Will the new Ethiomalian Empire stop the never-ending Somali exodus?
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By Noah Arre
According to an article published in the Gulf News of November 2006, in the United Arab Emirates, over fourteen thousand Somalis landed in Yemen from January to November 2006 alone but were immediately apprehended for illegal infiltration and breach of the national laws of that country. Of course, that number does not include the thousands more who died in the countless number of boats that capsized at the high tides of the Red Sea and who never made to safety!
And according to the United Nations office for Refugees and other international humanitarian organizations in the Horn of Africa, an estimated 300,000 from Somalia proper live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, either waiting for immigrant visas from relatives abroad or are else preparing to embark on an adventurous journey to “some promised land somewhere”. A similar number from the same country ( Somalia) lives in Kenya waiting the same fate.
In addition, friends who live in different parts of world say that Somalis are now in every corner of this world waiting to migrate to Europe or America unfortunately both of which have already closed their doors to immigration as a whole and to immigration of Somalis in particular because they are sick and tired of them (Somalis). In fact, in national referendums, most Western countries have already passed laws and legislations that have permanently closed or are ready to close the whole chapter of immigration and especially that of Somalis to their countries.
Despite this, exodus of Somalis never ends when sadly only an apprehension waits abroad. In fact, today, even “the fledgling democracy of Somaliland” or “the little country that could” and “the peaceful Island in a burning sea” is losing its people at an alarming rate. And despite all odds men, women and children of all ages embark on a daily adventure to the unknown… an unfortunate reality that deserves international humanitarian addressing and immediate solution!
On the other hand, given a chance, Somalis across the entire spectrum would automatically abandon home and sorrowfully today, huge masses leave to embark to catastrophic odyssey that leaves many in the limbo. This is unfortunate to happen especially at this time when no one is willing to address their problems let alone act to help them.
The irony is that hundreds of thousands of Somalis who migrated to the West years ago live in limbo too because many have not been accepted. And many more Somalis who naturalized can hardly catch up with the new realities; different cultures and climates to both of which they are aliens. Hence many are dropouts and spend their time daydreaming; yet they remain divided and adamantly refuse to embrace each other and sing Mr. Faisal’s nostalgic great song:
“Dammam iyo Khobar ma doonaayoo; Dariiqa Thuqbaa I daashadayoo; Dadyohow dibad waan la garanwaayee; an duulee diyaarad ii xajisaay."
Translated: “I do not want Dammam; I do not want Al Khobar; I am sick and tired of traveling down Thuqba road, Arabia; Ow my people, I cannot adjust living in alien lands; please help me catch a flight back home!”
“Naf yahay arligeedii loo oriyaay; Ottawa ma ku gaadhay oradkii …"
Translated: “Oh, thy self to which its country stinks; does your reckless journey finally took you to Ottawa!”
“Dalkaagii wacnaa adaa ka dudee, daleediyo seexo dibadaha…"
Translated: “Thou art the one who in disgust left her country, go and sleep in the streets and the dirty corridors of alien lands!”
“Waxaad doonta lagama waayi jirinee, wacanaa wadan aad u dhalataa…" Translated: “One would always get whatever one wanted how sweet it is to be in your birthplace”
Weynow wax lagaama waayi jirinee wanaag ii xigsii waxyeelada…"
Translated: “Oh, my Lord the giver and the sustainer, grant me solace after my despair!”
Will the new Ethiomalian Empire stop this tragedy?
Unfortunately, my answer to this question is negative for the following reasons:
It is certainly true that all civilized nations are moving toward a global unification…a unification that was once only a dream now becoming a reality and moving at a full speed! And it is equally true that once archenemies of Europe such as France and Germany are true friends sharing trade, technology and all other human interactions. In fact, today all Europeans are becoming one great union with one identity. The same is true for those countries in the far East where once true enemies like Japan and China are embracing each other and coming closer together simply because they realized they have a common destiny and only through sharing and/or unifying their trade and technology can they get their fair share of today’s exploding global wealth!
Unfortunately, the same cannot be true for Africans in general and for those of the Horn of Africa in particular for one reason because the demagogic leaders of their countries are unaccommodating, oppressive and desperate to stay in power come what may.
Consider Siad Barre of Somalia whose devilish clan-based destructive formulas and clan against clan policies took his once developing, prosperous nation into a thirty-seven-year devastation and mayhem. Consider Asseyas Afwerki of Eritrea who, despite thirty years of liberation war, for diversion of attention to stay in power, took his nation back to war over a trivial issue that could be settled at the international courts of justice or simply by calling Africans to mediate. Recall and consider Mengistu Haile Mariam who butchered hundreds of thousands of his country people before finally fleeing to seek refuge in Zimbabwe and now consider Meles Zenawi who recklessly attacks every country in the Horn of Africa on the pretext of protecting the “integrity of Ethiopia from Islamic Fundamentalism”… a self created farce…so that he can stay in power, a power by which he keeps through manslaughter, suppression and intimidation of his people. And finally, consider Zenawi’s hand picked foreign-born Warlord President who could not set a single foot outside Baidoa, Somalia but who is now waiting to realize his dream of “in Mogadishu, dancing with his infamous, villainous and wicked warlord ministers who held their country and people hostage for over years!” This is unfortunate, but is a trend to all Africa and to this Region in particular and one can only hope that the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia does not open the centuries old Somali-Ethiopian Pandora box of mayhem…mistrust, wars, death and destruction. The people of the Horn of Africa as a whole have had more than their fair share of hunger, death and suffering.
