Human trafickers and leg-less assassins of Mogadishu

human trafickers and leg-less assassins of Mogadishu

I heard this as urban legend joke before but i couldn’t stop laughing reading this story posted first at Isseh’s Enclave – A Somali man’s blog

What is this?

Imagine you are in Mogadishu, and walking down the street, your eyes catch those of a crippled beggar sitting along the road. You see him, he sees you, then you feel empathy towards him, and so you decide to throw a coin in his begging bowl. While leaning forward to drop the coin in his bowl, you get the feeling that he is trying to tell you something. You become attentive, fix your eyes on his whispering lips, and wait to see if he was trying to say something. Surprise, surprise! He is indeed talking, and talking to you but you still can’t make out exactly what he is saying. So, you curiously ask, ‘een maxaad tiri? (urm what did you say?)’. The crippled man wets his lips, clears his throat and with a faint voice says, ‘waxaan ku iri, fadlan ii soo dhowoow waxbaan kuu sheegiye’ (I said, please come closer I want to tell you something)’.

Now you are standing, looking around at others passing by, scratching your head, thinking ‘muxuu ii sheegi rabaa ninkan? (What does this man what to tell me)? Then, within the minute, you make your decision, go down on one knee just in front of the crippled man, at the same eye level, and ask him ‘maxaa jira sxb? (What’s up my friend?). He looks at you firmly, and requests once again, ‘aan kuu sheege bal sxb horey u soo siko nooh (I will tell you but please move forward a little bit more). Now you are close to him, real close that you could smell the onion in his breath. You are looking at his face, mouth to be precise, anticipating him to reveal the biggest secret in the world. He notices that you are looking at him quite closely at the area of his mouth, and then he lets off a smile. You can’t help but smile too. You warm up to the idea of helping him out with whatever problem he has. You start to feel good in your heart because of what you can do for him. At that particular moment you feel like a saint for having such a noble disposition to come to the aid of a fellow human being who needs you. All this time you are feeling this way, his smile hasn’t died down. He is still smiling, and you are. And then he looks at you right in the eyes. He stretches his left hand to your right shoulder, as if to bring your ear close to his mouth so as to whisper things to you.

You look at the motion of his stretching arm and feel on your shoulder that his hand has a strong grip to it, and slightly feel uneasy. Then you ask again, what’s up? Then he says, ‘I’ll tell you what’s up’ and quite suddenly grabs your left shoulder. His right arm swings forward swiftly, pulling out a revolver to your FACE and says ‘this is what’s up my friend’. You scream out ‘Fluking hell!’ and try to jump backwards but you can’t. He is holding your shoulder tightly and sticking a pistol on your face. You desperately retort ‘what? …what? I was only trying to help you man!’ He looks at you seriously and says, ’stop being a wuss man! You wanted to help me? Well, good. Now you can’. And you ask yourself, ‘WTF! He is holding a revolver to me and he still thinks I can help him? What does he call this? Charity? I call this a ’stick-up’. That’s what this bloody is!’ But he rudely slaps you when he realizes you are getting lost in your own thoughts. ‘Up we go!’ he commands. ‘Up goes where?’ you ask puzzled. ‘I go on your shoulders. You will be carrying me to my destination’ he replies.

‘What? Me carrying you on my shoulders? Oh no, man! Over my dead body!’ you exclaim! ‘And do you think I have any quarrels shooting you dead, huh?’ he yells out. ‘I don’t fcuking know, do I?’ you shout back! ‘Listen man, the sooner you put me on your shoulder and be on your way the better he’ tells you. You look around, desperately hoping someone would somehow help you out of this catch 22 you are in. But there is nothing around. People fled when they saw the crippled man pulling out a gun on you. The TV and Radio newsmen have been lately reporting the new phenomenon of the ‘armed crippled men’ take people their ‘human transportation’ since they can’t afford to pay normal bus fares… So everyone is afraid of the crippled men.

