselves. The country of somalia has been disintergrated by this very thinking.

 

I know you dont think you are "superior" to the Amharas. Which to me would be hilarious. Somalia have bigger issues then Ethiopia so please attend to them.

 

The arrogance of some people. Now what the hell do you have to be so arrogant about. Get back down to earth.

[OdaySomali]

[OdaySomali]

by DONALD KIPKORIR,

dkipkorir@ktk.co.ke

Friday, October 03, 2008

 

Why Kenya and Ethiopia ought to annex and divide Somalia.

 

Last month, Lehmans Brothers and Merrill Lynch, the world’s foremost investment banks, went bankrupt and we witnessed the financial chaos in the western capitals.

 

In the fog of international headlines on finding a financial bail-out in Washington, a rag-tag army of 50 semi-naked men on rickety boats captured a ship carrying 33 T-72 tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns off the coast of Somalia. The capture of mv Faina and the stalemated talks amid the surrounding American and Russian warships made me think that maybe this is the time to find a final solution to the Somali problem.

 

Since 1960, the country has been a lawless state that is a haven for terrorists and pirates. The pirates have told us the destination of the captured weaponry causing tension and panic in Washington, Nairobi and Khartoum.

 

If it is true that the final consignee was the government of Southern Sudan, as they allege, I will be on the same page with the Kibaki government for the first time.

 

I am a fervent supporter of a strategic foreign policy even if it attracts us enemies of such malevolent and despotic regimes as that of Khartoum.

 

Supporting the Southern Sudan government is in our long-term strategic interest and we should not shy from it. The truth of the matter is that as a Western ally, Kenya is an existential enemy of Arab countries, Sudan included.

 

Annexing Somalia is thus in our strategic interest and we must do it now as the financial meltdown continues to take away the attention of the world.

 

Somalia as a state exists only in world maps. It is a classic case of a failed state. It is a state dismembered into as many independent units as there are sub-clans. Its 90-strong cabinet is emblematic of the actual number of units.

 

The Horn of Africa country has no functioning government. The so-called transitional federal government, led by Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, is confined to a shell-shocked presidential compound.

 

There is no standing or even sitting army or judicial systems. By all accounts, Somalia is a black hole in international law. Together with Afghanistan and Pakistan they are known as the training grounds and refuge for international terrorism.

 

Kenya has been a victim of such terrorism, leading to near-destruction of its tourism industry. We cannot afford another such attack. We have the potential to develop our tourism to compete with, if not outpace, Egypt and South Africa. But we cannot do so if Somalia continues to be a non-state.

 

Somalia neighbours Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Of these, it is only Ethiopia and Kenya that have strategic interest in Somalia. Djibouti is a primitive entrepot that can’t even supply water to its 600,000 people, who are forced to drink that imported from France or Coca Cola. Therefore, Djibouti is out in the quest for the final solution to the Somali puzzle.

 

Kenya and Ethiopia must and ought to dismember Somalia and divide it between themselves along the 4 degrees latitude, each taking all the land below and above the line.

 

The division will make both countries extend their territories by roughly 300,000sq km and additional populations of about five million. Once Kenya and Ethiopia have sent their combined army to Somalia and declared the annexation, we will present to the world a fait accompli.

 

In 1845, America annexed Texas from Mexico and forced the Texan legislature to pass a specific legislation stating that it accepted the annexation. The annexation has stood to date and, for good measure, President George W. Bush is a proud American Texan. For Kenya and Ethiopia, having the Somali legislature to endorse the annexation will be cake-walk. At any given time, most, if not all, Somali legislators are in Nairobi.

 

We will have them convene in one of our hotels and to pass the appropriate statutes dividing their country. When the allied forces liberated Germany from Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, they sent the bill to Berlin.

 

Our cost of annexing Somalia will be settled by Mogadishu. Somalia is known to have huge deposits of oil, natural gas, uranium and iron ore. Immediately after the annexation, we will invite our strategic foreign friends (not China please) to come and exploit the resources for us.

 

Kenyans ought to know that although Somalia is a failed state, its positive statistics are impressive. Without a structured economy, its gross national income per capita is US$600 (Sh40,000), when ours is $550 (Sh36,800). Of its universities that operate without budgets and with armed militia guarding them, three are in Africa’s top 100.

 

International law forbids the use of force by states against the territorial integrity and political independence of others. Somalia doesn’t have either.

 

But the law also recognises irreversible processes like the extinction of states such as in the USSR, emergence of new states from former USSR and Yugoslavia, and annexations like that of Texas. International order hates reversing completed processes, more so if the world is a better place.

