DOES MOGADISHU NEED A MAYOR?

Especially given the heightened insecurity in the city and lack of order, is it possible to achieve much as a mayor? Food for thought...

But some are willing to take on the challenge despite the odds and the best anyone can do is support them. Mohamed Ahmed Noor is currently the Mayor of Mogadishu, a true African hero of the highest order and an inspiration to many including Africa Project 53.

Mohamed Ahmed Noor was under no illusions when he agreed to take on the job of mayor of Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. He was living in the relative safety of London when the offer was recently made. He sat his family down and told them he may not be coming back. "I explained the dangers of the job, that I may be killed and that one day they may hear on the news that the mayor of Mogadishu has been assassinated, or killed in an explosion."

...

Mayor Noor feels that Mogadishu gets a bad press. "I think there is a misunderstanding about Mogadishu. It is not more dangerous than Baghdad, or Kabul. "If you compare death rates, or daily accidents in the capitals, on a bad day in Mogadishu you can have 10-20 deaths, but in Baghdad we hear of 50 or 100 casualties in a day. In Kabul it can be more than that."
Mr Noor does recognise the limitations the security situation presents, however. "I cannot work effectively, I cannot go wherever I want, I don't have resources to provide services." But since taking office four months ago, he says he has tried to do whatever he can to improve the lives of Mogadishu's people. "I am lighting the streets of Mogadishu so people can start to lead a normal life. "I am cleaning the streets, the markets. All that is an improvement," he said. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11847336

So far, all he has received is a $50,000 budget for a capital where garbage has not been collected in 20 years, and where electricity is nonexistent unless one owns a generator or buys it from someone who does. "The government has not kept its promise," he said. But that hasn't stopped him. He persuaded a generator operator to light up a few streets at night by threatening to bring in two large generators and drive him out of business. He hired 10 trucks to pick up garbage; that made a small dent in one neighborhood. He replaced officials who had been chosen because of clan ties and installed people with experience. In some neighborhoods, he created community-policing units to prevent spies from al Shabab, the al Qaeda-linked militia seeking to take control over the country, from infiltrating government areas. "Security has improved," he declared, radiating with optimism.

For more information on Mohamed Ahmed Noor Mayor of Mogadishu Somalia background and his life journey that has prepared and led him to this enormous task visit here http://www.washingtonpost.com

Dr. Hawa Abdi & Her Daughters: Angels in Somalia

Dr. Amina Mohamed Abdi, Dr. Hawa Abdi and Dr. Deqa Mohamed Abdi

On a still, hot morning last May, hundreds of Islamist militants invaded the massive displaced-persons camp that Dr. Hawa Abdi runs near Mogadishu, Somalia. They surrounded the 63-year-old ob-gyn’s office, holding her hostage and taking control of the camp. “Women can’t do things like this,” they threatened. Dr. Abdi, who is equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo, was unfazed. Every day in Somalia brings new violence as bands of rebels rove ungoverned. Today Somalia remains what the U.N. calls one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. On that morning in May, Dr. Abdi challenged her captors: “What have you done for society?” The thugs stayed a week, leaving only after the U.N. and others advocated on her behalf. Dr. Abdi then, of course, got back to work. Her lifesaving efforts started in 1983, when she opened a one-room clinic on her family farm. As the government collapsed, refugees flocked to her, seeking food and care. Today she runs a camp housing approximately 90,000 people, mostly women and children because, as she says, “the men are dead, fighting, or have left Somalia to find work.” While Dr. Abdi has gotten some help, many charities refuse to enter Somalia. “It’s the most dangerous country,” says Kati Marton, a board member of Human Rights Watch. “Dr. Abdi is just about the only one doing anything.” Her greatest support: two of her daughters, Deqo, 35, and Amina, 30, also doctors, who often work with her. Despite the bleak conditions, Dr. Abdi sees a glimmer of hope. “Women can build stability,” she says. “We can make peace.” Source:Glamour Magazine

"We've celebrated the most famous women in the world, but the women readers tell us they're the most moved by, year after year, are the women they've never heard of before," says Glamour's editor-in-chief Cindi Leive speaking at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards event 2010 New York City

How to Help:
Glamour is working with the nonprofit Vital Voices to distribute funds to support Dr. Abdi’s crucial work. Donate here.

“Everyone in the Dr. Hawa Abdi hospital is a Somali—no clan affiliation is allowed here. If someone brings such affiliation, he or she will be expelled from here,” she recently told Hiiraan Online.

