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Hargeysa Book Fair –
Arts, Culture And So Much More |
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Matt Baugh
And so to Hargeysa for the Hargeysa, an inspiring
gathering of artists, authors, poets and more.
Established by Jama Musse Jama and organized by the
wonderful Ayan Mahamoud and her excellent team, the
Book Fair is now in its fifth year.
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By Steven Aftergood
In apparent violation of an arms embargo on
Somalia that it helped to impose 20 years ago, the
United States is providing clandestine military
support to Somali security services without
notifying United Nations monitors as required by the
embargo.
That is among the findings of the UN Somalia
Eritrea Monitoring Group, as reported by Eli Lake in
“Obama’s Not-So-Secret Terror War,” The Daily Beast,
July 24.
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By Alison Wildey
London, UK, July 14, 2012 – World 5,000 metres
champion Mo Farah underlined his credentials to
become Britain's first Olympic long-distance gold
medallist by winning his final warm-up in style at
the London Grand Prix on Friday.
Farah, who also won world silver in the 10,000 in
Daegu last year, was confronted by a wall of sound
from a bumper home crowd as he pulled away from
Australia's Collis Birmingham on the final lap to
win in 13 minutes, 6.04 seconds.
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Hargeysa,
Somalia, July 21, 2012 – The international Somali
diaspora can help to stimulate the region through
remittance finance, according to the CEO of Africa's
largest remittance company.
Speaking at the second annual Somaliland Diaspora
Agency (SDA) conference - 'Diaspora Investment in
Somaliland'- held on 17th July in Hargeysa,
Somaliland, Abdirashid Duale, CEO of Dahabsiiil
said:
"Today, remittance finance is the fastest growing
and most stable capital inflow to Somali
territories. This income not only offers a vital
lifeline to at-risk communities who rely on this
money to survive, but it also helps to drive
economic development throughout the region.
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2.5 million people already in crisis 1.3 million
more could fall back
One year
after the declaration of famine in Somalia, a
quarter of the country’s population are still
surviving on humanitarian aid and
over a million people could fall back into food
crisis in the next two months, international agency
Oxfam warned today. The agency is calling on the
international community to increase investment in
both emergency aid and long-term development so
Somalis can sustain themselves through drought and
conflict.
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Nairobi, Kenya,
July 21, 2012 – Somalia's president has shielded a
top pirate leader from arrest by issuing him a
diplomatic passport, according to a United Nations
investigation that criticizes the "climate of
impunity" enjoyed by pirate kingpins in Somalia and
abroad.
The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia said in a
confidential report to the Security Council that
senior pirate leaders were benefiting from
high-level protection from Somali authorities and
were not being sufficiently targeted for arrest or
sanction by international authorities.
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Mogadishu, Somalia, July 21, 2012 – Turkish Deputy
Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag has said that following
transition period in Somalia, the country would take
firm steps forward.
Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of Civil
Aviation Training Center in the Somalian capital of
Mogadishu on Tuesday, Minister Bozdag said that
everything was moving in a good way and getting
better in the country.
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London, UK, July 21, 2012 – Red Emperor Resources
has confirmed. that the Shabeel North well in
Puntland, Somalia, has penetrated a 50-metre gross
section of upper Jesomma sands with oil shows.
The well - which is being drilled by Red Emperor's
joint venture partner Horn Petroleum - is at a
current depth of 1,967 meters.
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Bonn, Germany, July 21, 2012 – Sea piracy off the
coast of Somalia has dropped dramatically, in part
as the result of private security forces
accompanying the ships. The German government now
wants to regulate their certification.
The German Cabinet has agreed on legislation to
introduce a licensing procedure for security
companies on board ships.
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full text...
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Somaliland Moves
Towards New Banking Era |
Somaliland is poised to pass a banking
law to help
the flow of
remittances
and
encourage
much-needed
foreign
investment
Mark Tran in Hargeysa
Without formal banks, Somaliland lacks cash machines
or credit card facilities, obliging visitors to the
country to bring in wads of dollars. But that is
about to change as the former British protectorate
is poised to pass a banking law that will, for the
first time, allow companies to operate as formal
banks, offering services taken for granted
throughout much of the world. Somaliland paved the
way for the new banking regime when it
passed a law in
April formally establishing a central bank
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Preparations For Election Heats Up |
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 21, 2012 (SL Times) – The
Chairman of Dalsan political organization, Ismail
Aadan Osman (Ismail Yare) gave an interview to
Haatuf newspaper in which he harshly criticized the
Chairman of Kulmiye, Muse Bihi, and accused him of
interfering in Dalsan’s internal affairs. He also
criticized the chairman of Wadani political
organization, Abdirahman Irro, for violating the law
by being at the same time the head of a political
group and Speaker of parliament.
