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Simansime @ 8/18/2011 4:10 PM EST  Stick Ok, I will do that. That article I read around the time it came out and it is very interesting read. It defeats the notion that some sub-clans claim that Mogadishu belongs to them.         secular @ 8/18/2011 12:26 PM EST  Stick, Out of frustration, I uttered an absurdity! 500+ people, with such a big difference in tribal affiliation , social, educational and human experience can't agree on nation building. Wallaahi markaan arko iyagoo shiraya iyo siday u hadlayaan waxaan is iraadaa " waxar jabanna badankood laguma aaminikaro"! Allaa noo maqan. God bless Somalia     Stickorcarrot @ 8/18/2011 11:31 AM EST  Siman, Can we just concentrate on what positives we individually can do rather than the usual Somali slogan of "US" and "THEM"? Let's for a moment try that. You'll be amazed how liberating it is. As for Mogadishu, read this; http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_2010/Nov/Hassan_Abukar/Mog_whose_city_is_it_anyway.html     Stickorcarrot @ 8/18/2011 11:22 AM EST  Secular, Who is gonna have the first pick? Should we have another lottery to decide that? Arintan ma loo dhan yahay?     secular @ 8/18/2011 2:37 AM EST  Cont...2 Since the there will be a fight for grabbing the best country-representative, let make a fair process. Lottery!     secular @ 8/18/2011 2:16 AM EST  Cont..... Let us apply the 4.5 formula with one variation: each tribe should choose MPs from a different country! Say : Japan, Turkey, Norway, Congo and china! Reasonable people could come with a solution in ONE WEEK!     secular @ 8/18/2011 2:10 AM EST  Stick & Others, Somali nomads are by nature individualistic and we all carry the burden of this common background. The word " disposable" has a close connection with us: all we use, starting from the straw huts, wood/leather arches & poles,water containers, and even livestock, are not meant to last long. You loose all your livestock and you recover in one or two season. Your hut is burnt and womenfolk make a brand new equally flimsy one. Menfolk die of war/disease and the "old man" gets a new bride and fathers again, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle again, without assuring for his brood sustainable means of survival! You herd together 500+ people of this extraction and expect some good to come out of it?     Simansime @ 8/17/2011 6:38 PM EST  Stick I hear you, you have hope and there is nothing wrong with that. But, brother Mogadishu whether is family city or Somali city is clear to many people. Anigu waxaan qabaa nin aan waxba kuu ogoleyn ha la wadaagin soor, jidna hala la marin.       Stickorcarrot @ 8/17/2011 4:50 PM EST   Liberia was as bad as Somalia...now? Democracy Sierra Leone now peaceful and rebuilding Rwanda was much worse than Somalia now successful growing economy. Congo is slowly getting better. The newly "invented" country is contemplating to send peacekeeping forces to us. http://www.wardheernews.com/News_2011/August/17_S_Sudan_opposition_leader_objects_to_sending_troops_to_Somalia.html Are we inherently nomadic people and don't deserve a nation as suggested? Can we sit together, compromise and shake hands? I believe we can. Just watch out the SHARKS both local and foreigners!     Stickorcarrot @ 8/17/2011 3:03 PM EST  Siman Yes I fantasize united strong thriving Somalia. Somalis are very destructive by nature. Though I don’t like PL and SL’s Ethiopian connection, I still love the peace they enjoy and pray for more. Even as that, not all Puntlanders are happy with PL right? Neither are Slders. They want their “smaller” unit of PL. That is Somalia. Mogadishu problem is more complicated than the average mind can see sister. There is no silver bullet and it is not FAMILY city, it is the capital of the country. We do see the problems we are facing, we need solutions and we need to find the solution collectively. I don’t want you to think LOCAL think big and think country. If I don’t fantasize what could happen, what do you want me to do? Throw the towel and give up?  That I won’t do.     