Discordant Binaries: London and Xudurayle, Iley and Farah, Nimco Dareen and Ridwan

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

The man who thought London is Qorraxay

 

Abdi Mohamed Tarrax, the former commissioner of Somalia Refugee Commission, arrived in freezing London in late 1970s flanked by a close relative. The Commissioner probably was on a private mission, but I am not privy to the exact details of the visit. The details need not detain us, they are inessential. What matters is what transpired in the first hours of this eventful visit. Tarrax, the story goes, was accompanied by a man from his home-village of Xudurayle - a small nomadic settlement about 30 Kms to South East of Qabridahare. As Tarrax gleaned through some of the British newspapers, his relative got a glimpse of some “degrading” cartoons that ridiculed the Queen and the then Prime Minister. We do not know if it is Tarrax who told the relative about the theme of the cartoons, but the story is that he understood the spite in the pictures.

 

“War nimanka sidan madaxdii dalka u ceebaystay xageey joogaan?” (Where do these men who insulted the leaders of the land live? The man asked, irritated and staggered.

 

“They are here, in London.” Tarrax replied.

 

“Oo nimanka maa la figeeyo!!” (Why aren’t the hands of these men tied behind their backs?)

 

It was not a question. It was a burst full of dejection and regret over British indecisiveness. The Xudurayle man, who passed through Mogadishu before he made the trip to London, could not comprehend how men and women who speak against Her Majesty and the rulers of the land can safely sleep in their homes. It was an utter shock to him, having imagined what the fate of these men would have been if they were to do the same thing in Mogadishu or in his dusty hamlet in Ethiopia.

 

 

President Abdi Ilay of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia visibly distressed by the death of Zenawi

A woman holds a picture of Meles Zenawi as she awaits the arrival of his remains in Addis Ababa.

His was a genuine rage that encapsulated the colossal contrast in thinking between his world and the world he just landed on. It was the retort of a man whose understanding of “government” and its “functions” is fastened to the modus operandi of Imperial Ethiopia and militaristic Somalia. These parochial experiences determine his verities, sets a stifling tether to his thought-scape. He cannot be blamed. The blame rests on the shoulders of the man who took the villager to another world without briefing him on the different thought regimes that exist there.

This hilarious encounter sets the stage for the issues I wish to discuss in this installment. Visibly distressed by the death of Meles Zenawi, the President of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia Abdi Mohamed Omer (Iley), was offended by the “unsympathetic” comments of the Deputy Speaker of Kenyan Parliament, Honorable Farah Mo'allin, on the legacy of the deceased Prime Minister of Ethiopia. As usual, President Iley spoke out with vulgar indignation. In President Iley’s mind, Kenya must figeeys (tie-up) Farah, because that is the fate of those who speak their mind in Ethiopia. If the Xudurayle man was disgusted by the “softness” of the rulers of Britain, President Iley cannot understand why everybody does not cry for his late political godfather – Zenawi. In his logic, Farah and all other politicians in the region must laud Meles’s achievements. They must walk to Addis Ababa in tears and attend the funeral of Zenawi. This blinkered outlook defines the confines of morality in his world. They say the best defense against logic is ignorance, and this is one such case. He is not at fault. It is the fault of the barefaced Tigrayan rulers who install ignorant native tyrants on the people of the Somali Region of Ethiopia.

 

 

Farah Mo'allin, Deputy Speaker of the

Kenyan Parliament

Racism on Universal TV

But what was really shocking is Universal TV airing the racist comments of President Iley. Iley scorned Farah Mo’allin as an “adoon” (slave). Forget about the fact that a servant of an autocratic Ethiopian regime, who cannot utter one word without the authorization of the masters in Addis Ababa, is calling a free-man who can say whatever he wishes, a slave. Forget about the racist undertones that illustrate the depth of Iley’s obsoleteness in thinking and ignorance of current realities. Never mind the most powerful man in the world today, President Barack Obama of the USA, is an “adoon” according to Iley’s stereotyping. Disregard the fact that in terms of facial features Iley is likely be identified as a “Bantu” more than Farah. Forget the sickening contempt for our own Bantu Somalis in the banks of Wabi-Shabelle and other major rivers – people for whom Iley is supposed to be their “president”. Because natural ********* cannot be undone by artificial intelligence acquired from advisers, these types of insults are expected from a man of deficient personality. The biggest shock is that Universal TV airs this invective with no regard to the feelings of those who would be offended by these remarks. Where is media ethics? Where is social responsibility?