You resign yourself to your fate, and decide that you might as well carry the man to his destination. You try to lift him but he quickly hops on your shoulders. No sooner than 2 minutes of carrying him, the crippled man pulls out a mobile phone from his pocket and speed dials a number. ‘I am on my way friend’ he says down the phone and hangs up the line. You carry him for almost 2 miles until you reach his destination. He commands you to ‘pull over here, just by this door’ and you do. But before you could put him down, another crippled man hurries out of the door, yet holding a gun! The first crippled man gets down and thanking and threatening, ‘thanks you for the transportation. Now be a nice boy and take my friend to his destination. If you don’t he’ll shoot you down like a dog’. You cringe. You sweat hot. You feel cold and then hot. Tears of vengeance swell in your eyes. Your throat feels like it’s been cut with a rough knife. At that moment, if possible, you could kill all the crippled men in Mogadishu. But that isn’t possible to you now. Then again, you resign yourself to the fate in hand. You bite your lips with CIIL and get on with being a human transportation. You go absolutely quiet.

So, while on your way carrying him, the second crippled man decides to tell you a nice little story to lighten your burdens. He goes, ‘do you know what we (the armed crippled men) are called?’ You don’t want to speak to him but then again you must. You need the information. So you ask, ‘what are you called?’ “Legless Assassins’ he proudly tells you. ‘Legless what?’ you laughingly ask again. ‘Legless Assassins’ he confirms. You laugh out loud. You laugh again and again until you get teary. At first he resents your mocking laughter but then he joins you and laughs out too. So after few minutes of laughing at each other you ask, ’so how do you go about assassinating people when you are immobile?’ He keeps silent for few seconds, then chuckles to himself, and says ‘well, you see, our disability isn’t always a negative thing. At most times due to our legless ness, the functions of our hands improve. So we become good sharp-shooters, and that is what you need in this business. Our clients give us the particulars of who should be taken out, such as which roads he passes, what cloths he wears what his height and weight is and that’s about it. We pick him out clean.’ ‘But how, how?’ you ask.

‘Simple’ he says, ’someone picks us up and puts us on a roof along the road the target uses. We also make sure our gateway Xaajiyo Khamsiin car is parked below us, inside it either mattresses to reduce the impact. From then too we sit and wait for the target and when he appears we take him out, and quickly throw ourselves off the roof landing inside the car, which is driven the next second the driver feels we are in’ he explains…..

To be continued……..

(That’s what a lazy Sunday makes you write down Forgive me if you find some mistakes, ‘cos I can’t be bothered to edit it)

As posted on: Isseh’s Enclave

Why Is Autism Rate So High For Somalis In Minn.?

Little autistic Bilal,reciting Qur’an, please make du’a for him as it was difficult for him to learn. May allah grant him ease (Aameen)

Welcome to America! – Hope you like the Autism!

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

They come to America in search of a better life. Their children get autism.

I wonder if they wish they’d just stayed home.

As reported by Elizabeth Gorman in the Minneapolis Post and David Kirby in the Huffington Post (click HERE), there’s something unusual going on with immigrant Somali children in Minnesota and autism. It might also be happening with other immigrant groups.

According to Gorman’s article, about 6 percent of Minneapolis’ students are Somali-speaking, but “more than 17 percent of the children in the district’s early childhood special education autism program are Somali speaking.” (It’s estimated that 15,000 to 40,000 Somalis live in Minnesota, the largest Somali population outside of East Africa.)

She later goes on to quote Dr. Chris Bentley, the director of a nonprofit in Minnesota that assists children with autism and their families as saying, “We’re definitely seeing it, and something is triggering it.”

Continue reading “Welcome to America! – Hope you like the Autism!” »

US proxy war against Somalia endangers millions

Monday, July 28, 2008

US proxy war against Somalia endangers millions; Obama silent (again)

Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report writes:

“The United States is directly complicit in what the United Nations has called the ‘worst humanitarian disaster’ in Africa.

“The Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, launched in late 2006 with massive air, naval and logistical support from the Americans, has resulted in the displacement of 3.5 million people, 700,000 from the capital city of Mogadishu, alone.

