A country, where people are suffering from unemployment rate of nearly 90%, political parties are unheard of for 50 years, politicians are too polarized and clannish, scarce public resources are looted and used against the poor to remain poor and bribe them when needed for political advantage, the few educated are selfish, corrupt, short-sighted and intellectually bankrupt to rise up above tribal bickerings at arm-chair lazy debates, schools of poor quality ill-educate the youth, such a country will not create opportunities for the persons of Ilhan Omar’s strength and talent or the rise of Abdiqawi Yusuf and Ahmed Hussein Dirir, the President of International Court of Justice at Hague, and Canada’s Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, respectively. Those personalities had managed to flee their country of origin, Somalia, to become what they are today elsewhere in a globalized world.
Those, who practise in corruption, cronyism and nepotism in public service are blind to cultivation of talent under meritocracy. They also feel vulnerable and threatened in their privileged existence to open up to and widen opportunities for others. Poor leadership in all spheres of life and endeavors tap into that school of thought on protectionism and maintenence of status quo. This is what has happened to Somalia, a nation of poets and powerful minds.
The vicious circles of Poverty, Politics and Power embedded in Somalia’s socio-economic circles, especially in today’s religious and political elites in all urban centers of Somalia must be uncoiled to expand opportunities to all citizens. That way the New Somalia would produce not only its abundant native talents of Ilhan type, but also attract more from other countries to help explore and extract Somalia’s resources of the near and distant future.
In conclusion, Somalia’s traditional leaders are no longer the sacred cows as they become as corrupt as Nigerian Chiefs. It is time to revisit and do away the ills of Somalia’s clan system. How could one defend serial murderers and serial rapists to remain a clan leader?
It is supposed to be a government by the nomads, governed by the rules of “pastoral democracy” and wisdom of impartial tribal elders. But, tribesmen are not taught about the concept of “yours” and “mine.” Everything belongs to either the whole tribe or is there to be grabbed by everyone. Since there is no culture of urban society (different tribes co-inhabiting in one location for an extended period of time), there are no rules for the rights of others outside one’s own tribe. Everything belonging to a different tribe has no equal protection and property rights. It is out there for the grab.
Those who moved into cities from nomadic tribes come with same mentality and cultural mindset of the nomadic tribal enclaves. It would take them many generations, if not centuries, to get accustomed to the rules of peaceful coexistence with other tribes.
Nomadia doesn’t enjoy allegiance by any one tribe other than those holding higher stakes in the nomadia leadership. Nomadia suffers from incompetence and lack of equal opportunities for all members of its constituency. There are no predictable rules of the road in public services and administration of justice. Those who hold high offices and their kinship are more equal than the others.
The constitution and laws of the Nomadia are just formalities and non-binding to those who have connections and wealth. Laws are just nuisances to those in power. Nomadia operates under lies and hypocrisy of self-denial about its Nomadia nature as government by the nomads by falsely claiming it was a modern national government composed of three branches independent from each other. Nomadia functions even in contradictions to what nomads had agreed upon after prolonged conflicts. Since all know that there is no respect for the rules of law, the powerful takes advantage of the weakness in governance in the absence of real separation of power.
As long as there is no real concern for facing the realities and addressing the hypocrisy in the nature of Nomadia, its constituency will never put their act together. Nomadia will never develop allegiance to it as a national organization (government) for all.
USA pressure on Abyi regime is bearing fruits with Eritrean army pullout from Tigray and retreat of Ethiopian forces from major cities there, including the regional capital, Mekelle. Addis Ababa leadership is losing ground in the war. Ethiopia had benefitted from Western assistance since time immemorial against its real and perceived enemies like Somalis and surrounding muslim countries. This time Prime Minister Abyi had ignored Ethiopian history and ventured out into uncharted foreign policy adventures. The result is that Ethiopia has lost its traditional Western allies.
It looks that Abyi has given in, under pressure, to negotiate with TPLF leaders. Ethiopian internal situation is now chaotic and unpredictable. It is also unclear whether Abyi would be able to hang on to power in a turbulent Ethiopia, and whether his expected gesture for peaceful negotiation would settle and calm things down in Ethiopia.
TPLF would unlikely push towards Addis Ababa, for they would experience the same Western pressure as Abyi has suffered from. They would be forced to negotiate with either Abyi or his would-be successors.
The new political and military developments in Ethiopia would have impact on Somalia as well, especially with regards to the recent unholy alliance between Farmajo, Afewarki and Abyi. It would also negatively impact on the Somali Regional state and its current Addis-appointed nominal leader, Mustafe Cagjar, who relied heavily on Abyi and supported Farmajo’s shenanigans in Somalia. This is still a developing story. Stay tuned.
Puntland authorities may get complacent and put their guard down as a result of some initial successes in apprehending and bringing some extremist foot-soldiers to justice. Authorities should take note that they are dealing with mafia-style organization consisting of leadership, intelligence networks, financiers and supporting local and national networks. In Puntland urban centres, there are local financiers and intelligence networks of Al-Shabab that needs to be dismantled and eliminated.
Foot-soldiers of Al-Shabab are easy to be replaced promptly. In military terms, this recruitment isn’t expensive for a mafia organization extorting businesses on daily basis, and acting as a shadow government in the country. There is no shortage of funds in its recruitment drive of young unemployed and disillusioned youth in inner cities of Somalia.
What is needed here is penetration of the organization’s financial system and intelligence networks. Real successes depend on disrupting and breaking up this backbone of the mafia.
Now that residents of Galkayo have discovered the evil nature of Al-Shabab, and a lot of confusion and unknowns are cleared, a counter religious narrative is badly needed to warn people of the blasphemy of the group and its peudo-religious activities. People have to rise up against the satans in towns. Residents must also know that the authorities, in isolation, couldn’t do the work effectively without the cooperation of the general public. Those who rent out rooms in their houses must know their tenants. Businesses should know their customers. Suspicious activities should be reported immediately to the authorities. Strange and threatening telephone calls should be monitored and reported. In short, citizens should fight back to help eradicate the menace of Al-Shabab in the country.
Calula (Alula) waxay ahayd Xaruntii labaad, Muqdisha ka dib, ee maamulkii gumaystaha Talyaaniga ee Somalia. Waxay leedahay gago dayuuradeed oo far cad oo waaweyn “AULULA” (CALULA) ku dul qorantahay, meel fogna adoo dayuurada saaran arkaysid. Dhanka waqooyi galbeed ee Calula waxaa ka mutuxan buurta BooliMoog. Dhismayaasha Calula waa kuwo ka gadisan kuwa Somalia, marka laga reebo kuwii Talyaanigu ka dhisteen. Waa dhismo Carbeedyo taariikh hore kasoo jeeda. Kuwa halkaa Talyaanigu ka dhisay oo waaweyn, waxaad isleedahay ma “Kaniisadaa?” Qaargood weli waxaa dusha ka saaran qalabkii ilaala Badda Cas ee Ciidamada badmaaxyada faashiistigii Benito Mussolini. Isbitaalka Calula waxaa loogu magac daray Regina Margareta (Boqoradii Margareta) ee Talyaaniga. Weli waxaa isbitaalka ka muuqda sariirihi iyo quraaradihii daawadii 1930-kii la sameeyey. Dadka Calula ku nool waxay wax la qabaan kuwa Reer Bariga kale, marka laga hadlayo canshuur-nacaybka, sidaa awgeedna, dawlad-diidnimada. Samankii dawladihii hore, askariga canshuur-qaade ah ee Gobolka Bari loo diraa, wuxuu Muqdisha kusoo laabanjirey isagoo maalqabeen ah, siduu laaluus halkaa uga guranayey.
