Why there are fewer women than men in field of the politics’?

Some choices that we make in life don’t just affect us personally; they affect so many people after us too. Just because a few women gave up on their rights, hopes and wishes caused huge problems. Others stuck with these problems but you know what life isn’t about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself.

            Life is very short and it will be gone before you have enjoyed it if you feel responsible for everything. Feeling responsibility for their families is the main cause that fewer women are in fields of politics. That resulted in a lack of women’s opinions in the government and in all types of politics. Not only that but for the most of the time their families don’t appreciate that all of the things they give up is for their own families good. On top of that families believe that what they are doing is what they supposed to do and that it isn’t something they are doing for themselves or for their families.

             There is no rule, law, or religion that mentions or states that men are more capable at politics than women. In my opinion, I think that women are more determined and capable than men. Look at the courage of our young women who join the army and fight to inspire all of us and indeed inspire the free world and those who are yearning for freedom and peace in the home. In many societies women are more effective than men. For example, in Somaliland men chew Qat and caused problems, where women solve, not just family problems, but also problems throughout the country.

            Nothing is impossible! Women are like air, we all can’t live one second without air. No one is perfect including men. I’m not perfect! Are you? In terms of who is close of being perfect I would say women, because they guardians. They provide food and help for the poor during the droughts while men prefer to chew Qat. They try their best to do what they think could help. Do they deserve to take a big part in the government and politics in general? Absolutely YES for our own good and development. I’m really a happy person, but the situation of women in general makes me feel sad. I think that it is like a beautiful sadness, because I see change happening in the very near future.

            Just keep in mind there are still billions of people left in the world that could make you even more successful and help you reach where you want to be. Don’t mind those who don’t believe in you, didn’t trust you, and talk behind your back. It simply means that you are two steps ahead of them. Fight for what you want, politics is very important because it is an important part of your country’s development. Don’t give up on it. I hope societies in different parts of the world specially Somali societies will open their minds and support women in politics.

Catastrophic election!

Voting is important but for people like me who live in places like Somaliland, it is not all that important. Most of the time, your vote does not matter for many reasons.  Sometimes one might vote more than 2 or 3 times which makes your vote useless. Most of the time, people sell their vote and people always would vote for their family/relatives and not for the one who can do good things for the community. What is the point of voting if you can’t guarantee whether your vote will make any change in the future or not?

Somaliland is one of the places where voting has no meaning because no matter who you vote for the person who the current government wants wins. The way governors do their work is exactly the way citizens do when voting. Governors provide jobs for only family members and relatives just like citizen’s vote for family members and relatives.

This last election, I was standing for 5 hour in a line waiting to vote but what difference did it made. One of the guys from the voting booth told me that I already vote therefore can’t vote AGAIN. I did not know what to say when I heard “again” so I quickly got out of the room. I wasn't the first person they send out saying you already vote. Later I heard that the reason they were sending people out and saying you already voted was because the voting sheets were finished. But honestly what was the point of lying?! Why lie to citizens and say you all voted when the fault is yours?! I am not scared of saying this in public because I feel bad about getting deceived by the election committee.

            That was the first time in my life I attempted to vote. I was expecting that it going to be good experience that I will PROUD of talking about it in 10 years, but unfortunately it was not good. It made me draw a conclusion about the whole voting process and the government too. It is a shame for a citizen to be disappointed in their government.

Yesterday, December 6^th, the results of this election mentioned above came out. Many people were unhappy with the results which created an upraised and gun shots. Things were very bad in parts of Hargeisa last night. Two guys got killed and others got injured. This is how tragic the election result was and how bad people didn't trust the election committee by accusing them of corruption. Citizens don’t trust the election committee and government and that is what caused rebellion.

You can’t Stripe away my rights!

 

Censoring the Internet has been a big issue that affects the worldwide population every day. Every day, millions of people post millions of blogs on website, stating their opinion freely. They are acting upon their constitutional right of freedom of speech. Censoring the Internet infringes on our basic rights, and we shouldn’t be trialed for what we say

Eskinder Nega was an Ethiopian journalist and blogger that was jailed several times by the Meles Zenawi government with charges of terrorism and treason.[1] He was first arrested in 2005, after the Ethiopian elections because he posted a post on his blog that said he believed that Meles Zenawi rigged the elections in his favor. Soon after it was posted, he was arrested for criminal offense towards the constitution. He was jailed because he was expressing how he felt on his blog.