...Asked how she would explain her two daughters’ decision to become OB/GYN doctors, just like her, Dr. Dhiblawe said: “My daughters want to follow my roots, because they love their nation and their people. They are dedicated to help their people. Sometimes, when I told them to stay away from the medical profession, they declined, and decided to work for their people.”

...she distinctly remembers one fateful day after the 1991 civil war that brought down the military regime. Her hospital was overflowing with injured men from one of the sides who were engaged in the war. Militiamen from the other side marched on her hospital and demanded to get access to the injured men of the opposite group, so that they can kill them.

Engrossed with deep respect for humanity, Dr. Dhiblawe told the attacking militiamen to “kill me first, before you can kill my patients.” It was a defining moment in her career. That stubbornness saved her patients.

Dr. Dhiblawe’s mother died when she was 12. As the eldest of her siblings, she had to help with family chores, but that didn’t stop her from pursuing her medical studies dream. The daughter of an educated father, she became a doctor at a very young age.

“giving up and leaving the whole country,” something she’s fully capable of. But, she added: “Then, I think about who is going to take care of my patients. If I could get a Green Card for all of my patients and all the displaced people here, I would ship them to the United States.”


If you need to take part on Dr. Hawa Abdi's humanitarian work, please contact her at
E-mail: dwaqaf@yahoo.com
Source:Somalionline

Dr Hawa Abdi received her medical training in the Ukraine, the former Soviet Union nation, and returned to Somalia in 1983 to open her own clinic in the outskirts of Mogadishu.

MORE INFORMATION:

Dr Hawa Abdi Foundation http://drhawaabdifoundation.org/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63336303744
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/eveningnews/main7038748.shtml

GOOGLE NEEDS AFRICA & AFRICA NEEDS GOOGLE

Smartphone owners in South Africa will now be able to enter a voice command in Afrikaans and Zulu which will return written search results via Google's search engine.

It is also using computer and human translators to ensure there is sufficient content on the Internet to make searches in such languages worthwhile.

In a continent where literacy remains a significant issue, the company hopes it will encourage more people to get online in a way that suits them and has pledged to deliver search results in audio in the not too distant future.

...

"We see speech technology as the way to cross the digital divide," he said. "It's not realistic to expect someone in a far corner of the Limpopo to use web technology but boy they can talk."

His team took the new offering to rural areas where many people had never heard of Google and the mixed response they received reflected a general mistrust of technology in African communities, he said.

"You have a group of people who are horrified - they see speech as a human thing and don't want to talk to a machine," he said. "Then you have a group who are fascinated. They're proud of their language and when a phone responds to them in it, it means they're taking ownership."

The latest launch forms part of Google's mission to nudge more Africans online and onto its sites such as Gmail, Maps and Chat. At present, Africans make up 14 per cent of the world's population but only five per cent of its Internet users.

Key to Google's mission is to capitalise on the widespread use of mobile phones, which outnumber desktop computers tenfold.

Mobile technology has already given millions of people in Kenya access to banking, and Google recently won a Mobile World Congress award for an "SMS tips" service, which answers users' texted questions about health or agricultural issues.

Harnessing Africa's myriad languages is also vital - it already offers a service in 24 of them, but is now seeking to encourage locals to enter their own content to boost the material available in each.

Google Baraza is one of the flagship projects it is using to make itself more relevant. Users can send in questions such as "Where can I buy a reasonably priced camera in Accra?" and "What is the best university in Nigeria?" and other users get points for providing helpful answers.

But there are still obstacles to getting Africa online. Google's cheapest Android phone in South Africa costs R1,399 (£127), locking out the majority of potential users, and even in big cities, internet access is still unreliable.

The average Internet cafe modem struggles to load Gmail and Streetmap, while cataloguing South Africa in time for the World Cup, is yet to make a dent in some of the continent's most populous townships.

Richard Mulholland, a motivational speaker for businesses and founder of South Africa's Entrepreneur magazine, said that like Baraza, much of what Google will become known for in Africa will be alien to its fans elsewhere, and 90 % will be SMS and voice-based.

"In many areas, it will find it's providing the platform to the content creation and the community itself comes up with the algorithm," he said.

"For a local, start-up company, that would be impossible but that's why a brand like Google works."

The company is still to make a profit in the region and most of the services it offers are free.

But Denis Gikunda, Google's localisation manager for African languages, said it was happy to play the long game since, once Africa's massive audience is engaged, there's the potential for considerable profit through relevant advertising.