Waxay ahayd bartamihii 2006 markii Xafiiska Qaramada Midowday (UN) ee Nairobi ii ogalaatay in aan aniga iyo koox ila shaqaysa safar cilmi-baaris ku tagno magaalooyinka Iskushuban, Xaafuun iyo Calula. Wafti dawlad Soomaaliyeed oo Calula tagaa waxay ahayd marsoobax, iskaba illow mid Puntland ka socda.
General Mohamud Muuse Xirsi (General Cadde), oo ahaa Madaxweynaha Puntland, ayaa iga codsaday in uu fursada duulimaadkayga “Bariga Fog” ka faa’iideysto. Ogalaansho UN ka dib, waxan qaaday General Cadde, Wasiirkii Warfaafinta, Abdirahman Bankax, iyo Wasiirkii Amuuraha Gudaha iyo Amniga, Ahmed Abdi Xaabsade.
Guddoomiyahii Degmada Calula wuxuu nagu sooryeeye hilib ari, meeshii aan ka sugeynay kaluun iyo khayraadka kale ee Badda Cas- waa ka qawadnay qadadaa. Ruun Dooxajoog oo ka mid ahayd gabdhihii na martigeliyey, ayaa tiri, “war bal iska aamusa. Marka keli ah oo aan hilib xoolaad cunnaa waa markaan dabaaldageyno sida maantoo kale”.
Taa kahor, anagoo dulheehaabayna Iskushuban, ayaan Madaxweyne Cadde Muuse ka codsaday in uusan ruqsayn Wasiirkii Qorshaynta iyo Xiriirka Caalamiga Puntland, Abdirhaman Mohamed Mohamud Faroole, mar haduu ahaa wasiirka u qaabilsan dhanka Puntland xiriirka hay’adaha dawliga ah sida UN, oo anigu aan Wakiil uga ahaa dhanka daraasaynta baahida dib-u-dhiska Puntland, mar haday dhisantay dawladda Soomaaliyeed ee TFG. Faroole markaa waxaa loo haystaa qulqulatooyin dad ku dhinteen ee ka dhacday dhismaha Golaha Wakiillada Puntland. Cadde, wuxu iigu jawaabay, “Faroole basarxumo ayuu sameeyey”. Soo jeedintayda hawada kore ee Iskushuban ka dhacday, gacan uguma siin wasiirrada Bankax iyo Xaabsade. Faroole iyo Xaabsade saaxibna wey ahaayeen, isku doon siyaasadeed markaa wey wada saaraayeen.
Markaan Bosaso kusoo laabtay, ayaan Faroole oo Garowe jooga soo wacay, oo u sheegay in aan Cadde agtiisa waxba u oolin. Faroole waxaa dhaqan u ah, markuu dib kala kulmo dalka, in uu Australia gabaad ka dhigto – markaa ayuu Puntland halhalel uga dhoofay, isagoo aan weli wasaaraddii laga qaadin, xilna wareejin. Kornayl Abdi Salad ayaa badalay Faroole.
Su’aasha kor ku xusan ayaa lasoo weydiyey Warsame Digital Media WDM. Waa tan jawaabtu:
Dawladda Federaalku waxay ka koobantahay sadex heer:
Dawladda Dhexe
Dawladaha Xubnaha ka ah tan Dhexe
Dawlado deegaanno oo hoos yimaada dawladaha xubnaha ka ah tan dheexe. Waxay leeyihiin golayaal deegaan, meesha kuwa kale leeyihiin sadexta qaybood ee dawlad heerkooda (dhexe, gobolleed, deegaan). Dawlad-gobolleedyo waxay u yihiin dawlad dhexe dawladaha deegaannada. Dawlad-gobolleedyadu iyana waa in ay xukunka sii baahiyaan ila heer tuulo-deegaan. Deegaannadu waa ay yeeshaan la haansho talo iyo mashaariic waxqabad iyo hurumarineed.
Awoodda Dawladdu waa u kala qaybsantahay madaxweynaha iyo Golaha Wasiirrada. Waaxa kaloo kala qaybsan awooddaha sadexta qaybood ee dawladda. Madaxweynu waa madaxxa jamhuuriyedda, mana laha awood ka baxsan dastuurka. Wasiir koowaad waa afhayeenka Golaha wasiirrada iyo guddoomiyaha fadhiyadda golaha. Wasiirka koowaad ma laha awood ka baxsan golaha. Madaxweynuhu ma marooqsankaro awood aan dastuurku u ogalayn.
Waxaa jira xukun baahis iyo wadaag khayraadka dalka, oo laga kabo dhanka dhaqaalaha, dawladaha xubnaha aan isku filayn. Sidaa waxa meesha ka baxaya ku tagrilfal awoodda dawladnimo iyo dib u dhac gobollada qaarkood.
Awooddaha sida loo kala leeyahay Dastuurka Federaalka ayey ku qorantahay, wuxuuna hadda dastuurka qabyo-qoraalku u baahanyahay dhamaystir iyo in loo qaado afti dadweyne.
Waxaa dhacaya doorashooyin guud.
Sidaa awgeed, nidaamka federaalku waxaa lagu tilmaama heerkii ugu toolmoona ee dimoqraatiyada.
Fiiro Gaar ah:
Haddii dawladda dheexe shaqayn weydo, ama burburto, dawladaha kale ayaa shaqaynaya. Ma dhacayso 1991 dhambe.
Cape guardafui, also known as Ras Asayr (Casayr), at intersections of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean is a natural Suez Canal of the Horn of Africa. It is located within the territorial waters of Puntland/Somalia. More than a half of the international shipping pass by. In the old days before the advance in navigation technology, there was a permanent light house erected at Cape to guide the huge number of commercial ships passing through. Italian Colonial Administrations in Somalia collected fees from international liners crossing at the Cape. It would have been prohibitively too expensive for shipping world sailing to India and Far East to go around the Cape. Basically, the Cape connects the world in a way Suez Canal of Egypt couldn’t.
During the initial years of Puntland establishment, the late Vice President of Puntland, Mohamed Abdi Hashi, and I had decided to explore the possibility of developing the Cape into a tourist resort, providing recreational facilities, service bankers for fresh water, sunshine, fuel and luxury hotels for international travelers on tourist cruise ships. We had persuaded a Swiss expert to study our project proposal and to visit the Cape. He reported to us about the potential of the area for tourist attraction and benefits it offers to international commercial liners. We gave him the permission to go ahead and lobby for the project. Swiss government officials were impressed to consider encouraging Swiss companies to carry out feasibility studies. In the end, unfortunately, they were deterred by US government under the pretext that Puntland State wasn’t a sovereign country able to enter into an international treaty of that magnitude. Moreover, the Americans claimed this waterway was an international passage that couldn’t be disturbed. The pursuit of our project was adjourned, waiting for another day to re-start.
During the course of project studies, we learned a few historical facts. Almost all international commercial shipping fleet of the world is insured by the British Lloyd Insurance Marketplace. Insurance fees shot up suddenly then as false rumors had spread around the world that the people living in Cape Guardafui practised “cannibalism” and that was the reason why attendants of the light house at the Cape often disappeared, endangering ships passing by there. Later, it was found out that the residents of the Cape had been persuading these attendants to abandon their duties by resettling them there into family life, so that people could take advantage of shipwrecks as the light house guiding the ships goes off.
The story of “bad kasoo bax, Boqor baa leh (All findings from the sea belongs to the King), perhaps, had originated from this wild story of the Cape Guardafui Light House. Check it out.
Somalis have always been federal or decentralized as you can imagine. Somali speaking people are scattered all around the Horn of Africa [and beyond], speaking the same language. The question is what let them speak the same language? It is because of Somali midnimo [unity of culture and purpose] based on a culture of a decentralized system.
I discussed the issue of decentralization (or federalism) in a paper I presented at “Il corno d’Africa fra Storia, Diritto e Politica” held [in] Rome, 13-14 December 2002. I was discussing how the Somali midnimo has been affected (and destroyed) by the centralization system Somalia took after the independence. [Take a read it here]:
In politics like in any other field of academic studies, there are different schools of thought. But, sometimes you would find people, who intentionally distort subjects of studies to score political points to their advantage. Federalism in Somalia is one of those subjects. You hear grown-up and seemingly educated people stating that “Somali clan federalism” was imported from “Ethiopian Ethnic Federalism”. These people, some of which considering themselves enlightened, are expressing only their opinions devoid of any basis in facts and history.
First of all, Ethiopian federalism is based on nationalism in which every region has one predominant nationality like Somalis, Amhara, Oromo, and so on. These are specific, regional and reality-based conditions of Ethiopia. The concept itself was initiated not by TPLF, but by the Derg Government of Mengistu Haile-Mariam, for those who care about history. Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed of Ethiopia is trying now to dismantle it without much success so far, giving some political motivation to Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo of Somalia, who has failed abysmally in copying Abyi’s thoughts and desires for central dictatorship from Addis Ababa.
Secondly, TPLF government of Meles Zenawi was against the formation of Puntland State. I am still a living eyewitness as one of the founders of the State. At that time, Ethiopia wanted to continue its Mandated Plan of Somalia’s Peace and National Reconciliation – the formation of Puntland State was a distraction they didn’t want. At the time, IGAD and AU had authorized Ethiopia, ironically, (given the historical burden between Somalia and Ethiopia) to conduct Somali National Reconciliation Process.
Thirdly, Ethiopian government had opposed to the establishment of Jubaland State, until a later date when they had secured the loyalty of Ahmed Madobe, and they decided to promote Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in his election bid of 2012. Ahmed Madobe was persuaded or coerced to support HSM. In return, Hassan would drop his resistance to the proclamation of Jubaland State. As establishment of Jubaland became a turning point in Somalia’s federalism, leaders of Hawiye, who were in opposition to the system had no choice but to hurry up to form their own federal states, hence the creation of Hirshabelle and enhancing and recognizing Galmudugh as fully-fledged federal member state without fulfilling the constitutional requirement on establishing a regional state.
Still, many Hawiye intellectuals and politicians alike continue to denounce Somalia’s federalism as clannish imported from Ethiopia, a fallacy bought by many other gullible people from Darood clan family too. For example, recently I met with a former colleague of mine, who was present in Northeast Somalia at inception of Puntland State. He knew that Ethiopia had nothing to do with the foundation of Puntland State in any form or shape, yet, this gentleman had been sold the idea of Ethiopian influence in Somalia’s federalism. Having said that, there is no denying the impact of geopolitics on the sub-region and reach of globalization in politics as well.
There are many other historical distortions and fake stories about Somalia’s realities. Unfortunately, there are always ready minds taking in this nonsense without any scrutiny.
Moreover, many Somalis are not aware of the fact that regions in Southwestern Somalia had demanded federalism, in return, for endorsing the rest of the country’s desire for national independence. That was circa 1956. Was that an Ethiopian TPLF manipulation as well, I wonder? These people also ignore the fact that, given the legacy of Civil War, residents of many regions in Somalia don’t want to return to a one city-state situation any more. Nobody has to suffer the tyranny and repression of a regime of Barre’s type and clan cleansing of United Somali Congress (USC) again.
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Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo Government has just started bartering Somali maritime resources with the import of Qaat, a highly addictive stimulant used mostly by low-income residents of Somalia, from Ethiopia 🇪🇹. The drug has been destroying the social fabric of the society for generations now, with breakdown of traditional values and family bond. It has been reducing labour productivity drastically. Most security personnel in Somalia 🇸🇴 are addicted to the drug, a danger to public and national security. Below is an article I had authored a few years ago.
Kat (aka Qat, Chat, Khat) is Grave National Security Threat to Somalia
(Photo: Courtsey of Wikipedia; Twitter message by Faisal Roble)
If Somalia is to survive as a nation-state and having at least a normal functioning government with even average bureaucratic operations, it must urgently find effective solutions to the epidemic of Kat addiction among its population as a national priority. The problem is more than socio-economic issue. It is a grave national security threat as well.
In the summer of 1997, I was a member of a delegation of the now defunct National Salvation Council (the NSC, aka Sodare Group) from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Mogadishu, Somalia. The delegation members included NSC Co-chairmen, Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as well as Council members that included Mohamud Mohamed Guled (Gacmadheere), Duuliye Sare Abdi Osman Farah among others. We numbered about 13 men and one female. We were on our way to meet with an Italian delegation led by then Deputy Foreign Minister for Africa, Senator Serri, who was about to visit Mogadishu for the sole purpose of mediating between disputing Mogadishu warlords despite many other problems of Somalia. The vision of the Italian delegation on solving Somalia’s predicament was not beyond the Banadir Region at that particular time.
Abdullahi Yusuf’s intention in the mission was to disrupt the Italian visit (which he did successfully) while Ali Mahdi’s was to win over the Italian favor against Hussein Aidiid and Osman Ali Atto.
We made a two-day stop-over in Djibouti. The Prime Minister of Djibouti then,Barkat Gourad Hamadou, honored us with a lavish luncheon with tender baby-goat’s meat and other delicacies of Djibouti at his residence. After the lunch, we were taken to a large and well furnished room with an Arabic seating with soft cushions specifically designed for long-time session in comfort for Kat indulgence, gossiping experience, news and secrets debriefing under the “high” influence of the stuff. In front of every person a bazooka-like wrapping was placed and a large silver tray full of the tools of the trade: A big and tall golden tea thermos, crystal glasses, shining and engraved tea-mugs, various branded cold soft drinks in plastic Coca Cola –type bottles and commercially distilled water in gravines with swimming crystal clear ice-rocks, all to be consumed in the breezing air-condition of the room- an artificial weather hide-out from the environment of burning heat of the City of Djibouti.
