In his special Eid day speech, President
Hassan Sheikh urged the “better off” Somalis to "give and share with their
poorer neighbours so their children can also celebrate Eid"...Ahh,
how thoughtful and touching is this?!
What is odd about this kind
of emotive and thoroughly useless gesture, apart from the fact that the good
will only last as long as the cameras are rolling, is that Somalis do not need
a reminder from the President or anyone else to be charitable, they genuinely
give and share even when they have very little! Save your valuable airtime Mr
President and tell us something useful.
Secondly, Dear Mr President,
emotional blackmail does not feed mouths and will not detract from your inability
to come up with solutions to poverty and if there are that many poor children
in Mogadishu (let's not even talk about the rest of the country you are not in
charge of), it is top of your list of duties to create jobs for their parents
so they can feed them. On a special day like today, I was hoping you will give
us real good news or keep silent, the way you normally do on most important national
issues. Today I expected news of your detailed plans on how you are going to tackle
poverty, create jobs and support entrepreneurship so no child has to depend on handouts
for survival or to celebrate Eid. And your time frame to deliver on these.
Do you know how many
children can be fed by the cost of your London/Istanbul/Tokyo conferences jet
hires and entourage alone? While we were busy killing each other for the past
22 years, the world has changed beyond recognition and just in case you haven’t
been keeping up with the technological advances, there are amazing new ways to
participate in conferences and meetings across the world without stepping out
of Villa Somalia and wasting the little money you have! Skype and google video conferencing,
webinar, video streaming are just a fraction of the tools available to you.
Does your young and capable staff at Villa Somalia share these tools with you?
I doubt it, free trip to Europe and America is why most of them are working for
you, just saying.
I am aware the task facing you is daunting and a condition created by lawlessness for over two decades can not be reversed in a year in office and I am sure you meant well by
that speech but it was a letdown of the poor in Somalia. They deserve more from their President than asking their better off neighbours to throw something
at them on a special day like today!
Shame on you, Mr President!
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