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SSJW
Opposes Plans To Suppress The Media |
Press Release
Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 21, 2012 (SL
Times) – SSJW, a Somaliland Journalists organization
condemns on-going attempts by Somaliland government
and the University of Hargeysa to change Somaliland
Press Law no. 27/2004. This law was passed by
Somaliland’s legislature and was signed by
Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin.
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Minority
Groups Call For Increase In Their Quota |
Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 21, 2012 (SL Times) – The
president’s advisor on minority affairs, Mr Barkhad
Jama Hirsi, the head of the Education Academy for
Minorities, Hussein Ibrahim Buni, the Chairwoman of
Minority Women Organization, Nim’I Id Salan, elders,
and intellectuals met in Hargeysa’s Hadhwanaag Hotel
and called for an increase in the number of
minorities in the local government council and the
legislature.
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Dahabshiil Highlights
Investment Opportunities |
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 21, 2012 (SL Times) – The C.E.O of Dahabshiil, Mr
Abdirashid Muhammad Du’ale spoke at a conference of Somaliland diaspora and told
the gathering about the investment opportunities available in Somaliland.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 21, 2012 (SL Times) –
Minister of Aviation, Mohamoud Hashi Abdi, announced
that passengers at Somaliland’s airports who are
older than 12 years old will have to pay a $10 fee
for using the airport.
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Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 21, 2012 (SL Times) – BBC
editor and author Mary Harper participated in the
Hargeysa Book Fair. During her presentation, she
discussed her book about Somalis.
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Merka, Somalia, July 23, 2012 – Somali militant
group al-Shabaab has executed three of its own
members for alleged spying on behalf of U.S. and
British intelligence agencies.
A pro-al-Shabaab website says the three men were
executed Sunday in the town of Merka.
An al-Shabaab judge said one man, Mukthar Ibrahim
Sheikh Ahmed, had admitted to working for British
spy agency MI6 and handing over Muslims to
authorities in Somaliland.
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Dubai, UAE, July 21, 2012 – Anonymous has officially
declared a war on terror by holding hostage Middle
Eastern bank accounts.
It is threatening to unleash "global internet
destruction" unless the Dahabshiil bank in the
Middle East admits to financing terrorist groups.
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Barack Obama Moves On
Charcoal Ban From Somalia |
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Washington, July 21, 2012 – President Barack Obama
has targeted the export of charcoal from war-torn
Somalia, the sales of which help finance an al
Qaeda-affiliated group, the State Department said
Friday.
Through an amendment to an already existing
executive order, Obama signed on to a resolution
passed by the U.N. Security Council earlier this
year that banned Somali exports of charcoal.
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Horn Of Africa Crisis
One Year On – Famine Reversed, Countless Lives
Saved, But Situation Of Millions Of Women And
Children Still Grave |
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Nairobi, Kenya, July 21, 2012 – A year ago today,
the crisis in the Horn of Africa reached boiling
point when the United Nations declared famine in two
regions of southern Somalia. The extraordinary
international support, coupled with favourable
rains, helped save countless lives and reverse the
famine. However, the crisis is far from over. Eight
million people across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya
are still in need of humanitarian assistance.
Children, in particular, are threatened by a
combination of poverty, insecurity, malnutrition,
and disease.
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Shortly
after I posted a blog about a book fair in
Somaliland, I received a comment from a contributor
to a highly respected international magazine. He
asked whether it was a joke. As if I was making the
whole thing up.
The Hargeysa International Book Fair is most
certainly not a joke. It is now in its fifth year
running and, as its name suggests, is truly
international.
It is international in
the sense that Somali authors, poets, artists,
musicians and intellectuals from all over the world
were invited to the event, reflecting the truly
globalised nature of the Somali people. They have
always been outward looking due to their
geographical location and long seaboard, but the
past two-and-a-half decades of conflict have
forcibly displaced about a third of the Somali
population, scattering them far and wide across the
globe.
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Toronto, Canada, July 23, 2012 — Canada’s latest
singing sensation is not only attracting the
attention of music lovers from coast to coast but is
quickly building a solid fan base across the
continents.
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A $17m bottling
plant in Somaliland is the biggest private investment in a country that
desperately needs foreign funds
Mark Tran in
Hargeysa
It is Africa's,
if not the world's, most isolated Coca-Cola bottling
plant, a large shiny white-and-red hangar-like building in the middle of
nowhere, with camels and black-headed sheep as neighbors.