After a few chit-chats, Prime Minister Hamadou noticed that none of the members of our delegation was using the stuff as they were all non-chewers, at least, at that period of time. The Prime Minister was a bit annoyed and asked: “Why are you in civil war then, if there is nothing to fight for?” I guess we spoiled the daily indulgence session for our generous, high-level Djibouti host. Luckily, the conversation didn’t break up as we a had had a lot to discuss on Somalia, Somalia-Djibouti past and future relationships and the Horn of Africa, in general.
During those few years, I discovered, in separate sessions, that Ismail Omar Gheleh, the current President of Djibouti, was pondering about his desire to join his tiny country with Ethiopia as he was desperately convinced that Djibouti would not survive on its own. There was rampant corruption in the seaport operations, the main revenue generating enterprise besides the high spending men of the French legionnaires at Djibouti night clubs. The City of Djbouti was on the verge of being taken over by the influx of Ethiopians, who needed no immigration papers to come in. It was only Puntland help in 1999 to commit him to Somalia’s National Reconciliation process, encouraging him to take it over from Ethiopia, an AU and IGAD Mandated Country for Somali National Reconciliation Process. President Abdullahi Yusuf convinced President Daniel arab Moi of Kenya to support President Ismail Omar Ghueleh to play the role. It was undoubtedly a diplomatic success that pushed Ethiopia aside from the Somali issues. One may guess already why Ethiopia was not happy with President Yusuf lately. The second help came to Djibouti from post-9/11 World Order. Besides God’s wish, it was only these two factors that saved Djibouti from voluntary union with Ethiopia. Unfortunately, he betrayed Puntland State during the initial phases of the Arta Conference, a rift that eventually undermined the TNG of Abdulkassim Salad Hassan to pave the way for holding Embagati (Kenya) all inclusive and broad-based Somali National Conference and finally, the establishment of the Transitional Federal Government of the Somali Republic (TFG) in 2004, transforming it into the Somali Federal Republic in 2012.
Suddenly, the Prime Minister shared with us the socio-economic devastation Kat consumption has been causing on Djibouti at the time. He informed us that Djibouti was paying Ethiopia a hundred thousand US dollars daily, and that was only the portion of the payments that goes though from bank to bank. Think about residents who buy the stimulant on their own from individual Chat traders on the top of train and air passengers who also bring sacks of the green leaves to their families, relatives and friends in Djibouti cities.
On a number of occasions, I stopped over in Djibouti for a short stay. On multiple times, arriving at Djibouti International Airport, I used to see popular demonstration-like commotion at the gates of the airport-population rushing to the airport when Kat cargo delivery from Ethiopia is delayed for only a few hours. One would see custom and passport control officers whose mouths are asymmetrically filled with Qat and chewing it on the job. Think about the officers’ mental judgment and decision-making capability under the influence of the hyper-leaves at country’s highly sensitive and main border entry point.
The situation is even worse in Somalia with a few millions of US dollars spent every day on the habit. With no credible fiscal statics available, the country may be fast sinking into public and personal bankruptcy. A failed state desperately trying to recover from decades of civil war and total collapse of public services and institutions, has also population wholly consumed by the epidemic of daily Chat use, effectively destroying the socio-economic fabric of its society, abysmally curtailing manpower productive hours and bringing havoc to family livelihoods and relationships while it is also at same sometime constitutes an instigator and main source of corruption and loose social morals. A country with the geographical size larger several times than Italy or UK with porous long borders with Ethiopia and Kenya requires alert and non-Chat chewing security personnel and efficient bureaucracy.
The irony is that Somalis nowadays like to talk about safeguarding their sovereignty and territorial integrity, while at sometime allowing their neighbor states to dump poisonous addictive Kat to their citizens, drain their economy, disable their manpower and threaten their vital national security interests. Think about the real double-talk and double standard with a proverbial ostrich attitude!
Somalia has to come up with a solution to the menace of the Qat. While fully it is understandable that it is tough to try to ban the habit outright, at least a committee of experts should be immediately setup to study the problem and submit recommendations to competent bodies for, at minimum, regulating it and eventually outlawing it. Massive public education and media programs relating to its dangerous hazards to personal and public health should be initiated and launched immediately to stop the spread of the habit to young generation. Somalia cannot afford to continue to ignore its greatest, silent killer of its productive members of the society and the gravest national calamity posed by Kat trade. Please wake up!
The Somali Salvation Front – SSF, (Jabhadda Badbaadinta Soomaaliyeed), the first Somali Political and armed opposition against the Military Junta of General Siad Barre was formed by Somalis in-exile and defectors from the Somali National Army on the 8th of February 1979, and launched a powerful broadcasting short-wave station -The Radio Kulmis, at the same day. The SSF 23-strong Central Committee was hailing and composed from all parts of Somalia. This included:
Mustafe Haji Nur, the Secretary-General of the SSF, was from Hargeisa, Isak Community, Habar Awal.
Hagi Omar Mohamed Sterling, First Deputy, from Mogadishu, Hawiye Community, Abgaal.
Col. Cabdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Second Deputy, from Galkayo, Majertein Community, Omar Mohamud.
Mohamed Mohamud Shandiile, Third Deputy, from Dhusamareb, Hawiye Community, Cayr.
Osman Nur Ali Qonof, from Qardho, Majeerten, Osman Mahamud.
Ismail Daud Egal, from Barbera, Isak Community, Habar Awal.
Ali Hamdulle Togdheer, from Burco, Isak Community, Habar Yunis.
Col. Abdulkadir Warsame Galbeyti (Abdulkadir-Ex) from Hobyo, Hawiye Community, Sa’ad.
Yusuf Dirir Cabdi, from Erigabo, Isak Community, Habar Yunis.
Abdi Ahmed Rooble, from Bali-Gubadle, Isak Community, Arab.
Col. Abshir Muse Said, from Qardho, Majertein, Osman Mahamud.
Saleman Dahir Afqarshe, from Las-Anod, Dhulbahante, Naaleye Axmed.
Dr. Abdisalam Aw-Samatar, from Garowe, Majertein Community, Isse Mahamud.
Col. Awil Jama Hersi, from Gaashamo, Isak Community, Habar Yunis.
Dr. Hassan Ali Mireh, from Galkayo, from, Majertein Community, Omar Mohamud.
Cabdullahi Ali Hassan, from Adaado, Hawiye Community, Saleman.
Col. Mohamed Ali Hoori, from Dhahar, Warsangeli, Dubeys.
Abdirahman Sugulle Haabsay, from Galkayo, Majertein, Omar Mohamud.
Mahamud Einanshe Guled, from Odweyne, Isak Community, Habar Yunis.
Col. Mohamed Abshir Ali Weyrah, from Burtinle, Darood, Awrtable.
Hersi Magan Isse, from Galkayo, Majertein, Osman Mahamud.
Sayidiin Hassan Jabaan, from Bosaso, Majertein, Wabeneye.
Abdullahi Hagi Elmi, from Kismayo, Majertein, Isse Mahamud. Taken from SSF/SSDF/Q/Archives.
I read with interest your publication which I found very useful and on time as Somalia is passing through one of its worst time in history. I also liked the way you have been trying to transmit your publication through social media as today the social media has become the most essential tool to convey messages.
Another style that I liked is your technique of shortening and highlighting the messages. As we know, today Somali habit of reading has become lower than in the seventies and eighties.
For example, I read the article “Private Sharia Courts Have Started Operating in Garowe City”. The truth is the Islamists are everywhere and they have been trying to create a government under a government.
I can say that “you have been saying what I always wanted to say to the public”. Thank you for that.
In the meantime, in some of my publications, I have discussed the colonial intrusion in Somalia. They can found online:
According to reliable intelligence sources, the notorious long time Spokesman of the extremist movement in Somalia, Al-Shabab, Mr. Ali Dheere, is gravely sick with cancer. The terrorist organization is reportedly seeking entry visa clearance from the Gulf State of Qatar for his emergency medical attention.
According to the source, the intelligence agencies of the Federal Government of Somalia have already secured the exit clearance for Ali Dheere from Mogadishu Airport for evacuation to Doha. Stay tuned.
The resistance against Italian colonial conquest of Southern Somalia started with the Kingdom of Boqor Osman in Bargaal and Sultanate of Keenedid in Obyo in former Mudugh Region in early 20th Century. Italian Navy had used warships to bombard the Seat of Boqor Osman in Bargaal on the shores of Indian Ocean in Eastern Somalia.This was followed by Northen Derwish Movement of late Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, better known as Ina Abdulle Hassan by Somalis or Mad Mullah by the British colonial Military Administration of Somaliland Protectorate (the best good book about the Sayid’s Movement called ” The Divine Madness” was written by Prof. ABDI sheikh Abdi). This movement mainly focused on fighting the British occupation in the North of the country. It was religious/nationalistic armed organization taking cues and inspiration from Mahdist Movement in the Sudan then.
About the same time or a bit earlier, deep in the South, there was Sheikh Hassan Barsame’s struggle with the Italian Colonial Administration. This resistance, however, was about Sheikh’s wish for the preservation of slavery for the plantation fields of his community in lower Shabelle Region. The Italians wanted to abolish slavery under pressure from the provisions of the European Accord on suppressing slavery (The 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery was an international treaty created under the auspices of the League of Nations and first signed on 25 September 1926).
Ahmed Gurey’s Movement in Abyssinian Campaign ( known as Ahmed Gran by the Ethiopians) was religious in nature rather than a national movement for freedom. “Fatuh Al-Habasha” or the Opening/Penetration of Abyssinia is the best literary works written on Gurey’s Campaign.
The struggle for national independence continued with the rise of the Somali Youth League (SYL) from 1943, forming the first post-colonial national government of the Somali Republic in 1960 under the unification of former colonies of the South and North of the country, until it was overthrown by Military Junta in 1969, leading to the collapse and state failure in 1991. That was the end of the Somalia’s 1st Republic.
The 2nd Somalia’s Republic (with the Federal Government of Somalia) was founded in October 2004 under National Peace and Reconciliation Congress, 2002-2004, in the town of Mbagati, Kenya. Villa Somalia was liberated by the forces of the Founder of the 2nd Somalia’s Republic, the late President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdullahi Yusuf, in 2006. Some Somalis were made to believe that Ethiopian soldiers had assisted Mr Yusuf in liberating the Villa. That is far from the truth. The Ethiopians had entered Mogadishu after a few days after Mr. Yusuf had seized and restored Somalia’s Presidency. Yusuf’s Government had rehabilitated and repaired Villa Somalia. In the words of former Somalia’s president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, “not a teaspoon was missing from the Villa as I came in”
Mogadishu Airport was re-opened by now defunct Union of Islamic Courts (UIC/ICU) after many years of stateless Somalia, but, it was rehabilitated and expanded by Yusuf’s government, renaming it Aden Abdulle International Airport. It also had made the Mogadishu Harbor operational and returned it to government control for the first time since 1991.
There is a growing tendency towards building and opening new hotels in Garowe, Puntland, Somalia, continually. The imitation or modeling of this hospitality industry one after another is intensive here. Occupancy is at minimum with many of the hotels in city empty. That is because hotel occupancy heavily depends on the presence of the State President in town, many anxiously waiting for his return to Garowe once he is shortly unavailable.
This is one of the factors that critics call Puntland successive administrations “Madax-Ka-Nool” or a government by one figure head. Nothing moves here without that figure, the biggest employer in town, after private small businesses. Since many of Puntland residents are unskilled due to poor educational background and total absence of vocational training, it is easier for them to seek government jobs through recommendations to the State President, who has the sole power to hire without the need for personnel screening or vetting candidates through professional and security agencies. That is why hotels in Garowe are built upon unsound business propositions with duplications upon duplications of typical Somali imitation from the other guy or the neighbor, to accommodate these government job hunters or in pursuit of favors from the State officials. Occasionally, Garowe hotels are lucky to host dignitaries and delegations from South-Central Somalia. Nobody visits Garowe hotels from Somaliland or Djibouti. Puntlanders, though, are frequent guests in Mogadishu, Hargeisa and Djibouti, for business and pleasure.
Garowe isn’t familiar yet with the idea of guest-housing called BnB (bed and breakfast lodging). They don’t build furnished apartments for rent. Since the city was historiclly one of backward towns in Northeast Somalia before the foundation of Puntland in 1998, luckily acquiring capital city status, locals are trying their best to catch up with lost time and lack of economic resources in the past. They are now taking advantage of Puntland’s Madax-Ka-Nool situation. Like Mogadishu does in Somalia, Garowe is privileged to siphon in more than its fair share of Puntland’s economic resources and benefits of the State that come with being the Capital City.
The writer is a geopolitical analyst. She also writes at globaltab.net and tweets @AneelaShahzad
Remember the February 2017 elections in Somalia, when nine out of 24 presidential candidates were American passport holders. There was no public voting and elections were held in an airport hangar at Aden Adde International Airport, in Mogadishu, under a heavy guard, as no other than the parliamentarians and officials were allowed in.
The winning candidate, Mohamed Farmaajo, who had been based in the United States since 1988, was flown into Mogadishu from New York on the morning of the election, into the heavily guarded airplane hangar. And now after enjoying a four-year lottery ticket to the presidency, he will probably go back to live happily ever after in the US, if not re-elected with the help of his maneuverings.
A short history of Somalia is that, in colonial times the land of the ethnic Somalis was torn into French Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, British Somaliland, Ethiopian Somaliland and the Kenyan North Frontier District. At independence parts of this land were thrown into Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti — thus the seeds of provincial clan-based politics and of never-ending cross-border grievances were sown.
