March 15, 2018 | Morning Headlines
Motion Against Jawari Dropped After Failed To Get Quorum
14 March – Source: Hiiraan Online – 219 Words
The motion to unseat the speaker of the Lower House, Mohamed Osman Jawari has been quashed, after it failed to meet the required quorum. The proposition tabled on Wednesday fell short of the two-third majority after 16 signatories pull out in the eleventh hour, leaving the proposers with 91 signatures, according to the Parliament General Secretary, Abdihakim Haji Abdi Buh.
Initially, 107 Parliamentarians signed the motion which accused Speaker Jawari of abuse of office, violation of the constitution, suppressing opinions of lawmakers and corruption. The motion lost momentum following a counterattack by members of a pro-Jawari lobby. To unseat the Speaker of the Parliament, 184 of the 275 members of parliament is needed, according to the provisional constitution of Somalia.
“The Speaker and his or her deputies shall be elected through a secret ballot by a majority vote of the members of the House of the People of the Federal Parliament, and may be removed by a two-thirds majority vote of the members of the House of the People of the Federal Parliament,” articulates article 65 of the constitution. The motion opposers accused the cabinet of engineering the motion as majority of the signatories were ministers in the government of Prime minister, Hassan Ali Khaire who are also MPs. Speaker Jawari has been running Lower House since August 2012.
Key Headlines
- Motion Against Jawari Dropped After Failed To Get Quorum (Hiiraan Online)
- Somaliland President In UAE Amid Row Over Port Deal (Garowe Online)
- First Somali Pilot Mohamed Faytaan Passes On In Mogadishu (Goobjoog News)
- EDahab Complies With Somaliland Govt Regulations On Money Transfer (Capital Business Kenya)
- Mansour Bin Zayed Receives President Of Somaliland (Emirates News Agency)
- Hawa Hassan Is Bringing The Ketchup Of Somalia To Your Kitchen (Vogue.com)
NATIONAL MEDIA
Somaliland President In UAE Amid Row Over Port Deal
14 March – Source: Garowe Online – 248 Words
The President of self-declared Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi has arrived in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates [UAE] amid growing rift over the Berber Port agreement according reports. The President with a large delegation, including Ministers and the leader of UCID, the opposition part Mr. Faysal Ali Warabe left Hargeisa for Dubai on Tuesday after receiving an invitation from the UAE government.
President Abdi’s trip to UAE came a day after Somalia’s Parliament backed the Federal government to reject the tripartite Berbera port deal signed by Somaliland, Dubai-owned DP World, and Ethiopia, and declared it as “null and void”.
Hours before the President departed to Dubai on Tuesday, the House of Representatives of Somaliland hit back at Somali Parliament’s decision to nullify port deal with DP World, describing the move as “belligerent and illegal”. The members of state assembly reiterated their support for the deal, which they passed on August 9, 2016. As per the agreement, Ethiopia takes a 19 percent stake in the port, while DP World takes 51% and Somaliland gets 30%.
Speaking at International Women’s Day event held in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s capital on 8th March, President Abdi accused Somalia’s Federal government of declaring war on the breakaway republic. Ethiopia will invest to construct a corridor linking Berbera to its border. The deadlock comes as Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo is expected to pay an official visit to Qatar next week. Doha is in a severe diplomatic rift with UAE- Saudi led Gulf countries since last June.
First Somali Pilot Mohamed Faytaan Passes On In Mogadishu
14 March – Source: Goobjoog News – 80 Words
Veteran Somali pilot who was the first to fly Somali airlines Mohamed Abdullahi Barre has passed on in Mogadishu. Popularly known as Faytaan, Barre was also one of the founding members of the Somali Air force after attaining his aviation license in 1954. Barre first took to the air from Egypt to Somalia and went on to be one of the finest military pilots before flying civilian planes. He worked as a pilot for Somalia Airlines from 1964 to 1990.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
EDahab Complies With Somaliland Govt Regulations On Money Transfer
14 March – Source: Capital Business, Kenya – 368 Words
Mobile money transfer company eDahab will comply with the new financial regulation set by the Somaliland government which mandates all mobile payments under $100 be made in Somaliland currency. The new regulation bars also mobile payment companies from providing foreign exchange services through the mobile payment systems.
