Puntland’s media poodles versus watchdog media

by Bashir Goth
Friday, October 09, 2009

With the recent decision to suspend the reporters of VOA and ban VOA affiliate FM relay stations from broadcasting in its domain, the Administration of Somalia’s autonomous region of Puntland has shown its preference for supine media poodles to objective media watchdog.

It seems Puntland leaders have found great contentment in taking the paternalistic path of feeding their people with government censored information in the fashion of socialist and dictatorial states rather than giving them the choice to make their own judgments through free and diversified media.

President Abdirahman Faroole and his interior Minister General Abdillahi Ahmed Jama (Ilka-Jiir)

What astonishes me is that both the President Abdirahman Faroole and his interior Minister and former rival for the presidencey, General Abdillahi Ahmed Jama (Ilka-Jiir) spent quite some time in countries where freedom of speech is guaranteed and that they enjoyed the full privilege of speaking up their mind if they wanted to.

It is equally astounding how African politicians crave for media attention when they are on the road to elections yet make a dramatic turnaround once they get the power. It reminds me of the Somali anecdote of the woman whose camel has lost its balance due to the weight on its back. She made the camel sit down so she could adjust the load. But travelling alone with only her young son, she prayed to the soul of Sheikh Abdulqadir Jilani, the founder of the Qadiri sufi order to which most of Somalis adhere to for help, saying: “Jiilaniyow ii gurmo, O’ Jilani come to my rescue.” When she managed to adjust the load and the camel stood up again and moved around without any problem, her son asked her: “Hooyo, Jiilaani muxuu inoo yahay? Is Jilani related to us?” to which the mother retorted: “waxba inooma aha ee awrkeena uun baan ku kacsanaynay...He is not related to us but we were just using him to help us with our camel.”

I remember when Faroole and Ilka-jiir were running for election; they seemed to be champions for free speech, eager to talk to any media outlet and obviously would not have liked it if the media was banned from talking to them. I spoke to General Ilka-jiir when he was transiting in Dubai on his way to Puntland and he sounded to be a very intelligent and open-minded man; the kind of a man that you thought would think would bring freedom and hope to his people. It is disappointing, however, to see media freedom deteriorate during his reign as Minister of Interior and Faroole as President.

In less than a year of their coming to power, the government has silenced reporters, arrested them, beaten them in courts and even closed stations, the latest of which is the VOA.

To cite some of the known cases, the director of the Somali ETN television based in Bosasso was arrested in March 2009. It was reported that Abdiwali Sheik, the ETN Director, had been detained him from his office.

In Mid July, Puntland police attacked Aweys Sheikh Nur, a local reporter, during a court session, act described by the Committee to Protect Journalists as “utterly unjustified,” and called upon Puntland government to “…punish the guards and ensure that journalists can do their work without fear of being attacked.”

Aslo in June, Puntland’s Minister of Information Deputy Minister Abdishakur Mire Adan acting at the behest of the son of President, Mohamed Abdirahman Farole told Horseed Media to remove a story hinting to a link between Puntland officials and pirates. Horseed Media refused to take the article down as reported by CPJ.

Puntland Journalists Protection (PJP) also reported the detention, arrest and torture of a number of bloggers and conventional journalists.

Puntland officials usually cite these reports as reflecting negatively on Puntland and accuse the reporters of instigating instability in the region. But among the VOA reports that angered the authorities was an interview with a cleric, a member of the anti-Al Qaeda Sufi order known as Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama’ah, who claimed that his group has a presence in Puntland and a report on August 25 of a former governor’s son who killed a man in broad daylight.

The CPJ and other international and local media organizations have denounced these rogue actions by Puntland authorities.

Looking at all these actions, one may wonder why the educated leaders of Puntland who lived in the west and experienced the benefits of media freedom are acting like militia warlords who have more skeletons to hide than truths to share with their people. One thing, however, that Puntland leaders have to know is that it is not only brutal and thuggish to beat arrest or even ban the media but it is also a bad PR for their image and reputation as a responsible government. The best way that any government can challenge any biased reporting if any is not to gag the media but to be honest and transparent with their people, to tell their side of the story and to invite more diversified media to report about truth on the ground. Banning the VOA or any other independent media and relying only on the government’s official media will only create suspicion about the government’s actions and will incite the real media watchdogs to sniff around the lies that the media poodles are trying to bury.

