The balance between unacceptable and acceptable in the world needs to be maintained. Naturally when a far reaching medium such as the social brings us social networking sites that spice up our lives a little, it also attracts the fractious few of society. Some of the things that could lead to potential social fragmentations. 

Today we are in juncture where we get information in a glimpse of eye thanks to particularly Facebook and Twitter. However the flip side of the coin attracts members of our society who I would like them to think before they interfere others space.

Today young Aar Maanta wrote "every gun man belongs to a clan in Somalia" referring to the death of saada A Warsame who has been shot dead at the Somali capital today. Many people translated this as clan attack which I certainly know that wasn't Aar's intention. And of course every gun men in Somalia belongs to a clan.

At the same day, knaan wrote "The killer of saada Ali do not share some religion with me" referring to Al-Shabaab. After this comment many accused him for being non- believer. Regally, can't take you serious.

Some of us has been forced not even write or share their views of events and what is happening around the world due to our deficit of understand and accommodating different views.

It is perfectly fine to ask someone to elaborate what they wrote if you are not sure what it means. Before judgement which can have impact on someone.

Therefore, my sincere advice to those who comments on others posts, please seek advice if you don't understand what the comment means or the intention behind. By doing this we will be able to have constructive, beneficial and balance debate and discussion about issues and subjects.

By: Adam Matan.

Who broke the Adis Ababa agreement?

It looks like the conflict between the federal government of Somalia and Juba Administration is back.

The Addis Ababa agreement between the Somali government and then Ras Kambooni administration has no legal bases but it has a guarantee, means it depends on the position of the neighbouring Ethiopia and the security and political situations of Somalia.

6 months have passed since the agreement was reached, according to that agreement, the administration should hand over the ports to the federal government of Somalia.

For some how, officials from the administration have stated that they will not hand over the ports to the federal government.

Some analysts believe that they were trying to take advantage of the reports that were mentioning the government   infightings, the insecurity etc therefore, since then, they haven't been contacted because of the government being busy with itself!!

In this way-who ever advises in there- they thought they can sell this card to the world and be dealt with them as a regional state because the government  cannot do its national duties!

When president Hassan heard this, he gave the green light to the die-hard officials in the government.

The jubba leader has been to Ethiopia, he didnt won that one, now he is in kenya so he can meet with some western diplomats, Djibouti is also inviting him.

A delegation led by the Somali interior minister are on their way to Kismayo to save the agreement, they want to get the ports and integrate the armies/militias in side and out side of kismayo without exceptions, some reports are saying they already appointed the local commanders for the army in there but haven't yet arrived

The Juba administration is against this and see it as a coup and want to select them by themselves.

The agreement states the integration of the militias, also the UN envoy has stated during his visit to kismayo that the handing over of the ports to the government and the integration of the militias are a must.

If the things were not sorted out, the government may take advantage of this and accuse the Juba administration of breaking the agreement.

The other things that the timing is not good for Juba administration, though Kismayo still has the KDF, Kenya is in a bad position it also has better relationship with the federal government  now so they may not support the administration this time publicly.

Let us wait and see how they will treat the government officials.

The Economist "Somalis in Britain: They are the largest refugee population, are among the poorest, worst-educated & least-employed" 

http://t.co/CLwQv1NISm

Really?

This is an ignorant piece if misinformation that demonstrates once again what has become of The Economist.

What a narrow minded article, This is beyond offensive, wrong, foul and ignorant. I wonder the person who wrote this has any brain cells to think constructively! This article is simply not telling the truth. 

There are many small minded people out here. Generalizing entire community, it's absolutely ridiculous.

Humans tend to jump to conclusions based on insufficient information.

What do you think of this article?

A heartfelt congratulation to my fellow Somali brother Abukar Awale.

Congratulation to my fellow Somali brother Abukar Awale (The famous Anti-Khat Campaigner) for not giving up on his dream which was to see khat to be banned in the UK completely and i am pleased that he has finally achieved that historic victory by the help of the Somali community in the UK as a whole. As Nelson Mandela taught us to never give up on something that seems impossible which i believe Abukar practiced what Mandela taught us as he famously said, “it always seems impossible until it’s done.'' Abukar has throughout sacrificed and dedicated his life for the good of the Somali people in the Uk. Indeed he is a national hero without a doubt and  he is truly an inspiration to many young kids who are lacking of a good fatherhood.