 

Farah’s reply was quick and biting: “We are busy looking after over 20,000 refugees displaced from their homes by President Iley.” The Honorable speaker should remind Iley that in Kenya when the President talks, his audience often talk back freely or ask questions that are unpleasant to the ears of the President. Listeners of Presidential speeches do not stare blindly and clap at some intervals, looking terrified! Iley’s angry rants only make sense when consumed by politically servile cadres, who do not ask questions but cheer cheap denunciations. It happens in North Korea. There, they also practice Iley’s beloved “figeeys” (torture). Iley should know Kenya is a neighbor to Ethiopia in geographic terms, it is on a different planet when it comes to governance, respect for the rights of citizens and freedom of speech.

 

 

Nimco Dareen

Can Nimco be a Ridwan for a moment?

In “A prayer to Afflict the Comfortable”, a chapter in Michael Moore’s book “Stupid White-men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation”, Moore asks God to “create circumstances in which (mostly unnamed) powerful figures in the American establishment are given problems or situations which affect ‘ordinary’ Americans”. The requests include that “every member of the House of Representatives to contract cancer; all senators to become addicted to drugs; the children of senators to become gay (really gay); all white political leaders ‘who believe black people have it good these days’ to become black-skinned overnight; bishops in the Roman Catholic Church (who are by tradition always male) develop unplanned pregnancies”.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Moore's central message is that if all political figures experience the same level of injustice and calamity as the average American citizen, these figures would be more sensitive to the feelings of the latter. This, he argues, would make them better leaders.

 

In the last week of August 2012, the attractive and hugely talented Somali singer Nimco Dareen was attacked while performing on stage in Nairobi. It was a shameful attack on freedom of speech and thinking. Supporters of the singer quickly pointed an accusatory finger at ONLF followers. Whoever did it, it was distasteful, because it violated Nimco’s rights. The disgust compounds when it is considered that the victim is a female. There are cultural barricades that should never have been breached.

But to present the other dimension of the story is neither to endorse the attack nor to justify it. It is to contextualize the whole matter. Nimco Dareen is not an ordinary singer. She is not only singing about love and lust, she is also singing about politics. She is wearing the war costumes of the Liyu Police. She is right now drafting the list of her ‘attackers’ and handing over to the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi, not to the Kenyan authorities who are the host country and who should provide protection to her. Her flights are being paid for by the Ethiopian authorities. She is dining with Ethiopian Intelligence. She is ingratiating herself with Ethiopian intelligence by insulting the ONLF. This is not a cheap propaganda, this is a fact that readers interested in truth can go and find out for themselves. Can she then be described as an ordinary singer?

 

Yet, regardless of her compromised standing as a professional singer, she is not physically attacking anyone and therefore she should not be attacked. If people find her taunts unbearable, they can reciprocate in kind, but physical violence is unacceptable.

 

SURVIVOR: Ridwan Hassan Sahid shows the scars on her body inflicted on her by Ethiopian troops who attacked her village

Perhaps Nimco should wake up as Ridwan Hassan Sahid, the survivor of the 2007 Qorille massacre, one night. Only then would she understand the enormity of the crime she is committing against her fellow sisters in the region, who were and continue to be victimized by Ethiopia and its local agents. A better Nimco who is more empathetic to the suffering of others would have emerged from such surreal transformation. She would not have rushed to cash on her looks and talent at the expense of forsaking and condemning her compatriots.

 

Unless, of course, she is a feminine Falstaff - the vain Falstaff, who outlived Shakespeare’s

honour-worshippers, Hotspur and Glendower, by hiding from the battlefront, prosaically querying “who hath it (honour)? He that dies a-Wednesday! Does he feel it? Does he hear it? Does he eat it? No! What good is it then?!” Is she saying “what good is justice if you can eat from injustice?” Maybe fame came too soon, well before the mind was composed.

 

Young artists are in race with time. They want to enjoy prime-time of youth-hood without the distraction of “struggle” and noble idealism. We understand their rush but they should not discount the virtues of fighting for justice and aspiring for freedom. They should reserve judgment on weighty matters. After all, they are experts of choruses and lyrics not politics.

 

If Jigjiga, Degahbour and Fiiq are so serene and free, it is time Nimco and other artists who sing about the prosperity and peace in the Somali region relocate there. Isn’t it unfair people who enjoy the liberal freedom in London, Minnesota, Perth and Copenhagen preach to those who are unlucky to escape the oppression in the region to live happily with injustice and absence of freedom at home? Why don’t they leave the cold continents and settle in the Somali region so that we, the irrational “war-mongers”, understand that all is well in the region? Or are the people in the region sub-humans who should accept autocracy, while Nimco and the ‘comfortables’ enjoy free press, free speech, free association, free thinking in democratic distant lands? Fairness, please!

[Taleexi]

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

[raula]

^^concur. Lol@ Iley scorning FM..what a joke he is.