As I was concluding this piece I read that Puntland authorities have permitted VOA to resume its operations. According to statement by the Ministry of Information: “His Excellency, the President of Puntland State, granted the VOA Somali Service to resume its news broadcasting operations in Puntland today as a good gesture to U.S. Ambassador to Kenya H.E. Michael E. Renneberger’s participation at the Puntland Diaspora Forum Conference to be held in the U.S. State of Minnesota, 10 – 12 October 2009.” This is further evidence of the Somali woman’s Jilani story that I related earlier. Puntland Officials need to show a real change of attitude towards media freedom than just cosmetic and self-serving tactics.

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Bashir Goth
Email: bsogoth@yahoo.com

Somali anger at Ethiopia 'raid'

Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland has protested to Ethiopia, accusing its forces of carrying out a cross-border undercover operation.

Puntland's security minister told the BBC two people were in hospital after Ethiopian forces entered Galkayo town at night and raided a house.

He said Ethiopian officers had shot one man and abducted another, later dumping him by road with a bullet wound.

Ethiopian forces were in southern Somalia until they withdrew in January.

Puntland Security Minister Abdullahi Said Samatar said the forces must have crossed over from Ethiopia's Somali region, also known as the Ogaden, where rebels are fighting the government.

But he said until a police investigation was finished it was not possible to say if it was connected to the unrest in the Ogaden.

"Our relationship with Ethiopia has always been good, but we cannot accept security forces intervening in this way," he told the BBC's Somali Service.

Rebels seeking independence for the Somali-speaking population in Ethiopia have operated in the Ogaden since 1984.

Correspondents say they seemed to get a new lease of life when Ethiopia troops went into Somalia to oust the Islamist administration from Mogadishu in late 2006.

Earlier this year, Ethiopia withdrew but Islamist groups now dominate much of southern and central Somalia, with a UN-backed government restricted to parts of the capital.

Puntland has been an ally of Ethiopia since it broke away to run its own affairs in 1998, seven years after Somalia descended into clan warfare.

New search engine targets Muslim Web users

It addresses Muslim sensibilities on sexual and other forbidden content

By John Ribeiro , IDG News Service , 09/11/2009

Sponsored by:

A new search engine, called ImHalal.com, aims to protect the sensibilities of Muslims by filtering out content that is "haram" or forbidden by the faith.

The site will warn people if they are searching for a query that might return explicit content, site-founder Reza Sardeha said in an email on Friday.

Besides developing the search technology, Sardeha and others in his team, based in the Netherlands, have also introduced a two layer filter.

When users get a haram rating of level one or two out of three, they are advised to choose another keyword to search, but they can still continue their search if they believe the results fetched will be clean, Sardeha said.

Words like porn and rape are considered to be at a rating of three, and are blocked, he added. Terms like beer and pork, however, get a haram rating of one because users cannot consume them off the Internet.

The site was launched earlier this month, and has received more than 400,000 unique visitors so far, Sardeha said. The promoters are considering using advertising as a revenue stream for the site, he added.

Muslims have become very active on the Internet in the last few years but there is a lack of tools to assist in safe or responsible online activities.

ImHalal.com aims to create a safe and clean environment for Muslims to search the Web, it said.

Mainstream search engines have comes in for criticism in many parts of the world for displaying content that is offensive to the local culture, and even against local laws. A social activist in India for example has filed a complaint in an Indian court against major search engines for displaying advertising and information on child sex selection techniques. Such advertising is against the law in India.

In some nations, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, some Web sites are actively filtered.

Even the Camels Are Dying

October 8, 2009, 8:01 am

Even the Camels Are Dying

By Jeffrey Gettleman

Jehan Nga for The New York Times Drought is exacting a heavy toll around Galkaiyo, Somalia.

GALKAIYO, Somalia — Ahmed Mahamoud Hassan has probably one of the worst jobs on the planet: drought chairman of the Galmudug region of Somalia, one of the hottest, driest, poorest patches of one of the world’s most utterly failed states. His job is to feed people in a place where there is no food. Obviously, it isn’t easy.

