Obama Should Turn His Eyes Toward Cuba
By Bashir Goth
With the election of Barack Obama, America has set the record straight. The American people have said it loud and clear that they want a change of direction. They believed and supported Obamaʼs message of change. The American people have delivered and it is now Obamaʼs turn to deliver. He has to show that he can walk the walk; that he is not only a man of words but a man of action as well.
The first obvious task for Mr. Obama should be to heal the divisions and wounds created by the toxic campaign discourse; he should reach across the aisle and form a bipartisan cabinet.
No doubt a top priority will be to address the financial crisis at home and on the global level, but equally important is for Obama to send a strong message to the world that he is ready to mend Americaʼs tattered image and restore its leadership role. And there is no quicker way to improve Americaʼs image than bring a speedy end to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Another equally important step would be to redefine the erroneous concept of the War on Terror without compromising on the security of the American people and the world at large. Mr. Obama should show the world that America is great because of its values and its unwavering support for human freedom; the values and freedom that brought him, a biracial child of an African father and an American mother, to the countryʼs presidency.
READ MORENewsweek/WashingtonPost.com/Postglobal
Friday, November 07, 2008
Editorial: Bombs will not subdue the resolve of Africa’s Cinderella
By Bashir Goth
Eighteen long years and Somaliland has been the beacon of hope in a turbulent region. Eighteen years during which Somaliland has written a success story of peace, stability, democratization and building of government institutions. Eighteen years of looking into the abyss but skirting all terrorist threats with its wisdom and community cohesion. Eighteen years of sending a May Day call after May Day call to the international community for help and support that went mainly unheeded to the detriment of regional stability and global security.
While the world was focused on the mayhem and fratricide taking place in Mogadishu, Somaliland was slowly and silently piecing itself life together away from the international limelight. Immediately after the collapse of the central Somali government in January 1991, Somaliland, which bore the brunt of the Military regime’s brutality, had disassociated itself from the defunct union that it had created with Italian Somalia in July 1960. Since then Somaliland has through a process of homegrown and bottom-up reconciliation conferences managed to heal the wounds of the civil war and embarked on building bridges among its various clans.
In the first of these conferences held in Burao, Somaliland declared its sovereignty as a separate state and soon solidified this with a national referendum on 31 May 2001 supported by more than 90% of the local population. It was, however, at the inclusive and holistic conference of Borama February-May 1993, that Somaliland laid the unshakable foundation for its constitution on the basis of a unique amalgam of customary law and western democracy.
READ MORE Awdalnews,TheMediaLine.org,
By Bashir Goth
Eighteen long years and Somaliland has been the beacon of hope in a turbulent region. Eighteen years during which Somaliland has written a success story of peace, stability, democratization and building of government institutions. Eighteen years of looking into the abyss but skirting all terrorist threats with its wisdom and community cohesion. Eighteen years of sending a May Day call after May Day call to the international community for help and support that went mainly unheeded to the detriment of regional stability and global security.
While the world was focused on the mayhem and fratricide taking place in Mogadishu, Somaliland was slowly and silently piecing itself life together away from the international limelight. Immediately after the collapse of the central Somali government in January 1991, Somaliland, which bore the brunt of the Military regime’s brutality, had disassociated itself from the defunct union that it had created with Italian Somalia in July 1960. Since then Somaliland has through a process of homegrown and bottom-up reconciliation conferences managed to heal the wounds of the civil war and embarked on building bridges among its various clans.
In the first of these conferences held in Burao, Somaliland declared its sovereignty as a separate state and soon solidified this with a national referendum on 31 May 2001 supported by more than 90% of the local population. It was, however, at the inclusive and holistic conference of Borama February-May 1993, that Somaliland laid the unshakable foundation for its constitution on the basis of a unique amalgam of customary law and western democracy.
