Burdi-Dilla News and Software

2011-12-08T02:12:00.001-08:00

Why Development in Africa Is So Difficult

2011-11-26T04:20:00.001-08:00

Why Development in Africa Is So Difficult

2011-11-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Tom Hanks Movie Casting Minn. Somalis: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com

Nuruddin Farah - Quotes

2011-09-26T06:05:00.001-07:00

Nuruddin Farah - Quotes

The idea of the . . . trilogy is centered around the notion of an orphaned nation . . . I had in mind to have orphans as the central consciousness of each of the novels, and this serves as the trilogy's thematic concern," the author says. "As a general, Siad Barre [the national leader ousted during the 1991 uprising] fails the Somali nation when the national army is defeated at the hands of the combined efforts of Ethiopia, Cuba, and the then-Soviet Union. He fails a second time when he doesn't resign as soon as the defeated national army returns to base. Defeat is an implosive nature, an infestation capable of poisoning the body-politic of a people. Somalia, as a result, begins to rely on foreign aid. And Secrets is the novel in which it all explodes.
Farah, Nuruddin.

Motherhood is the off-and-on light in the darkness of night, a firefly in joyous dizziness and rejoicing, now here, now there, and everywhere. Our problem as a society is that we pay mothers only lip service, nothing else. In fact, the crisis that is coming to a head in the shape of civil strife would not be breaking on us if we'd offered women-as-mothers their due worth, respect and affection, a brightness celebrating motherhood, a monument erected in a worship of women.
Farah, Nuruddin.

The point is to create a situation where it becomes something important to the people about whom the novel is being narrated but not to the people who hear it...
Farah, Nuruddin.

A society exists only in the things it hides. Sex is the 'secret' that two people hide between them or the voyeur keeps concealed, and the things that you hide are the things that define you.
Farah, Nuruddin.

The reason why the strife has not ended is because it has no clan base. There are open and closed secrets even in Somali society. There is the open secret that the civil war in Somalia is about a conflict between various groups. (But) there is a hidden agenda ... power...
Farah, Nuruddin.

Clan doesn't matter to them, who dies doesn't matter to them. It would be a dishonesty on my part to omit this particular phase of what happened in Somalia.
Farah, Nuruddin.

In Somaliland, less money has brought more democracy

2011-08-27T11:34:00.001-07:00

In Somaliland, less money has brought more democracy

Unable to access foreign aid, Somaliland's government has had to negotiate with citizens and business leaders for financial support – and provide stability and democracy in return

Cars clog a main road in Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway region of Somaliland. Photograph: Shashank Bengali/Getty Images

As the humanitarian crisis in southern Somalia threatens millions of lives, Somalia's little-known northern neighbour, Somaliland, is doing so well that its government recently offered to send aid across the border. That a small and relatively poor country that is also suffering from the ongoing drought would be in a position to help Somalia is itself remarkable; that Somaliland achieved this position without being officially recognised by the international community as a sovereign nation – and thus without being eligible for international assistance – is truly impressive.
But have Somaliland's accomplishments come in spite of its ineligibility for foreign assistance, or because of it? Somaliland's success – providing peace, stability and democracy in a region where all are scarce – is in large part due to the fact that the government has never received foreign aid. Because Somaliland's government cannot access funding from the World Bank, IMF, or other major donors, officials were forced to negotiate with citizens and business leaders for financial support. This negotiation created the responsive political institutions that, in turn, have allowed the nation to fare relatively well in recent years and in the current crisis.
Somaliland was part of Somalia until 1991, when it seceded during the country's civil war. When Somaliland first declared independence, its government was built around a single clan and lacked accountable political institutions. Business leaders eventually agreed to provide funds, but not until the government agreed to develop representative and accountable political institutions (a concession that politicians made only out of necessity, as it weakened their own grasp on power).
In one notable incident, the government was forced to implement democratic reforms in exchange for tax revenues from Somaliland's main port. These revenues total less than $30m a year – a fraction of the more than $100m the government would have received from aid organisations if Somaliland had been eligible for international assistance. It is difficult to imagine that the owners of the port would have been able to exact the same concessions if the government had other funding options.
As a result of these negotiations over tax revenue, Somaliland has become an exceptional democracy. It has held multiple presidential, parliamentary and district-level elections. It has seen multiple peaceful handovers of power, including to a minority clan. It even survived a presidential election that was decided by an 80-vote margin without resorting to violence.
While the government's limited finances prevent it from providing an ideal level of public goods, the stability it has ensured has led to an economic revival, massive gains in primary schooling, and significant reductions in infant mortality. It has also been able to facilitate a strong response to the current food shortages, which is evident in this World Food Programme map of the current incidence of famine. To be sure, there is still much work to be done but, in context, Somaliland's accomplishments are, in the words of Human Rights Watch, "both improbable and deeply impressive".
Of course, one might wonder whether Somaliland's experiences can be generalised. In fact, the idea that government dependency on local tax revenues makes it more accountable has a strong historical pedigree. Political scientists and historians have long argued that the modern, representative state emerged in medieval Europe in large part as the result of negotiations between autocratic governments that needed tax revenues to survive inter-state conflicts and citizens who demanded accountability in return. Only recently, though, have development professionals have begun to recognise the implications of this line of research for modern development policy.
Certainly, not all foreign assistance is bad. Aid has clear benefits against which the potential harms discussed here must be weighed on a case-by-case basis. In a country like Nigeria, where the government has ample access to oil revenues, foreign assistance is unlikely to affect the relationship between citizens and the government. In many countries, though, aid is the largest single source of government revenue; there are 16 sub-Saharan countries in which the ratio of foreign assistance to government expenditure is greater than 50%, and in 10 of those, this ratio is greater than 75%. If these aid levels damage the quality of governance in recipient countries – as Somaliland's experience suggests they may – then it might be the case that, in the long run, less money may actually do more good.

Gaddafi 'seen in Zimbabwe on Mugabe's private jet' as Libya rebels march on dictator's home town

2011-08-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

Gaddafi 'seen in Zimbabwe on Mugabe's private jet' as Libya rebels march on dictator's home town

By Damien Gayle

Last updated at 3:48 PM on 27th August 2011

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has fled Libya to Zimbabwe on a jet provided by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, it was claimed today, as rebels began the march on his home town.
President Mugabe's political opponents claim their spies saw Gaddafi arrive in the country on a Zimbabwe Air Force jet in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
They say the Libyan dictator was taken to a mansion in Harare's Gunninghill suburb, where agents from his all-female bodyguard were apparently seen patrolling the grounds.

Fled? Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his female bodyguards, pictured left in a file photo, are said to have fled to Zimbabwe on the invitation of the country's president, Robert Mugabe, right

'There's no doubt that Gaddafi is here as a 'unique guest' of Mugabe,' a spokesman for Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change told the Sun.
If he has left Libya, Gaddafi could have fled from an airbase in his home town of Sirte, which has been bombarded by Nato warplanes in recent days.

A poster of Gaddafi offering a reward of $1,700,000 USD dollars (1,174,921 euros) for his capture dead or alive

The colonel's bunker in the coastal town was blitzed by cruise missiles fired by British Tornado jets on a long-range sortie last night.
The claims come as:

Journalists find evidence of mass graves in Tripoli filled with the bodies of as many as 150 killed in a massacre
Rebel commanders claimed victory in a vital border town and announced they are to merge their fighters in Tripoli under one command;
Leaders of the National Transitional Council (NTC) pressed foreign governments to release Libyan funds frozen overseas;
The British Government pledged to fund humanitarian invervention by the Red Cross;
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked for international organisations' help in ensuring an urgent end to fighting and restoration of order in Libya.

As Tripoli came under full rebel control today, journalists from Sky News reported that they had seen evidence of a mass grave after as many as 150 were massacred.
Stuart Ramsay, the news network's chief correspondent, said he had counted 53 bodies in a burnt out warehouse shown to him by locals, who said the people there were murdered earlier this week.
Among the dead were two Libyan army soldiers, their hands tied behind their backs, he said, adding: 'Locals believed they refused to fire and were then murdered.'

A volunteer sprays deodorizer in a room where six patients had been left to die in the Abu Selim hospital where aid workers and residents found 200 corpses

A man throws lime onto the decomposing body of a pro-Gaddafi loyalist soldier at the Abu Salim Hospital in Tripoli

Earlier Libyan rebels claimed victory in Ras Jdir, raising their flag at the border post with Tunisia after bloody clashes with regime loyalists.
There was no sign of a swift end to the civil war, which rebels have vowed will only end when Gaddafi is captured - dead or alive - but they claimed to be closing in on the strongman.
A detachment of rebel fighters was turning its attention to Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace, 300 miles east of Tripoli, where British warplanes have bombarded a bunker with cruise missiles.
Some believe that Gaddafi, if he remains in the country, may seek refuge among his tribesmen in the Mediterranean city, which is still holding out against the rebel advance.
Loyalist forces also still hold positions deep in the Sahara desert, days after rebels took much of the capital, looted Gaddafi's compound and paraded their stolen souvenirs.
'Sirte remains an operating base from which pro-Gaddafi troops project hostile forces against Misrata and Tripoli,' said a Nato official, adding that its forces had also acted to stop a column of 29 vehicles heading west toward Misrata.