Stickorcarrot @ 8/17/2011 2:46 PM EST  Secular Yes, money was pouring into the bottomless pin for the last 20 years with nothing to show for. We are poor, unpatriotic and greedy people. A man with a $1,000K can pit us against each other in no time. I always knew our extreme love of money, but I naively believed we were proud people. A poor man with little pride could have handled things a little bit differently than we did. As for Sherif, I never was fan of this guy. He fooled me back when he was spokesperson for ICU for his oratory skills. It’s obvious this guy was in it for personal reasons, as he is now too- to enrich himself and others around him -nothing more. And the so called TFP -inept criminal warlords and Diaspora drifters- won’t bring a solution either.  Somalis in Somalia (those who will or have survived this tragedy) and the older Diaspora (I have utmost respect for very young Diaspora people if they resist the enticement of what this lifestyle has to over) are sick as always. All that listed points to a hapless situation for hopeless country and people.     simansime @ 8/17/2011 2:13 PM EST  Stick You are "romanticizing" what ought to be Somali National Government. How can you have effective national or central Government? when so many obstacles are in place the da*mn Mogadishu and most of the South, you don't even have Municipal Government(is like asking a baby to walk before he/she crawls around). Why the people of Mogadishu or the South can't reverse what they had finished 22 years ago and start over without wasting our time and resources. Why, the rest of the Country should be in hostage for those freaks who eat and starve their own kids and mothers?. The rest of my argument had been covered by SECULAR.       secular @ 8/17/2011 12:33 PM EST  Stick, Nation building with the current leadership in Mogadisho is a wishful thinking, at best. Time is running out and the on the job training of the Sheikh & Co. is not giving the desired outcome. May I suggest the Sheikh, "TFG", "TFP" and Government to open liaison "offices" in at least ONE VILLAGE outside besieged Mogadisho!   Attending every imaginable meeting and calling for money to finance a bottomless pit will take us nowhere.     Stickorcarrot @ 8/17/2011 11:20 AM EST  Siman, Sister Siman xanaaq ayaa ka muuqda maanta, Kabna waa sidataa (Quote from Nomadic1) Allow na bad baadi! I agree with you most of what you’ve said.  But, “dual-track policy” does not mean the aid given to other administrations. That is not only legitimate but also fair and I support wholeheartedly. By God Mogadishu receives triple that amount and more. What the actual policy may do is, to slowly but surely eliminate the need for Somali national government. Remember, 15 years we were in a cage eating each other alive. No one cared what happened in that hell-hole. Only when our problems spilled out to the outside borders we are getting these half-measured responses.  Instead of concentrating nation building and coming together this time, some of us are thinking LOCAL. I am firm believer of “what is good for the goose is good for the gander”   It’s has been long time since “ WE “ meant “Somalis” to us. When one writes a sentence of opinion, almost always, our Pavlovian response is “THEM” Brothers and sisters, that won’t solve our current impasse!     Simansime @ 8/17/2011 10:20 AM EST  Where is Shariif dalxiis as we speak and how many times he flew in and out of the Country within this week? when Somali kids are dying with starvation and diseases. Also Mr. Arman the so called Somali Envoy to the US, what he has been doing? did he ever engaged the US Government on behave of Somalia? other than writing essays and whining about policies. It shows us that he is the Envoy of Shariif Dalxiis, equally id*iots.         @ 8/17/2011 8:58 AM EST  The international community's patience is wearing thin. It's not rocket science to understand that TFG, Toothles Parliament, "reformed warlords/tribalists", Job-seeking "Diasporas", "Cash-counting/Globtrotting Sharifs" , won't bring back a functioning central government. We air bombed/cleansed our own people, starved our children and looted public properties and no one, so far, has been made accountable for these crimes! Autonomous enclaves of Puntland & Somaliland made a great deal of progress and I don't see why they can't have access to foreign AID given in their name , too! Mr Arman missed the point!     danan70 @ 8/17/2011 7:57 AM EST  Well written, thanks. Bleive it or not the mother of all problems is "lack of good governance". Corruption, corruption ..... Go in Somalia, everywhere S land, P land and TFG, you will see it. What ever you call dual track or international community and the internal actors alike are responsible!     