The 60 year old legal importation into the UK of the stimulant substance known widely as khat have finally been brought to an end, as the substance is added to Class C of the Misuse of Drugs Act. 

The drug is already been outlawed in other European countries, to avoid Britain becoming a hub for trading in a substance that was illegal elsewhere. 

I personally believe that Khat is our second biggest enemy after Qabiil/Qabyaalad and the Somali community in the UK have broadly welcomed the ban as well as it will give hope to many mothers and wives whom their families have been destroyed by this drug.

Khat was/is an obstacle to the essence of integration, unemployment, debt, crime, misery and mental health problems.

It has destroyed the social fabric of Somali families, It has also victimized hundreds of thousands of children as they don't get the affection, kindness, and care of their fathers and mothers, which affects the nurturing of these children. Spending their time sitting around chewing Khat instead of furthering their education, working towards a future, or making a difference in the world. 

From the High divorce rate to the mass unemployment in our community; Khat has a BIG share of the blame.

More stay-at-home dads taking care of their children will be seen soon Insha’ALLAH, instead of spending their time at Marfish and chewing bloody grass. 

Massive thanks to the British government for listening their vulnerable citizens by banning Khat.

Somalia president takes the right move in the right time!

Due to pressure from Saudi Arabia and the UAE president Hassan Sheikh is participating the inauguration of Abdulfatah Azizi as president of Egypt! 

This is a great strategy to get the financial and political backing of the Arab world wich is dominated by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait who's a bit neutral in their conflict with the new broker Qatar

Having seen how Sudan is aligned with Qatar and Turkey and lacks the rest of the gulf backing, if Somali government secures the gulf States and Turkey together will be a great diplomatic achievement!

The Somali government has received yesterday a four modern coast guard boats from the visiting Turkish war navy!

What a geopolitical changes! We are witnessing the re-birth of the somali state!

On the other hand, Djibouti is plying a good friend role for the government in the horn and IGAD by using its strategic relations with the US

Since presidents Ismail Ghelle visit to Washington, the government has received more US support by appointing an american ambassador to somalia for the first time in decades!

Djibouti has also involved more in IGAD and AMISOM policies towards somalia.

So, having turkey, saudi arabia, UAE, djibouti and behind them the US is a great diplomatical development for hassan sheikhs regime!

"Broke Down Palace"

I just finished watching "Broke Down Palace". Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale suffer one of the biggest nightmares that can befall a traveler: getting thrown into a foreign jail for a crime they didn’t commit.

It was a terrifying movie for me to watch though but the first 10 minutes make me really excited to go to Thailand but after watching it I dont think i will ever go there.

Thailand was at the top of my travel wish list. I always wanted to visit the beautiful beaches, eat the food and hike the mountains of the north but getting thrown into jail for a crime I didn’t commit is highly unlikely to be on the agenda.

Unfortunately, this sort of stuff can happen when traveling.

Sarah Shourd and Laura Ling are two recent examples of travelers jailed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Brokedown Palace may be a sensationalised Hollywood movie, there are some things we can learn from watching it.

Darlene is tricked into signing a confession written in Thai. They are sentenced to 33 years in a Thai women’s prison. Alice, on the other hand, had the right idea when she refused to say anything.

Lesson learned: When arrested abroad, be careful of signing or admitting to anything, especially if you don’t understand.

Warning! Major spoilers ahead!!!!

Alice (Claire Danes) and Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) when they have graduated from high school, they were planning their senior trip to Hawaii though Alice decided that Hawaii is too boring and convinces Darlene to lie to her dad and go to Thailand instead.

Don’t let your trip become another Hollywood movie!

This should be obvious but please: tell someone where you are going.

In fact, tell two people because what if something happens to the one person you told? It’s best to let a couple of people know your whereabouts when traveling.

Getting arrested in a foreign country is just as scary as Brokedown Palace makes it look. Hope any innocent person who was arrested on fake drug smuggling will be set free soon. 