Rebels remove the 'Fist crushing a US fighter jet' sculpture with a crane at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound

Libyan's burn a huge poster showing Muammar Gaddafi making the revolution announcement in 1969 attached to an apartment building wall in Tripoli

Meanwhile, leaders of the NTC, the rebel administration, pressed foreign governments to release Libyan funds frozen abroad.
It says the money is urgently needed to impose order and provide services to a population traumatised by six months of civil conflict and 42 years of dictatorial rule.
But Gaddafi's African allies have continued to offer a grain of comfort to the under-pressure dictator by refusing to recognise the legal government.
The African Union called for the formation of an inclusive transitional government in Libya, saying it could not recognise the rebels as sole legitimate representatives of the nation while fighting continues.
If fighting continues unchecked, there are fears that Libya's conflict will spill over into the remote regions of Mali, Niger, Chad and Mauritania.
Algeria has said it believes the chaos inside Libya, and large quantities of weapons circulating there, are already being exploited by al Qaeda's North African branch.
And an influential former Malian rebel, believed to have been involved in the trade of looted weapons from Libya, has been killed in Mali, officials said yesterday.
However, taking control of the Ras Jdir border post reopens a path for humanitarian aid and other supplies from Tunisia to Tripoli, where stocks of medicines and fuel are running low.

A rebel celebrates by shooting an anti-aircraft gun in Ras Jdir, west Libya after capturing the border town

Rebel fighters arrest a suspected Gaddafi loyalist during search of Tripoli apartments

Libyan rebels capture alleged mercenary snipers after fierce clashes in the Abu Salim neighborhood in Tripoli

The Red Cross today announced that medical support funded by the British Government will help thousands of patients injured during the conflict in Libya, as well as those with serious diseases.
Surgical teams and medicines will be laid on to help up to 5,000 wounded, as well as food and household essentials for almost 690,000.
Red Cross spokesman Steven Anderson said: 'Medical supplies are one of the main problems that will help people on the ground out there.
'Many drugs are lacking and the import has been slowed down. Even drugs for cancer, diabetes, kidney failure are running out and that is a real issue.'
The support comes amid reports of harrowing conditions in one Tripoli hospital - the abandoned Abu Salim hospital - where dozens of decomposing bodies were piled up.
It will also include helping families reunite after being broken up by the conflict.

Libyans celebrate the liberation of their district of Qasr Bin Ghashir in Tripoli

Britain will provide urgent humanitarian support including medical help, food and other basic supplies for thousands of people affected by the conflict in Libya, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced today.
Mr Mitchell said humanitarian agencies were doing 'extraordinary' work while putting their own lives on the line in Libya.
'As the conflict moves into its final stages there are many Libyans in need of urgent humanitarian help,' he said.
'The situation on the ground in Tripoli is an incredibly difficult one for humanitarian agencies.
'But organisations such as the ICRC are doing extraordinary work in dangerous and difficult circumstances to get supplies and doctors through to those in need.
'This new funding from our development budget will help them to continue their vital work in critical areas across Libya.
'Today we pay a huge tribute to the humanitarian agencies who are risking their lives in Libya to help and sustain their fellow human beings.'

A young boy flashes the V-sign for victory as rebels celebrate after a south-western neighbourhood of Tripoli was taken over by rebel forces

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that African, Arab and European organizations agreed on the urgent need to end the fighting in Libya and restore order with help from international police if the new government requests security assistance.
After a video conference with top officials from the African Union, Arab League, European Union and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Mr Ban told reporters that 'all agreed that the crisis in Libya has entered a new and decisive phase' and a smooth transition is essential with the UN playing a key role.
'That transition must be grounded in inclusiveness, reconciliation and national unity - under a new government that can effectively deliver on the Libyan people's aspirations for democracy, freedom, and growing social and economic prosperity,' Mr Ban said.
'Clearly, the challenges ahead are enormous,' he said.

Somalia benefit concert planned for Sacramento

2011-08-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

August 22, 2011

Somalia benefit concert planned for Sacramento

It's like Live Aid... with local talent.
Using music to shed some light and some funds for a good cause is at the heart of "March to the Beat of One Heart: Somalia Aid Concert" to take place on Sept. 3.
The event, whose proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders in Somalia, was organized by noted local guitarist Ross Hammond.

Artists to perform at the concert include the likes of Lee Bob Watson, Electropoetic Coffee, Harley White Jr. Trio, Sherman Baker, Greenhouse, Jahari Sal and Dave Lynch, among a host of others.
"March to the Beat of One Heart: Somalia Aid Concert"
WHEN: 6 p.m. - 11 p.m., Sept. 3
WHERE: Antiquite Maison Privee, 2114 P St., Sacramento
COST: $10 donation
INFORMATION: (916) 706.0886; www.myantiquite.com

SA, Tanzania don't recognise Somaliland

2011-08-13T12:57:00.001-07:00

South Africa and Tanzania are not yet ready to recognise Somaliland and believe it should not be split off from Somalia according to the foreign ministers of Tanzania and South Africa.

This emerged following bilateral talks between Tanzanian foreign affairs minister Bernard Membe and South Africa's international relations and co-operation minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in Pretoria on Saturday.
Membe said that he would be meeting a delegation from Somaliland within the next two weeks, but would not comment on the details of the talks until they had happened.
Both Membe and Nkoana-Mashabane said they would prefer to see Somalia remain as a single country.
Nkoana-Mashabane said: "Somaliland at the moment in our memory is part of Somalia. We do not want to encourage the disintegration of countries. For now in line with the AU we are not in the business of not disbanding, dismantling and dismembering countries."
In May Somalia's breakaway Somaliland state celebrated 20 years since it split from the rest of Somalia. To date no country has officially recognised the former British protectorate in the north of Somalia despite the fact that it has enjoyed relative stability unlike the rest of Somalia which has been plagued by famine and war.
Referring to Somalia, Membe said the growing threat of piracy was a concern.
He said that in the past year there had been 27 attacks by Somali pirates on ships destined for the country's main port of Dar Es Salaam. The additional security required to protect shipping was pushing up the prices of consumer goods.

Best Free Software for Protecting Your PC and Your Privacy

2011-08-09T11:25:00.001-07:00

Best Free Software for Protecting Your PC and Your Privacy

Worried about security, but unwilling to spend a bundle? No problem. With these 11 free programs, you'll keep your computer--and your wallet--safe.

By Preston Gralla, PCWorld Aug 4, 2011 3:00 am

Want to ensure that your PC and all of your files and data stay safe, secure, and private--without breaking the bank? We've rounded up 11 free security and privacy utilities that shield you against malware, protect your data at Wi-Fi hotspots, encrypt your hard drive, and do everything in between.
(For links to all of these downloads in one convenient list, see our "Best Free Software for Protecting Your PC and Your Privacy" collection.)

Protect Against Malware

Malware is the most dangerous threat you'll come across online. Viruses, Trojan horses, and other types of malware can do immeasurable damage to your PC, steal your private information, and even turn your PC into a zombie that spews spam or carries out an attacker's commands. No need to be a victim, though; these freebies will keep you safe.
Microsoft Security Essentials
About as simple to use as protection software gets, Microsoft Security Essentials sits in the background, scanning the programs you run to determine whether they're malware and then disposing of any that prove to be dangerous. In addition, it regularly scans your system to make sure no infections have gotten through. It's straightforward, clean, and free, a hard combination to beat.
Avast Free Antivirus
This well-designed, speedy antimalware tool is easy to use, and PCWorld rated it as the top free antivirus program. Like Microsoft's freebie, Avast Free Antivirus is a set-and-forget utility. Just run it and set the options, and it handles the rest on its own. Its scans are exceptionally fast, and it uses few system resources, so you won't need to spend much time with it. You probably won't even notice that it's running.
Spybot Search & Destroy
This longtime spyware killer is one of the most popular files in PCWorld's Downloads library, and with good reason. Spybot Search & Destroy, as its name implies, is dedicated to eliminating spyware, and it does a great job. It scans your PC to catch offending spyware, including tracking cookies and spyware apps. It also inoculates your machine against getting infected in the first place.
Comodo Firewall
Every PC needs a good firewall, software that blocks applications on the computer from making unsafe outbound connections. A firewall is especially useful because Trojan horses typically try to make outbound connections; a firewall will also help to prevent your PC from becoming a zombie and doing an attacker's bidding. Comodo Firewall is a very good choice that blocks Trojan horses, stymies hackers attempting to take control of your PC, and wards off other threats. Note that using it takes a bit of work, since you have to let it know which programs are safe and should be allowed to have outbound connections. But setting that up is a small annoyance in light of the protection Comodo offers.

Stay Safe at Hotspots

When you use a Wi-Fi hotspot at a café, airport, or other public location, your PC and your privacy are particularly vulnerable. In such places it's exceptionally easy for anyone in the area to snoop on your activities as you browse the Web, especially since the advent of the free Firesheep extension that allows anyone without coding experience to steal your Facebook and Twitter identities as well as your logins at other sites. Guard your machine and your data with the following free software.
CyberGhost VPN
The CyberGhost VPN utility sets up a virtual private network when you connect to the Internet. Simply install and run the software, and hop online. It hides your true IP address and connects you to anonymous servers. In fact, don't feel limited to using it at hotspots--you can also use it whenever you wish to guard your privacy while you surf the Internet.
Note, however, that CyberGhost VPN has a couple of limitations. First, the free version is good for only a 6-hour session or 1GB of downloads; after that, you'll have to restart the session. Second, it typically connects you to servers in Europe, so you may not be able to connect to, say, the U.S. version of Google. If those restrictions are deal-breakers, you could invest in the for-pay service. But if you're spending 6 hours at a time hunkered over your PC in a coffee shop, you may want to rethink your workflow anyway.
HTTPS Everywhere
The free Firefox add-in HTTPS Everywhere is designed to protect your privacy when you visit specific sites, including Facebook, Google Search, the New York Times, Paypal, Twitter, the Washington Post, and Wikipedia. It's an ideal tool for fending off Firesheep hackers. Note that it protects you only on sites that employ the HTTPS secure protocol, and that it can't help when you're using online services other than Web surfing, such as email and instant messaging. Still, it's a great way to stay safe at certain websites.
Hotspot Shield
This freebie does exactly what its name suggests: Hotspot Shield protects you when you're connected to a hotspot, by encrypting all of your data packets. When you install it, make sure to decline the extra toolbars. And if you don't want your home page and default search engine to change, uncheck those options as well during installation.
TrackMeNot
Every time you perform a Web search, you give up a bit of your privacy. Search engines track your search terms, and they can build profiles about your interests based on what you search for. The free TrackMeNot add-in for Firefox and TrackMeNot add-in for Chrome cleverly thwart such behavior, bombarding search engines with random search terms gleaned from news sites and creating so much "noise" about you that no profile can be created.

Secure Your PC

Finally, you'll want to secure your PC itself--its contents as well as any passwords you've stored on it. The next three freebies will do the work for you.
KeePass
You have plenty of passwords you use every month, for websites, ATMs, email services, and more. Most likely, you've stored them somewhere on your PC--which means that they can be stolen. Lock them away with KeePass, which hides them in an encrypted database so that only you can use them. In addition, the tool will create industrial-strength passwords for you, making it less likely that anyone will be able to break them.
FreeOTFE
Worried that a snoop can walk by your PC when you're not around, and then access all of its files and applications? Concerned about what might happen to your files and data if you lose your laptop? FreeOTFE can encrypt files and folders--or your entire hard disk--and then decrypt the data on the fly as you use it. This utility isn't necessarily the easiest program to use, but it does its job nicely.
Secunia PSI
You already know that you should take care of any vulnerabilities in your PC's operating system, but you might be surprised to learn that out-of-date applications can contain security flaws and pose significant problems too. If you have installed applications but neglected to regularly update and patch them, your computer may be at risk. Secunia PSI closes the holes through which malware can slither. The tool scans the software on your system, determines which programs are outdated, and then helps you install patches.

Minnesotan Hamid Masheye returns to Somalia to help guide new government

2011-08-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Audio

Minnesotan Hamid Masheye returns to Somalia to help guide new government (feature audio)

Why Norway, why in this way? By Bashir Goth

2011-07-26T10:31:00.001-07:00

Why Norway, why in this way? By Bashir Goth

July 26, 2011

By staff-reporter

The following poem marks the terrorist attack that shocked the Norwegian people on July 22nd, 2011.
Why Norway, why in this way?
Why? A question with no answer
As no answer fills the void
No answer rises to decipher
Why Norway, why in this way?
Why terror strikes without a thought
Why it devastates, demolishes, devours
Why it raises hell that ends in naught?
But why Norway, why in this way?
Oslo is mourning, Utoeya is bleeding
Innocence is defiled; paradise betrayed
Common sense is for answers pleading
Why Norway, why in this way?
Flower after flower, beauty after beauty
The murderer chose with ill intent
To ambush life with heinous duty
But why Norway, why in this way?
With every cry, he chose to pry
No tear should live, to tell the tale
No young elite, no one to sigh
But why Norway, why in this way?
Small and tender as be they may
Adept Norwegians astounded all
As Vikings and Black Death they kept at bay
And never will they; another dismay,
Make them sway, not in this way
A home of democracy, a resort of peace,
Norway will remain, for all to breathe
No color to bar, no creed to cease
And never will they; another dismay
Make them sway, not in this way.
–July 24th, 2011

2011-07-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Col Iyo Abaar – War & Drought