“More than two-and-a-half million Somalis face starvation – a figure that could rise to three-and-a-half million by the end of this year.

“A recent Amnesty International report on human rights violations in Somalia, said Ethiopian soldiers have begun “slaughtering Somalis like goats” – meaning, killing them by cutting their throats. Amnesty International’s Deputy Africa Director put it this way: ‘The people of Somalia are being killed, raped, tortured; looting is widespread and entire neighborhoods are being destroyed.’

“The U.S. has made Ethiopia its hit man in the Horn of Africa, a decision that is guaranteed to destabilize the entire region. That’s part of the American modus operandi: to create chaos – always resulting in mass deaths among the poor – in order to declare Africans unfit to run their own affairs.

“This is a theme that plays well among U.S. corporate media, who have dutifully pushed the Bush line on Zimbabwe, but go months without even mentioning the American-made crisis in Somalia.

“Democratic Party leadership is no better, including presidential nominee-to-be Barack Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, Somalia’s neighbor. Obama, the Speaker of the House and the top Democrat in the Senate are all mum on U.S. crimes against the Somali people.”

Obama at the Wall

Colonel Gaddafi maybe little bit crazy but he got this one right. B.O. is a classical ass-kisser politician not that different sadly than Bush when it comes to pleasing the Zionists and running away everything Muslim. Imagine the uproar and the controversy that would have followed him if he paid visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque wearing Keffiyah, the Palestinian head-scarf… that would have been what? a political suicide you may say… the Islamaphobes are powerful now so one got be smart to avoid their wrath! right?

Against the Odds: Samiya Yuusf Omar

Samiya, 16, says she has been pressured to stop competing

The BBC’s Against the Odds series is following athletes heading to the Olympics despite huge obstacles.

Mohamed Olad Hassan, in Mogadishu, met a young sprinter representing conflict-wracked Somalia.

Somalia is a country ridden by more than 17 years of lawlessness and civil war.

Its institutions and national infrastructure have been destroyed, including most sporting facilities.

Somali athlete Samiya Yuusf Omar is just 16-years-old. She comes from a destitute family with no breadwinner.

Militiamen in this Muslim country often prevent her from training, saying women should not take part in sport.

But for her and her relatives, athletics offers the chance of a route out of poverty and away from the violence; of a better life and prospects for the future.

Insults and warnings

But recently, Samiya has been coming under pressure from friends and some of her relatives, asking her to stay out of local training.

Samiya came last in her African championships heat

The ill-disciplined militiamen intimidate her as she jogs on the streets of Mogadishu.

There are insults, and warnings that her chosen path would affect her marriage.

Samiya said: “Traditionally Somalis view the girls as corrupted if they join in with things like sports and music.

“It’s because they sometimes wear transparent clothes or shorts. Therefore I have been coming under pressure from all different sides.”

“Early in the morning… sometimes I come to a roadblock set up by either government troops along with Ethiopians or armed militia, who prevent me from going to the training,” she added.

Hopes for future

When she can get through, Samiya practises on a track full of mortar craters at the Mogadishu Stadium, almost destroyed by the years of war.

She lives nearby, in a shanty house, with her mother – a former national-level athlete, who brought her daughter up alone since Samiya’s father died, “years ago”.

Somalia has been damaged by years of civil conflict and lawlessness

Samiya says it is only her mother’s constant encouragement that enables her to ignore the taunts and keep on training.

When she was named as part of Somalia’s Olympic team earlier this year, the honour kindled her hopes for the future.

She never expected to be picked because she is so young, and because she is from a minority ethnic group.

Now the fragile dream of an athletics career is within reach, but Samiya still has a long way to go.

She ran the 100m at the African Athletics Championships in May, but came last in her first round heat.

This Olympics will be about taking part, rather than chasing medals.

“I don’t care if I win right now,” she said. “But I am happy to represent my country within this big event, running the 200-metre race

“I think right now I’m sure I’m on my way to a bright future because I can run with many all the way down.

“I don’t think it makes a difference whether I win a good title in the coming Olympic Games or the next,” she said, cracking into a smile.