British Teacher’s Heroism Versus Al Shabab’s Barbarism By Bashir Goth

A British Teacher’s Heroism Versus Al Shabab’s Barbarism

By Bashir Goth

Recently the British Dailymail carried the amazing story of a British teacher, Ray Coe, 53, who donated a kidney to his young student, a Muslim girl, Alya Ahmed Ali, 13. The story was emailed to me by a friend who also said in his email: “What would Al Shabab say about this act?” he added: “Before Allah, isn’t it better to save a life than kill one.” My reply to him after reading the story was: “Al Shabab would probably demand the girl be killed as she now carries an infidel’s organ in her body.” This is not an exaggeration as one would not expect a better response from a group that makes it their duty to extinguish life and everything beautiful in it.

As heroic as it is, the noble action of the teacher to donate his organ to the girl is also what we should expect from every person with decent upbringing, who learned as a child what it meant to be good and kind to your fellow human beings. Mr Coe says while he was pondering the donation he remembered a verse from the Bible that says: “Maybe you were born for such a time as this”. And he said: “It clicked and I knew then that it was right.”

We know and every Muslim knows that the Quran is full of similar beautiful verses that command its adherents to be kind and charitable. One of these verses says: “Whoever kills a soul unless for a soul … it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely,” Al Mai’da, 32.  But the text is just a text as wise words can either be put to good use or construed in a distorted way by its followers. So while in the case of Mr Coe the line from the Bible brings the best out of him, it is unfortunate that the Quran has itself become a severely abused victim in the hands of its own people.

This British teacher saves this Muslim girl’s life not because he wanted to make a statement, not because he wanted to settle scores with anyone, not because he wanted to show that his religion is better than others, not because he wanted to convert the girl and change her religion, not because he thumped the Bible in the night and woke up in the morning with a vision to change the world, and not because he wanted to create a media stunt and grab  headlines; but on the contrary this kind teacher, a special educational needs coordinator,  thought only of what he could do as a human being to help alleviate the plight of little Alya and her parents, and he did the right thing. And as the school head teacher said: “Mr Coe has gone above and beyond the call of duty with this selfless and noble act.”

His only comfort was to see Alya’s reaction after he told her that he is going to be her organ donor: “When we told Alya, she just gave me a big squeeze and her face lit up. It brings tears to my eyes whenever I think of that,” he said.  However, in stark contradiction to the teachings of the Quran, Al Shabab followers wake up every morning with a plan on how many lives they can take, not how many lives they would save; they read Quran in the night and in their demented minds they come up with wrong self-serving interpretations. For them the Quran is not a holy book aimed at the betterment of life but a manifesto for war. While the British teacher made this great sacrifice to give life to a young girl, breaking all walls of division such as background, religion, and skin color,

Al Shabab and other extremist groups in the Muslim world every day slaughter their own country’s children, women and the elderly in schools, mosques, and restaurants. And while the smile of Alya brought tears to Mr Coe’s eyes, the grief of mothers and children who lostt heir loved ones in Al Shabab’s attacks does not bring tears to Al Shabab’s eyes but instead they shamelessly shout Allahu Akbar and invoke Quranic verses.

Given the choice to either go with Al Shabab of Somalia and other extremist killers in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt and elsewhere to wherever they go afterlife or to go with Ray Coe, it is clear who I would choose for company. And this is exactly in keeping with the true meaning of the Quran.

 

Bashir Goth

bsogoth@yahoo.com

Happy International women's day!!

Happy International Women’s Day to all lovely ladies around the world, especially to my beautiful/powerful Somali sisters. If I made a list of people who have inspired me in life, that list would be predominantly female. Without them life on Earth would be so dull. In fact, it wouldn’t even exist, therefore let's continue to be their voice! Wishing you happiness that lasts, unconditional love that never fades, success, laughter and smiles forever.#WomensDay2014

"Its really sad that hundreds of Somali expats living/working/studying in the Middle East are suffering all because they cannot renew their Somali passports any more. Some of these people are losing their jobs, kicked out of university, some are being kicked out of the country and some are paying daily fines for being in the country on expired papers for the past 4 months. Its unfair that these people have to suffer for something that can be fixed within couple of hours. Somali Immigration Department has failed these people and is not doing anything to help these people."