July 18, 2011

By staff-reporter

wdalpress – London – Col iyo Abaar, war and drought, were the historical enemies of the Somali people; the two disasters that played havoc with their nomadic life.
The fear of these combined calamities was so engraved in the Somali psyche that it manifests itself in their prayers; Ilaahow Col Iyo Abaarba Naga Hay (O’ God spare us from both war and drought). There was also no ills worse to invoke when cursing an enemy than to curse them with war and drought; Col iyo Abaari ku Qaadday or Col iyo Abaari Kula Tagtay are both curses that bid you to be taken away or snatched away by the twin terrors.
Nabad iyo Caano (Peace and Milk) was the antidote to Col iyo Abaar. And if the rainy season was exceptionally good and the pasture was abundant, then it was a time of Bashbash iyo Barwaaqo”; a time of splash and abundance or prosperity”.
For Somali nomads, therefore, Nabad iyo Caano was their best time, it was for them a time of Nimco Ilaah (God’s bounty). It was when both people and their livestock and in fact all plants and creatures on earth had Biyo iyo Baad (water and food). Without rain, Somalis live on dead earth.
When I met my wife for the first time many years ago, all she knew about Somalia other than a story she heard as a child about the Mad Mullah was that: “It was a dry land that came to life after rain.” Surprisingly, this was the first time in my life that I took note of my country described in such a graphic and indeed a realistic way. Sometimes, we need to see ourselves through the eyes of others.
It is no wonder that fatalism holds sway over the Somali people as their life hangs on the forces of nature and the Will of God, for who else but: “Allah sends down water from the sky and by it brings the dead earth back to life. (Surat an-Nahl, 65).
The Somali farmer can throw seeds to the ground, but he knows that without rain he should not expect to harvest them. If rain fails to come, then there is nothing he can do but look to the sky and pray. It was at a moment like this that a Somali farmer expressed his plight in the following biting lines:
“Illayn laguma doog dhabo hadhuud
Roob an kugu daadan
Cirka meel dushaada ah illayn
Dooxid lama gaadhid…”
Today, the Somali people, as in many times in the past, face the apocalyptic double hit of Col iyo Abaar.
Of the two, however, it is the Abaar that devastates the lives of the nomad. It is referred to as Abaar iyo Oodo Lulul, drought and tree shaking, as Somali nomads shake trees with their traditional hangools – a kind of a stick with a hook- to fall dry leaves for their livestock). One can run away from an enemy and avoid the areas of hostilities, but one cannot escape drought, particularly when it hits across traditional grazing areas. This is why the collective memory of the Somali people records the worst droughts that devastated the people through history.
Known by their telltale names that give graphic description of their catastrophic impacts on people’s lives and livelihood, some of the best memorized droughts include: Abaalees, the one that overran everyone and everywhere; Liqa iyo Qutura, the one that swallowed and stayed unyielding; Arbacadii, the one that started on the year that began on Wednesday; Xaaraamo Cune, the one during which people were forced to eat the inedible or legally prohibited food; Hawa Rida, the one that humiliated every proud person; and Jaahweyn, the one that stared at people in the face for a long time.
Also remembered are Maadh Gambiya, the one that devoured all wealth; Hayaan Dheer, the one that forced people to travel long distances; Siigacase the one with red sandstorms; Jaan Ma Reeba, the one that didn’t spare a single shoe as even shoes were boiled and eaten for food; Haarriya, the slow moving and grinding one; Bariis Guradkii, when the people were forced to eat rice which was an alien grain to the Somali people at the time; Sima, the equalizer as it made all people equal in misery and penury; Dooryaanle, the one that was characterized by the enormous quantity of worms it produced due to the enormous number of carcasses of dead animals around; and Daba Dheer, the long tailed – the never ending one.
When droughts last long and people and livestock perish, the only option the surviving people have is to seek refuge in a place which is mostly far and alien. In the old days the name for this torturous journey was Daaduun (escaping from famine and poverty). The word Qaxooti which is today’s parlance for refugees was used in the old days for people running from war and hostility but not from famine. Just like we see them doing today, the people on Daaduun would travel as far as their weak legs could take them, as far as their last drop of water could last them, and as far as the famished, haggard and malnourished children could make to the nearest graveyard or the nearest help whichever came first. But today, Somalis are running for Qax iyo Daaduun -both running from war and from drought’s famine).
Watching the news with my son and hearing that each day around 1500 people arrive in Kenya, he quipped: “Aabbo, if the Somalis leave the country in this rate and I know your population is small, I wonder, if anyone will remain in it.” He is a college student now and I remember addressing him in a poem I wrote when he was yet unborn telling him about the misery of the Somali people:
“…Insha Allaahu dhib yari iyo caafimaad
Waad ku soo dhalane
Ilmayohow la wada dhawraya
Bal an war kuu dhiibo
                   *
Hadday adiga nabadi kuu dhantahay
Dheregna aad hayso
Ood caalamkaba dhexdaa hooyadaa
Moodday dhummucdiisa
Adduunyada dhib baa joogta iyo
Dhiilo iyo ciile
Dhawrtay isku laayeen tolkay
Dhiigna loo qubaye
Waxa dhagarta loo galay anaan
Dhiilka la ii shubine
Gobannimadii loo dhaxay runtii
Gaalka lagu dhoofshay
Haweenkiiba kama dhaashadaan
Dhiilahaan lulaye
Dhul aan kuugu faaniyo ma lihi
Dhoobo iyo ciide
Dhagax buu Ilaahay ka dhigay
Ani dhankaygiiye
Dhawrkii bilood buu habeen
Dhibic ku tiixaaye
Dhuuni baan ka raadcaynayaa
Qooddi dhabarkiiye
Awr baaban weli dhaansadaa
Dhererka jiilaale
Dhallaankii harraad bay dhugteen
Dhabarka saarraaye
Ceelkii dhicirta weynaa beryahan
Looma dhaadhicine
Dadkaygii dhammaayo ma hadhin
Ruux ad dhugataaye
Iskadaa qabiil nin u dhintuu
Loogay dhirifkiiye
Dhilmaanyaaba weli laysa iyo
Dhaxanta dayreede…” (Laba Dhuux, 1989)
Since then the world has changed beyond recognition. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union had collapsed the cold war had come to an end; the information technology has made the world a global village. But even after two decades, just like the many decades before, the conditions remain the same for Africa. Nothing changes in Africa. It is either war, brother killing a brother, or drought, or both of them. Daaduun and Qaxooti all along. It is as if time stands still as I referred to it in the following stanzs:
“…Afrikay dhagax dixeed
Miyaad sidii dheri jajabay
Duleedka u dhooban tahay
Dharaartii soo baxdiyo
Habeenkii loo dhaxaba
Waqtigu ku dul dhereran yahay ?
                   *
Waa kani dhiigii qulqulay
Haraha dhacadiida ee
Sidii durdur loo dhurtee
Miyaan ciiduba dhergeyn ?
                   *
Miyaanuu ubad dhallaan
Dhirif li’i seexanayan ?
                   *
Awrtani dhoomaha sidee
Jiilaallada dheelidiyo
Miyaan dhaankuba degayn ?
                   *
Samada aan dheehdayeen
Quraanka u dheelmiyiyo
Miyaan ducaduba dhalayn ?… (Dhuxusha Ka Madoobiyaa, 1999)
Even long before that I was, like many of my country people, lamenting the centuries old misfortune of my country and Africa; a misfortune that has become an everlasting viscous circle where the agony and distress expressed in a poem stands vividly valid over nearly 30 years as the day it was penned down. It gives me no comfort to read the following poem Qiiro that I wrote in December 1984 and was listened by many people back then in audio cassettes to be shocked that the conditions stand the same.
“Qab-qabta waddankeena
Qalaanqalka taagan
Wanaagga la qoomay
Qiyaama jooga
Rasaasta qarxaysa
Qaxootiga daadsan
Abaarta la qiiqay
          *
Hooyada qaxarkeega
Ilmaha ka qandhaysan
Qareena u weyday
Ilmada ku qubaysa
          *
Odayga qulubkiisa
Dhulkuu qodanaayey
Hashuu u quminaayey
Abaari ka qaaday
          *
Carruurta qadoodi
Caloosha qarraadhay
Qorraxda duhurkiiya
Ku beer qadhqadhaysa
          *
Intuu qalbigoodu
Ka qoonsan lahaa
Miyuu shir qabiilo
Qalqaashay dadkaygu- (Qiiro, December 10, 1984). You can the full poem at my blog.
So is this the destiny of the Somali people, one may ask? To which I could give a resounding NO; simply because as Somalis we are not less than other human beings in the world. In fact the Somali people are a very industrious race with great resilience. Their survival skills and entrepreneurship are proverbial. We are not also less patriotic than any other race in the world. On the contrary, one can argue that the root cause of the current debacle of the Somali people is patriotism went awry. They are the victims of their own nationhood and their legitimate dream and struggle to unite their race in one state and under one flag. An unlucky nation in hostile surroundings, they found themselves like a lone wolf in an unfriendly environment and a world dumb to their cries for justice.
As frustration breeds desperation and helplessness, it is natural in such a situation for brothers-in-arms to turn against one another and descend into a macabre condition of absurd proportions. The situation turns hellish also when the nature itself plays its hand.
No one can doubt also the hospitality and the generosity of the Somali people, a character that is deep-rooted in their nomadic culture. One thing we Somalis lack however is a sense of community and cultural cohesiveness. Just like our nomadic life when families moved together, settled together, fought together, died together and survived together in bloodlines, we still do the same and segregate ourselves in bloodlines even when we migrated to distant lands.
Visit any metropolitan in the world such as Nairobi, Dubai, Riyadh, London, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Ottawa, Minneapolis and Washington D.C and it will take you no time to find where your clan members gather. You may stay as long as you wish and unless you deliberately go out of your way to search for old classmates and old friends who may not be related to you by blood, you may end up not seeing any Somali per se but your own clan members. We do this while we see other African brothers such as Ethiopians, Sudanese, Kenyans and others making their own communities despite their differences in ethnicity, culture, religion and language.
If our brothers from the Horn of Africa can do, there is no reason why we cannot also do it. But only if we learn that our short term political differences and interests should not impede our long term goals to prosper and work together as a community. Only then we will be able to feel our collective pain, we will be able to lean on each other, and by pooling the few bucks that each one of us can afford we can make a difference. One can easily fall, but to rise needs an effort and sometimes a help and I am sure as Somalis in the Diaspora, we have the capacity and I am sure the desire to do it, if we appeal to our sense of community and put our political differences aside.
Being in every corner of the world, I am sure as Somalis we are today stronger and more resourceful than we have been at earlier times. All we need is an organized effort to lift the misery of our people back home with the help of the international community. The misery is not eternal and the day will come when the media of the world will talk about our fortunes to the world instead of our misfortunes. And as I sang about the suffering of our nation, I also sang about my dreams of good days to come. And come they will if we all adopt and internalize the passion and optimism that exudes from the following stanzas of the following poem Walbahaarku Wuu Tegi ( the misery will go).
“…Dalkaygow wallaahiye
Warwarkiyo waxyeeladu
Cidna lama walaaloo
Qofna weerka dhiilada
Wehel looma siiyoo
Kuma waaro ciilkee
Waxad wayda haysaba
Waagii dhowaayoo
Walaacani ku haystiyo
Walbahaarku wuu tegi.
                   *
Wallee maalin dhow waqal
Weelka loo dareershiyo
War caloosha deeqoo
Gaajada badh wiiqoo
Wadnaha ii qaboojiyo
Weedh aan ku diirsado
London waayirkeegani
Waxyigii ilaahiyo
Wada dhalashadeeniyo
Waayaha ka weyneen
Weligii go’ayn iyo
Waadaantan gaaladu
Waddankii ku dhaafteen
Galabtii wadaagniyo
Waayeelka hirarkiyo
Ababshaha wardoonkiyo
BBCiisdu way werin…” (Walbahaarku Wuu Tegi, 1999)
By: Bashir Goth
Email: bsogoth@yahoo.com
N/B At times like this it may also be healing to listen to the sad mother’s lullaby “Ha iga ooyine aamu

Hatzola volunteers save Somali toddler

2011-07-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hatzola volunteers save Somali toddler

By Robyn Rosen, July 7, 2011

Two strictly Orthodox men and a medic from Hatzola, the Charedi ambulance service, have saved a young London Somali boy from a fire.
Last Thursday Josh Berkovitz ran into a blazing house in Tottenham, north London, next door to his office, Pride Autos, after he heard a mother screaming that her baby was trapped in the building.
He was alerted by colleague Nochem Perlberger, a former paramedic in Israel, who smelt burning near the used car showroom, just yards from the house.
"I smelt burning plastic and then suddenly heard terrible screaming outside," he said. "A woman was shouting hysterically: 'My child is inside'."
Mr Berkovitz and another passer-by ran into the house while Mr Perlberger called the police, fire brigade and Hatzola. Mr Berkovitz ran up the stairs inside the house where he saw the father carrying his son. He took the child and ran down the stairs. The two-year-old, named as Arafat Hassan, was taken to a nearby restaurant and put under a running tap.
David Herzka, who has volunteered for Hatzola for 24 years, was first on the scene, arriving within two minutes.
"I was in my office nearby when I received the call," he said. "I dropped everything, grabbed my medical bag and got in the car.
"When I arrived, I saw the boy had around 70 per cent burns. It was terrible. I immediately cut off his remaining clothes, applied burn gel and gave him oxygen."
A London ambulance arrived about seven minutes later and continued to treat the boy before taking him to hospital. Around 20 firefighters battled the fire for more than an hour before it was under control.
The boy, who was taken by ambulance to hospital as well as a 25-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation and a 20-year-old man, was in a critical condition at the time of going to print.

The City in My Mind

2011-07-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

OFTEN I live in one place but write about another place very much unlike it. I wrote my first novel as a student in India, and I wrote my latest while commuting among Newcastle in England, Minneapolis and Cape Town, where I reside. As befits a writer who lives more in the mind than in my physical surroundings, I base my work on memory, which I enrich with my knowledge of Somalia — where my novels are set — and supplement with my imagination.
When I start a work, I first visit Mogadishu to do research, then return just before publication. During this time the attitudes of the city’s residents, their dress habits and even their diet will have undergone changes, depending on the politics of the country’s competing factions.
On a clear day, the beauty of the city is visible from various vantage points, its landscape breathtaking. Even so, I am aware of its unparalleled war-torn decrepitude: almost every structure is pockmarked by bullets, and many homes are on their sides, falling in on themselves.
From the roof of any tall building you can see the Bakara market, the epicenter of resistance during the recent Ethiopian occupation; its labyrinthine redoubts remain the operations center of the militant Islamist group Shabab. Down the hill are the partly destroyed turrets of the five-star Uruba Hotel, no longer open. Now you are within a stroll of Hamar Weyne and Shangani, two of the city’s most ancient neighborhoods, where there used to be markets for gold and tamarind in the days when Mogadishu boasted a cosmopolitan community unlike any other in this part of Africa.
So what do I see when I am in Mogadishu? I see the city of old, where I lived as a young man. Then I superimpose the city’s peaceful past on the present crass realities, in which the city has become unrecognizable.
Nuruddin Farah is the author, most recently, of the forthcoming novel “Crossbones.” Matteo Pericoli, an artist, is the author of “The City Out My Window: 63 Views on New York.”