momo519 @ 8/16/2011 6:18 PM EST   Somalia has been fragmented and been sick on its death bed since 1990! Somaliland and Puntland and all the other cities have been surviving without any handout from Mogadishu for a long time. America finally realized that enough is enough and Mogadishu cannot held hostage the rest of the country! What's wrong if America decided to provide direct assistance to cities outside of Mogadishu? What's wrong if a hospital in Gabiley or a hospital in Garowe or one in Boorama and one in Boosaaso get a direct medical assistance from Washington? Of course the proper way is to go through Mogadishu, but Mogadishu is filled by hyenas that do not believe in sharing! It's not fair to fault America or Somaliland or Puntland if Sharif Ahmed behaves more like a Mayor than a president! Faroole and Siilaanyo behave more presidential than Sharif Ahmed. At least they visit the towns under their control! The Mogadishu Mayor (Sharif Ahmed) seems to have no interest in visiting Gedo or even Guriceel or that he wouldn't know what to do if Siilaanyo and Faroole ask him to visit and run their regional administrations as their president!! And Arman wants to tell America not to engage the rest of Somalia when the mayor himself does not want to engage Somalia!     Simansime @ 8/16/2011 5:56 PM EST  5th, I accuse collectively the Southern Somali clans mainly Hawiye and Rahanweyn (from their alshabab, UIC warlords and turf warlords, rot*ten business men, elders and real religous men) who always denied their population peace and tranquility for the past 22 years. If some people are prone to not to take responsibility of their actions, we will always talk about this situation over and over. It is crimi*nal act not to take responsibility and always blaming others like Dual track BS and Puntland/Somaliland are culprits.  Stop whining and locally do something, to begin with build local strong Municipal and Regional Governments like your counterparts at the North. Then, we can talk about Central or Federal Government, no wonder every Government di*es in Mogadishu and again they resurect same BS over and over.     Simansime @ 8/16/2011 5:35 PM EST  Well well, here we go again and again. Dual track has not been implemented fully and here some are crying crocodile tears. If anyone is to be blamed the current predicament of South Central Somalia are the following. 1st of all shortage of rainfall or drought is force majeure, but eqaully are responsible those(alshabab and other warlords) who were cuting trees and importing coal from Somalia's bread basket regions. 2nd responsible people are alshabab who blocked the starving families to get donated food or walking to the distance on early on. 3rd those hyenas in Mogadishu who are selling as we speak the donated food at the Mogadishu markets when the intended people are still dying under their noses( this goes to Somali Business men in Bakaraha/elsewhere and WFP representives in Mogadishu that are known to sell the food the past few years. 4th so called TFG, who knew the fourth coming problem and were sitting their big fat a*rs or traveling around the world the past two years.     Stickorcarrot @ 8/16/2011 4:39 PM EST  Secular, Hadaad inta akriday "Somali Tea party" propoganda aad is leedahay ninkani waa "closet-shebabist" akhri kan. http://www.globalpolitician.com/print.asp?id=4455 I never met this guy and never seen him in person. However, I watched him on TV, saw him on Youtube and read many of his articles. I can easily say, there is no (or very few) Somali who is more aware our status than him. And in my humble opinion, he is as impartial as any Somali can be. But of course, he regularly goes to the Masjid and bacause of that, you will wonder what you read and heard from "Somali Tea baggers"     Stickorcarrot @ 8/16/2011 4:29 PM EST  Secular, Peace anywhere in Somalia must be supported and encouraged. That is just common sense. However dual-track policy is giving state powers to non-state entities. So called international community is the originator of all TFGs only to use them to create havoc and then leave them on the track. I agree with you all those you listed must be eliminated but how can we do that? We need international community to facilitate not obstruct the “resuscitating” of Somali government. I don’t care if the Somali government will be based in Mogadishi, Galkacyo, Growe or Hargeisa. All we need is central Somali government in control of our affairs. Garowe and Hargeisa and any other in the pipeline can’t do that. And international community should stop treating these administrations as such.     secular @ 8/16/2011 3:41 PM EST  Mr Arman, The situation is Somalia is stagnant Millions are straving, Shabab is on the bath of destruction, TFG is as ineffective as ever, the MPs are worthless, and the Sheikh is globetrotting!   