The regulation is intended to stabilize the exchange rate of Somaliland currency to US dollars and to eliminate use of dollars as a functional currency in the local economy. It is also further aimed at reducing rising inflation in the country. The Central Bank of Somaliland has already confirmed the new regulation which it says its for the good of the country’s economy.
E-Dahab mobile payment, owned by leading international money transfer company Dahabshiil said it will comply with and implement these regulations; and will continue to serve its mobile payment customers by providing convenient mobile payment services that will allow making payments under $100 in Somaliland Shillings.
“Our mission and vision remains to serve our clients to the best of our ability through eDahab. We will continue to support local independent foreign exchange providers,” Dahabshiil Chief Executive Officer Abdirashid Duale said. “E-Dahab mobile payment application will not offer foreign exchange services to customers,” he added.
Mansour Bin Zayed Receives President Of Somaliland
14 March – Source: Emirates News Agency – 75 Words
H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, received Muse Bihi Abdi, President of Somaliland, at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday.
H.H. Sheikh Mansour and the President Abdi discussed ways of enhancing bilateral relations to serve mutual interests of the two countries and their peoples. They also reviewed economic, humanitarian and developmental projects being implemented by the UAE for the benefit of the people of Somaliland.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“Basbaas is like what ketchup or hot sauce is to Americans. We eat it every single day, with every single meal,” says Hassan. “It’s a family heirloom, but also a Somali thing. Everyone makes it a little bit differently.” While the sauces make for a great fish or meat marinade, they are meant for everyday use like sriracha or salsa or any other hot sauce.”
Hawa Hassan Is Bringing The Ketchup Of Somalia To Your Kitchen
14 March – Source: Vogue.com – 948 Words
“Even when I was a little girl, I was doing the cooking and the shopping while my mom was selling at the store. As a Somali girl, you grow up in the kitchen,” says Hawa Hassan, founder and CEO of Basbaas, the only line of Somali hot sauces and chutneys available in the U.S. “Also, raising myself in Seattle, I had to make sure I had enough to eat. Some nights I had hot wings from 7-Eleven for dinner but I got creative with that.”
For Hassan, who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, learning to cook was a necessity growing up. (Little did she know that she would later parlay that culinary knowledge and love of good flavors into a food business.) She lived in a U.N. refugee camp in Kenya with her mother and four other siblings before moving all by herself, at just seven years old, to Seattle in 1993. She stayed with a family friend while she waited for the rest of her family to join her in the States, but after a few years in, she realized no one was coming. Hassan went through high school and headed to Bellevue College in Washington, where she accidentally fell into a modeling career.
“My best friend was a model and I would go with her to these castings and photoshoots with the agency and her booker would say, ‘Hawa, you really should think about modeling.’ I said, ‘I am a basketball player and basketball players don’t model,’” she explains. “When I realized what a good moneymaker it could be, I decided to try it.”
She quickly started getting booked for shoots with major retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s, then moved to New York City in 2005 with dreams of supermodel stardom. Unfortunately, as she describes it, New York at that time was a “we already have a black girl who looks like you” market. Feeling a little defeated, she headed to Oslo, where her mom had relocated with her new husband and Hassan’s nine other siblings, to regroup after 15 years apart from her family. It was during those four months in Norway that Basbaas came to fruition.
“I kept telling my mom I wanted to start a juice business and she said that ship had already sailed,” says Hassan. “But I had taken my Vitamix with me because I thought I was going to come up with recipes and write my business plan. But in that process, I started blending these sauces that my family was eating every night during Ramadan and then I realized that I wanted to start a different kind of conversation—a positive one—about being Somali. What could be a better way to do that than through food?”
In 2015, she returned to Seattle and got to work on building Basbaas (which means ‘chili’ in Somali) from the ground up, with a little help from some fellow female entrepreneurs, including her mom. “The level of strength she had to restart so many times gives me so much gratitude for my life,” Hassan says of her mom, who started selling gold at the markets before opening her own shop, then opening a Somali goods store and a furniture outlet, all while raising 10 kids. “It makes me feel like there isn’t much I can’t achieve,” Hassan adds.