America Is Colonizing Us Quietly
By Bashir Goth
China is doing what the West failed to do. The West colonized Africa, robbed its natural wealth and left a spoiled continent behind. Africa traded its original lifestyle for a European one but didn’t have the means to sustain it. It was a textbook recipe for parasitism, corruption and banana republics. European colonial powers also planted the seeds of today’s civil wars in Africa by arbitrarily dividing tribes across borders.
The West viewed post-independence Africa as the white man’s burden, and as a staging ground for its Cold War wrangle with the Soviet Union. Economically speaking, the West also dismissed Africa as a bottomless charity basket. The resources of the continent were pawned for backbreaking debt. The West lined the pockets of stooge dictator regimes and used the continent to dump obsolete weapons. America initiated the Marshall Plan to revive Europe’s ruined economy after WWII at any cost. For Africa, the West thought a bowl of porridge was more than enough. MORE in Washington Post/Newsweek

Don't Judge; We All Prostitute Ourselves
By Bashir Goth
When “prostitution” is mentioned, the first thing that comes to most peoples’ minds is sexual prostitution, selling one’s body for money. Next, we moralize, turning into preachers and issuing fatwas. We forget, however, that we all engage in prostitution of one form or another.

Sexual prostitutes who trade their bodies for money to survive, feed their children, or use it as a bridge to a higher career are not different from anyone of us who genuflects before his or her boss, toils under humiliating circumstances, and undertakes sometimes outrageous, dehumanizing and underpaid jobs to put bread on the table or get some favor to advance a career. Only we pride ourselves on not bearing a stigma because our prostitution is legal.

Politics, I say, is the highest paid job of prostitution. The two are synonymous, even replaceable professions. Politicians try every trick in the book to achieve their goal. They flirt with their voters using bodily gestures, sweet talk, and the charms of their personality. They offer grand promises and undercover deals. The only difference is while sexual prostitutes deliver their promised services in exchange for meager payments, politicians are rewarded with heftily, with unlimited power and high moral accolades, for services not rendered.

It is unfortunate that sexual prostitutes have to be ridiculed for selling their bodies, while everyone else is showered with praise for doing the same: selling their pride, their labor, their identity and their integrity. And at the end of the day, each and every one of us is trying to achieve the same thing: to survive in a
world without mercy.

I sometimes wonder how a woman tolerating domestic violence and forced sex for the sake of small kids who have no other source of income -- bound to a brute husband with legal marriage -- could call herself luckier than a woman who leads a comparatively comfortable life by choice but with the stigma of being a prostitute.

It is a fundamental economic rule that where there is a demand there should be a supply. Therefore, sexual prostitution has existed and will exist as long as the natural desire for mating exists. Well, opponents of legalizing prostitution may moralize as much as they please but we all know that morality itself is relative. In the West, polygamy may be scoffed at as immoral or even tantamount to prostitution while in the Muslim world cohabitation may deserve an equal disdain. But as Bertrand Russell once said, we have two kinds of morality side by side in every society, "...one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach."

With all of us being prostitutes, each in his own capacity and profession, it is imperative that all should have equal rights in legal recognition, insurance coverage, trade unions, political representation, and, of course, retirement benefits.

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First published in Washington Post on January 26, 2007 2:30 PM

Somalia Update
By Bashir Goth
After the ouster of the Union of Islamic Courts by Ethiopian forces, the Somali Transitional Government, TFG, seems to be in control of the situation. It acted quickly to impose martial law, started collecting weapons and formed a governing body to supervise the capital's return to normalcy. The most significant victory, however, was the arrival of the TFG President Abdillahi Yusuf in Mogadishu for the first time since his election two years ago and his successful meetings with his predecessors Abdilqasim Salat Hassan, Ali Mahdi Mohammed and other prominent leaders.

Even the TFG Parliament has for the first time exercised its legislative powers by passing martial laws and sacking its lone wolf Speaker Sharif Hassan who kowtowed with the Union of Islamic Courts and opposed the Ethiopian intervention.

With the exception of some isolated incidents, no major hostile acts or insurgency activities against the Ethiopian forces have taken place. The situation, however, may take a different turn if the Ethiopians remain longer than necessary. Only a quick deployment of the African peace keeping forces and the withdrawal of the Ethiopian army will guarantee the consolidation of the TFG gains.

The TFG also needs to refrain from making any inflammatory statements against the people of Somaliland who thronged to the streets on Tuesday, January 16 th, in one of the largest demonstration in the country, protesting against the TFG President's statement in which he rebuffed the independence of Somaliland. It also seems the international community is more determined this time not to let Somalia slip back into lawlessness.READ MORE in Washington Post

Somaliland Will Be Recognized
By Bashir Goth
Somalia/UAE - Contrary to what pundits say about an Iraq scenario tearing up Somalia, I believe the quick withdrawal of the Ethiopian forces from Somalia and the speedy deployment of African peacekeeping forces with international financial backing will bring peace and stability to Somalia under a strong central government for the first time in 16 years.

