November 14, 2018 | Morning Headlines
UN Officials Hold Meeting With Acting South West President In Baidoa
13 November – Source: Halbeeg News – 143 Words
A delegation led by deputy Special Representative for United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) Rai Zenenga arrived in Baidoa, the administrative capital of South West state, for talks with the regional government’s acting President, Abdikadir Sharif Sheikhuna. Mr. Zenenga held talks with Mr Sheikhuna and other UN officials on the state’s upcoming presidential elections.
The visit of Mr. Zenenga, comes after the visit of newly appointed UN envoy to Somalia, Nicholas Haysom, who held talks with immediate former leader of South West state, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, over the growing tensions between the country’s Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) and Federal Members States (FMS) authorities, as well the upcoming elections. The regional assembly of the South West state is due to hold a presidential election on 17th November. Similar votes will take place also in Puntland and Jubbaland regional states next year.
Key Headlines
- UN Officials Hold Meeting With Acting South West President In Baidoa (Halbeeg News)
- At Least 7 Ministries In The Dark Over Electricity Arrears (Goobjoog News)
- Chinese Embassy In Somalia Supports Al-Basiir School For The Blind And Deaf (SONNA)
- Court Dismisses Case Against Somali Terror Suspects (The Observer)
- “The Most Successful Somali People Aren’t Outside Africa” (TRT World)
NATIONAL MEDIA
At Least 7 Ministries In The Dark Over Electricity Arrears
12 November – Source: Goobjoog News – 216 Words
At least seven government ministries have in the last two days gone without electricity following withdrawal of the essential service by an electricity company over four months’ payment arrears. It has been established by news reporters that the ministries of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Livestock, Petroleum and Public Works, have been in the dark, after Beco Electricity Company disconnected electricity power. Others ministers are, Water and Energy and Labour and Social Affairs.
Officials in these ministries, who wished to remain anonymous, told Goobjoog News the utility company Beco disconnected electricity to their offices, following the arrears: “We got a letter from Beco asking us to offset the outstanding arrears. However the ministry does not have money to pay up,” said a senior official at the Ministry of Petroleum.
An operational manager from Beco, who sought anonymity, confirmed the electricity disconnection to the government ministries, but said the matter had been resolved: “We held discussions and resolved the matter today. According to the 2018 operational budget, out of the seven ministries affected, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry received $2.1 million while the Ministry of Livestock received $986,236. The Ministry of Agriculture was allocated $1.1 million, Energy and Water ($1.1m) while, Public Works and Reconstruction got $1.1 million and Labour ($1.5m).
Chinese Embassy In Somalia Supports Al-Basiir School For The Blind And Deaf
13 November – Source: SONNA – 213 Words
On Monday, the Chinese Embassy in Somalia promised to provide assistance to the tune of US$ 14,500 to Al-Basiir School for the Blind, as well as deaf students in Waberi district in the Mogadishu city. Chinese Ambassador to Somalia, Qin Jian, told Somali National News Agency (SONNA), that supporting people with disabilities and orphans is part of China’s friendship gesture to Somalia,.
“We are donating US$ 14,500 to Al-Basiir School for the Blind to buy learning materials and office equipment. We hope to give the school training opportunities and other donations in the near future,” Ambassador Jian said.
The Chinese ambassador also divulged that his government had supported Somalia’s official news agency, SONNA, an orphanage center and the Somali National Women Organization in the recent past. The founder of the Al-Basiir School, Mr. Abikar Hussein Bashir, thanked the ambassador as well as the Chinese government for the support. He explained that the assistance makes great sense for blind students that the institution was currently caring for.
“We will buy learning materials like braille and other necessary items for students and the school. We run a school of eight rooms including office with 45 students, from class one to eight level, where we teach Arabic and English braille languages”, Mr. Bashir said.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
Court Dismisses Case Against Somali Terror Suspects
13 November – Source: The Observer – 247 Words
The High court in Kampala has dismissed terrorism charges against six of eight Somali nationals due to lack of evidence. Justice Michael Elubu of International Crimes Division dismissed the charges against Muhammad Abdulkadir Hirsi alias Muhamed Abdul Aziz Adan, Abduullahi Bootan, Hassan Abduwali Muhamoud, Muhamed Ahmed Geele, Yusuf Osman and Muhamad Yusuf Farah.
