Day: July 31, 2022

DEMOCRATIZATION STALLED AGAIN IN PUNTLAND

Like typical Puntland administration behavior at end of its term in office, the current government has run out of steam in pushing the agenda forward. Some politically naive persons or interest groups are propagating the notion that there is no enough time left to elect remaining local councils and have them in place before next parliament and presidential elections, not understanding a job half done is better than not doing anything at all. Members of Puntland House of Representatives fare no better than the so-called “AARAN JAAN” spin doctors in that regard, on the top of being a rubber-stamp institution for decades.

Since there is no long term vision by each of successive Puntland administrations, important public tasks are left for next administrations or generations to attend, thus becoming a vicious cycle not to initiate and administer any meaningful programs towards Puntland future governance. The State never laid down and worked out any significant public policy. It operates on ad hoc fashion as its modus operandi. Residents get accustomed to political thinking in the space of one term or one administration- for them, tomorrow doesn’t exist. Starting programs to be completed by the next administration isn’t in their books. But, the worse of all is the fact that authorities of the day see only the problems, not the opportunities. Most are likely to reason with you why this job can’t be done because of these impediments. It is people who love to raise their hands up in the air in surrender when they are challenged. They don’t get the world moves on with or without them.

People of the State of Puntland had observed how it was easy to hold municipal elections in Uffayn, Qardho and Eyl districts just recently. There aren’t any excuses not to hold similar elections in other districts of the State. Negative thinking on the part of interest groups and the government of President Said Abdullahi Deni are now the real obstacles to democratization in Puntland State of Somalia.

HAPPY PUNTLAND 24TH ANNIVERSARY, AUGUST 1ST! CONGRATULATIONS!

THE BLEAK SITUATION OF READERSHIP IN SOMALIA

To quote Nurudin Farah, the famous Somali novelist, in an answer to a question put to him by a BBC reporter, said recently, “Somalis don’t read in any language, including their own”. There are, of course, a few individual exceptions. But that is even less than one percent among those who consider themselves literate. That is as alarming as it gets. Think about a nation that has no trained minds. What would happen to their culture, history, literary and technological advances? Here, we aren’t even talking about producing writers as there is no readership among the population. Education has lost its merited position and value in today’s Somalia as everything is possible through corruption, fraud, nepotism and cronyism in both public and private sectors.

Still, people debate on potential bright future for Somalia, the accident rise of good government, effective public institutions and Somalia becoming a petro-dollar country one day.

In my experience as editor of Warsame Digital Media WDM, I have noticed that the attention span of actual Somali reader is amazingly short. Forget about reading books. In conveying my message, I have to be brief and precise. Another impediment to attention span is the information overload: Non-readers and readers alike constantly watch and listen to anything that animates in the social media. Trained minds are usually selective in their intake of public information. It is the ordinary people who are now true victims of garbage-in-garbage-out in the internet. We are living in a difficult epoch of human civilization.

Go to Kenya and you would notice that a shoe-shinner boy would stare at newspaper in your hand to catch the latest headlines. How many decades would pass by until Somalis develop the habit and curiosity of readership?