Somaliland: where peace and democracy make no headlines
Bashir Goth
Mention Somalia and images of famine, warlords, fratricide and Black Hawk Down will jump to one's mind. The country barely exists on the world map let alone the world agenda. Since the last central government was forced out of power more than 15 years ago, the people have been hijacked by hordes of warlords who prospered by robbing and looting international food aid meant for the millions of internally displaced and famished civilians, mostly women, children and elderly.
These thugs-turned warlords have foiled every attempt by the international community to restore peace and normalcy to the country. It is no wonder that the people of Mogadishu have come to view the equally cruel and more barbaric Islamic courts, pushing the establishment of a Taliban-like Islamic state in Somalia, as the lesser of the two evils. Tired and exhausted of 15 years of war, coercion, and being forced to flee from war zone to war zone in search of a safe place to rest, people saw the draconian rules imposed by the Islamic courts as an exceptional remedy to an exceptional situation where the bare existence of human beings let alone human dignity has come under constant threat. Just like Taliban had restored a semblance of peace and stability in Afghanistan, the Mogadishu Islamic courts have by the implementation of their strict brand of Islam brought an end to banditry and coercion and restored a peace of sorts in the areas under their control. Who cares if women are kept under the wrap, if limbs of poor burglars are chopped in public, if murderers are tied to trees and teenage children of slain victims are given the sword to hack their bodies in public squares! Well, dire circumstances call for dire and absurd methods of treatment, one may say. Only one who lived 15 years in a state of anarchy will understand why absurd and inhumane institutions like the Islamic courts look like the guardians of Eden in Mogadishu.
Compare this macabre situation with the story of Somaliland, the former British Somaliland Protectorate, which had, after gaining its independence on 26 June 1960, united with Italian Somalia in the South and formed with it the Somali Republic. Somaliland, which had reclaimed its sovereignty and abandoned the union on 18 May 1991 after the collapse of the central Somali government, had not only spared itself the apocalyptic status in Italian Somalia but has over the last 15 years restored peace and stability and embarked on a marvelous journey of building the country's executive, legislative and judicial institutions on a unique home-grown amalgam of time-tested traditional systems and western democracy.
Read more on Awdalnews,also Khaleej Times, Wardheernews, Saylac.com
Monday, May 22, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
When nations yearn for their tormentors
INSIDE AFRICA
BY BASHIR GOTH, Khaleej Times, 18 April 2006=
A POPULAR story says that when Hajjaj Bin Yusuf Al Thaqafi, the notorious tyrant, the butcher of many Muslims and the viceroy of the Ummayad rulers in Iraq, was about to die he wanted to do something that would make the people yearn for his reign and pray for his soul despite the atrocities and the genocides he committed against them.
He ordered that those who carried his coffin to the graveyard should take a straight path and should demolish every building, house or mosque they encountered in their way, regardless of who owned it. When the order was carried out, the affected people thought that it was Hajjaj’s successor who ordered this destruction and brought such unprecedented calamity on them. They spontaneously started cursing the new viceroy and asked God’s mercy on Hajjaj’s soul saying: “Salamullah Ala Hajjaj or May peace be upon the soul of Hajjaj.”
It is a tragedy for a nation to survive under the highhandedness of a tyrant who inflicts untold misery on it, but a far worse tragedy is when the moment of deliverance arrives, that the new saviours usher in a situation that makes the era of their predecessors’ reign like Plato’s ideal city; A situation where instead of breathing a sigh and nursing their wounds, people look back at the old days with nostalgia and yearn for its return.
Read more on:Khaleej Times, Awdalnews,Wardheernews,Somaliland.org, QaranNews,
Both Iraq and Somalia have been ruled by ruthless dictators who squeezed their nation’s resources to the last drop, building hollow military machines=
INSIDE AFRICA
BY BASHIR GOTH, Khaleej Times, 18 April 2006=
A POPULAR story says that when Hajjaj Bin Yusuf Al Thaqafi, the notorious tyrant, the butcher of many Muslims and the viceroy of the Ummayad rulers in Iraq, was about to die he wanted to do something that would make the people yearn for his reign and pray for his soul despite the atrocities and the genocides he committed against them.
He ordered that those who carried his coffin to the graveyard should take a straight path and should demolish every building, house or mosque they encountered in their way, regardless of who owned it. When the order was carried out, the affected people thought that it was Hajjaj’s successor who ordered this destruction and brought such unprecedented calamity on them. They spontaneously started cursing the new viceroy and asked God’s mercy on Hajjaj’s soul saying: “Salamullah Ala Hajjaj or May peace be upon the soul of Hajjaj.”