Babies' Brains Listen While Asleep

2011-07-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

What's the Latest Development?
Using a functional M.R.I. scanner, Declan Murphy and his team of researchers at King's College London have examined behavior of baby brains while the babies sleep. What they found is that regions of baby brains are more reactive to certain stimuli than are adults when they are awake. "Murphy's team first compared the babies' responses to human non-verbal vocalizations—such as coughs and sneezes—and other sounds that the tots would be familiar with, like the sounds produced by a musical toy."
What's the Big Idea?

"The finding might send a chill down the spine of all parents that have engaged in a whispered argument over a sleeping child, but Murphy points out negative sounds might not necessarily be detrimental for the baby. 'It could be a good thing—the brain could be training itself to respond to these sounds,' he says. The reason why sleeping babies tune in to the sounds around them remains a mystery. 'It could be because they are hard-wired to be alert,' Murphy suggests."

Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation Ben Knapen paid a visit today to Somaliland,

2011-06-10T14:48:00.000-07:00

Stability and good governance in Somaliland vital in combating piracy

Newsflash | 10 June 2011

Minister for European Affairs and International Cooperation Ben Knapen paid a visit today to Somaliland, a region in the North of Somalia. His agenda included a meeting with Somaliland’s president, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud, and its foreign minister.

Somaliland has been stable for several years and held democratic elections last year. Mr Knapen said that the rest of Somalia could learn from Somaliland’s experiences with stability and democratisation. Acceptance of government authority and a policy of active prevention is helping to stave off piracy. ‘No piracy attacks are launched from the coast of Somaliland. It is important to ensure that instability and piracy in the neighbouring region does not spread to Somaliland’, Mr Knapen said during his visit to Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland.

The minister visited the Hargeisa prison where 87 pirates tried by Somaliland are incarcerated. The Netherlands plans to contribute a million euros, via the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, for the construction of a new prison, for pirates and other offenders, and measures to strengthen the justice system. This will increase the capacity available for imprisoning pirates in the region and UNODC’s involvement guarantees compliance with international standards.

In the presence of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Knapen laid the first stone for a new parliament building. The Netherlands is donating €700,000 for construction and for training parliamentarians and support staff. Earlier in the day, he visited a camp for displaced Somalis. Their presence sometimes leads to tension with the local population. Through the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) the Netherlands is supporting temporary accommodation for internally displaced persons throughout Somalia. ‘When Somalia is safer these displaced persons can return home’, said the Minister.

Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991. However, the international community does not recognise the unilateral declaration. Increasing stability in Somaliland could boost economic development in the region and have a positive effect on Somalia. Bolstering fragile states is one of the key themes of Dutch development cooperation policy.

Kill a camel' to cut pollution concept in Australia

2011-06-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

Kill a camel' to cut pollution concept in Australia

Jun 9 01:50 AM US/Eastern

This file photo shows a feral camel searching for food near the dry Ross Ri...

Australia is considering awarding carbon credits for killing feral camels as a way to tackle climate change. The suggestion is included in Canberra's "Carbon Farming Initiative", a consultation paper by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, seen Thursday.
Adelaide-based Northwest Carbon, a commercial company, proposed culling some 1.2 million wild camels that roam the Outback, the legacy of herds introduced to help early settlers in the 19th century.
Considered a pest due to the damage they do to vegetation, a camel produces, on average, a methane equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide a year, making them collectively one of Australia's major emitters of greenhouse gases.
In its plan, Northwest said it would shoot them from helicopters or muster them and send them to an abattoir for either human or pet consumption.
"We're a nation of innovators and we find innovative solutions to our challenges -- this is just a classic example," Northwest Carbon managing director Tim Moore told Australian Associated Press.
The idea was among those accepted for discussion by the government, which is seeking to "provide new economic opportunities for farmers, forest growers and landholders" if they come up with ways to cut emissions, according to the document.
Heavily reliant on coal-fired power and mining exports, Australia is one of the world's worst per capita polluters and the government is looking at ways to clean up its act.
Legislation for the "Carbon Farming Initiative" is set to go before parliament next week.

America Playing Catch Up in Africa

2011-06-09T01:47:00.001-07:00

What's the Latest Development?
The C.E.O. of an American producer of machine engines says Africa reminds him of China or India a decade ago, when domestic consumer markets began opening to foreign trade. Now, thanks in great part to China, consumer and commodity markets are opening up across Africa. "China's exports to Africa last year totaled about $54 billion, up from $5.6 billion a decade before, according to the I.M.F. U.S. exports to Africa totaled $21 billion last year, up from $7.6 billion in 2000." Today, American companies are scrambling to catch up.
What's the Big Idea?
In the last two decades, Chinese investment in Africa has approximately doubled while North America's has remained constant. And now, with domestic household expenditure in Africa equal to that of India, a sizable consumer market is opening. Africa has been a more obvious choice for China's low-cost consumer goods compared with America's costlier products. Chinese companies, for example, have marketed cheap, gas-powered electricity generators while American companies have struggled to market their more powerful, more expensive goods.

Professor Ahmed Samatar and The challenges facing Somali immigrants

2011-06-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ahmed Samatar to talk about the struggle of Somali-Americans

2011-05-29T02:35:00.000-07:00

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Macalester professor Dr. Ahmed Samatar will be in Grand Marais June 7th to present "Escape from Hell: What now for Somali Americans?" In this interview, WTIP's Marnie McMillan speaks with Dr. Samatar about some of the struggles Somalis face living in the U.S. and the push factors that led Somalis to leave their country and move to the U.S..
The presentation will take place at 4 p.m. at the Cook County Higher Education campus. It is co-sponsered by Cook County Higher Education and Great Decisions.

11 Free Microsoft Tools You're Overlooking

2011-05-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

11 Free Microsoft Tools You're Overlooking

By Tony Bradley, PCWorld

Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on desktop operating systems with Windows and on office productivity with its Office suite--as well as a dominant share of the Web browser market with Internet Explorer.

Hotmail

Although in many circles Hotmail gets about as much respect as AOL Instant Messenger or MySpace, Microsoft's free Webmail service is capable. Before Microsoft bought it, Hotmail was the first Web-based e-mail service, and one of the first to be free. The free Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector lets you view your Hotmail data from within Outlook, and Hotmail also supports Exchange Active Sync so your Hotmail e-mail, contacts, and calendar can be automatically synced with devices like the iPhone or iPad. Exchange is Microsoft's messaging server used by many businesses for e-mail, but Exchange Active Sync has emerged as a standard used by many devices to sync mail, contact, and calendar information.

Windows Live Essentials

Windows Live Messenger--a component of Windows Live Essentials--can integrate with your Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace social networks. Up through Windows Vista, the Windows operating system came preloaded with a variety of tools to get you started as soon as you booted up. However, a combination of customer complaints about "bloatware" and an effort by Microsoft to attract more users to Office led to the removal of most of those tools in Windows 7. Microsoft didn't kill the tools, though; it simply moved many of them to the cloud, and began to offer them as a separate download called Windows Live Essentials--a package comprising 7 of the 11 tools discussed in this article. The lineup in Windows Live Essentials 2011 requires Windows 7, Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Server 2008 SP2. If you want them, though, you can download Windows Live Essentials for free and get a whole suite that includes:

Windows Live Mail: Whereas Windows Live Hotmail is a Web-based e-mail service, Windows Live Mail is a desktop e-mail client application that lets you add and view multiple e-mail accounts--including Hotmail and Gmail--from one interface. For users who don't want to spend the money to get Outlook, Windows Live Mail performs many of the same functions for free, and is more than adequate as an e-mail client for consumers and for SMBs (small and medium-size businesses). You can manage your e-mail, contacts, calendar, RSS feeds, and newsgroups from within Windows Live Mail.

Windows Live Messenger: At its core, Messenger is simply an instant messaging (IM) tool. Like any other IM app, it lets you communicate in real-time with contacts who also happen to use Messenger (or at least some third-party IM tool that connects with a Windows Live Messenger account). Unlike many IM services, though, Windows Live Messenger offers more than a simple list of contacts you can click on to chat with someone. It integrates with Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, it delivers MSN news, and it connects with your Hotmail account. Messenger is more of an online communications hub than an IM client. But if the aggregated view is too noisy for you, you can switch to the compact view which is more like a traditional IM client. Plus, its mobile app lets you stay connected on the go from a Windows Phone 7, BlackBerry, Android, or iOS mobile device.

Windows Live Mesh keeps files and folders, as well as browser favorites and custom user settings, automatically synced.

Windows Live Mesh: It can be daunting to keep information synced among various PCs and devices you use, or to make sure you have access to your data even on the go. Windows Live Mesh helps tie everything together and automatically keeps your data synced and available. You can keep files and folders automatically synced among different Windows or Mac OS X PCs running Live Mesh, or with Microsoft's cloud-based SkyDrive data storage service (see below).

Windows Live Writer: Microsoft Writer makes it simpler to write blog posts for a variety of blog platforms including WordPress and SharePoint. Rather than having to learn different blogging conventions, you can just type the post the way you want, and easily add photos, videos, or Bing maps to enrich your post with interactive content.

Photo Gallery organizes all of your photos and gives you the tools to quickly find and easily edit them.

Photo Gallery: For many, the PC has replaced the bookshelf photo album as the primary repository for photos. Windows Live Photo Gallery gives you the tools to import photos and videos quickly from your camera or smartphone and keep them organized on your PC. Its advanced editing tools let you fuse pictures together or combine elements from different photos to make the best possible picture. It also includes built-in search options that let you find photos based on when they were taken, or where, or to use facial recognition technology to find all photos of a given person.