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European Commission
MEMO
Brussels, 20 July 2012
Overview of situation in the region
The Horn of Africa suffers from recurrent droughts
and emergencies, as well as continuously high
under-nutrition and food insecurity among its
population. Food insecurity is aggravated by the
recent sharp increases in food and fuel prices,
demographic pressures, weak governance, and
insecurity in the area.
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Rain, Drought, East, West |
The Times of
London published an editorial last week in which it asked
for the rain to stop. "Let us make our position crystal
clear,” declared the editorial, “We are against this
weather.” As denizens of Somaliland, a drought-prone country
the fact that anyone would ask for the rain to stop would
seem unusual to us. So naturally we wanted to know more
about what prompted it. Unfortunately we could not locate
the text of the editorial. But from references and excerpts
we gathered that it has been raining for months in the UK
which made life unbearable for many Britons. Even though the
British are used to a lot of rain, this was too much for
them, and thus the editorial.
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Somaliland: A
Presidency For Sale |
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Jamal Madar
Faisal Ali Warabe, the leader of the Welfare and
Justice Party known as UCID by its Somali acronym,
illegally and undemocratically sold the party’s
presidential candidacy for the 2015 presidential
elections to a former banker named Jamal Ali
Hussein. A lot of money changed hands, according to
the Somaliland language daily, HAATUF. Not only did
Faisal illegally sell this candidacy to Jamal at a
price ranging from $350,000 to $1.5 million
according to the local press but also he acted
illegally without the approval of, and consultation
with, the central committee of the party.
The agreement reached by the two sides clearly
states that Jamal is the “official UCID presidential
candidate” for 2015 presidential elections even
though he was not approved by any member of the
party other than Faisal himself.
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You'd Be Amazed At How
Similar An Irish Recession Is To Somali Goats With
Itchy Feet |
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Colin Murphy
Cult singer, award-winning writer and hero of the Somaliland independence
movement, Julian Gough has now come full circle. He started in Galway in the
late 1980s with indie band Toasted Heretic, and returns this week for the
opening of his first play, The Great Goat Bubble (details below). It's a career
going alarmingly to plan.
At 15, Gough was asked by a teacher what he wanted to be. "A rock star in my
20s, a writer in my 30s, and a filmmaker in my 40s," he replied. That ambition
has proven remarkably resilient.
Gough's songs -- like the subversive ballad 'Galway Bay' -- were always literary
and comic, and so once he had the rock star bit out of the way, he started
writing comic literature.
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Rising Divorce Among
Somalis Is A Cause For Concern |
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Bazi
Bussuri Sheikh
It is very rare to find a Somali home that is not
directly and indirectly touched by the trauma of
divorce. We are now witnessing rising divorce rates
among the Somalis inside the country and abroad and
hardly give a moment’s thought to all those broken
homes and dreams. We are really in state of denial,
until suddenly it affects us. Majority of these
divorce cases are preventable and could have been
resolved if the necessary steps had been taken at
the early stages of the conflict. There are many
cases where the ones who initiated the divorce end
up expressing their regret. They then shop around
for a scholar to make a case for them in order to
resume their marriage.
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What You Can't Bring
To London 2012 |
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By Vicky Wong
If you are an Olympics ticket-holder then you'd better leave your over-sized
hat, vuvuzela and Pepsi T-shirt at home
Ticket-holders to the London 2012 Olympics have been issued with a list of
prohibited and restricted items.
It's a two-page PDF with reasonable airport-style guidelines on the first page
(don’t bring sharp objects, alcohol, bottles larger than 100ml and so on) to the
more bizarre and slightly innocuous restrictions on page two.
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Rooting Out Piracy
Starts On-Shore |
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By Annette Leijenaar and Timothy Walker
The dilemma facing those trying to solve piracy in
Somalia is that any such efforts should start
on-shore. Yet piracy's yields are significant and
alternatives are limited.
On October 31 2011, Taye-Brook Zerihoun, United
Nations (UN) Assistant Secretary-General for
Political Affairs, summed up this dilemma in a
statement made to the United Nations Security
Council:
'The Somali people, especially the youth, need
greater incentives not to succumb to the lure of
piracy. Economic rehabilitation and creation of
alternative livelihoods, especially development and
rehabilitation of coastal fisheries, must be the
centre of efforts to fight piracy. But as long as
piracy is lucrative, alternative livelihood options
will be hard to sell.'
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