READ MORE Awdalnews,TheMediaLine.org,
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Mr. Kipkorir: Annexing and dividing Somalia is a call for balkanization of Horn of Africa
By Bashir Goth
As the piracy of the Somali coast took a new and dangerous turn with the hijacking of a ship carrying T-72 Tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and other ammunition destined for Southern Sudan, a Kenyan lawyer had the audacity to call neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia to annex the hapless country and divide it between them as a final solution for the Somali problem.
In his opinion article carried by Kenya’s Daily Nation, Mr. Donald Kipkorir, who is an advocate of the Kenyan High Court, argued annexing Somalia was the strategic interest for Kenya, viewing it as the only way to stop Kenya’s tourism industry from teetering towards destruction.
But what Mr.Kipkorir sees as a strategic interest is a strategic miscalculation for disaster which will not only bring the destruction of Kenya and Ethiopia but will usher in an era of balkanization in the entire region of the Horn of Africa.
Mr.Kipkorir forgets that Kenya and Ethiopia are tribal mine fields that are waiting to be triggered and his call for the annexation of Somalia is only what it needs to start genocides in Kenya and Ethiopia. One has to remember the recent election crisis in Kenya and how the country stood on the brink of ethnic fragmentation. Kenya has more than 42 ethnic groups, speaking more than 62 languages and adhering to various religious affiliations while Ethiopia has about 118 ethnic groups with almost similar number of languages and different religions. The summer 2008 ethnic strife resulting from the Presidential election crisis had exposed the fragility of the Kenyan peace and stability and the degree of hatred and hostility among the Kenyan tribes. The scenes of machete-wielding mobs slaughtering their neighbors and looting shops reminded the world of the horrors of Ruwanda. These were just symbolic of how ugly a tribal strife can turn in Kenya if something disturbs the elusive patchwork of loose tribal confederation called Kenya.
Mr.Kipkorir also seems to have forgotten that despite its current problems, Somalia is the only homogenous country in Africa. Somalis are one ethnic group who speak the same language and adhere to the same religion. They may look divisive and anarchic in their internal skirmishes on the country’s meager resources but they have history of quickly clinging together when they face a common foreign threat.
Remember Mr.Kipkorir, it is these people that you call rag-tag army of semi naked men that stood against the British and Italian armies for 20 years in one of the longest drawn out African rebellions against foreign occupation. It was the dervish movement led by the Somali hero Mohammed Abdulla Hassan, known in history as the Mad Mulla, the derogative name given to him by the British, that the Royal army failed to defeat until it used military aircraft against them in the first aerial bombardment ever used by a European power in Africa, even before the Italian air bombardment of Libya.
READ MORE in Awdalnews
By Bashir Goth
As the piracy of the Somali coast took a new and dangerous turn with the hijacking of a ship carrying T-72 Tanks, rocket-propelled grenades and other ammunition destined for Southern Sudan, a Kenyan lawyer had the audacity to call neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia to annex the hapless country and divide it between them as a final solution for the Somali problem.
In his opinion article carried by Kenya’s Daily Nation, Mr. Donald Kipkorir, who is an advocate of the Kenyan High Court, argued annexing Somalia was the strategic interest for Kenya, viewing it as the only way to stop Kenya’s tourism industry from teetering towards destruction.
But what Mr.Kipkorir sees as a strategic interest is a strategic miscalculation for disaster which will not only bring the destruction of Kenya and Ethiopia but will usher in an era of balkanization in the entire region of the Horn of Africa.
Mr.Kipkorir forgets that Kenya and Ethiopia are tribal mine fields that are waiting to be triggered and his call for the annexation of Somalia is only what it needs to start genocides in Kenya and Ethiopia. One has to remember the recent election crisis in Kenya and how the country stood on the brink of ethnic fragmentation. Kenya has more than 42 ethnic groups, speaking more than 62 languages and adhering to various religious affiliations while Ethiopia has about 118 ethnic groups with almost similar number of languages and different religions. The summer 2008 ethnic strife resulting from the Presidential election crisis had exposed the fragility of the Kenyan peace and stability and the degree of hatred and hostility among the Kenyan tribes. The scenes of machete-wielding mobs slaughtering their neighbors and looting shops reminded the world of the horrors of Ruwanda. These were just symbolic of how ugly a tribal strife can turn in Kenya if something disturbs the elusive patchwork of loose tribal confederation called Kenya.
Mr.Kipkorir also seems to have forgotten that despite its current problems, Somalia is the only homogenous country in Africa. Somalis are one ethnic group who speak the same language and adhere to the same religion. They may look divisive and anarchic in their internal skirmishes on the country’s meager resources but they have history of quickly clinging together when they face a common foreign threat.
Remember Mr.Kipkorir, it is these people that you call rag-tag army of semi naked men that stood against the British and Italian armies for 20 years in one of the longest drawn out African rebellions against foreign occupation. It was the dervish movement led by the Somali hero Mohammed Abdulla Hassan, known in history as the Mad Mulla, the derogative name given to him by the British, that the Royal army failed to defeat until it used military aircraft against them in the first aerial bombardment ever used by a European power in Africa, even before the Italian air bombardment of Libya.
READ MORE in Awdalnews
Time to Share the Top Spot, America
By Bashir Goth
There is no doubt that this financial meltdown marks a defining moment for America's global influence. My guess is that America will weather this crisis, partly due to the government rescue plan and partly due to the ingenuity of the American people. But it is also my guess that the rest of the world may not be ready to undergo the same fear again and may opt to build shock absorbers against any similar future eventualities.
It is natural for a country to reassess its socio-economic situation and draw plans to guarantee healthy future trade with the outside world. We have precedents in the Great Depression and how it brought in big government role into the U.S. economy, the Marshall Plan after WWII and how it created a new world economic order and the 1973 Oil Shock that brought the issue of energy security to the fore.
It was in the aftermath of the Oil Shock that US created the strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) founded the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 1974, and launched a vigorous push for the search of alternative energy.
In the same way, it is obvious that the U.S. financial crisis will herald a kind of a "New Deal" for world economic cooperation. Many African, Caribbean and Pacific leaders currently meeting in Ghana have realized that their trade with the so-called emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa as well as Australia has cushioned their economies against the impact of the U.S. financial crisis. That's an indication that the U.S. is losing its world trade dominance. That should invigorate trade between regional blocks such as Africa, Asia and Europe.
Yes, with its economic and military might, America will continue to have a great influence on world affairs. But one may wonder whether America will still dictate the terms as usual, or whether it will find itself in a new territory. The U.S. may need to readjust its bearings, sharing space and influence with newcomers.
Newsweek/Washingtonpost.com/PostGlobal
By Bashir Goth
There is no doubt that this financial meltdown marks a defining moment for America's global influence. My guess is that America will weather this crisis, partly due to the government rescue plan and partly due to the ingenuity of the American people. But it is also my guess that the rest of the world may not be ready to undergo the same fear again and may opt to build shock absorbers against any similar future eventualities.
It is natural for a country to reassess its socio-economic situation and draw plans to guarantee healthy future trade with the outside world. We have precedents in the Great Depression and how it brought in big government role into the U.S. economy, the Marshall Plan after WWII and how it created a new world economic order and the 1973 Oil Shock that brought the issue of energy security to the fore.
It was in the aftermath of the Oil Shock that US created the strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) founded the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 1974, and launched a vigorous push for the search of alternative energy.
In the same way, it is obvious that the U.S. financial crisis will herald a kind of a "New Deal" for world economic cooperation. Many African, Caribbean and Pacific leaders currently meeting in Ghana have realized that their trade with the so-called emerging economies such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa as well as Australia has cushioned their economies against the impact of the U.S. financial crisis. That's an indication that the U.S. is losing its world trade dominance. That should invigorate trade between regional blocks such as Africa, Asia and Europe.