Windows Live Movie Maker: With HD video being virtually a default feature of smartphones, laptops, and tablets these days, everyone is an amateur director or producer. Edit and polish that lengthy, boring footage of your daughter's fifth-grade play on Movie Maker before sending it to friends or family, publishing it online, or posting it on social networking sites like Facebook. Give it a title and intro, cut out parts you don't want, add some background music, and more. Editing and producing a movie is simple with Movie Maker.

Windows Live Family Safety: Family Safety 2011 enhances the parental controls already built into Windows and makes it even easier for parents to protect children from the darker side of the Web and to monitor or limit Internet activity. Parents can even limit e-mail and IM communications to approved contacts, and can log in to view activity reports from their own PC rather than checking in on each separate PC.

Windows Live SkyDrive

Everything seems to revolve around the cloud these days. In other words, we find ourselves using products and services that exist on the Internet rather than locally on our PCs. But if you happen to be without Internet access or if the service goes down, that can be a problem.
Luckily, services such as Windows Live SkyDrive are great for backing up data to the Internet, or for storing files and folders that you want to access from just about anywhere. As mentioned earlier, you can use Windows Live Mesh to sync data automatically from a local folder to SkyDrive cloud storage, where you can make sure it is backed up and available.
Windows Live MovieMaker turns anyone into a movie director or producer, and helps you polish those home movies.The 25GB of storage provided by SkyDrive is sufficient for most SMBs to back up critical data. (Data synced using Windows Live Mesh is limited to a separate 5GB space.) Plus, a Silverlight tool lets you drag and drop files and folders from any browser that supports Silverlight, Microsoft's framework for delivering interactive Web content.

Office Web Apps

Along with SkyDrive, Microsoft also provides free, Web-based versions of the most popular Microsoft Office applications. Office Web Apps let you create, view, and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files directly from the Web even if Microsoft Office isn't installed on your PC. Office Web Apps lack the complete inventory of bells and whistles found in the full Microsoft Office suite, but they are more than adequate for most users, and you can't beat the price. The best part is that the files created in Office Web Apps are in the same format as their desktop Office counterparts, so compatibility is not an issue, and the files can be shared with peers for collaborative editing online.
Windows Live SkyDrive stores your files and folders on the Web so you can access them from virtually anywhere.But organizations that want more robust tools, or the full Microsoft Office experience, should look for the upcoming launch of Office 365--Microsoft's replacement for Business Professional Online Services. Starting at only $6 per user per month, Office 365 will provide Exchange e-mail, Lync instant messaging, SharePoint collaboration, and the Office Web Apps productivity suite.

Security Essentials

Security software is unfortunately a requirement for Windows PCs. There is no shortage of attackers and malware developers targeting PC users with viruses, worms, phishing attacks, and other insidious things. Windows has a built-in firewall to keep unauthorized traffic and users out of your PC, and Windows Defender to identify and block spyware and drive-by downloads. But for more comprehensive antimalware protection, get the free Microsoft Security Essentials software. Security Essentials is simple and does what it needs to do with a minimum of user intervention or annoyance.
If you're unfamiliar with these free tools from Microsoft, check them out. The price is right, so certainly you should explore whether they can meet your needs before you spend money buying third-party software that does the same thing. Whether to use, instead, other free tools and services such as those offered by Google: That is largely a matter of personal preference. But the Microsoft tools tend to work together and integrate well, so you may find that if you are using one Microsoft tool, it is better to leverage the convenience of using the others as well.
Whether you are new to these tools, or have been using them for some time, I'd be interested to know in the comments, or by e-mail, what your experience has been like and whether or not you would recommend these tools to others.

The Raabi Prophesy by Dr Jowhar

2011-04-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

The Raabi Prophesy by Dr Jowhar

Comments (12)

A reflective mood
Somalilanders are in a reflective mood as they prepare for the 20th Anniversary of the birth of their nation. These days there is a sense of contemplation, thoughtfulness and re-evaluation in Somaliland circles.
It is in this context that Somaliland’s premier publisher and intellectual powerhouse Dr. Jama Muse Jama has initiated a process that can translate this self reflection into solid form. He invited a group of Somalilanders to put down their thoughts in a book in a manner that Somalilanders and other Somalis could share. I have contributed a chapter to the second volume of that book. Its first volume will be published on May 18, 2011 to coincide with the celebration for Somaliland independence. And I bring to you some of the highlights of my thoughts in this matter
In this 20th anniversary of its independence Somaliland has no choice but to contend with some poignant geopolitical realities. The commonest descriptor that follows its name remains to be “the Self-declared Republic”; the nation has gained no open endorsement and no international reward for 20 years of independent, peaceful existence in a thriving and stable democracy in a corner of the world with high prevalence of strong men, misery and misgovernment. The nation’s democratic and secular dispensation remains to be the ultimate target of an Al Shabaab movement that is perpetually gaining strength despite the constant predictions of its imminent defeat and demise. And Somaliland finds itself battling Somali pirates in its shores, unruly tribesmen in its hinterland and vengeful scheming Diaspora based tribal aficionados in the virtual world of web pages and blogospheres (read the nonsensical Awdal Virtual State of Somalia).
Meanwhile the Somali problem has become the epitome of a new version of Murphy’s Law. “In the Case of Somalia whenever you think it cannot get any worse, it invariably will”. And to sour the mood further Somaliland is increasingly becoming the unintended victim of the fatal side effects that arise from the regional and international efforts of managing and containing the Somali problem. The nation may be running out of time, it is likely to become the victim of the good intensions of its neighbours gone badly or it may find its demise in the hands of the benign neglect of its friends elsewhere. Surviving containment is in the books for Somaliland but the nation has to start thinking in new and innovative ways to overcome the challenges of the radically different and emerging problem of Containment.
Containment: the practice
Containment has become the emergent international response to the chaos in Somalia. It is based on the logical conclusion that the world is neither willing nor capable of solving the Somali problem and that the Somali people have run out of ideas and steam in finding a solution to the crisis that has decimated their population. Yet the twin problems of Somali Piracy and Somali Al Shabaab movement have become too big to be ignored by the international community for they pose significant risk to the life, liberty and pursuit of free commerce in the region and internationally. And so things have just fallen into place and containment has become the accepted practice, the default position so as to limit the bitter fruits of Somali chaos to Somalis only. It is seems as if the same conclusion has been reached in many different capitals of the world simultaneously. When all is said and done the idea of “containment of the Somali problem” provides the best explanatory fit of all or almost all of the recent developments in Somali political, religious and military circumstances. It has successfully dwarfed all attempts at reaching a rational solution or even managing the Somali Crisis. As the Somali proverb says “Biyo Meel Godan Bay isku tagaan” (water collects at the lowest point.) Containment became the trough where water collects.
Containment includes many national, regional and international initiatives that have been gradually gathering pace over the last few years. Many of these steps are mundane and preventative steps like the intense attention and search every Somali triggers at every international port of entry and departure.
In Somalia itself containment crystallized into a subdivision of labour among the active participants in the Somali crisis. The containment of Al Shabaab is subcontracted to regional organizations, and local powers (AU, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, Rwanda and Djibouti). They are the countries that have been willing to put boots on the ground and lives on the line. The containment of Somali Piracy in the high seas and on the ground has become the domain of those with floating flotillas of muscle and manpower, those with experience in the world of espionage, subterfuge and cloak and dagger, and finally those with deep pockets and vested interest that impels them to provide the funding necessary for the introduction of Private Military Companies (PMC) into the action. PMCs for those who don’t know is the gentler name for what has been previously called the dogs of war and mercenary forces. Saracen International (which may or may not have ended its involvement in Somali problems) is but just one example among those.
Containment of Al Shabaab
The war in South Somalia today is best explained as the regional attempt of preventing the Al-Qaida affiliated Al Shabaab movement of Somalia from breaking out into a formidable regional force that can threaten its neighbours and the world beyond.
AMISOM with its insufficient numbers and anaemic funding was never really in any position to defeat Al Shabaab or to dislodge the group’s hold on Somalia although, this was always and continues to remain its public mask. Never the less AMISOM has succeeded in its real task of denying Al Shabaab the glory and psychological boost of taking over the Somali capital while effectively maintaining the fiction of the existence of a Somali Government.
Ethiopia and more recently Kenya has taken on the role of containing Al Shabaab from the periphery with varying degrees of Success. These neighbouring countries, who were at one time victims of the Somali wars in search of Great Somalia and who may still find themselves in a similar situation in the future have taken on with gusto and dedication to the task of containing Al Shabaab to the regions it now holds in South Somalia.