So, in my view, neither the medieval standard mullahs who tormented and terrorized the Southern Somalia community nor the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, to install the new foreign-born warlord government waiting to celebrate in Mogadishu, is the right choice for that unlucky nation. And neither will truly address let alone solve the continuing Horn of African peoples suffering. Nor this will stop the tragic exodus of the Somalis from their country in masses.
So, today, while immigration is an endemic problem worldwide and a trend common everywhere, what is unfortunate and extremely depressing is that Western World leaders are failing to realize the problem and confront it decisively.
So, hello America:
As the nation of nations
As a nation whose constitution is based on “the right of all to pursue liberty and freedom”
As a nation whose constitution calls for “the right of one to seek opportunity”
As a nation that has lady liberty as the symbol of hope and migration for all mankind;
And as a nation that propagates democracy, human rights and freedom and calls the right of all
to exercise their inalienable rights and accordingly engraves that as the cornerstone of its democracy:
The myopic amendments recently made in the American national constitution by a few isolationists in the Congress or by the Bush Administration will not work and if they do, they will permanently damage America’s standing in this global village because America will be seen as a hypocritical nation that selectively substitutes its great constitutional ideals with temporary national interests even if such interests contradict the constitution of our great American democracy!
Consequently, as an American who loves his nation, one who admires American constitutional ideals and one who loves his nation’s history of support of human rights and the right to pursue opportunity, I like to remind the Bush Administration, the Congress and the Senate that America…the sole superpower of today, realize that America is morally obligated to lead by acting boldly, creatively and decisively. It must face the new challenges of the 21st century, immigration among them. And it should do so by addressing one of the following Scenarios when it comes to the Somali tragedy, the ugliest humanitarian crisis facing mankind today. It should therefore implement one of the following:
A- America should save Somalis by granting immediate immigration status to all those who are willing to go and if it does so, it can accommodate all six million Somalis in one go without any negative repercussions whatsoever. And assuming America does so, the whole country of Somalia is hers without any challenges and neither the Islamic fundamentalists nor Al Qaeda will prevail in that part of the world. And the presumed security problems present there will not jeopardize America’s national interests in that troubled part of the world because it will disappear!
Furthermore, the new territory that is born out of that great American sacrifice will have a new flag, a new copy and paste American constitution and the new name of Somerica with Mr. Paul Bremer, who will place poor civil-war-torn country back on the world map, as its new interim governor!
Fortunately, this new Somerica is located on the year-round sunny Red Sea and the shipping lanes through which pass a great deal of the oil and trade to the West will be secure for America and the West forever. So, corporate America, the international entrepreneurs as well as other world business community leaders will converge there to enjoy the warm, sandy beaches of the Red Sea and that of the Indian Ocean. Many of those entrepreneurs will be able to comfortably lead lavish life-styles in that environmentally virgin land with the cheap African labor and will certainly have free access to the new future market of the world…“Superpower Africa” at unbelievably cost effective prices…
B- Or America should forcefully repatriate all naturalized Somalis… short of America-born kids who are grown-up or can adjust by leading natural lives in their birth place… and hence should pursue their dreams. However, in doing this, the West in general and America in particular should respect the rights of repatriated citizens by offering them some financial incentives…a one time repatriation (resettlement) pay to everyone sent back or by continuing to provide each individual with his/her present social services pay check (food stamps) back in their poor Somalia to insure their lives after all most of them are given those privileges free when they hardly contribute toward the GDP of their respective new countries in the West.
The beauty of part B is that repatriated Somali Americans have assumingly learnt a lot from the West and will establish an everlasting democracy in poor civil war-torn Somalia. And the pro-American democracy that they establish will with love to copy the great American constitutional democracy and hence help America eliminate any hostile enemy of America. And assuming this is realized, it would put America’s Islamo-phobia to rest after all the new nation they form would become a faithful supporter of USA and give superpower America a permanent and unshakable foothold in that highly hostile part of the Horn of Africa!
C- Or by America and Europe establishing a Marshal Plan; one similar to that granted to Europe after the Second World War. This Marshal Plan should provide massive economic development program for the Horn Africa in general and for Somalia and Somaliland in particular. However, the West should tie that presumed financial assistance to each nation to respect peace and stability and solve problems through dialogue by applying the traditional Somali under the acacia dialogue practiced by them for centuries….former Italian Somalia should be made to accept the territorial integrity of Somaliland…and Ethiopia made to with draw its forces immediately unless the Warlord government of Somalia wants to form a federation with Ethiopia to create Ethiomalia if that is the only way the surrogate leaders and their mentors can survive!
By realizing one or all of the above scenarios would certainly prove the West’s perceived moral world leadership. And it would certainly help America restore its tarnished images across the entire Third World in general and across the entire Muslim World in particular. And should America choose to do either, in my view, none would jeopardize its national interests. In fact, all scenarios would help America prosper.
By Noah Arre
Email- noahark1382@yahoo.com
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