"In order for us to succeed in Africa from a business point of view, we need people to be using the Internet and using it successfully," he said. "It's a big commitment but then Google is a company that can make that commitment."

Mr Mulholland believes that Google will reap other rewards from its African adventure too.

"Africa needs Google but in the same way, Google needs Africa because it's going to push it to work out all kinds of new solutions, which is what it actually does best," he said.

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8113690/Google-launches-first-African-voice-recognition-technology.html

UN GLOBAL COMPACT LEADERS SUMMIT REPORT

UN Global Summit Report

The Leaders Summit provided companies with a platform to demonstrate how they are making a contribution to development and the MDGs. Participants were encouraged to come to the Summit prepared to share a new commitment or announcement. Approximately 25 % of companies at the Summit made a commitment to support UN development objectives. Among these, 50 % cited that the company would engage in partnership with the UN, an NGO or other organization to advance a development project.

FULL REPORT HERE http://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/summit2010/2010_Leaders_Summit_Report.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=MonthlyBulletin&utm_content=413464749&utm_campaign=UNGlobalCompactBulletinNovember2010subscribers&utm_term=Download

Salvaging the Horn of Africa

Just to share some of the experiences we come across as AP53 embarks on its initiatives within the Horn of Africa. Finding solutions to the challenges within the Horn of Africa is not easy at ALL!

It was early on the disreputable day of October 21st, 2010 that I tuned into the BBC at 7.00am. They have been covering a press conference held by Johnny Carson, the American Undersecretary of African Affairs. Mr. Carson was talking about the Obama administration’s new ‘double track’ policy towards the Somali dilemma: supporting the TFG while dealing with the peaceful administrations of Somaliland, Puntland and the central areas of Somalia without recognizing them as separate entities. After the press conference, the BBC organized a brief debate convened by Mohamed H. Hussein (Shiine) between a woman from Somalia, Sadia, whose only first name I was able to catch and Anis Abdillahi Essa, a strong advocate for Somaliland.
Mr. Carson used the term ‘Somaliland’ to refer to the Republic of Somaliland in his press conference, while our sister Sadia insisted on using ‘The Northern Regions’ in reference to Somaliland. Embarrassed for Sadia, Mr. Anis requested from his sister to at least follow the American Under-secretary in using ‘Somaliland’ in her communiqué. In response, Sadia staunchly refused by stating that she will never in her life utter the word ‘Somaliland’, but will continue using the term ‘The Northern Regions.’ The standard of hatred, animosity and bitterness has reached such a level and this discouraging, while scary scrutiny is not restricted to Sadia alone, but is at least shared by most of the Diaspora and the TFG who are envious and resentful of the victories scored in Somaliland.
This is far from a benevolent or compassionate human response to a successful story of some of your brethren, much akin to a neighbor who has put his house in order while steering clear of your side of the fence. In contrast to their diasporic counterparts, Somalia’s local population has shown their admiration of what is going on in Somaliland. The despair and the grief they have shown on the death of President Egal is something unforgettable. This was followed by the joy they demonstrated after the recent successful transfer of power between two popularly elected presidents, the likes of which neither Somalia nor Somaliland has ever seen.
Why such an acrimony? Why not appreciate the gains scored by your fellow Somalis to salvage a part of the greater Somali region from havoc and disastrous wars? Why not appreciate and make use of the rich experience they have accumulated in finding solutions to their differences through peaceful dialogue and the Islamic\traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution. Why is Somaliland not given the chance to take part in the international and regional arena where the dilemma of Somalia has been discussed for the last two decades? Are they not the brothers with whom we shared the same Republic for almost thirty years of unification? Are we not the closest to monitor and sense their inner feelings and preoccupations? Why we are not offered at least an observer’s status in such efforts? I admit that the authorities of Somaliland were too busy focusing on the reconstruction of their own nation at the initial stages. But, one should not undervalue President Egal’s offer of hosting a Somali reconciliation conference that was undermined in 2000.
This is a brief account of the realities on the ground of two countries divorced from one another, yet locked together by a prejudiced world public opinion and injudicious antagonistic Somali view points. It is not only the people of Somaliland who seceded from the rest of Somalia; the reality is that the people of Somalia and the subsequent so-called governments have cut the country into two parts. For Somalilanders, 18th May is the day they officially restored their sovereignty. The fact is that Somaliland was cut off from Somalia long ago. 18th May marks only the date that our people have reached a verdict on their self- determination.
Somalis in the South and the world at large talk about the war in Somalia for the last twenty years and the fact remains that in Somaliland the civil strife started in 1981 and ended in 1991. This is ten against twenty. This is the reality. The first ten is not accounted for, but the other twenty is counted and this makes Somaliland a separate entity. Let us ask ourselves the one million dollar question: Which is the country where a devastating civil war has been going on for the last twenty years in the Horn of Africa? The answer is simple: Somalia and not Somaliland. In Somaliland, we are not talking about wars instead we are talking about the noble and cherished accomplishments we share with the developing world using our meager resources and mechanisms of conflict resolution. At certain instances the world recognizes this and Mr. Carson in his press conference has admitted that Somaliland has realized a successful presidential election unlike many other African countries. He went to the extent of congratulating former president Dahir Ra’yale Kahin for the peaceful transfer of power. On the other hand, two groups of international electoral observers declared the presidential elections of 26/6/2010 to be credible, free and fair.