Yes, with its economic and military might, America will continue to have a great influence on world affairs. But one may wonder whether America will still dictate the terms as usual, or whether it will find itself in a new territory. The U.S. may need to readjust its bearings, sharing space and influence with newcomers.
Newsweek/Washingtonpost.com/PostGlobal
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Today's Capitalism Has Run Its Course
By Bashir Goth
As the free market economy makes a free fall, all kinds of prescriptions will come to mind, including socialism. A Somali proverb says: "Nin buka boql u talisay" (a sick man gets 100 advisers). Socialist-minded gurus and those who feel left behind by capitalism's unprecedented generation of wealth may need to shout "gotcha," but one thing that could be unanimously agreed by at least uninitiated armchair observers like me is that capitalism in its current free reign and globalized fit for all structure has run its course. Just like we need and preach biodiversity in the field of ecology we need eco-diversity in the economic world.
The Scandinavian countries have for many years practiced a blend of popular socialism and capitalism and as a result they have attained educational excellence, economic prosperity and guaranteed government healthcare for every citizen. In many of the developing economies and the Third World, the public sector played a major role in cushioning the poor sectors from economic hardships. But since the explosion of information technology, the emergence of the Internet, the dot.com bubble trading, the behemoth multinational companies that swallow everything in their path, the hurricane of speculative market that pops up money like pop corn machine, every country in the world was hard pressed to toe the line and accept global standards of American free trade including the privatization of public institutions that provided a semblance of security to the local masses and enabled governments to maintain some sort of peace and stability.
Globalization demanded uniformity in free markets and exported the concepts of ultra-modern Wild West banking systems, hedge funds, dubious corporate debt rating companies, putative mortgage systems and layers above layers of "Après moi le deluge" mobile companies have taken over the world.
Newsweek/Washington Post/Postglobal.
By Bashir Goth
As the free market economy makes a free fall, all kinds of prescriptions will come to mind, including socialism. A Somali proverb says: "Nin buka boql u talisay" (a sick man gets 100 advisers). Socialist-minded gurus and those who feel left behind by capitalism's unprecedented generation of wealth may need to shout "gotcha," but one thing that could be unanimously agreed by at least uninitiated armchair observers like me is that capitalism in its current free reign and globalized fit for all structure has run its course. Just like we need and preach biodiversity in the field of ecology we need eco-diversity in the economic world.
The Scandinavian countries have for many years practiced a blend of popular socialism and capitalism and as a result they have attained educational excellence, economic prosperity and guaranteed government healthcare for every citizen. In many of the developing economies and the Third World, the public sector played a major role in cushioning the poor sectors from economic hardships. But since the explosion of information technology, the emergence of the Internet, the dot.com bubble trading, the behemoth multinational companies that swallow everything in their path, the hurricane of speculative market that pops up money like pop corn machine, every country in the world was hard pressed to toe the line and accept global standards of American free trade including the privatization of public institutions that provided a semblance of security to the local masses and enabled governments to maintain some sort of peace and stability.
Globalization demanded uniformity in free markets and exported the concepts of ultra-modern Wild West banking systems, hedge funds, dubious corporate debt rating companies, putative mortgage systems and layers above layers of "Après moi le deluge" mobile companies have taken over the world.
Newsweek/Washington Post/Postglobal.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Bush Could Score Points in Africa
By Bashir Goth
The Current Discussion: The G-8 summit is Bush's last hurrah as a world leader. What's one thing he can do to strengthen his legacy?
If there is one thing that President Bush can achieve in the dying days of his presidency, it should involve Africa. Everything else seems to be complex and too messed up to even think of fixing in the time available. Regarding the Arab-Israeli issue, it is obvious that Bush cannot undo in six months a problem that is sixty years old. He must have encountered the insurmountable walls of the Middle East peace during his two-term presidency. His trusted State Secretary’s frequent visits and proverbial skills couldn’t put the Middle East’s Humpty Dumpty together again.