After independence in 1960, Somalia and Ethiopia, because of their conflicts, became an active theater of the Cold War, Somalia being aided by the Soviets and Ethiopia by the US. Later in the early 1990s, when president Said Barre fled from the country, Somalia was thrown into the US camp. As it happened, while the Soviets had been supplying arms and funds to Barre’s government only — the US made the policy of letting their arms reach to the clan-heads — thus converting cities, harbours and airports into self-proclaimed autonomous regions, with practically no central authority.
Since then, Somalia has been a divided country, whose strings are constantly being pulled by outside powers and international organisations like the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the African Union (AU). Al Shabab originated in Somalia in 2003, about the same time when Al Qaeda affiliates were sprouting all over the Muslim World. At about the same time, in 2001 the US established its Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) in neighboring Djibouti.
This picture tells us a bit about how complicated the politics of Somalia, that has practically been divided into warring autonomous regions, like that of Puntland, Somaliland, Galmudug and others, each of which potentially has ties with foreign benefactors. And these benefactors are not necessarily far away ones, but may lie within the Horn of Africa. Kenya and Ethiopia, that have Somali populations striving for separatism, have often joined forces to counter these forces and their friends inside Somalia.
Last year Somalia accused Kenya of interference in its elections in Jubaland, where Kenya allegedly tried to help President Ahmed Madobe retain his power in the semi-state.
In neighbouring Ethiopia, where the Tigray province has rebelled against the center in November, Abiy Ahmed is accused of outsourcing his counterinsurgency against the Tigray to Eritrean soldiers and also of using the same in his border conflict with Sudan. It has also surfaced that President Farmaajo has used Ethiopian troops against local opponents in Somalia and has allowed Somali soldiers to fight in Ethiopia.
It seems that in the Horn of Africa boundaries of states don’t matter much and that leaders are playing across border as inter-family feuds are played. Clan leaders, insurgency groups, and militias hold as much sway as government forces may be having, and in fact the government are fighting their wars with the help of the tribals and militias. But what has magnified the complexity of the Horn to a point of hopelessness, is the amassing of foreign militaries in the Horn, especially in Eritrea and Djibouti. Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki has built an entire economy centered on seeking economic rents from mercenaries and military bases that he allows to be formed in his country — so much so that it has become the only industry that employs Eritrean youth — as the youth are bound to undertake compulsory national service in the military. The same is the case in Djibouti, that is home to military bases of France, US, China, Italy, Japan, while UAE and Saudi Arabia are in the process of making their bases here too. The mere stationing of opposing forces, so close, in the Horn of Africa, makes it vulnerable to conflict and war, and the mere presence of such forces allow them to interfere in or affect the politics of the region and its states. And their mere presence also opens the way for smuggling of illegal small arms into the areas, which in turn strengthens the militias and emboldens them to commit heinous crimes such as systemic ethnic cleansing, rape, starvation, and massacres — crimes that have reportedly sharply risen in this year.
Certainly, as much as Africa is a resource-curse continent, it is also a media-blackout one. So, most of us remain unmoved by facts like; in the last six months alone, the Tigray conflict has displaced more than two million people in Ethiopia; or that infighting in Mogadishu, since mid-April when Farmaajo announced extension of his term, 100,000 people have been displaced from the city.
So, what policies of Western favourites Farmaajo, Abiy and Afwerki have done, are to destabilise the Horn further. The Tigray War has put the existence of Ethiopia as one nation into question; Farmooja has only deepened the divide between self-ruling regions of the state by playing one against the other; and Afwerki has played his part in feeding and fueling militias and mercenaries.
Nor have international platforms like the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, the UNSOM, or the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) been able to bring the region any closer to peace and stability — reason being, that covert forces and political interest prey upon the larger interests of the common people — and because for some, a destabilised Horn of Africa, at the brink of breaking down is more lucrative than a stable, sovereign, self-supporting and peaceful set of states at the opening of the Red Sea.
It is the target of folklore jokes for different reasons:
It produces daring and assertive residents, characteristics considered negative or derogatory by more urban residents of old Mogadishu, and by others as well.
It attracts envy from rest of Somalia for contributing the finest soldiers to the Somali National Army.
It is the home town of prominent Somalia’s politicians, leaders and top military officers.
It had led the way in the struggle for national independence. For the bravery of its residents, Italian Colonial Administration Authorities called it “Rocco Littorio”, after the name of Italian Warship for brave soldiers.
Galkayo was the epicenter of repression and persecution by the Military Dictatorship of General Barre for no good reasons other than the strong character of its residents.
Lately, since the foundation of Puntland State, Galkayo and entire North Mudugh Region had been neglected in terms of good governance and development projects, dismissing it as nuisance frontier and despicable Puntland trouble spot. It has been left to its own device as irredeemable enclave and ungovernable location of the State. Since the inception of Puntland State Galkayo has been suffering from Administrative vacuum. Regional authorities there were appointed in nominal fashion without any meaningful State backup to address the the unique chronic issues and historical problems in the absence of well-intended governance strategy. The City has been treated as an outcast in the family. Even Galkayo road links to the rest of Puntland State had been disowned and allowed to deteriorate beyond repair. It is now three times easier and faster to travel more than four hundred Kms on the way to Bosaso on the shores of the Red Sea in the east than to drive a little more than two hundred Kms to Galkayo from Garowe, the main administrative center of Puntland State. Any vehicle that reaches Galkayo safely from Garowe would need total overhaul and expensive repairs. A multi-clan Somalia’s town of a quarter million residents with the potential to become the future National Capital City has been let go to ruin and rot.
As a result of despair due to neglect, residents of Galkayo became disillusioned and lost any hope in the future. Youth have been taken advantage of by Al-Shabab and other extremist organizations of all forms and shapes. Youth have been recruited as killers and murderers of their own kinship. Even elders gave in to Al-Shabab intimidations.The cream of its residents had been assassinated by local hopeless youth under the spell of Al-Shabab. For the first time, strange questions on whether Galkayo belongs to Puntland or Galmudugh were raised. Some residents of the city have been contemplating the idea of seceding from Puntland altogether since being part of the State has lost all meaning. In the words of the New Governor of North Mudugh Region, Abdilatif Sanyare, “Galkayo was no different from the two regions of Shabelles” in Southern Somalia with regards to the menace of Al-Shabab terror.
Most recently, a break has come to the residents of North Galkayo:
Relationships and good neighborliness with the Southern Galkayo have significantly improved.
Relative security and calm have returned to the City of Galkayo in both parts of the town.
Dozens of Al- Shabab assassins have been apprehended and persecuted, a security campaign still underway as we write this article. These prisoners of Al-Shabab assassins have been narrating, in their debriefings, graphic details of their murder exploits. But, it is still premature to conclude that the Dystopian Somalia’s City of Galkayo is out of the woods. It is too good to see Galkayo that lucky.
The president of the Swiss Confederation, also known as the president of the Confederation or colloquially as the president of Switzerland, is the head of Switzerland‘s seven-member Federal Council, the country’s executive branch. Elected by the Federal Assembly for one year, the office holder chairs the meetings of the Federal Council and undertakes special representational duties.