We need action to tackle this before it's too late for too many.
Please share and spread the word. These people need you to be their voice, therefore let's be their VOICE and SUPPORT!

Elman you gone but not forgotten!!

Today marks the 18th anniversary of the death of Elman Ali Ahmed, a father, a peace activist, an entrepreneur and prominent human rights campaigner.

Elman was an amazing peacemaker as well as a civil rights activist and strongly believed in his work and unwavering responsibility to have a positive impact on those that are less fortunate than him.

When Everyone was running from the war, Elman was running toward it to save the Somalia people. He was one of the people that inspired me to be a peace activist and i will continue to live out that dream, his killing marked the beginning of a long and bloody era of politically motivated assassinations in Somalia.

May Allaah expand his grave and grant him Jannatul Firdaws, Ameen. Elman REST IN PEACE.

RIP to the Boqorka Codka ( The king of voice)

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un" ('We belong to Allah and to Him do we return,').
Such a sad news this morning for anyone who loves/knows Somali music, the passing of a legend, the King of voice and the greatest Somali singer of all time died at a hospital in #Germany, following long illness.

My deepest condolences to his beloved family. May Allah help and give strength & patience to the people closer to him during this very difficult time.

Please make dua for him that Allah swt forgive all his sins and grant him to the highest place in Jannah. Amen.

The North Korea theory of the missing plane has made me spit my Starbucks out LOL.

Feeling old is not related to our age. It's an expression of our present state of mind. We all have the potential to feel forever young.

I don't even understand why people rush into marriage? Half of the population divorces anyhow. Marriage isn't the same as it was 50 years ago!

Some sisters have this unrealistic expectation of marriage. Usually these young girls end up rushing into it because they like the thought or one of their friend got married. Don't rush getting into marriage for the sake of being married. Marriage is not just a WORD. It is a life contract that takes a life time to review and accept meanwhile; before you sign it be sure you are capable of keeping its promises.

Agree or disagree?

Tony Benn!

So sad to hear Tony Benn the last of the old school Politicians has passed away today. 

A truly inspiration and an honourable man in true sense of the word. A great battler for justice and socialism, legendary Labour politician, anti-Iraq war campaigner, a magnificent writer, a champion of the powerless, life-long fighter for justice and true friend of Palestine. 

Tony Benn always looked towards siding with the oppressed and with the People. I look up to that and admire it deeply.

The greatest politician of his generation. Will be missed from the political landscape. 
An honest politician in a dishonest world is a rare treasure. RIP Tony Benn.

I'm taking a break for awhile, will be back to blogging soon.

Updating my blog has become increasingly difficult because I am very busy and will continue to be for a while. And in order to do my thoughts 'justice' I decided to take a break indefinitely Thank you loads for reading and contributing to this blog. Insha'Allah I will return to writing because writing is my therapy and can never give it up. All the best always.

Africans say NO to bum AID.

Dear whiteman, You asked us to wear coat under hot sun, we did it; you said we should speak your language, we have obediently ignored ours. You asked us to tie a rope round our necks like goats, we have obeyed without questioning. You asked our ladies to wear dead people's hair instead of the natural ones GOD gave them, they have obeyed. You said we should marry just one woman in the midst of plenty damsels, we reluctantly agreed. You said our decent girls should wear catapults instead of the conventional pants, they have obeyed. You asked us to use rubber in order to control our birth rate, we agreed though it denies us of the sweetness of SEX. Now you want our MEN to sleep with fellow MEN and our WOMEN with fellow WOMEN so that GOD could destroy us like Sodom and Gomorrah? 

How my need to be strong weakens.

For many of us, the cultures and societies we live in confuse vulnerability and honesty for weakness. As women, in particular, we are raised to believe that our strength comes from an infallibility, stomaching the very things that inflict poor mental and emotional health.Farah Gabdon talks about her own struggle to be vulnerable, the physical effects on her body and how her bold move to be brave remains a work in process. 