I don't see any silver lining anywhere!     jacob @ 8/16/2011 2:10 PM EST  Do you guys honestly expect Mr. Arman to be the least objective, try as he may, about Somalia current political quagmire? Is he not, by his own admision, the TGF's Special Envoy to the United States, its main man there if you will, and has he not been retained (wheather he gets handsomely paid or as is highly unlikely does it for pro bono, or perhaps even for future consideration for a particular cabinet post, one can only speculate)to advance its interests and policies? To be fair though, Mr. Arman did raise a number of valid points namely Alshabab's role in exacerbating the seasonal drought to turn into sever famine where tens of thousands, mainly children and elderly have already starved to death and hundreds of thousands more are potentailly faced with the same or worse fate.  He is also right about how the so called NGO are on the main mishandling the whole situation.     secular @ 8/16/2011 1:48 PM EST  Stick, Dual Track Policy of should  encourage other parts of Somalia to achieve at least the relative peace that exist in Northern Somalia. A good doctor heals the diseased part of the body, rather than infecting the healthy parts of the same body!!! If the Commonwealth has been converted into a tribal fiefdom/Al-Qaida playground, who, in his senses, wouldn't consider different options? The problem is in the South and fingers must be pointed at the usual actors of the farce that is going on, endlessly! Get rid of famine/war profiteers, dormant warlords and closet-Shababists and then we can argue about US policies about Somalia!     Stickorcarrot @ 8/16/2011 12:09 PM EST  Dual track policy has everything to do with Somalia problems. Speaking of the famine the author said: “The culprits often cited by the media, drought, Al-Shabaab and lack of good governance, are legitimate, but to claim that they are the ‘only ones’ is disingenuous, to say the least. Just like everything else in Somalia the famine has internal and external factors. Routinely, the former get all the attention; the latter, seldom” 15+ years of internal bleeding and destruction and killing machines masterminded by Ethiopia and its warlords eventually spilled our problems to the outside of our borders. The original indifference of international community changed to “hana dhiman hana noolaan” attitude with competing interest clashing in our turf with complete disregard of the consequence. “Dual track policy” is a code word for the destruction of “Somali republic.” What is the point of organizing fake governments while on its back supporting warlords? What is the point of the government if the same power is given to clan fiefdoms? What is the point of organizing government with not enough backup but still asking it to kill its way to supremacy?   It’s the “dual track” policy which illegitimizes any national government we may have. We either have twenty clan fiefdoms or we work for ONE Somali government, we can’t have both of them! Any problem contributing to our inability to form a functioning government must share the blame of this human tragedy. And just like Shebab, “dual track policy” of international community is the culprit of this tragedy.     momo519 @ 8/16/2011 3:17 AM EST   Yeah....Secular is right. What's Somaliland and Puntland got to do with this sad famine that is going don Alshabab territory> This article was written so well I thought I didn't have enought juice to criticize! But thank Secular...we found the weak link! Now, I'd love to know what the dual track thingy got to do with the famine! Dont politicize the famine!     siinay @ 8/16/2011 2:19 AM EST  The somali people are facing multi enemy: Ethiopia, Alshabab, United Stated, drought, my Prayers with the ancient somali people!     secular @ 8/16/2011 1:09 AM EST  What the US Dual-Track Policy has to do with the famine in South Somalia? To politicize this situation is stupid at best , if not criminal! "Non-State entities" (?Punt/S-Land) are not a factor in this sad equation.     nomadic1 @ 8/15/2011 7:08 PM EST  Very interesting points! Thanks as always!

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