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Somaliland
oo Isku Filan Shinma la Arkaya?
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(This Paper deals with The Struggle for Somaliland's
Food Security)
Introduction
I light of the impending food crises facing Southern
Africa(Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Angola etc) I
decided to examine how strong Somaliland's Food
Security is and in this brief article my main goal is
to talk about Food Security for the country of
Somaliland and hopefully my article will create a
thought process in the minds of many of you and
especially the Somaliland government, political
parties, business people, intellectuals, traditional
leaders(Suldaano, Saladiin etc) and others with the
capability to change the direction the country is
going inregards to the Food Security issue. This
thought process that I hope to create in their mind
will hopefully materialise into action from their side
to help do something about this critical matter which
I intend to discuss with my fellow Somalilander's, and
that matter is the need for our country to be fully
self sufficient in producing enough food for its
entire population of 3 000 000. Let us first make sure
that all of us understand what Food Security means,
Food Security can be described in the following terms:
"Food security is the stage when a country
has ensured an adequate food supply under all market
conditions" (Country of South Korea's definition)
Now that all of us understands what the term Food
Security means let us examin: 1. Our country and its
complete lack of Food Security, 2.How The Media of
Somaliland neglects this issue, 3. Forces that are
actively working against Somaliland ever reaching the
stage of complete Food Security, 4. Conclusion
Somaliland's Complete Lack of Food Security
It is not something hidden but it is something well
known that Somaliland despite its huge ocean resources,
despite its wealth in livestock, despite its
agricultural land, is not able to produce enough
food for its population at this moment. It is
not that the resources of Somaliland are few that
creates this problem it is the fact the the government
and people of Somaliland have failed to adress this
issue as an important issue, they have neglected to
develop their fishing sector, they have neglected to
develop their livestock sector, they have neglected to
develop their agricultural sector indeed they have
neglected their very own future and that of their
childrens but they seem not to know it, instead all
the energy of Somaliland's government and the people
of that country have been given to the political
sphere, what a shame. Most of the food
products consumed in our country are cheap imports
from other countries. The people buying those cheap
food imports are doing so with money received from
their relatives in the diaspora and at times this
Xawiilad is not enough to cover the nations need and
subsequently our government is forced to ask for
United Nations emergency food distributions, thus it
is no understatement to say that the country and
people of Somaliland are completely in the mercy of
forces not within their own country be it the
different United Nations organs or diaspora
Somalilanders sending money back to their country, but
what if those two factors Somaliland depends on where
to vanish? What would happen then? Ask yourself this: What
would happen if the world as a whole suddenly entered
into an economic recession and the Industrialised
nations are themselves faced with economic problems
and unemployment on critical levels? Is it to far
fetched to assume that in such a situation
Somalilanders in the diaspora would perhaps not
be able to send back money(Xawiilad) on the same scale
as before or perhaps not at all, furthermore is it to
far fetched to assume that the United Nations would
not be able or willing to help developing countries as
much as it is right now in such a situation, so where
would that leave us in Somaliland? After all
the UN is just a group of individual countries comming
together in an organisation and if those individual
countries are faced with economic crises it is rather
logical to assume they would cut back on their
donations to the different UN organs, is it not?
(One could indeed argue that a financial crises is
around the corner and infact many prominent economists
do argue that the world is infact facing an impending
economic crises on a worse scale than the one that hit
the world in the 1920-1930:s when the US stockmarket
collapsed, but I will not pursue that topic in my
article but I want the reader to be aware of how
fragile the current economic system is, that is the
free trade system, I urge the reader to study what is
happening in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and more
countries that are far richer than Somaliland, how
would our country do if this nightmare scenario
occured?)
The Failure of the Somaliland Media
The Somaliland media has completely failed in
addressing issues of vital importance to the country
and its people. Newspapers, Radio Stations, Tv
Stations, Internet sites they have all equally failed
in addressing the important issue of Food Security for
Somaliland, instead they have given unproportional
attention to the political quarrels between political
parties and political leaders. One would assume
that the media would concentrate their attention
on issues of life and death importance such as Food
Security for the country instead of devoting 90% of
their time on political speculation about
which political party is going to win or who the
president selects for his vice president etc, sure
those are important topics as well but there has to be
a standard by which the media prioritises issues based
on their importance level and certainly lack of Food
Security which could under a certain type of
circumstances lead to the people of Somaliland
perishing and becoming an extinct race is more
important than political speculation and other trivial
matters. The media has the potential to impact the
lives of Somalilanders in a profound way and they are
the ones that determine which issues become major
issues that people talk about thus many Somalilanders
would like to see more educational material in the
media, it is mindboggling how the issue of Food
Security is not a weekly editorial in Somaliland's
newspapers considering the facts I mentioned earlier
that illustrates how fragile the economy of Somaliland
is(UN and Xawiilad money), indeed this is a critical
matter that deserves half the space of the newspapers
inorder to create a frenzy among the population so
they begin to do something about this fragile state of
affairs. I demand as a citizen of Somaliland that the
minister of Fishing and the minister of Agriculture be
given one or two pages to write their ideas for how to
develop those sectors and they should be given this
space every week in all major newspapers of the
country as well as thirty minutes on the radio, so
important is this issue of Food Security for
Somaliland. The media should also try to give
more attention to those political parties or leaders
that address these issues.
Forces That are Working Against Somaliland Reaching
Self Sufficiency
The forces that are working against the idea of self
sufficiency for Somaliland are sections of the
business people more specifically those that import
food products to Somaliland. They believe that if
Somaliland is able to produce enough food for its
population then they will loose their income this is
certainly not so but that is their belief thus they
are actively lobbying the Somaliland government to
hamper the fishing sector and the farming community as
well as the nomadic sector which is totally neglected.
These importers are doing Somaliland great harm
becuase by dumping our main cities with cheap imports
they hamper the growth of our own national production
sector. The cost to produce food inside the country
will potentially result in higher prices of the food
but I am certain Somalilands people would much rather
by products produced in their country considering that
this money will benefit families in Somaliland and
since that money will circulate it will ultimaltely
benefit the Somalilanders as a whole. On the other
hand if they buy products from the importers then they
have to realise that money will not stay in their
country but will leave with the importers who will
invest their profits in other countries and thus doing
us no good. Somalilands government should do what
South korea does, South Korea have high tariffs for
imported food goods inorder to protect its national
market, it especially makes it tough to import rice,
spaggethi and dairy products into the their country I
see no reason why Somalilands government can not put
high tariffs on products that could be produced within
our own country. The economic base of Somaliand's poor
farmers in poor regions could be destroyed if grains
which they are producing locally are imported from
other countries(such as Djibouti and Arab countries),
indeed it will make somaliland food dependent which we
are today on a few importers, the UN and
Xawiilad, this is unacceptable for a proud nomadic
self sufficent people as Somalilanders. In short there
should be benefits of being a Somaliland farmer, nomad,
fisher etc and they should be given a better chance to
sell their products than foreigners who import food
products to our markets.
Conclusion:
Food Security is crucial also from a military
standpoint but I do not want to discuss such a
negative scenario today(although it is crucial from a
strategic viewpoint.) Instead I want to underscore
that we must realise that if certain economic factors
occur and the world goes into an economic recession
and as a result Xawiilad money stops flowing to
Somaliland's shores and the United Nations cuts its
emergency programmes then what?.....Then what
Somalilander's? A people that can not look into what
is comming and prepare itself for such a scenario is a
doomed people already and Somaliland's people are not
a stupid bunch. Indeed our people are blessed by ALLAH
Subxaana Watacaala
with many profound thinkers that mentions the past and
give ideas and ways to approach the future, just
rememeber Shiinley that was started by the
martyr Cabdi Iidaan Faarax who was
savagely murdered because of his intellectual
abilities, followed by Maxamed Dheeg and Cali
Suguule all three profound thinkers, we
must not to forget the great educator Xassan
Geney with his great product "Masiibada
iyada Aduunka Macalin uu ah" which by
its very title tells us that one must look into the
past calamities that befell socities inorder to avoid
their mistake. Today we have the schoolar Gaariye
and the dignitaries such as Hadraawi
and a multitude of others pushing their society in the
right direction but are we listening? While these
intellectual poets and playwriters do not mention Food
Security which is the topic of my article they still
give hints that society is not on the right track and
needs to prioritise other things than narrow political
goals and pursue issues of importance to society as a
whole.. In today's Somaliland the most important
government ministers besides the president should be
the minister of fishing and the minister of
agriculture as well as the minister of livestock
becuase they are handling an issue which is concerning
the life and potential death of Somaliland and its
people. The media must push society into the direction
of knowledge, they must look to the schoolars past
works and look to the future and give due attention to
this issue of Food Security. We the Somaliland people
must start investing in our future and realise that
Self sustainability is the main goal at the moment,
invest in the fishing sector, invest in the
agricultural sector, invest in the livestock sector by
providing freeze houses etc, if not for yourselves do
it for your childrens future. The great poet
Maxamed Dheeg asked the Somaliland people:
"Sharcigii islaamkoo la sugay oo lagu
shaqaynaayo
Maxkamadahana sheekh caadil ahi shubaya aayaadka
Ooy shaadir xidhan yiin hablii shacabka yaacaayey
Shukri mahad dadkoo wada naqoo ku shuxay Tawxiidku
Shinmaa la arkayaa lama qarsado shaanbad kugu taalle"
Cabdi Iidaan Faarax iyo Dheeg iyo Cali Suguule waxay
ii na weydiiyen maanta ayaaynu aragna, Somaliland
maanta ayaaynu ka aragna sharciga Islaamko la sugay oo
lagu shaqaynayo(at least we try with meager resources)
President Riyaales
constitutional way of becoming president is not a
little achivement by Somalilands people and it is an
achievement that we can be proud of, it certainly is a
historical achivement. Laakin ninba wax ba ka yaabisa
oo uu isweydiiya aniguna waxaan dadweynaha Somaliland
weydiiyay Goorma la arkaya Somaliland oo isku filan
ama Food Security haysata? Shinmaa la arkaya
ayuu yidhi abwaan Maxamad Dheeg...?
Jawaabta waxa laga sugaya akhristaha...........
Gabayga Maxamed Dheeg waxaan ka soo copy garayay:
http://shunuuf.tripod.com
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Hussein
Aden
Styleman500@aol.com
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