In Defense of the Good Sheikh

In Defense of the Good Sheikh

The Alliance of the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) split up into two rival splinter groups after the tardy attempt to patch things up failed in Yemen. Hassan Dahir Aweys, the hardliner Islamist boss sacked Sheikh Sharif, his moderate Islamist sidekick and crowned himself as the ultimate leader of the Somalia’s Islamic opposition movement. What was Sheikh Sharif’s cardinal sin? He talked to the enemy and signed a dubious agreement with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that, according to the hawkish elements within the ARS, is not practical and objectionable to the Somali and Islamic cause.

From the outset, many Somali observers were unconvinced about the marriage of unlike groups of moderates, hardliners and nationalists with divergent agendas. Their effectiveness was questioned and it seemed that the whole thing of forming such shaky alliance was rushed and not well-thought of.

Some followers of the messy Somali affairs believe that Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is the face of the Islamic movement in Somalia and the man behind the establishment of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Mogadishu and Southern Somalia opposes any peace deal with the warlord-infested government of Somalia as long as he remains in Bush’s terror list. Others suggest that the hardened Sheikh, by strongly opposing the same group he shaped and molded, is committing political suicide and is risking playing into the hands of his enemies whose sinister plot was to craft a wedge within the Islamic movement. Who knows, maybe, Sheikh Aweys and his Asmara wing seem to have stronger convictions in their pursuit of liberating Somalia. Probably they oppose the peace initiatives of Sheikh Sharif and his Djibouti wing for the fear that their liberation program and their political agenda would be eclipsed under the rubric of spurious call of reconciliation that promises nothing other than legitimizing collaborationist warlords whose mandate is running out in 2009 without accomplishing anything except to create more havoc and carnage in the capital.

The conduct of Sheikh Sharif, so far, shows that he is a different kind of leader, good natured, softly spoken, highly intellectual and convincing in his arguments. Despite these admirable qualities, some of his detractors say, in politics, especially the messy ones in Somalia, where alliances shift and loyalties are improvised; he is a neophyte who is out of touch in the Somali reality. They accuse Sheikh Sharif of being a flip-flop and political gambler and that he sometimes conforms to pressure. The political pragmatism of Sheikh Sharif is not a liability and is indeed what is needed to save Somalia today. Sheikh Sharif has not betrayed the Islamic Courts and in fact he advances them and promotes their name and cause. Talking to the other side of the Somali conflict, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) when they are specially represented by equally good natured and compromising individuals like Prime Minister Nur Adde and his deputy Ahmed Abdisalam is not a betrayal of the Islamist cause. Realizing that the Ethiopian occupation is supported and bankrolled by the powers-that-be and that Meles Zenawi is not alone in this “war on terror” is perceptive prudence and not a betrayal of Islamic principles.

Now the question many people are asking is what would happen to the good Sheikh Sharif and his peacenik group? Would he still be able to represent himself as the face of the opposition? Would Sheikh Sharif’s perceptible passivity, diplomacy and good intentions affect a change on the ground? So far, things seem to be not working in his favor and his only vindication rests with the implementation of the accord he signed by the powers-that-be. If that fails, then the good Sheikh would have to re-invent himself again and join hands with the hardliners once again. Until then I would advise the supporters of the Asmara group to halt their rash criticism of the good Sheikh and give him a chance to pursue his admirable goal of driving the occupying forces out of Somalia through diplomacy and negotiations.

The collapse of the ARS hasn’t produced any tangible gains for the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and its backers, the occupiers from Ethiopia. Al-Shabaab group, the young Somali freedom fighters, is more or less independent of the political separation and constraints of the splinter groups of the ARS in Asmara and Djibouti. Any residual influence the ARS, or what is left of it, may exercise will have negligible effect on those in the ground, fighting inside Somalia against the Ethiopian occupation and the warlord-infested government militias.

The fighting would go on, blood would be shed, suffering of the innocent Somali people would continue and the world community, as usual, would close their eyes to the worst humanitarian disaster in Africa and the carnage in Somalia.