Ethiopia and to lesser extent Kenya employ Somali tribal militia that they train, arm, pay and fully control for this purpose. They surround Al Shabaab with these tribal militias from the north, west and south and the Indian Ocean completes the circle on the east. Tribal militias are volunteer gangsters whose first loyalty is to the ancestral God of vengeance and honour. The Containment militia however are beholden to a secondary master (Ethiopia or Kenya) for their survival. It is in the nature of tribal militia to fight anyone, Al Shabaab or any other “enemy”, provided that they are given a hand against their real enemies that happens to be the neighbouring Somali tribe. That is the nature of the tribal beast. Ethiopia and Kenya understand it well and they have succeeded to put these basal instincts of the Somali tribe to their own good use.
These tribal militias carry different names in various parts of the country. They started life as the militia of Warlords. Sometimes they “elect a president” (usually a Diaspora Somali) and take on the identity of an “xxx state of Somalia”. The xxx stands for whatever name the tribe or sub tribe chooses as an acceptable alternate to its name (Galmug State of Somalia, Maakhir State of Somalia Azania State of Somalia, Ximan iyo Xeeb etc). At other times they throw on religious garments and become God’s warriors of “Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamma”. In the lofty conferences in Nairobi and other high places these tribal militias undergo an ideological abstraction and bureaucratic nomenclature, ending up being referred to as “building blocks”, “4.5”, “Federal Constitution”. It is exceedingly important to deconstruct this terminology for it adds to the confusion of the Somali problem. Here is the essential description of a tribal militia: Its members all belong to the same tribe. Its leader is from the same tribe. It works out of the traditional tribal homeland. Its internal reason for existence is to defend itself from the neighbouring Somali tribe. It can take any name and fight for any “cause” determined by any sponsor that is willing to arm it and assist it in its primary mission.
With these innovations and initiatives AMISOM, Ethiopia and Kenya has so far succeeded to contain Somalia’s Al Shabaab Movement to regions it occupies in South Somalia.
Containment: the collateral Damage
Containment is neither as passive nor as peaceful as it sounds. It is an active process of war. It is a low grade chronic warfare that exacts a nagging ever present pain. Containment is a war in which the side that is on the offensive deliberately avoids killer blows and inflicts only small wounds that maim the victim. The intention is to force the victim to die of slow bleeding, starvation and shock. Containment is how the mighty soviet empire was made to collapse under its own weight. To see the modern effect of a war of containment on the body of a nation look no further than Mogadishu, no further than the hundreds of villages that witness the process of containment on a daily basis all over south Somalia. Where are the people of these ghost cities and towns? Why are the morgues full all the time when the streets are so empty, so deserted and so destroyed? The death of Somalis through constant daily bombardment, shelling, displacement and outright murder of large numbers in the active phases of containment in this unfortunate society has become the norm, a common factor that is simply driven out of the equation.
The invisible wounds exacted by Containment run deeper and further into the culture and psyche of the Somali people. The tribal militias of containment (Tribal Homelands, AKA Federal Constitution. AKA Ahlusuna Wal Jama, AKA 4.5, AKA XXX State of Somalia) create a Somali society that is permanently at war with itself. Tribal forces are incapable of living within a state, any state. Wherever you find an armed organized tribal militia you will also find a complete or near complete absence of the state. The two are mutually exclusive. The invisible wound of containment will be the permanent death of a Somali State. In other words under containment Somalia can exist only in the form of a large number of heavily armed tribes, each at war with all of its neighbours and each dependent on Ethiopia or Kenya for its continued existence. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Somaliland has become the unintended victim of containment as well. The creation of so many tribal militias, the ready availability of funding from TFG and from international and regional sources interested more in the defeat of Al Shabaab and much less in supporting the independence and stability and democracy of Somaliland has created a tribal storm in the heart of Somaliland. The dangling of a Federal Constitution, which essentially promises each Somali tribe its own state if it is able to establish its credentials by arming itself and fighting against the neighbouring tribe, has created most immediate and toxic environment for Somaliland. Already tribal wars about demarcation of tribal territories have started in eastern part of Somaliland and already tribal hot heads in the Diaspora has started to agitate for war in Awdal State of Somalia in western regions of Somaliland. Furthermore the arrival of mercenaries (Saracen International) in the Puntland State for the dual purposes of strengthening defences against Al Shabaab and going after the pirate lairs on land has destabilized the delicate balance of guns and bullets in the region and has been an essential element for fanning the flames of tribal wars in Somaliland.
Containment has been effective in minimizing the risk from Al Shabaab towards regional and international participants in the Somali conflict. It is has become the death knoll for Somali society and imminent risk to the existence and prosperity of Somaliland.
The Raabi Prophesy
Containment and TFG hoax has allowed neighbouring countries with dubious aims to impose their own designs on Somalia. This tribal sentiment which happens to be the natural inclination of the Somali is fed, armed and inflamed under the direct supervision of Ethiopia and Kenya, two nations that have a vested interest in Somali affairs that may not coincide with that of the Somali people to put it politely.
Ethiopia and Kenya can breathe better now with the concept of Great Somalia is dead and its religious reincarnation in the form of Al Shabaab successfully contained. Kenya can now embark on building a democratic society that includes Kenyans of Somali ethnic background. Ethiopia can concentrate on building its infrastructure of roads and dams and electricity as it blissfully waits for its own Tahrir Square moment again with Ethiopians of ethnic Somali origin fully onboard. Somaliland agrees with these developments. It wishes for a peaceful co-existence with all of its neighbours. With its own reclamation of its independence on May 18, 1991 Somaliland repudiated completely the concept of Great Somalia. It removed the symbol of Great Somalia, the five pointed star, from its flag and from its other logos. Somaliland realizes that the concept of Great Somalia with its ethnocentric and fascistic flavour has caused immeasurable misery for all Somalis and for all of its neighbours. The central justification of Somaliland’s existence is based on the sanctity of the colonial border on the day of its independence in June 26, 1960.

Dr. Omer Osman Raabi

The role Kenya and Ethiopia are currently playing in Somali affairs however goes way beyond the re-affirmation of the colonial border with Somalia. It appears that the hyena has been selected to guard the sheep. And the hyena is being true to its nature. Meles Zenawi now enjoys the honorary status of Grand Reconciliator of Somalia’s warring tribes who have developed an intensity of hate for one another that is many times more passionate than their hate for Ethiopia’s “occupation of Somali territory of Ogaden, Hawd and Reserve area.” Meles may even be in the blessed state of entertaining the now more realistic thought of ending the land locked status of his nation once and for all.
The more a Somali tribe comes to regard the neighbouring tribes with hostility and fear, the more it sees Ethiopia as its trusted friend and protector and the more the tribe finds irresistible the concept of access to a market of 80 million of Ethiopian customers who may be even ready to help them build a seaport in their part of Somalia and a tarmac road for the tribe that connects them to the heart of the beast. These proposed radial Somali-Ethiopian roads could be expected to have the secondary effect of disconnecting each Somali tribe from those on either side of it, as the tribe’s social and economic life integrates more organically with that of Ethiopia.
Somaliland which harbours suspicions against Puntland is ready to share the port of Berbera with Meles. Puntland who is engaged in a dispute with Somaliland on one side and who is suspicious of the motives of the Hawiye to the south is ready to share the port of Bosaso and any other ports that can be developed in the region with Meles Zenawi. Galmudug State of Somalia who has similar mutual tribal hostility to the Somali tribes north and south to it plans to build a seaport in Hobyo and then to build a 172 km tarmac road that will connect that port to Meles Zenawi. And this strange affliction of building seaports and radial roads that end up in Ethiopia is going on at the present time in all the shores of Somalia and Somaliland. Meles is adapting, learning and evolving faster than his predecessor on the Ethiopian crown. Why invade Somalia when Somali tribes are begging to belong and to be protected?
In the late nineteen seventies, just before the wars against Siyad Barre started, the great scholar and pan Somali nationalist Dr. Omer Osman Raabi of Djibouti predicted that Ethiopia will gradually absorb Somali territory and thus achieve its dream of finding access to the sea. Dr. Raabi reached this conclusion by studying the geographical and territorial history of Ethiopia over the last few hundred years. The conclusions of a scholarly analysis that seemed, just twenty years ago, so totally absurd and out of touch with reality appears to be on the verge of becoming real all too soon.
Surviving Containment and Saving the Somali people
There is no doubt that Somaliland has shown an inner resilience, guts and muscle that allowed it to weather many a fatal storm in the past 20 years. It has not only survived but it has prospered and has become a beacon of hope of possibilities that are compatible with life to all Somali people in the horn of africa. There is no doubt that it will survive this one too aided primarily by its own inner steel and not by any support from any external force.
But Somaliland can and must do more than merely survive this ideological, military and tribal invasion. Somaliland has the promise of bringing something more to the region and to the world at large. It can show the way to an alternative future for Somalis in the horn of Africa and for Ethiopians, Kenyans, and to Djiboutians. A Future that is based on peace not war, on citizens not tribes, on well established colonial borders not the shifting sands of border disputes, primitive tribes with revenge and murder on their minds; future that can allow Ethiopians, Djiboutians, Kenyans and Somalis to prosper together under the stability offered by the sanctity of colonial borders; a future that precludes invasions of neighbouring countries and the building a future of injustice, cruelty, hostility, oppression and subsequent liberations for future generations.
In this regard it is important to realize that what is unique about Somaliland is not that it lacks the destructive power of primitive tribal urges and tribal bloodletting. It has plenty of these. What is unique about Somaliland is that it has stumbled upon a democratic model of governance that can give space to the rise of the concept of a Somaliland citizenship and that opens up for the Somalilander a wider horizon of moral, economic and political action that goes way beyond the narrow confines of tribal identity, tribal wars and tribal revenge. This model of equal citizenship, of one man one vote has given the republican nomad a means of co-existing with other tribes without resorting to the spear and the club as the only arbiter. Somaliland has guarded this uniqueness of its modern existence with all that is at its disposal. Its first line of defence has been to refuse to participate in all Somali reconciliation conferences precisely because every one of these invitations were delivered on the one condition that Somaliland abandon that which is unique about it and that is central to its peace and prosperity (the concept of democratic dispensation, statehood, citizenship, acceptance of colonial borders and the unequivocal and open rejection of Great Somalia.) The open invitations, the behind the scene conspiracies and the secret offers all demanded that Somaliland join its brothers in Somalia on the basis of its tribal subdivision (as Dhulbahante, Gadabuursi, Isaak, Issa, Muse Dhariyo, Warsangale and other tribes of Somaliland) and not as a unitary state. Somalilanders knew that the invitation was the Somali tribal offer of “ninkii rooni reerka ha u hadho” (let us fight it out and let the strongest remain standing) and Somaliland rightfully and appropriately rejected every one of these invitations.
And now the time is ripe for a counter offer. Listed below are the necessary elements for the reconstruction of Somali society. Somaliland can succeed in these tasks even though they appear to impossible at first examination. Somaliland must show the willingness to dedicate itself to this course of action until success is achieved. But there is one caveat. Somaliland can only carry such a heavy responsibility if regional and international forces help it achieve these goals and recognize Somaliland as a separate and independent state. In all other circumstance Somaliland should continue to insist on its statehood and independence however long its international recognition takes and however hard the road becomes for the alternative of melting into the Somali problem poses a much more ruthless future for its population.
The Five Essentials of Reconstruction of Somali Society

The military defeat and disarming of all tribal forces, an armed tribe is not compatible with statehood and peace. There can be no compromises here.
The military defeat and disarming of all religious groups in a manner that allows space for Salafi, sophism and other versions of Islam to co-exist in peace in a democratic environment.
The defeat of piracy at its lairs on land
The Resurrection of Somalia in which governance is based on citizenship, not tribal affiliation and land ownership is legally mandated not tribally determined.
Open and unequivocal rejection of the concept of Great Somalia and acceptance of the sanctity of colonial borders.