Everything will of course depend on how quickly the international community moves to extend a Marshall Plan to rebuild the country's government institutions, particularly the armed forces, as well as creating jobs for the people.

The establishment of a peaceful and stable government in Southern Somalia will create a favorable political atmosphere for Somaliland. A former British Protectorate, Somaliland annulled its union with Somalia after the collapse of the central government in 1991. Since then it has enjoyed peace and stability under an elected presidency, bichameral parliament, independent judicial system and a vigorous free press. It has also a functioning currency, armed forces and police forces and four universities.

Often described as The Little Country That Could, Somaliland has excellent bilateral ties with neighboring states, particularly Ethiopia and Kenya. It has established special friendship with South Africa, Tanzania, Senegal and Nigeria, UK and Germany, however recognition has so far eluded it due to Arab countries' staunch rejection of the dismemberment of an Arab League member state.

However, with its brilliant record in building government institutions and maintaining peace and stability with a unique blend of traditional conflict resolving methods and modern democracy, Somaliland has won international admiration as Africa's Best Kept Secret.

The main obstacle for Somaliland was to find a negotiating partner with Somalia. Now, with the optimism of the South coming under one recognized authority for the first time, the African Union will have no reason to revert to its ostrich tactics anymore. They will be duty-bound to force the Southern government to sit with Somaliland and work out a permanent solution on Somaliland people's demand for sovereignty. And given the unwavering wish of Somaliland people for their sovereignty under the internationally recognized boundaries of 1960, the only possible outcome of any such talks will be the official secession and recognition of Somaliland. Another unexpected outcome of Ethiopia's close ties with both the TFG and independent Somaliland could be the founding of a Horn of African Economic and Monetary Union in which Djiobuti, Eritrea, and Kenya could eventually join. READ MORE in Washington Post.

Time for dhikr and music
By Bashir Goth
Phew! Good riddance! The nightmare is over. Yes, I mean the Union of Islamic Courts, UIC. They had their day under the sun and they blew it. They had the support of all Somali people when they stormed to power, routed the notorious warlords, restored peace in Mogadishu, opened the airports and seaports, started addressing looted property issues and began looking like a wise authority.

But instead of capitalizing on the people’s genuine support and willingness to give in and give up everything, they had become power lusty, belligerent and fatwa-crazy. Instead of building bridges with the community, improving services, opening hospitals, winning the trust of international organizations and NGO’s to help them with projects to generate employment, they burned all bridges. They alienated the youth by banning all types of entertainment, segregated women and deprived tens of thousands of families from their only livelihood by banning Khat without bringing an alternative source of income. They even embittered traditional Islamic scholars with their characteristic Wahhabi style of self-righteousness and condescending attitude to mainstream Islam.

Not only did they become more warlords than the ones they had defeated, but they emblazoned their belligerency with Islam and brandished the sword of Jihad, thus projecting themselves in the model of Taliban and regurgitating the tired jihadist rhetoric of Al Qaeda. They mistook their easy ride to power for being an unstoppable revolution and started stirring instability in the peaceful Republic of Somaliland by branding the leadership of that democratic country as an infidel and threatening to bring Somaliland under their Wahhabi cloak. READ MORE in Awdalnews, The Medialine, Khaleej Times,Sufijourneys,waridaad and Washington Post.

Middle East's Misery Poetry
By Bashir Goth
Looking at the situation of the Middle East; from Palestine, Lebanon to Iraq; and further a field from Sudan's Darfur to Somalia and Afghanistan, the only wisdom that rushes to my memory is the classic children's nursery rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.


It is however by delving into the Arab literary wisdom that one stumbles on the prophetic manner in which Arab and Muslim poets and philosophers through history have predicted the present situation with precision. One feels as if time has been frozen. I just let these wise men speak: READ MORE in Washington Post

Somalia Islamists Should Be Stopped
By Bashir Goth
Somalia for Somalis! Let them run their country as they please. Easy words to say but difficult to accept when it means beheading people for not praying five times a day, chopping hands of those who steal to stay alive in a country where mere survival is a lifelong ambition. Difficult to accept when women are shrouding and denied to breathe fresh air or go about their daily business to feed their children. Difficult to accept when the country's musical heritage is expunged as Satan's work, the cinema is banned and tha watching of world sports is forbidden, thus depriving the youth of the only source of cultural interaction they have with the outside world. Read More at Washington Post,