I met Mr. Ahmed last week, during a United Nations trip to Somalia to assess how bad the drought situation really is (short answer: really bad). We walked through a camp for displaced people, absorbing the human wreckage around us. There were stick-skinny children with horrible, rattling coughs that sounded like an old Chevy Nova trying to start up on a cold morning. Emaciated goats snacked on piles of garbage, filling their stretched bellies with nothing more nutritious than black plastic bags. Families of 10 packed into sweltering lean-tos made from sticks and cloth, many of them fleeing either war or drought, Somalia’s twin killers that have sent more than 20 percent of the country’s population on the run.

“This is the fourth year of drought,” Mr. Ahmed told me. “Instead of recovering our livestock, we keep losing them. We’re surviving purely due to food aid. If there are any more delays with the aid, it’ll be starvation for sure.”

In villages all around Galkaiyo, we saw stacks of bleached-out animal bones. People here are pastoralists, and when all the livestock die, the pastoralists are not far behind. Some decide to trudge to the nearest town and wait for the next sack of donated grain. But there is a cost to this, too. Pastoralists are proud people used to surviving in an incredibly harsh environment. Now they are beggars. Once all their animals are gone, and all their brothers’ and friends’ animals are gone, too, it is hard to rebuild that nomadic life of roaming the hinterlands in search of the green grass, a harsh but totally free existence that seems almost beyond time.

Now, even the camels are dying, which really frightens people, because camels can plod along for days on just a sip of water. They are the last animals to keel over in the desert and disappear into the sands. This is basically a picture of the whole middle belt of Somalia and much of East Africa.

Somaliland stability 'under threat'

Tensions boiled over last month when opposition activists fought with police

Somaliland has been hailed as a beacon of stability in the troubled Horn of Africa region since declaring independence from Somalia in 1991. But BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper reports that some experts now believe the self-declared republic is at crisis point.

Michael Walls - co-coordinator of the international election observer mission to Somaliland - has issued a report bemoaning the repeated postponement of the presidential election.

In his report for the Chatham House think-tank, he says that if the situation is not resolved, the territory will inevitably lose many of the gains it has made since breaking away from Somalia.

Somaliland's stability has surprised many people. Although no country has recognised its independent status, it has managed to avoid many of the problems encountered by its neighbours.

This is partly because it has developed a unique hybrid system of government.

A traditional house of elders or "guurti" is combined with other more modern institutions. There is a limited system of democracy, whereby only three political parties are allowed to exist.

This mixture of the modern and the traditional has been a largely effective way of governing. But recent developments put all this at risk.

"With international attention focused on piracy off the Puntland coast, the rise of militant Islam in southern Somalia, and the threat this is perceived to represent to international security and global terrorism, the potential for deterioration in Somaliland must surely be cause for concern," says Mr Walls.

MPs brawled in parliament last month

The current tension in Somaliland centres on the postponement of the presidential election, which was due to have been held on 27 September.

This is not the first time the vote has been delayed - it has been postponed at least three times since last year.

President Dahir Riyale Kahin's term in office - which was meant to run out in May 2008 - has been extended several times.

It is currently due to expire on 29 October, and it is unclear what will happen after that.

Fist-fight

This uncertainty has led to increased concern about Somaliland in the international community, and a flare-up of political animosity within the territory.

There is no crisis in Somaliland Adam Musse Jibril Somaliland representative in the UK

In September, for example, there was a fist-fight in parliament during discussions about a possible impeachment of the president. One MP is even reported to have drawn a gun, although no shots were fired.

Mr Walls says one of the main reasons for the repeated postponement of the polls is what he has described as the incompetence of the national electoral commission.

"Fears are widespread that the electoral commissioners will find themselves incapable of providing the organisation required for a successful presidential election," he says.

"Even if an election date was agreed, the commission wouldn't be able to organise the vote."

Another problem has been the inability of Somaliland's three political parties to agree on a voters' register.

Opposition MPs want the president impeached over the poll disputes

The previous presidential election in April 2003 was held without a register. But as President Riyale won by the narrowest of margins - just 80 votes - it was widely agreed that a more robust system was required to help avoid future problems.

The compilation of a voters' register has been fraught with difficulty.

"The process has been marred by astonishingly widespread fraud and mismanagement", says Mr Walls.

More than half of those who registered did so without providing a readable fingerprint. Many people were registered without being photographed - instead, they brought their own pictures, which were held up in front of a camera and photographed.

There has been no widespread population count in Somaliland since the 1970s, and there is great sensitivity about the compilation of a new voters' register because it is likely to provide a different picture of the region, altering the balance of power between the clans.