I have always been a person who makes it incredibly easy for others to be emotional in my space. I am a nurturer by nature. I need to care, to heal. But I have never been able to allow myself to be open, to wear my emotions on my sleeve. I am always reminded by friends (who have known me for a lifetime) that they have never seen me cry. I guess this is why I began writing and why I continue to do so even today.

When you have spent years swallowing your emotions, bottling what matters most to your being, there is a danger of losing a vital part of your existence; the sincerest part of your soul. These last few years, I have been finding, in small subtle bursts how important vulnerability is and teaching myself how to be so. I have learnt how much strength there is in it. How very necessary it is for our health and happiness.

Two years ago I began an anonymous blog and called it “All The Things We’ve Left Unsaid,” writing under the alias “wordswoman”. I poured my heart out onto a screen, neither knowing nor paying attention to who was reading. I wrote about love, my fears, my hopes. I found ease in this and healing in the hundreds of messages shared with me by people who felt and thought the same.

Often we are so afraid of shame and rejection that we conceal, cover and coat the parts of our hearts we think to be weak. But in accepting these broken pieces, these terrifying little crevices inside me, I was introduced to a world of hearts and souls whom I could lay myself bare with. Open. Honest. I found that by saying “I am weak. I am vulnerable. I accept this”, even in this virtual space, I was inadvertently granting permission for others to do the same.

I grew tired of feigning strength. I began to understand that emotions were natural, necessary and the strongest of us were those who were able to accept and embrace them. All my life I buried my emotions and I found myself unable to make sense of them. As a Somali woman I was expected to be strong. As a Muslim woman I had to be ‘proper’ and as a young WOC growing up in England, I had to conceal all possible weakness. We live in a world where appearance is the most important thing. And we play this role. All of us, some better than others. We need to appear strong, happy and in control, often even when we are not; especially when we are not.

There is a greater expectation still, when you are the sons and daughters of a Diaspora displaced by war and strife. When you are the daughter of a woman who has looked death and destruction in the face and survived, you learn through even the smallest interactions that strong is the only way to be. There is no space for weakness or appearing too emotional. You learn that pain, for the most part, should be swallowed. As a result, we live in a constant state of fear. Of shame. Of showing too much. Saying too much. ‘Being’ too much and even, of not being quite enough.

Sometimes we spend so long holding on to things, swallowing pain, sorrow and fear, that we become stuck in this routine of stoicism; holding back when all we really need is have a good cry, a genuine heart to heart and a cup of tea. Over the years, I have seen first-hand the results this has had on my body, my relationships and my very existence. By the time I started university, I had no emotional response to stress, I was calm but I would fall ill during exam period. Three to four times a year I’d become bedbound.

My body took on and formed its own response to the stress my mind was neglecting. Forming new friendships seemed impossible because I was always on edge, unsure of how much of myself was okay to show. I had bigger walls than I knew how to break through. I became a creature of comfort zones and familiarity. I was enslaved to these things. And when I was removed from them, I’d put on my emotionless face and body language. Strong. Strong. Always strong. I was stronger on the outside than I felt on the inside and I knew this had to change.

Over the last few years, I have been trying to create safe, open spaces. To construct a world that makes it easy for me to be at my most naked emotionally, so I can be at my strongest, physically and mentally. I have befriended people who I can say ‘hey, I’m sad’ or ‘I’m afraid’ to. Friends who validate my emotions rather than dismiss or pass judgement. I have taken my writing onto the stage, performing intricately personal poetry in-front of crowds who struck fear inside me, but later offered words of understanding and acceptance.

In forcing the world to see who I am - everything I am- I took away all power of shame and fear. Those who accepted my being, came in peace and empathy and those who could not or did not, stayed distant. In being so painfully vulnerable, I have felt stronger than at any point in my existence. This has been the most frightening journey of my life, but also the most rewarding. My emotional, physical and psychological states since entering this state of vulnerability, have improved greatly. I believe this is vital for our bodies, our health, our mental states.