President of the Swiss Confederation Official names
Bundespräsident(in) (German)Président(e) de la Confédération (French). Presidente della Confederazione (Italian). President(a) da la Confederaziun (Romansh)
First among equals, the president of the Confederation has no powers over and above the other six councillors and continues to head the assigned department. Traditionally the duty rotates among the members in order of seniority; the vice president of the Federal Council assumes the presidency the year after the officeholder’s tenure. The president of the Confederation is not the head of state because the entire Federal Council is the collective head of state.[2]
The constitutional provisions relating to the organisation of the Federal Government and federal administration are set out in Section 1 Organisation and Procedure of Chapter 3 Federal Council and Federal Administration of the Title 5 Federal Authorities of the Swiss Federal Constitution[3] at articles 174 to 179. Article 176 specifically relates to the presidency
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This is from Dr. Geetha Krishnaswamy, Please give your 2 minutes and read this:
1. Let’s say it’s 7.25pm and you’re going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job. 2. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated. 3 Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home. 4. Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. 5. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself. 6. HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. 7. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. 8. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. 9. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!! 10. A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this mail kindly sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life. 11. Rather than sending jokes, please… contribute by forwarding this mail which can save a person’s life. 12. If this message comes around you… more than once… please don’t get irritated… You should instead, be happy that you have many friends who care about you & keeps reminding you how to deal with a Heart attack.
Please SHARE THIS VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE WITH AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN. YOU HELP SAVE LIVES.
According to reliable eyewitness report, private Sharia Courts have been operating in Puntland Capital City for sometime now. These courts are reportedly attending land and properties disputes. They charge high fees for their services, according to an eyewitness, who was called in to testify about a land disputes between parties.
This is happening outside Puntland administration of justice. If allowed to continue to function in Puntland, these unofficial private Sharia courts shall turn into Al-shabab style system of parallel judiciary administrations similar to those operating in Southern Somalia. It is a new dangerous development unheard of its existence in Puntland before.
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The Dictatorial Military Regime led by General Barre lasted for twenty-one years in Somalia. The henchmen of this tyranny got away with crimes against humanity after committing indesscrible abuses of power and gross violations of human rights and dignity. Then, came United Somali Congress (USC) banditry of mass-murder, looting, rape and clan cleansing, which made the abuses of preceding tyrannical regime look incomparable in magnitude and scale. USC leaders got away with these heinous crimes. Since then, sense of justice and rule of law have lost any meaning in the country, still technically in civil war as meaningful national reconciliation had never happened. It is now hard to think of establishing public institutions to tackle with the epidemic of lawlessness and cultural impunity for all sorts of crimes, corruption, theft and looting of public resources. That is why many politicians aspire to replace General Barre, trying to acquire absolute power in a city-state thuggery. To prevent the repeat of that dark era in Somali governance, regions had opted for federalism as safe governing system for a country with bitter experience in misrule.
To make things even worse, USC mayhem is followed by religious extremists undeterred by known traditions of Islamic culture and studies. Wanton murder and extortion became the norm and modus operandi of peudo-religious elements of suppression, public intimidation and mass violence with daily bomb-blasts, mostly directed at civilian targets and their private properties and businesses for not paying up protection money.
But, what are the root-causes of this culture of impunity?
To answer this, one would be required to study whether there is an existence of individual guilty or responsibility for crimes committed by persons in Somali society.
Somali tribal laws or customary laws (Xeer) deal with collective responsibilities, not individual accountability. An individual’s wrong-doing is collectively shared by the entire clan in terms of responsibility. The wrong-doer escapes individual responsibility as a member of the collective tribal system. The crime committed by one member is considered as a crime perpetuated by the entire clan family. Consequently, every Somali leader, even a dictator or an abuser in government belongs to that same tribal system that is designed to protect him or her from accountability for wrong-doing.
Based on the native customary laws of this society, the whole exercise for installing a functioning Somali state would continue to be a joke, until that time that all Somalis agree upon guiding principles on inserting individual responsibility into administration of justice, that everyone, alone, is individually responsible for his/her actions – no collective clan responsibilities.
PS. An incident took place in North Galkayo sometime ago. Two students from Southern part of Galkayo were having a good time in Northern part of the city.. They wer4 spotted by a group of men there. suspicious, these men asked the students to identify themselves in terms of their clan names. These students were smart not to identify themselves except in a police station. At police station, they identified themselves in front of the Puntland police commander. The police station instantly became a target of mob seige to take the two students by force from the police custody. Luckily, the school boys were rescued that way. What crime did these boys commit to warant this personal danger? Tribal collective responsibility.
Mark Buchanan is a physicist and science writer based in Europe. June 10, 2021
In April 2020, the Defense Department released videos recorded by infrared cameras on U.S. Navy aircraft that documented the planes’ encounters with a variety of “unidentified aerial phenomena.” Pilots reported seeing objects flying across the sky at hypersonic speeds and changing direction almost instantaneously, capabilities far beyond that of any known aircraft. Support our journalism. Subscribe today.
What were the pilots seeing? Bizarre atmospheric phenomena? Alien spacecraft? Something else? Several branches of the government have been investigating the events, motivated in part by concern that adversaries such as Russia or China might have made some spectacular technological advance, and later this month, the government plans to publish a report revealing what they know. Reportedly, the government will say there’s no proof of extraterrestrial activity, but that the incidents remain unexplained.
Chances are, though, that we should all be grateful that we don’t yet have any evidence of contact with alien civilizations. Attempting to communicate with extraterrestrials, if they do exist, could be extremely dangerous for us. We need to figure out whether it’s wise — or safe — and how to handle such attempts in an organized manner.Story continues below advertisementhttps://6b1937c3389fdfe97bdf148c9b8a80bd.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Some scientific circles have already been debating questions around whether to try to contact other civilizations. It’s a topic of profound importance for the entire planet. For 60 years, scientists have been searching with radio telescopes, listening in for possible signals coming from other civilizations on planets orbiting distant stars. These efforts have largely been organized by the SETI institute in California — the acronym stands for Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence — and so far, they’ve had no success. Getting impatient, some other scientists are now pushing for a more active program — METI, for Messaging ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence — that wouldn’t just listen, but actually send out powerful messages toward other stars, seeking to make contact.
The search for aliens has reached a stage of technological sophistication and associated risk that it needs strict regulation at national and international levels. Without oversight, even one person — with access to powerful transmitting technology — could take actions affecting the future of the entire planet.
That’s because any aliens we ultimately encounter will likely be far more technologically advanced than we are, for a simple reason: Most stars in our galaxy are much older than the sun. If civilizations arise fairly frequently on some planets, then there ought to be many civilizations in our galaxy millions of years more advanced than our own. Many of these would likely have taken significant steps to begin exploring and possibly colonizing the galaxy.Story continues below advertisementnull
Hence, it’s a profound mystery — known as the Fermi Paradox, after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi — why we haven’t yet seen any such aliens. Many resolutions of the paradox have been proposed, among them the suggestion that all civilizations, once reaching sufficient technological capacity, eventually destroy themselves. Or perhaps aliens are so alien and unlike humans that we simply cannot interact with them.