 

If we do not annex Somalia and now, we will be a victim of its failed status and pulled down by it. We will not be able to achieve our strategic foreign policy in the region, or attain the Vision 2030 goal.

 

The time to annex and dismember Somalia is now; Washington and Moscow will be grateful.

 

...

[OdaySomali]

2011 Population Figures

 

Somalia ~9m

 

Ethiopia 90 Million

 

Kenya 41 Million

[walaalkis]

OdaySomali;778168 wrote:

 

Is coming if we don't stop the ignorance

[OdaySomali]

My petty Somalis - revel in your own self-destruction... argue over a petty village of a few houses whilst your entire mustaqbal is stolen right under your nose.

 

[OdaySomali]

walaalkis;778173 wrote:

Is coming if we don't stop the ignorance

Its already here. Its a matter of damage control atm.

[kingofkings]

i see, the fear mongers are at work today.

[kingofkings]

so, are the kenyans and ethiopians in somalia and if so, what cities and their population?

[OdaySomali]

The international community has come out in force to condemn and declare war on the Somali fishermen pirates, while discreetly protecting the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fleets from around the world that have been poaching and dumping toxic waste in Somali waters since the fall of the Somali government eighteen years ago.

 

In 1991, when the government of Somalia collapsed, foreign interests seized the opportunity to begin looting the country’s food supply and using the country’s unguarded waters as a dumping ground for nuclear and other toxic waste.

 

According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF),

there were over

800 illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing vessels in Somali waters in one day

, taking advantage of Somalia’s inability to police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. The IUUs poach an estimated $450 million in seafood from Somali waters annually. In so doing, they steal an invaluable protein source from some of the world’s poorest people and ruin the livelihoods of legitimate fishermen.

Allegations of the dumping of toxic waste, as well as illegal fishing, have circulated since the early 1990s, but hard evidence emerged when the tsunami of 2004 hit the country. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reported that the tsunami washed rusting containers of toxic waste onto the shores of Puntland, northern Somalia.

 

Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesman, told Al Jazeera that when the barrels were smashed open by the force of the waves, the containers exposed a “frightening activity” that had been going on for more than a decade. “Somalia has been used as a dumping ground for hazardous waste starting in the early 1990s, and continuing through the civil war there,” he said. “The waste is many different kinds. There is uranium radioactive waste. There is lead, and heavy metals like cadmium and mercury. There is also industrial waste, and there are hospital wastes, chemical wastes—you name it.”

 

66

[OdaySomali]

kingofkings;778180 wrote:

so, are the kenyans and ethiopians in somalia and if so, what cities and their population?

The Ethiopians are, in their thousands in Somalia. You may eb a simpleton but you do not need to be there in huge numbers to control a place or destroy it... especially not if the inhabitants of the place are willing to do the latter themselves for you.

[OdaySomali]

kingofkings;778179 wrote:

i see, the fear mongers are at work today.

My petty and ignorant lad, your people are being killed or dying in their thousands, your waters are being poached by 800 ships in one single day, nuclear dumping is rampant, your biggest source of water in the south is controlled and begins in Ethiopia and they can easily build dams there, not one of your political entities is internationally revognised or has a seat at the table, aside from the TFG i mean VFG (Vessel for Foreign Governments), your brothers are being massacred in western-Somalia, your diapora is melting into foreign lands. You an face existential crisis, and you do not even know it. How sad, how pathetic.

[kingofkings]

simpleton:confused: the only simpleton is you. the ethiopians that are in somalia are refugees from the oromo community. if ethiopia and kenya wanted somali lands shouldn't they start with the NFD and Western somalia? About the illegal fishing, i think the pirates scared most of them.

[OdaySomali]

The drought and famine in Somalia have killed more than 29,000 children under the age of 5 in the last 90 days in southern Somalia alone,

according to U.S. estimates. The U.N. says 640,000 Somali children are acutely malnourished, suggesting the death toll of small children will rise.

0;,

[OdaySomali]

kingofkings;778186 wrote:

simpleton:confused: the only simpleton is you. the ethiopians that are in somalia are refugees from the oromo community. if ethiopia and kenya wanted somali lands shouldn't they start with the NFD and Western somalia? About the illegal fishing, i think the pirates scared most of them.

Shouldnt they start kulahaa, ... you are 50 years behind events. As for pirates scaring fishing fleets away, who do you think the fleets of international navy war-ships are there to protect