I formed connections with those who understood the need for vulnerability, who were able and willing to accept and share this understanding. I sought out people with kind faces, honest eyes and bodies that held no arrogance. In my journey to embracing vulnerability, I met a girl last year, who told me she’d had a nervous breakdown. A Muslim girl like me. A Somali girl like me whoo told me that she had been depressed for a great deal of time and couldn’t cope, that her emotional problems led to her eventually having to leave her job. She also told me that I was the only person she had felt able to speak to, because our society was not emotionally validating. Sadness, fear and insecurity are not things we share with others.

These conversations are difficult, so difficult and breaking, always breaking. But these are the conversations we need to have; depression, sadness, self harm, loneliness, self worth, confidence, insecurity, self image, self love, self hate. We need to make it acceptable to talk openly about these things; normalize vulnerability.

This year I moved to Saudi Arabia, where I began working as an English teacher. I found an incredible clarity as to how important it is that we construct environments that are ‘good’ to us; good for us. My last few months in London, in the space I had spent so long creating, seems a lifetime away and I am faced again with the same battle.

I reverted back to that young stoic girl when I first arrived, stern face but a frightened crumbling exterior and within a week I was ill and bedbound. I am however, more determined than ever, to recreate the kind of world I can be at my best in, to find the kind of people I can be open with and to become the kind of soul I can be happy with. Because now I know this is possible. And now I know how this can be done.

We are not strong because we appear so, we are strong because we are brave enough NOT to be.There is strength in vulnerability, even in the face of all there is to fear.

Farah is a 26 year old English teacher currently living and working in Saudi Arabia. She has written and performed poetry in the London Spoken word scene and dreams of one day publishing a novel. She loves reading, writing and spends much of her time watching dance choreography videos and trying to emulate them.

You can catch her writing on herTumblr.

Somalia lost one of greatest national servants and freedom fighters.

Preparations are now under way for a national funeral to mourn the life of one of #Somalia's greatest national servants and freedom fighters who dedicated his life to the people of the great nation of Somalia.

According to what I am hearing from

Mogadishu - Former Prime Minister Abdirisak Haji Hussein will be laid to rest next to Adan Adde who was the first President of the Somali Republic,(served from July 1, 1960 to June 10, 1967).

A grateful nation will honor one of its finest sons, He is among the last from a Genuine era with genuine leadership skills. His mark on Somalia will never be forgotten and I believe Somalia has lost one of its few great elders.

He is remembered as one of the efficient government leaders Somalia has had. Together with Aden Abdulle, Hussein democratically surrendered power when his boss lost a presidential contest in July 1967.

He is also remembered as a long term activist of SYL in the struggle for independence.

He had also served as the representative of the pre-independence Somali Interim Government (1956-1960) at the United Nations in New York.

When Somalia gained independence in 1960, Mr Hussein contested for a parliamentary seat and became an MP. 

Abdirisak was respected statesman among all generations.

I am wishing all the so called Somali politicians and leaders could take something from the leadership of #Abdirisak . Very rich legacy will live on way beyond our future,  for generations and hope that it will motivate a new generation of Somali leaders dedicated to peace, unity and public service.  

May Allah (swt) grant him Jannah and give sabr to his beloved family. Amen.

Somali women are define, fine and beautiful!!

The beauty of the Somali women is well known throughout the world. When the colonial landed on the shores of East Africa, they were generally shocked and discovered that the ethnic Somali was a completely different group of people in Africa. Their features, culture, height, language was something they have not seen it before. Many just dubbed the Somali "The beautiful race". 

One British general who was sent there on an expedition wrote:

"Of all the races of Africa, there cannot be one better to live among than the most difficult, the proudest, the bravest, the vainest, the most merciless, the friendliest: the Somalis. Every individual Somali fights to stay himself, a person… The Somali fumed under discipline and loved the irregular life, the scattered patrol and the lone effort which might bring him to individual notice, to recognition for what he might achieve on his own."

On that note; The Somali is very unique race. From the very corners of Mombasa to Djibouti, the Somali covers the single biggest territorial land of any ethnic group in Africa and yet their total number dwells somewhere in the 15-20 million.

Somali women also produced the single biggest number of super models in any ethnic group in Africa, to date more than 20 internationally known models. They are also hard workers, hustlers and business minded. They run the Somali empire. Allow inoo dhowr hablahena Soomaaliyeed Aamen.