NATIONAL MEDIA
4 September – Source: Halbeeg – 147 Words
Somali officials and representatives from the World Bank discussed ways to reduce water shortages in the country. A meeting between Villa Somali chief of staff, Dr Nur Dirie Hersi and visiting World Bank officials in Mogadishu also discussed the potential of the two main rivers in the country namely Jubba and Shabelle rivers, the main source of water and irrigation for the farming communities in the country.
The two sides underscored the need to address the challenges faced by communities who live in areas near the rivers. Measures to avert flood-related calamities along the banks of rivers during the rainy seasons while putting long-lasting plans were also discussed. During the rainy seasons, farmers and livestock keepers are affected by the floods. Hundreds of families were displaced when Shabelle river burst its banks in April last year destroying crops and submerging houses in the agricultural city of Beledweyne.
4 September – Source: Africa News – 82 Words
The Minister of Defense of the Federal Government of Somalia, Hassan Ali Mohamed on Wednesday appointed Jihan Abdullah Hassan as the new Director-General of the Ministry of Defense. Minister Hassan asked all government agencies to closely work with the incoming DG of the Ministry of Defence. Jihan Abdullah Hassan is replacing Warsame Mohamud Hassan who served as an interim acting Director-General for the ministry. Jihan becomes the first woman to be appointed to such an important role in the ministry of defence.
INTERNATIONAL MEDIA
4 September – Source: Africa News – 139 Words
A court in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa has ordered internet service providers to block a local news portal, Hadhwanaag News. The court action was brought by the Central Bank governor about whom they had published reports of alleged corruption. Governor Ali Ibrahim Jama has dismissed all the allegations. The portal as at September 4, posted a one-line article on its website calling out the Central Bank chief for using local courts to muzzle the media. The development will be another setback for press freedom in the semi-autonomous region of Somalia. Somaliland has a history of detaining journalists during their professional tasks. Somalia has routinely found itself at the bottom of World Press Freedom reports by Reporters Without Borders. It is also one of the countries where journalists have been subjected to deadly attacks – largely due to Al-Shabaab insurgency.
3 September – Source: MPR – 1509 Words
Eighteen years ago this September, Hared Mah walked into the Minneapolis Public Schools’ student placement center to see whether he was qualified for the K-12 education system. Mah, then 18 years old, had just arrived in the United States as a refugee from Somalia and spoke no English. But he was determined to utilize any opportunity he could get to establish a better life in his new home. After taking the placement test, Mah was sent to the International Center for Accelerated Language Learning, now Wellstone International High School, which served brand new refugee and immigrant students in their late teens. There, Mah became one of a few dozen students from Somalia, Ethiopia and Mexico to attend the inaugural year of the school, where he found peers with similar life experiences and teachers who nurtured him. “It was a really good experience,” Mah said on a recent evening, sipping coffee at Spyhouse Coffee in northeast Minneapolis. “We were so determined. We just wanted to be independent.”
For nearly two decades now, Wellstone has served as a training ground for hundreds of young refugee and immigrant students, many of whom grew up to be economists, health professionals and engineers — even as its population has fluctuated with each stroke of a presidential pen that expanded or reduced refugee admissions to the United States. In recent years, though, not many people like Mah are entering the country because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and the sharp reduction in refugee admissions. As a result, Wellstone is bracing for one of the lowest student enrollment years in its history. But it’s not just Wellstone that’s witnessing the ripple effect of the dwindling number of refugees entering the country. Refugee-serving agencies in Minnesota have also seen a dramatic decline in the number of refugees coming to their doorsteps for resettlement services. To keep the infrastructure alive, Wellstone and service agencies are finding new ways to adapt to the changing refugee-services landscape — by shifting resources and tapping into new demographics. On the campaign trail, Trump made immigration central to his campaign, promising his base to deport undocumented immigrants in mass numbers, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deny entry to refugees escaping violence and persecution.
After he took office in 2017, the president followed through with many of his promises. For example, he barred people from certain predominantly Muslim nations, including Somalia, from entering the U.S. and reduced refugee admissions to the lowest level since the program was created in 1980. Those restrictions have affected the refugee stream to Minnesota, which for years has been one of the top states for refugee resettlement. More than 3,000 primary refugees arrived in Minnesota in 2016, but only 1,000 came in 2017, and 660 last year, according to figures from the Minnesota Department of Human Services. The dramatic reduction in refugee admissions will be felt this school year at Wellstone, where the student population has dropped from 400 four years ago to 180 now, according to school counselor Ali Kofiro. Though the students at the school have come from all over the world, including East Africa, Southeast Asia, Central America and Mexico, Somalis typically were the majority. In 2015 and 2016, for instance, 65 percent of the students were Somalis. Today, that number is less than 30 percent. “I feel hurt by the fact that a specific demographic at Wellstone has been taken away from us,” said Aimee Fearing, former Wellstone principal who now serves as the executive director of K-12 academic programming at Minneapolis Public Schools…..
1 September – Source: UNMAS – 403 Words
Somalia has a residual threat from unexploded and abandoned ordnance following decades of armed conflict. The explosive hazard contamination negatively impacts the socioeconomic opportunities of the communities, security and ultimately the peace and recovery of Somalia. Since 2019 about 22 ERW/landmine accidents have killed and injured 43 victims, and more than 80% of them are amongst the children. Children should be the first priority for risk education. UNMAS coordinates risk education (RE) activities to raise awareness of these hazards. To increase awareness of the dangers of explosive hazards, UNMAS provided training to five Somali youth to work as community cased liaison officers (CLOs) as part of a project funded by the government of Japan. CLOs will be tasked to deliver explosive risk education messages to affected communities that are living in proximity to contaminated areas. They will deploy to the Federal Member States on September 1st 2019. The CLOs plan to reach out 2,650 beneficiaries including 2,000 people from affected communities, IDPs, refugee/returnees and host communities in respective federal states. CLOs are recruited from affected communities which ensure access and acceptance in communities where UNMAS is serving.
In addition, the project also aims to provide “train the trainer” training to 500 community focal points with focus on risk education. 150 local authorities will be sensitized during the project and briefed about the risk of explosive hazards in their areas and linked to Mine Action service providers. Through awareness training on explosive hazards, the beneficiaries will be equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to avoid risk-taking behavior and keep themselves safe when they come across any suspected explosive devices while going about their daily lives. One of the CLO trained, Abdi Ali, stressed on the importance of risk education in reducing casualty among children and vulnerable community members, “I want to thank UNMAS and the Somali Explosive Management Authority ( SEMA) for providing us with useful skills to teach risk education and other component of Mine Action. I hope the knowledge we gained here today will help our communities and make a difference in reducing landmine accidents in Somalia.”…..
OPINION, ANALYSIS AND CULTURE
“I want everybody to walk in this restaurant and feel like they can get whatever they want,” he said, “something they like.”
3 September – Source: Sevendaysvt – 750 Words
The jasmine rice at Kismayo Kitchen is long grain and speckled with color: glints of orange, yellow and green light up the dish. The grain is cooked with herbs and seasonings used in Somali cuisine, including cumin, cardamom, basil and pepper. The extra color is derived from bits of dried vegetable, but the chef-owner of the restaurant in Burlington’s Old North End declines to reveal particulars. “It’s a secret,” said Ahmed Omar, who is known familiarly as Omar, his surname. Omar opened Kismayo Kitchen in June in the small building on Riverside Avenue that previously housed Sugarsnap and the Little Red Kitchen. The restaurant is named for the city in which Omar was born 32 years ago. The five-table eatery with counter service serves lunch and dinner daily. The menu at Kismayo Kitchen is multicultural, to use Omar’s term, and offers traditional Somali dishes, as well as Italian American and American fare. One Somali dish presents a choice of protein — beef, chicken or goat — grilled with red onion and peppers and served with rice or pasta ($11.99). Another is a rich and creamy coconut chicken stew ($7.49), studded with vegetables and prepared with a base of coconut milk and tomato. Vegan or meat samosas ($1.99) are spiced with cumin and hot pepper; their abundant filling falls from the shell with the first bite. A Philadelphia cheesesteak ($7.49) topped with American cheese is served on a squishy grinder roll that’s spread with Somali-spiced mayo; the bread soaks up the meat’s juice in true Philly style.
Omar said he wants to make a top-notch cheesesteak and offer food that will appeal to many diners — wraps, potato salad, kale salad, pasta and sauce. But his desire to serve dishes from Somalia propelled him to open his restaurant. Omar has catered events for the local Somali community for several years, and last winter he taught a Somali cooking class as part of City Market, Onion River Co-op’s Mosaic of Flavors culinary series. With his restaurant, Omar can offer Somali food to a greater number of people, he said. Kismayo Kitchen adds to the global restaurant offerings available in the Old North End, including a stretch of North Winooski Avenue where diners can find Moroccan, Vietnamese, Mexican and Thai food. But Omar thinks Kismayo Kitchen is the only Somali restaurant in Vermont. “I want to bring the [Somali] culture to the community,” he said. “They can walk in my restaurant and have a lunch, eating Somali food.”
Diners are likely to be greeted by Omar himself, wearing athletic clothing and a bright smile. Customers order at the counter and take a seat; food is delivered to the table. A pot of tea in the dining room is self-serve. If it’s a hot day, Omar will probably bring you a bottle of cold water. (The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol, and customers can’t bring their own.) Omar is in the restaurant 12 or more hours a day, arriving around 8 a.m. to prepare for the 11 a.m. opening and staying until after the dinner service. Omar works in the kitchen with his wife, Anisa Mohamed, with whom he lives in the New North End with their daughters, ages 4 years and 1.5 months. Omar’s new emphasis is on vegan and vegetarian cuisine, and he plans to add Impossible Burger, a plant-based meat substitute, to the menu in the fall. He’ll serve the vegan product with pasta and in samosas. “I want everybody to walk in this restaurant and feel like they can get whatever they want,” he said, “something they like.”…… |