It is a tragedy for a nation to survive under the highhandedness of a tyrant who inflicts untold misery on it, but a far worse tragedy is when the moment of deliverance arrives, that the new saviours usher in a situation that makes the era of their predecessors’ reign like Plato’s ideal city; A situation where instead of breathing a sigh and nursing their wounds, people look back at the old days with nostalgia and yearn for its return.
Read more on:Khaleej Times, Awdalnews,Wardheernews,Somaliland.org, QaranNews,
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Will the Arabs dare to listen to Somaliland?
BY Bashir Goth*
Mar 27, 2006 — The Arab League has the habit of leaving issues to fester until such time when surgical intervention becomes necessary from foreign powers whose interests do not necessarily match those of the Arab world.
Examples are plenty but a few recent ones include Somalia, Southern Sudan and Darfur, Iraq and the Lebanese-Syrian issue. None of these issues has come out of the blue. All of them have been fermenting and escalating for years before they have reached the bursting point. All the time, the Arabs were using an ostrich mentality and burying their heads; hoping that they one day could raise their heads to find things fixed by some divine power. It is quite perplexing how Arabs love the status quo and use all their energy and resources to ensure that things stay as they are; they do this not only because they prefer stability and peace to the turbulence and commotion that often result from change but because they also fear that any change may rock the murky waters of Arab politics and expose the Arabs inability to deal with it.
Realpolitik also seems to elude the Arab focus, while sentimentalism and empty nationalistic slogans blur the clarity of their vision. A real example of the Arabs propensity for idealism and contempt for pragmatism is their famous Khartoum Resolution of 1967 which carried the three "nos" of Arab-Israel relations at that time: No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel.
It took another decade for Egypt’s Anwar Sadat to cause a political Tsunami in Arab politics and inject the first dose of realipolitik into the Arab political lexicography. Other than the masterly strike of Sadat, all other Arab attempts of realpolitik came too late when the political landscape had already changed beyond recognition and they had to face the bitter reality of opting for face saving tactics.
Now as the Arabs hold their 18th summit in Khartoum on 28-29 March 2006, one issue that calls for a masterful realpolitik decision is that of the little known country of Somaliland. By just evoking the name, one can anticipate frowns on faces of Arab politicians. More Sudan Tribune, Awdalnews Network, WardheerNews, Somaliland.org,Qarannews
BY Bashir Goth*
Mar 27, 2006 — The Arab League has the habit of leaving issues to fester until such time when surgical intervention becomes necessary from foreign powers whose interests do not necessarily match those of the Arab world.
Examples are plenty but a few recent ones include Somalia, Southern Sudan and Darfur, Iraq and the Lebanese-Syrian issue. None of these issues has come out of the blue. All of them have been fermenting and escalating for years before they have reached the bursting point. All the time, the Arabs were using an ostrich mentality and burying their heads; hoping that they one day could raise their heads to find things fixed by some divine power. It is quite perplexing how Arabs love the status quo and use all their energy and resources to ensure that things stay as they are; they do this not only because they prefer stability and peace to the turbulence and commotion that often result from change but because they also fear that any change may rock the murky waters of Arab politics and expose the Arabs inability to deal with it.
Realpolitik also seems to elude the Arab focus, while sentimentalism and empty nationalistic slogans blur the clarity of their vision. A real example of the Arabs propensity for idealism and contempt for pragmatism is their famous Khartoum Resolution of 1967 which carried the three "nos" of Arab-Israel relations at that time: No peace with Israel, No recognition of Israel, No negotiations with Israel.
It took another decade for Egypt’s Anwar Sadat to cause a political Tsunami in Arab politics and inject the first dose of realipolitik into the Arab political lexicography. Other than the masterly strike of Sadat, all other Arab attempts of realpolitik came too late when the political landscape had already changed beyond recognition and they had to face the bitter reality of opting for face saving tactics.