This could have serious political implications, altering voting patterns and possibly the outcome of elections.

Animosity remains

The government of Somaliland insists there is no serious cause for concern about the political situation.

"There is no crisis in Somaliland. I accept there are some problems but these are mainly caused by the lack of economic development," says Adam Musse Jibril, Somaliland's representative in the UK.

Mr Jibril said people had to trust the territory's record of resolving political disputes.

"Somaliland has been able to achieve this by combining modern democratic systems with our traditional value systems, where people sit under a tree to talk, argue, and eventually reach a consensus," he says.

But political animosity remains. Mohamed Omar of the opposition Kulmiye party says he does not believe the government will honour a memorandum of understanding recently agreed on a possible way out of the political impasse.

Mr Walls says it is not too late for Somaliland. But he says a presidential election must be held as soon as possible.

"The dangers of instability and authoritarianism characteristic of a number of Somaliland's neighbours can still be averted, but the traditions of dialogue still urgently need to be reactivated", he says.

10 Foods Most Likely to Make You Sick

10 Foods Most Likely to Make You Sick

Leafy Greens, Eggs, and Tuna Are Among Foods Mostly Like to Cause Food-borne Illness

By Todd Zwillich
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 6, 2009 -- Here's a surprise: Some of the healthiest foods may also be the most likely to cause food-borne illness.

That's the conclusion in a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The report shows leafy greens, sprouts, and berries are among the most prone to carry infections or toxins.

"We don't recommend that consumers change their eating habits," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, the CSPI's head of food safety programs. Instead, the group is trying to point out vulnerabilities in the nation's food safety system as it lobbies Congress to beef up enforcement.

The group analyzed CDC data on food illness outbreaks dating back to 1990. They found that leafy greens were involved in 363 outbreaks and about 13,600 illnesses, mostly caused by norovirus, E. coli, and salmonella bacteria.

The rest of the top 10 list included:

• Eggs, involved in 352 outbreaks and 11,163 reported cases of illness.
• Tuna, involved in 268 outbreaks and 2,341 reported cases of illness.
• Oysters, involved in 132 outbreaks and 3,409 reported cases of illness.
• Potatoes, involved in 108 outbreaks and 3,659 reported cases of illness.
• Cheese, involved in 83 outbreaks and 2,761 reported cases of illness.
• Ice cream, involved in 74 outbreaks and 2,594 reported cases of illness.
• Tomatoes, involved in 31 outbreaks and 3,292 reported cases of illness.
• Sprouts, involved in 31 outbreaks and 2,022 reported cases of illness.
• Berries, involved in 25 outbreaks and 3,397 reported cases of illness.

It is unclear how many of the outbreaks can be blamed on the foods themselves. The CDC's database can't discriminate between outbreaks caused by tomatoes, for example, vs. those caused by other ingredients in a salad. Foods like potatoes are almost always consumed cooked, so it is unlikely that potatoes themselves caused 108 outbreaks.

Still, Smith DeWaal called the list "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to food-borne illnesses in the U.S. Not all outbreaks are reported to public health authorities. In addition, the analysis focused only on foods regulated by the FDA; that leaves out beef, pork, poultry, and some egg products, which are policed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Consumers always want to know what they should do to avoid getting sick," says Sarah Klein, lead author of the report. She recommends "defensive eating," including keeping food cold and cooking it thoroughly, chilling oysters and avoiding them when raw, and avoiding raw eggs or using them in homemade ice cream.

Several bills that are circulating in Congress aim to crack down on food safety by requiring all food producers to keep written safety plans and giving the FDA more power to inspect plans and enforce rules.

"In a relative scale our food supply remains quite safe," says Craig Hedberg, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. The CDC says 76 million Americans get sick from food-borne illnesses each year.

"Because most people don't experience a bad outcome from a lapse in good behavior it's difficult to enforce," he says.

Somali minister seized in Uganda

Somali minister seized in Uganda



Somalia's junior minister for defence has been kidnapped during a visit to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Somali officials have said.

Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad, a former warlord also known as Inda'ade, was seized by gunmen as he left a mosque in the city on Tuesday, they added.

The Islamist once served as head of security for the Islamic Courts Union.

Uganda provides about half the peacekeeping troops for the African Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom).