NATIONAL MEDIA
22 October – Souce: Radio Dalsan – 134 Words
Federal Minister of Planning, Investment and Economic Development has commented on the reasons for opening an office for constituency relations and services in Dhahar District in Sanag region. Minister Mohamed Hassan Gamal, who also doubles as a legislator elected from Sanag region, said the office, which was launched last week, would serve as an important platform that will allow him to directly engage with the community, address their concerns and as well contribute to its progress and development. He stressed that he would soon embark on engaging with the area people, especially the youth and women groups through the newly established office. The office is also for the purpose of exchanging views and ideas with the area young generation, stated the minister. Minister Gamal was sworn as a Federal MP on 10 October 2018.
22 October – Souce: Radio Ergo – 605 Words
A new school has opened serving two remote villages north of Guriel in central Somalia’s Galgadud region, aiming to provide free education that suits the pastoralist lifestyle, and to foster peace in an area with a history of clan conflict. About 300 children from Bali’ad and Bali-howd villages, 70 km north of Guriel, have enrolled in Bahru Nur school, which opened earlier this month. Many children in the area were denied access to education, as their families are solely dependent on livestock, and could not afford to send them to the nearest schools in Guriel. Bahru Nur school is supported by a local organisation of the same name. Hassan Abdi Dhimbil, the deputy chairman of Bahru Nur, told Radio Ergo that ignorance is one of the major causes behind the young generation in the region getting involved in internal conflicts, fighting and clan disputes. He believes education will change the future. A peace deal between two clans in this area was agreed just two months ago after a long-standing conflict. The Bahru Nur school, with children from both sides enrolled, comes as an opportunity to build on the peace deal. “The schools are intended to educate people, whether young or older, who have been taken advantage of and dragged into clan wars due to their ignorance, in terms of education. It is through education that these people can realise the dangers of clan wars and stop fighting for their clan and focus on education,” Hassan said.
Bahru Nur school also accommodates the specific needs of pastoralist families to have their children involved in looking after the livestock. Lessons are held only in the mornings, so that the children are free to help their family in the afternoons. Hussein Shire, in Bali’ad, has been paying fees for two years for a son and a daughter to go to Almamun School in Guriel. He raises their fees of $35 by selling one of his 110 goats every month. He told Radio Ergo he has now enrolled his younger son in the new school in the village. It would have been financially very challenging, if at all possible, to have sent him to Guriel as well. “It has been stressing us that I have to pay the children’s fees by selling the goats because the goats will all be finished if I sell them one by one to pay fees! But I feel like education is more important than my wealth,” said Hussein…..
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
22 October – Souce: Standard Media – 462 Words
Kenya will continue to push for Al-Shabaab to be declared a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council. Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti (pictured) said this will allow for resource mobilization globally to counter and arrest the spread of terrorism in East Africa. “Kenya continues to push for Al-Shabaab to be declared a terrorist organization,” he said. Kinoti spoke at the 88th session of the Interpol’s General Assembly in Santiago, Chile. The meeting brings together law enforcement officers from around the world to address national and regional efforts in combating terrorism and organized crime. Kenya had tabled a proposal to the United Nations (UN) to have the Somalia outfit listed as a terrorist group saying that the move will attach more focus in combating the extremists.
Al- Shabaab, which pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda in 2010 has not been designated as a terror group by the UN, despite efforts by the African Union and the UN in combating Al-Qaeda and ISIS or their affiliates. Al-Shabaab has been blamed for a number of terror attacks in the country which left tens dead and injured. National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi had two weeks ago asked the US to declare Somalia’s Al-Shabaab a terror group. Muturi said if the group is considered a crusader of human rights in Somalia then it continues to receive money from civil groups that are funded by taxpayers. He said the move by the US to refuse to classify the Al-Shabaab a terrorist group emboldens it to an extent it can receive financial assistance by foreign organizations. “The recent decision by the US to refuse to declare Al Shabaab a terrorist group ensures the group becomes a recipient of financing even by taxpayers, ” Muturi said. Muturi said the group is currently enjoying funding from some unnamed global super-powers under the guise of a humanitarian group in the horn of Africa nation…..
21 October – Souce: TRT World – 1776 Words
Fifty years ago today in Somalia, Mohammed Siad Barre’s military coup ended Somalia’s brief democratic period, which paved the way for civil war when the regime eventually collapsed. His contested legacy divides Somalis to this day. On the morning of October 21 1969, in the young Somali Republic, Radio Mogadishu had been playing unusual militaristic music most of the morning, deviating from its usual programming, which began with a round-up of world news. Just a week earlier the incumbent President Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, had been assassinated in what some historians believe was an act encouraged by the Soviet Union. And just the day before Prime Minister Muhammad Egal was distributing money which he’d plundered from the Somali Central Bank among corrupt politicians. He would find himself placed under house arrest the next day, on October 21, by a group of rogue soldiers, whilst his accomplices were driven past rapturous crowds to a presidential retreat in Afgoi where they would be detained with other MPs.
The government was informed that it had been dissolved by the military. “You are nothing,” one of the guards told them. The public enthusiastically welcomed the coup d’état, and only several days later would it become known that Siad Barre, commander of the Somali armed forces, masterminded the operation which ended Somalia’s short-lived and hopeful but troubled democratic era. Adan Shire Lo, an MP who was arrested, was the brother-in-law of Barre’s wife. Upon learning about the coup, Adan’s wife visited former president Aden Abdulle Osman, who lost the 1967 election, and told him “this is the beginning of the end of Somalia”. Her words were prophetic. This was one of the defining moments in Somalia’s post-independence history, with Siad Barre – arguably the country’s most influential leader – using authoritarian methods to develop the country, before a series of challenges exacerbated by his heavy-handed approach to governance turned Somalia into what contemporary observers often say is a “failed state” after his regime fell. His shadow still hangs over Somali politics to this day, dividing the victims of his crimes from those who look back nostalgically at their lives in a much more peaceful Somalia…….
20 October – Source: MN Daily – 986 Words
Though both his father and stepfather were politically active back in Somalia, Ward 6 Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame did not intend to follow their lead. But circumstances changed after settling in Cedar-Riverside. Issues like affordable housing, lack of recreational space, but most of all, unemployment and underemployment, inspired his run for office, he said. “For me, it was never the first choice,” Warsame said. “In a way, we got involved by accident.” The Africa Village Public Market Project in Cedar-Riverside, announced by city officials earlier this year, would attempt to improve on many of those issues simultaneously. As the next step of the project is slated for later this month, with the community’s help and input, Warsame said the space can help fulfil his campaign promises. Warsame, his mother and five siblings arrived in London in the late 1980s, seeking asylum in the years of political unrest before the civil war that would send Somalis around the globe. He immigrated to the United States with his wife in 2006, taking up residence in the predominantly East African neighbourhood of Cedar-Riverside. Through activism, specifically his time with a tenant advocacy group, he became aware of various concerns his community was facing. “The fact that we live in a very rich state and a very rich city, and a large number of Somali and East African community members were either unemployed or underemployed,” Warsame said, “that’s one of the reasons why I ran.”…..
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“As Rochester’s immigrant population grows, law enforcement and other local officials said giving newcomers tips on navigating unfamiliar laws is one way to make them feel at home.”
22 October – Souce: Sahan Journal – 1150 Words
For four weeks, a small group of Rochester residents has gathered in a tiny conference room in the city’s police headquarters, just steps from the Zumbro River. They were there to learn about the basics of law enforcement and government services: How do you pay a parking ticket? What do you do if you’re robbed? What about if you’re pulled over when you’re driving? Who’s on the other end of the line when you dial 911? When should you dial 911? Nearly everyone in the room moved to the Rochester area in the last decade — mostly from Somalia, but also from Germany and Kenya — and they’re part of a new initiative in the city aimed at helping immigrants better understand the sometimes complicated machinations of law enforcement and public safety services. The New Americans Academy was created as a learning opportunity for some of the area’s most recent arrivals, but police officials say they also hope it will serve a dual purpose — building trust between the department and newcomers who may be wary of law enforcement. At the group’s first meeting, Police Chief Jim Franklin greeted each attendee as they walked in the door. He said he was reminded recently that there’s a need for this kind of training, to help dissolve confusion newcomers may feel around things that others might take for granted. “There was somebody in the parking lot holding up a parking ticket,” Franklin said. “And this person was obviously a new immigrant, and he’s asking me, ‘What do I do with this? What is this thing?’”
Franklin used it as an opportunity to explain how to pay the ticket, but also why it was so important. If tickets go unpaid, they can lead to more serious infractions. Franklin explained to the group that the idea for these classes came almost a year ago, when he and colleagues from the county sheriff’s office sat down with local Somali leaders. Franklin said he wanted to learn from them what it was like to be new to Rochester, and new to the country — and how his department could help in that transition. According to Census data, 9,758 people who identified as being born outside the United States lived in Olmsted County. By 2017, the Census Bureau estimated the county’s foreign-born population at 16,350. That’s an increase of more than 65 percent. As Rochester’s immigrant population grows, law enforcement and other local officials said giving newcomers tips on navigating unfamiliar laws is one way to make them feel at home. And at a time of heightened tension nationally between law enforcement and people of color, police said they hope this workshop will build trust with immigrants, some of whom come from countries where the police aren’t always viewed as trustworthy — and some of whom, in the U.S. illegally, fear that any contact with local government could lead to deportation…… |