Now as the Arabs hold their 18th summit in Khartoum on 28-29 March 2006, one issue that calls for a masterful realpolitik decision is that of the little known country of Somaliland. By just evoking the name, one can anticipate frowns on faces of Arab politicians. More Sudan Tribune, Awdalnews Network, WardheerNews, Somaliland.org,Qarannews
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Cartoons put a great religion to the test
By Bashir Goth
To Muslims, Islam is the religion of peace and reason. The holy Qur'an is said to be the greatest miracle given to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. Other prophets were given visual and tangible miracles. Jesus Christ's miracle was to raise the dead, restore the vision for the blind and heal the leper. Moses had his staff turned into an obvious serpent that dazzled the Pharaoh magicians; he also struck the sea with his rod to split it asunder, allowing him and his followers to escape the persecution of the Pharaoh. For David God made the Iron supple for him and taught him the language of the birds, while the wind was subjugated for Solomon and he also could understand the language of animals and use birds as messengers.
As for Muhammad, Muslims believe that his greatest miracle was the word, Al Qur'an, as can be seen in the first Qur’anic verses ever revealed to him:
“Read in the name of your Lord, who created, created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is most bountiful. (He who taught) the use of the pen taught man which he knew not.” (96: 1- 5)
However, it seems Muslims today have lost their intellectual fortitude. The Muslim nation is the nation that dazzled the world with its free and powerful theological and philosophical discourse in the Middle Ages. The nation that had translated Greek and Roman knowledge, studied it with voracity and opened new vistas in the fields of alchemy, astronomy, geography, history, medicine, philosophy and great theological rhetoric. The nation that boasted of carrying the touch of knowledge in the hands of great men of learning such as Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina or Avicenna, Abu Nasr Al-Farabi or Alpharabius, Jabir Ibn Hayyan or Geber, Ibn Al Haitham and great sufists like Al Hallaj, Hassan Al Basri, Al-Ghazali, Abdul Qadir Al Jilani, Jalaluddin Rumi and Ibn Al Arabi. To say that such a nation is defeated by amateur catoons penned down by an an adventurous artist in a little known European newspaper is an insult to the core message and mammoth history of Islam. Read more on Awdalnews.com , WardheerNews, Somaliland.org,Saylac.com,Online Opinion Australia's e-journal of soical and political debate , Somalilnd Times and Ethiopian SSinformer
By Bashir Goth
To Muslims, Islam is the religion of peace and reason. The holy Qur'an is said to be the greatest miracle given to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. Other prophets were given visual and tangible miracles. Jesus Christ's miracle was to raise the dead, restore the vision for the blind and heal the leper. Moses had his staff turned into an obvious serpent that dazzled the Pharaoh magicians; he also struck the sea with his rod to split it asunder, allowing him and his followers to escape the persecution of the Pharaoh. For David God made the Iron supple for him and taught him the language of the birds, while the wind was subjugated for Solomon and he also could understand the language of animals and use birds as messengers.
As for Muhammad, Muslims believe that his greatest miracle was the word, Al Qur'an, as can be seen in the first Qur’anic verses ever revealed to him:
“Read in the name of your Lord, who created, created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is most bountiful. (He who taught) the use of the pen taught man which he knew not.” (96: 1- 5)
However, it seems Muslims today have lost their intellectual fortitude. The Muslim nation is the nation that dazzled the world with its free and powerful theological and philosophical discourse in the Middle Ages. The nation that had translated Greek and Roman knowledge, studied it with voracity and opened new vistas in the fields of alchemy, astronomy, geography, history, medicine, philosophy and great theological rhetoric. The nation that boasted of carrying the touch of knowledge in the hands of great men of learning such as Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina or Avicenna, Abu Nasr Al-Farabi or Alpharabius, Jabir Ibn Hayyan or Geber, Ibn Al Haitham and great sufists like Al Hallaj, Hassan Al Basri, Al-Ghazali, Abdul Qadir Al Jilani, Jalaluddin Rumi and Ibn Al Arabi. To say that such a nation is defeated by amateur catoons penned down by an an adventurous artist in a little known European newspaper is an insult to the core message and mammoth history of Islam. Read more on Awdalnews.com , WardheerNews, Somaliland.org,Saylac.com,Online Opinion Australia's e-journal of soical and political debate , Somalilnd Times and Ethiopian SSinformer
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Editorial - African leaders, Somaliland is calling, do you hear us?
By Bashir Goth
January 24, 2006 - 11:43
Honorable leaders, we know your hands are full and the issues on your table are heavier than mountains, so we assume. We also know that Somaliland is not one of them; because it doesn't have the hallmarks it needs to be qualified to attract your attention. How can it appeal to you when there are no warlords, no smoking guns and no bloodshed; not even mass movement across the border or desperate boat people running away from genocide. For heavens sake, what a dull country it is! We can hear you say. Just peace, stability and democracy; dismiss it; next point, please.