Author
Aw Farax Mohamed xaqa_u_gargaar@hotmail.com

Text source and more information http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2010/457/40.shtml

Why Djibouti Succeeded In Attracting Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Investments

BEAUTY OF DJIBOUTI

Djibouti may initially seem the most unlikely place to attract foreign investments. The country lacked natural resources and everything else that investors considered before putting their money in a new overseas venture.
But these harsh realities were not to deter Djibouti’s president Ismail Omer Gualleh from abandoning his dream of turning his country to Africa’s Dubai.

He envisaged that Djibouti by virtue of it location at the mouth of the Red Sea and close proximity to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, could became a regional hub for transshipment of goods between land-locked Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
But the realization of this vision depended on obtaining funds for the modernization and expansion of the country’s existing port infrastructure.

In order to be able to lure the necessary investments for the development of it’s port infrastructure, the Djiboutian government had no other option except to introduce far- reaching incentives that conferred an attractive range of both tax and non-tax benefits.
This was followed by president Gulleh’s bold decision in 2000 to sign a concession agreement with Dubai Ports International, a subsidiary of Dubai World, that allowed the Gulf investors to manage Djibouti Port for a period of 20 years. Traditionally ports have been considered national assets that must remain in the control of governments. But the port liberalization policies adopted by the government allowed Djibouti to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in direct foreign investment. Encouraged by the country’s newly-acquired business-friendly environment, investors from Dubai and the government of Djibouti agreed to expand their joint venture involving the management of Djibouti’s old port by establishing a container terminal at Doraleh, 13km from the city. Operational since December 2008, Doraleh container terminal is said to be most technologically advanced in Africa.

In 2004 Djibouti port’s Free Zone was created. The Zone is managed by Jebel Ali Free Zone. To attract investments, Djibouti Free Zone operates on the basis of “one stop shop” meaning that you can finalize all your formalities under one roof. Investments are exempted from all direct or indirect tax except VAT. People who want to establish export business in the Free Zone are not obliged to have local partners while restrictions on repatriation of capital or profits are non-existent. The direct foreign investment received by Djibouti in the last 10 years have already substantially increased the productivity and competitiveness of the country’s two ports. Allowing foreign entry into the service sector has also facilitated the spill lover of knowledge and skills to Djiobutians.

By accepting and welcoming the participation of foreign investors in the ownership and management of the country’s public infrastructure such as ports and airports, Djibouti has demonstrated a firm determination to succeed where other countries in the region have failed.

Text source http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2010/457/12.shtml

Ga’an Libah High School students Complain Of Shortage Of Teachers

Hargeysa, Somaliland, October 30, 2010 (SL Times) - Students at Ga’an Libah High School in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, went to the ministry of education this week to complain about the shortage of teachers in their school, a problem that has affected other aspects of the school’s operations. The students said they brought the issue to the ministry’s attention many times in the past but nothing was done.
As reported by Haatuf Newspaper, the Director General of the Ministry of Education, Mr Ali Muhammad Ali was present when the students reached the ministry, but instead of listening to the students’ complaints, the Director General accused the press of being behind the problem and warned the press to be careful about spreading that kind of news.
That there are problems at Ga’an Libah can be gleaned from a quick look at the performance of students from this school in the national examinations which have gone down in the last few years. A lot of public schools are facing the same problems of shortage in teachers and lower performance in school exams as Ga’an Libah. Moreover, a growing number of excellent teachers have left public education and are now teaching in private schools where the pay is higher. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise when nine of the ten highest scores in the 2009-2010 national examination belonged to students from private schools.

Text source and more information: http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2010/457/8.shtml
Photo by Guleed