Prosecution alleges that between September 2010 and 2014, the accused persons in various countries including Uganda, Kenya and Somalia, rendered support to the al-shabaab militia well knowing that their support would be used in the commission of acts of terrorism.
They were arrested in 2015 from the areas of Kisenyi, Mengo and Bukesa – all suburbs of Kampala with suicide vests that were reportedly meant to be used in a series of terrorist attacks in Uganda. According to court documents, police intelligence indicated that the group had been in constant contact with Adam Garar alias Muhammad, a member of the al-shabaab.
Last week on Friday the case was dismissed due to lack of sufficient evidence: “It is the finding of this court that the evidence by prosecution falls short to believe the charges against the rest of the accused persons except accused number seven and six”, reads the judgment by Elubu in part. However, Justice Elubu told ruled that the prosecution had adduced sufficient to prosecute two suspects, Abdul Kadir Muhamed Muhamud Sandir and Abdi Alli who had been jointly charged alongside six suspects. The court is yet to fix a date for their trial.
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“An aspiring entrepreneur Hodan Nalayeh felt Western media lacked nuance on Somalia and launched her own YouTube channel to counter oversimplified or exaggerated media coverage”.
“The Most Successful Somali People Aren’t Outside Africa”
13 November – Source: TRT World – 1,687 Words
When Hodan Nalayeh was growing up she didn’t feel connected to her Somali culture and lamented the lack of a space where Somali culture, stories and art could be celebrated and find expression.
INTEGRATION TV, Hodan’s brainchild, is a YouTube channel that emerged out of that cultural void many diasporic Somalis feel, with the aim of “connecting Somalis worldwide.” With over 49,000 subscribers, her channel is gaining viewership , bringing in-depth, nuanced and compelling coverage to a community whose representation in the media doesn’t drift too far from unflattering and tragic discussions about war, famine, crime, terrorism or piracy.
“The idea of INTEGRATION TV initially started out as a TV show celebrating the success of Somali-Canadians” Hodan told me. “But as we found more stories, everything snowballed and my own journey of self-discovery ended up bringing millions of people with me”. The problem goes back to the early 90s when the Somali government collapsed. Dramatic headlines which you might argue reflected the seriousness of the situation on the ground took over US and to a lesser extent global media.
Various studies have since unpacked the oversimplifications that characterised many of those reports. According to Professor Catherine Besteman they relied too heavily on “racist assumptions, anthropological models and a popular craving for simplicity,” which worked to boost America’s self-image rather than accurately represent what was happening in Somalia.
Following the failure of Operation Restore Hope in December 1992, a US-led UN supported humanitarian intervention in Somalia, US media widely circulated images of people suffering from famine, and dead US troops being dragged through Mogadishu. This created a recurring association between Somalis and violence, which has largely endured to this day.
It also gave birth to the first Hollywood blockbuster about Somalia in 2001 called Black Hawk Down, a film about Operation Restore Hope. Made with the full cooperation of the US military, Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz would describe it as a “powerful film.” For many Somalis, however, the reception wasn’t so warm.
The film glorified US militarism and the apparently benign US mission to alleviate the suffering of the Somali people. It didn’t accurately attempt to raise awareness of the root causes of the violence or the crimes committed by US and UN forces against civilians.
Captain Phillips, a film about piracy off the Somali coast followed almost a decade and a half later. It had similar shortcomings such as a lack of context, and a stereotypical depiction of the Somali as violent, rough and savage. Both films relied on narrative arcs that coded the American characters as the benign victims of Somali bandits and vandals, bent on a congenital commitment to violence.
“At the time, I didn’t really understand the narrative in those films” Hodan says. “But when I became more conscious of the media, and the messages delivered about certain countries and certain cultures, it made me realize that movies like that can do so much damage.” “That is the image people have of us today,” she continues. “A chaotic country, with pirates and maniacs and all the other negative images that came from those movies. Unfortunately, those messages have played a major role in shaping our narrative.”