Read more at:
Awdalnews Network
By Bashir Goth
January 24, 2006 - 11:43
Honorable leaders, we know your hands are full and the issues on your table are heavier than mountains, so we assume. We also know that Somaliland is not one of them; because it doesn't have the hallmarks it needs to be qualified to attract your attention. How can it appeal to you when there are no warlords, no smoking guns and no bloodshed; not even mass movement across the border or desperate boat people running away from genocide. For heavens sake, what a dull country it is! We can hear you say. Just peace, stability and democracy; dismiss it; next point, please.
Read more at:
Awdalnews Network
A reality check for Africa’s leaders
BY Bashir Goth
24 January 2006
A SOMALI anecdote says that a mother couldn’t find anything to cook for her children for dinner so she put strange looking stones in a pot, added water and spices and placed it on the stove. She then started telling stories and singing lullabies to the children.
The water gurgling in the pot and the smell of the spices had given the children the illusion of food coming. The mother continued singing and chastising the obstinate pot for refusing to yield. Waiting as long as long as they could, the children were finally overcome by sleep and each one of them had dozed off on the mother’s sweet lullaby.
In contrast to this steadfast mother, African leaders are meeting on the banks of the Blue Nile of Khartoum to a lavish welcome with newly built villas, swimming pools, health clubs and latest fashion furniture and interior decorations imported from Europe; while they dine on gourmet food served on fine china sets specially flown from France. While millions of African children and women sleep under the open sky with nothing to protect them from the biting cold, rains and hungry wildlife looking for anything to bite, even emaciated human flesh, African leaders will sleep on beautiful linen and will have French trained butlers on standby at their door steps to respond to every groan and moan they make.
Read more at:
Khaleej Times,Read also on Awdalnews Network and Wardheernews
BY Bashir Goth
24 January 2006
A SOMALI anecdote says that a mother couldn’t find anything to cook for her children for dinner so she put strange looking stones in a pot, added water and spices and placed it on the stove. She then started telling stories and singing lullabies to the children.
The water gurgling in the pot and the smell of the spices had given the children the illusion of food coming. The mother continued singing and chastising the obstinate pot for refusing to yield. Waiting as long as long as they could, the children were finally overcome by sleep and each one of them had dozed off on the mother’s sweet lullaby.
In contrast to this steadfast mother, African leaders are meeting on the banks of the Blue Nile of Khartoum to a lavish welcome with newly built villas, swimming pools, health clubs and latest fashion furniture and interior decorations imported from Europe; while they dine on gourmet food served on fine china sets specially flown from France. While millions of African children and women sleep under the open sky with nothing to protect them from the biting cold, rains and hungry wildlife looking for anything to bite, even emaciated human flesh, African leaders will sleep on beautiful linen and will have French trained butlers on standby at their door steps to respond to every groan and moan they make.
Read more at:
Khaleej Times,Read also on Awdalnews Network and Wardheernews
The better half: Africa’s long marginalized women are finally taking bold and decisive strides towards the echelons of power
Bashir Goth
23 January 2006
DOWN the years, African women have been powerful in all realms of life except in leadership and decision-making positions. They have been powerful breadwinners, inexhaustible child bearers, patient mothers, dutiful wives, family hut builders, relentless farmers and firewood collectors.
The picture of the African woman hauling heavy loads of carriage on her head, water container on her back and a child on her chest; while trekking miles and miles under rainy weathers or simmering heat and dusty environments, with her man shamelessly strolling beside her with only a stick in his hand, reflects the epitome of her servitude.
Read more at:
Khaleej Times, also read on Awdalnews Network, Wardheernews,
Bashir Goth
23 January 2006
DOWN the years, African women have been powerful in all realms of life except in leadership and decision-making positions. They have been powerful breadwinners, inexhaustible child bearers, patient mothers, dutiful wives, family hut builders, relentless farmers and firewood collectors.
The picture of the African woman hauling heavy loads of carriage on her head, water container on her back and a child on her chest; while trekking miles and miles under rainy weathers or simmering heat and dusty environments, with her man shamelessly strolling beside her with only a stick in his hand, reflects the epitome of her servitude.
Read more at:
Khaleej Times, also read on Awdalnews Network, Wardheernews,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)