The situation in Afghanistan and Iraq could also be added to the Humpty basket although history may treat the situation of these two countries differently long after the Bush era is gone.
One place however that Bush can score highly and pragmatically is Africa. As food and fuel prices spiral and the worry about impending and continent-wide hunger adds more burden on the already stretched economies of Africa, Bush can initiate an African agricultural revolution by initiating a Marshall Plan to provide necessary equipment and expertise to African farmers to increase both the quality and quantity of their produce and their competitiveness in world markets.
READ MORE Newsweek/Washington Post/PostGlobal
By Bashir Goth
The Current Discussion: The G-8 summit is Bush's last hurrah as a world leader. What's one thing he can do to strengthen his legacy?
If there is one thing that President Bush can achieve in the dying days of his presidency, it should involve Africa. Everything else seems to be complex and too messed up to even think of fixing in the time available. Regarding the Arab-Israeli issue, it is obvious that Bush cannot undo in six months a problem that is sixty years old. He must have encountered the insurmountable walls of the Middle East peace during his two-term presidency. His trusted State Secretary’s frequent visits and proverbial skills couldn’t put the Middle East’s Humpty Dumpty together again.
The situation in Afghanistan and Iraq could also be added to the Humpty basket although history may treat the situation of these two countries differently long after the Bush era is gone.
One place however that Bush can score highly and pragmatically is Africa. As food and fuel prices spiral and the worry about impending and continent-wide hunger adds more burden on the already stretched economies of Africa, Bush can initiate an African agricultural revolution by initiating a Marshall Plan to provide necessary equipment and expertise to African farmers to increase both the quality and quantity of their produce and their competitiveness in world markets.
READ MORE Newsweek/Washington Post/PostGlobal
Thursday, July 03, 2008
UN Condemnation Too Little, Too Late
By Bashir Goth
Although one has to be delighted about this unprecedented unanimous condemnation of Robert Mugabe, one cannot also ignore that this has come too little too late. The world has been watching this African tyrant rob his people of their last dignity and turn a country that was once described as Africa’s bread basket into destitution. As I had stated in an earlier piece on Zimbabwe, the world knew that Zimbabwe was deteriorating into another African tragedy.
Since he came to political prominence in the 1960s, Mugabe was always concerned about Mugabe. Relying on the majority force of his Shona tribe, he eliminated the late Joshua Nkomo, a man known as Father Zimbabwe and the founder of the first freedom movement. In the 1980s he massacred 20,000 Ndebele civilians, Nkomo’s tribe, to declare himself as an autocrat. Mugabe considers himself a divine ruler who only God can remove from rule; he cannot allow a novice politician from his own Shona tribe to challenge him when he has subdued the independence heroes from the Ndebele.
Newsweek/Washington Post/PostGlobal
By Bashir Goth
Although one has to be delighted about this unprecedented unanimous condemnation of Robert Mugabe, one cannot also ignore that this has come too little too late. The world has been watching this African tyrant rob his people of their last dignity and turn a country that was once described as Africa’s bread basket into destitution. As I had stated in an earlier piece on Zimbabwe, the world knew that Zimbabwe was deteriorating into another African tragedy.
Since he came to political prominence in the 1960s, Mugabe was always concerned about Mugabe. Relying on the majority force of his Shona tribe, he eliminated the late Joshua Nkomo, a man known as Father Zimbabwe and the founder of the first freedom movement. In the 1980s he massacred 20,000 Ndebele civilians, Nkomo’s tribe, to declare himself as an autocrat. Mugabe considers himself a divine ruler who only God can remove from rule; he cannot allow a novice politician from his own Shona tribe to challenge him when he has subdued the independence heroes from the Ndebele.
Newsweek/Washington Post/PostGlobal
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