Bringing about such changes to the Somali problem will require both the club and the carrot. It will require many, many dedicated boots on the ground and many more lives on the line. It will require Somalis negotiating with Somalis about the future of Somalis in their own country. Somaliland must start to canvas these thoughts with other Somalis, build the necessary coalitions that could bring it about, avoid the simplistic hair brained “solutions, constitutions, projects, conspiracies and scholarly theses” that are divorced completely from the reality on the ground and the hard work necessary for building a society from the ground up in the field and not in a fancy conference rooms in other countries. Somaliland must allow the means and methodology necessary to complete the task to arise from Somali minds on Somali soil uncontaminated by money, corruption and adverse regional interests. Such consideration must prove themselves real in the harsh hot light of the day in Somalia and on its hard dry grounds where Somalis live, sweat, kill each other and die.
No other nation could be more appropriate, could have deeper commitment, and could be better equipped to deal with the Somali Crisis than Somaliland. No other nation could have a better understanding of the Somali Crisis. No other nation has more profound and fateful vested interest to see the success and rebirth of Somalia. In this initiative Somaliland will be driven by kinship, by self interest and by economic and military necessarily.
And finally can the world listen to the pleas of Somaliland finally.
By Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar | OPINION | 30 April, 2011
jowharabdi@gmail.com

Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar

Professor Muumin Aare oo ka hadley Awdalstate

2011-04-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

In Memory of Ambassador Mohamed Omar Dubad

2011-04-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

In Memory of Ambassador Mohamed Omar Dubad

April 16, 2011 By Geelle

Mohamed Omar Dubad, the longtime Somali ambassador in Switzerland, died in Geneva on April 14, 2011 of natural causes after a long illness.
Ambassador Dubad was born in Borama circa 1948. He started his education in Borama and later joined Sheikh Secondary school in 1964 where he graduated four years later. The following year he went to the college of education at Afgoi, majoring in mathematics. Upon graduation, he was appointed an instructor at the Math department eventually becoming the head of the Department.
In 1978 he was awarded a scholarship to Southampton University in England for graduate studies in math. It was at the Southampton where, as the top of his class, his professor, who was moving to Ann Arbor University in Michigan, offered to take with him to the American university. That Ambassador Dubad was exceptionally gifted was evidenced by the fact that while he completed his undergraduate education at a local university, he emerged as the top student in his graduate class at the British university. He transferred to Ann Arbor where he earned a master’s degree in Math with a focus on statistics.
When he returned to Mogadishu, he was assigned as Executive Director at the National Refugee Agency established to provide relief supplies to the nearly 800, 000 people uprooted by the 1977 war between Somalia and Ethiopia. Dr. Mohamed Nuh Ali who teaches at Carlton university in Ottawa recalled: “This operation was behemoth and Mohamed Omar Dubad proved to be a capable leader in terms of his seamless interaction with the UNCHR expatriate staff and the manner he ensured relief supplies-shelter, food, clothes and medicine- were delivered in a timely manner to this large number of displaced people scattered in camps across the country.”
After this stint at the Refugee agency he was sent to the Somali embassy in Geneva to coordinate refugee matters with the UNHCR. He eventually became head of the Somali mission in Geneva. During his long stay there he safeguarded the assets of the people, helped immigrants seeking refugee status in every way possible. He also hosted the late President Mohamed Egal of Somaliland when he visited there in the 1990s.
Ambassador Mohamed Omar Dubad was one of the most gifted sons of Awdal and he will be missed dearly by all.
We the under-named are profoundly shocked by his passing and would like to extend our sympathies and condolences to his wife, Marwo Fadimo Qalib Kamil, his children Omar, Kawthar, Hoda, Layla and Idil as well as his mother Hasna Hassan and also to the rest of his immediate family members.

Dr. Moahmed Nuh Ali and Sahra Hassan Habbane.
Dahir Hamud Elabeh(Switzerland, Zürich)
Ibrahim Hagi Muhumad Aye
Adan Amin Awil
Mohamed Hersi Bahal
Mohamed Hussein Farid
Omar Abdi Egeh
Jama Osman Geele
Dr. Ali Bahar and Roda Hagi Mizan
Mohamed Sheikh Hassan Tani

10. Dr. Mohamoud Sheikh Hassan Tani
11. Ali Sugal
12. Abokar Nuh Ali
13. Mohamoud Wais
14. Mohamoud Alaabari
15. Ali warsame
16. Saeed Fahiye
17. Abshir Isse
18. Saeed Saleh
19. Mohamoud Abdillahi Iman
20. Rashid Hassan Matan
21. Ibrahim A Iman
22. Mohamed H Sayreh
23. Abdi Farah Gireh
24. Adan H Iman
25. Ahmed A Iman

Scent of success in Somaliland

2011-04-15T11:15:00.001-07:00

Scent of success in Somaliland

By Katrina Manson
Published: April 14 2011 21:40 | Last updated: April 14 2011 21:40

Natural resource: Saynab Jama sifts through frankincense

Bent over small, sticky “pebbles” of frankincense in Burao, a livestock town in Somaliland, Saynab Jama has no idea that the pieces of resin she picks through on a dusty floor will end up as perfume in France.
The 34-year-old mother of five has done well to avoid being included in her homeland’s 50 per cent unemployment rate, in an east African region better known for piracy, terrorism and daily mortal combat than fragrance.

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“I like the work and I earn more than when I used to sell goats in the market,” she says, her fingers working swiftly, legs outstretched, in a room musty with the hint of incense. “I need to be here – my husband left me and I have not seen him in a long time.”
An aromatic resin prized since ancient times for use in cosmetics, medicine and incense for the gods, frankincense was once so valuable that, according to the Bible, three astrologer-priests put it on a par with gold and myrrh, another gum resin, when they set off for Bethlehem.
Two thousand years after the three wise men’s journey, the price of gold is hitting new highs, while frankincense bumps along at $1.65 a kilogramme.
Keenly watching this price is 33-year-old Guelleh Osman Guelleh, Somaliland’s biggest natural gums exporter. His family’s trading company, Neo Trading/Beyomol, buys and sells $600,000 of aromatic resins a year, and employs dozens of people, such as Ms Jama.
Mr Guelleh, sitting in a hotel garden gazebo in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, says: “There is a lot of room for production to be increased, but the main obstacle is we’re pressured on price. The lower the price, the more problematic it is for farmers to go out and spend time tapping and collecting.”
Each tree is handed down through generations of local clans who appoint someone to tend and slash the bark of the stout leafless Boswellia tree, which grows wild in the region’s sparse mountain forests. They return sometimes months later to collect the exuded resin. Low prices, despite tripling since 2000, must rise further and demand become more consistent if painstaking tapping is to be viable.
Transported by donkey and camel to Burao, much of the gum is processed by hand, although some machines have been imported from India.
Mr Guelleh began exporting natural gums in 2002 and says production of frankincense could reach 12 times what it is today. In the five years to 2009, port exports have already risen 22 times to 5.5m kg.
His is a sizeable business in Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991. The economy badly needs to diversify away from its precarious livestock industry, which accounts for 40 per cent of gross domestic product.
Mr Guelleh, who read economics in the UK at the University of Nottingham, speaks of developing supply sides, consistent demand and shifting the balance of the value chain as crucial to the industry’s future. “When you look at the value chain, most of it is in Europe, so we need to transfer some of that here,” says Mr Guelleh, who wants to set up his own refinery and start distilling the more valuable essential oil.
He also wants to find new markets. Most of his material goes to Marseille, where perfumers extract and bottle essential oils; the rest goes to the Middle East to feed an appetite for frankincense chewing gum.
“We’re trying to get to Korea, to the Far East, and trying to diversify into packaging,” he says.
But export prices are rising. His container export fees have risen steeply because of the piracy off the coast, while potential trading partners are put off by the risks of doing business in so chaotic a region. “The onus is on you in a huge way to prove that Somaliland is different in every way to Somalia,” says Mr Guelleh.
The Roman army invaded Arabia in search of frankincense, Syrians offered it up to Apollo and Egypt’s pharaohs were embalmed with it. Somalilanders in search of more viable economic and national independence may hope that the fabled power of frankincense will be restored in modern times.

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