More alarming is the possibility that alien civilizations are remaining out of contact because they know something: that sending out signals is catastrophically risky. Our history on Earth has given us many examples of what can happen when civilizations with unequal technology meet — generally, the technologically more advanced has destroyed or enslaved the other. A cosmic version of this reality might have convinced many alien civilizations to remain silent. Exposing yourself is an invitation to be preyed upon and devoured.
I’ve written about METI in the past, suggesting such activity takes a huge risk for very little gain. But these concerns don’t convince supporters of trying it, who have some counterarguments. Douglas Vakoch of METI International argues that it’s unrealistic to worry about the danger of an alien invasion. We have, after all, been sending radio and television emissions into space for a century, and a civilization far more advanced than our own will probably have already detected these. If they wanted to invade, they already would have.Story continues below advertisementnull
He also argues that, in assessing risks, it’s important not only to consider the risk coming from taking an action, but also from not taking that action. Our world faces a number of potentially existential threats, including global warming and destabilization of the environment, and it’s possible that far more advanced civilizations may have already faced these issues and found solutions. If we don’t send out signals, Vakosh writes, we risk “missing guidance that could enhance our own civilization’s sustainability.” It’s also conceivable, he suggests, that we’re making a spectacular misjudgment — and some super-advanced alien civilization may attack us precisely because we haven’t reached out.
For obvious reasons, much of the thinking about these issues has to be rather speculative. The best way forward, perhaps, is to broaden the discussion. If all of humanity is exposed to the possible consequences trying to contact alien civilizations, then more people should be involved in making decisions about what is wise and what isn’t. It shouldn’t be left to a handful of radio astronomers.
One vocal critic of the idea of reaching out to aliens proactively — astronomer John Gertz of SETI — has developed proposals to move toward more inclusive public consideration of these activities. What we need, he suggests, are laws and international treaties to govern more explicit contact attempts. Without prior broad agreement from some globally representative body, Gertz says, contacting extraterrestrials should be considered “as the reckless endangerment of all mankind, and be absolutely proscribed with criminal consequences, presumably as exercised at the national level, or administered through the International Court of Justice in The Hague.”Story continues below advertisementnull
Currently, no such prohibitions exist. Some informal protocols for interacting with alien civilizations have been adopted by researchers involved in SETI, but these are far from legally binding governmental regulations. That’s mostly because, up to now, talking about meeting or contacting aliens has seemed widely speculative — if not a little deranged — despite the apparent scientific plausibility of such an event.
It’s not easy to weigh the pros and cons of activities around which so much remains unknown. We don’t know if there are any aliens. They might be friendly. They might not be. Given the potential risks involved with trying to make contact, perhaps it would be safer and wiser to just wait — we can always reach out later, and meanwhile, our abilities to do passive listening are rapidly growing more powerful.
In 2015, SETI launched a new 10-year program called Breakthrough Listen, funded by a $100 million donation from Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. As a result, SETI is now recording more signals than ever before, over a frequency range some tenfold larger, and bringing more computational power to bear on analyzing the recorded signals. It’s impossible to know how close or far from making a discovery we may be, but Gertz estimates that our chances are at least 100 times greater than they used to be.Story continues below advertisementnull
The search is also benefiting from astronomers’ knowledge of exoplanets — planets in orbit around stars other than the sun. Since the first exoplanet was found in 1992, we’ve identified nearly 5,000 more, and the rate of discovery is accelerating. Each one give SETI researchers new promising targets to scrutinize.
Personally, all of this makes me dead-set against any experimentation with attempting to contact other civilizations. Why take cosmic risks when we may have a far safer pathway to discovering them, if they’re out there? Of course, even listening comes with some potentially fraught governance issues also: If and when someone really identifies an alien signal, we’ll need to decide if we should reply — and if so, how. Surely such an act — putting all of humanity at risk — ought to be the result of some collective decision. But there’s no mechanism to encourage that now. Any individual or nation could take the human response into their own hands.
Both paths — listening for aliens or trying to call them — have reached the stage where they require broader public discussion, with an eye to developing sensible regulation. That’s going to take the efforts of leaders from many nations, presumably coordinated through the United Nations or some similar international body. It should happen now. Or soon. Before it’s too late.
Could you imagine the Government of the United States of America 🇺🇸 breaking diplomatic ties with the Government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (Great Britain)? Could they do it successfully? It is the same thing Somalia trying to sever relationships with Djibouti, Kenya or Ethiopia. These relationships have been developing over many centuries in a multi-dimensional fashion, and most importantly, between peoples of these nations. Nairobi is now the irreplaceable Somali business and travel hub. An amateur and naive politician like Farmajo couldn’t simply appear in the scene and try blindly to do away the historically cemented relations without doing much harm to Somalia’s vital national interests and economic havoc in the entire region.
Even a Somali camel man grazing his herds in the country knows full well that cutting ties with Kenya isn’t only practical, but also infeasible and wrong, for he is, at least, aware of his relatives in refugee camps in Kenya. With today’s globalization, he is in constant communication with his kinship in Dhadhaab Refugee Camp, not to talk about others in all urban centres of Kenya.
This is not to say nice things about Kenyan Authorities – they share much of the blame in worsening relationships with Somalia. But, the unwise experiment in this diplomatic fiasco hurt not only many lives and livelihoods, but also did great damage to the national economies of both countries. The losses could be in the billions of dollars. I wonder if any lessons learned from this childish and futile exercise.
Residents of Garowe are the most patient people on earth, enduring the public inconveniences practised by authorities for years. It so happens that the State President, or more often, the Vice President attending an event in a public place in town seizes and seals off the entire area with unproportional security forces. Patrons reluctantly and patiently turn around and go home sadly. The protocols and related security departments couldn’t fix this problem since the foundation of the State, mainly because of the fact that the bosses are fond of seeing their presence and power felt by the public repeatedly.
Ironically, those who are now perpetuating this overzealous VIP security protection turn into ordinary human beings overnight when voted out or replaced. Right now, sitting near my table at hotel lobby is a former Puntland Minister of Public Security. He is alone without a single security guard. But the new comers or replacements go into same cycle of abuse of power or showmanship once installed.
This VIP security protection showmanship is happening tonight at Grand Hotel in Garowe with Puntland Vice President in attendance. I have been told that the whole security fuss and public inconveniences so created is about a school graduation ceremony. I also know that residence of the Vice President isn’t far off from the hotel – it doesn’t require carloads of security personnel to occupy forcefully and seal off the entire area. Why does it need such a show of force by a civilian administration in every event in town? I think it is more than ignorance. There is a dimension of public abuse as well. All they need here is a well trained and efficient police force to maintain law and order in such events. Puntland doesn’t need individual collections of personal bodyguards that would disappear with that VIP of the day once he goes away.
Next time you hear blaring car siren along the road in Garowe, don’t think it is an ambulance transporting a sick patient to a hospital emergency – it is the either the President or Vice President owning up the public highway.
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