The fact that he was jailed for expressing his beliefs showed that the Ethiopian government went against the constitution to protect themselves and they are in the wrong. He was acting upon his basic right, and he should be able to do so without fearing any wrong backlash he might get. He was wrongly jailed, and that demonstrates that censoring the Internet past the borderline of invasion.

I am not the only one to be against such madness. Tumbler openly spoke out about its disadvantages.[2]They posted their representatives numbers, so that the users could contact them with their opinions and “say no”. They used that as a method to encourage people to stand up for their rights and not let the government take control what they can or cannot say on the web. They feel that they are being stepped on and stripped away of their constitutional right.

As you see, I am not the only one who thinks this way. If a popular website believes in my thought, I must be right. Censoring used to be for communist countries, but now that wave of too much government power has hit the new world, and we must stop it before it gets out of hand.

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[1] BBC News. “Jailed Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega honoured,” 2 May 2012.

“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17921950”

[2]http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonoberholtzer/2011/11/16/tumblr-speaks-up-about-internet-censorship/

Somaliland: assets and liabilities

Two of the greatest achievements of the Somaliland Administration have been peace and stability. There are still many things that could have done better which the government couldn’t have been blamed for.

The government did their part although they didn’t give their 100%.  There are many other reasons that are standing in the way of Somaliland getting recognized as an independent country which are: it occupies one of the smallest, poorest and least developed country in Somalia so there are no many other countries which are interested in it and for that reason experts think that it can’t be viable state. Many countries in Africa, which are very close to Somaliland such as Ethiopia doesn’t want to recognize it as independent from Somalia because they are afraid parts in their country will do the same.[1]

 The solution to this problem would be every citizen should do their parts to better the community. If they all put in as much as they can such as trying to start their own businesses or starting to pick up the trash, more tourist will come and that’ll attract abroad attention.

Somalilanders thinking have moved from basic survival to searching for a better life on a continued basis of finding worldwide recognition. To shows the world that they deserve judgment when looking at their case. They are working on increasing employment rates and so that unemployment rates could reduce. That will also bring down the number of poor people. They are also working on improving the availability and accessibility of social services.[2] Most of these attempts of the government trying to improve the situation of the citizens fail most of the time. It fails because maintaining peace cost over 70% of the government’s revenues and that includes preventing the country Al-Shabaab from entering the country.

Somaliland as a whole could do so many other things to make worldwide countries realize that Somaliland deserves international recognition. One of the ways to do this is increasing their economy by decreasing non useful things they import from other countries like Qat. This will increase the rate of the economy in two ways, saving the money that goes to Ethiopia every day for useless product (Qat) and people doing double the amount of work they normally do when consuming Qat. This isn’t the only thing they could do to make country look better in other views but this is definitely a good first step.

 In the future, if I would have to be part of the officials of the government I will fill in many gaps that the government can’t see now, for example they don’t see women as valuable member in the thinking and work in the country. I would be a great representative for all women and bring their ideas to the government which helped many other countries around the world and became successful for that reason.

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[1] http://www.wardheernews.com/Articles_06/feb/23_Somaliland.HMohamed.html

[2] http://www.brainworker.ch/reports/Somaliland/Problems.htm

Never Thought I Would Say This About Ethiopia!

                          

 

I never thought I would say this but my trip to Ethiopia was excellent. Our opinions change as we get older so I guess that why what I believe about Ethiopia suddenly changed. I had a bad experience when I was 9 there so I hated the place ever since. What made the difference this time was that my mother and many of my good friends were with me on this trip.

The trip was tiring due to the amount of time it took to get there, but it was great besides that! We sang, screamed, and took pictures on the road there. On our way there, I was anxious. I was very nervous about the SAT which ended up NOT being as bad as I thought. As we get there everything was different. People, buildings, roads were all different than we normally see in Somaliland, which I found extraordinary.  

We had an average first night at Diridhawa and continued our actual trip to Addis, the capital of Ethiopia, at 4:30 in the morning. It was an 11 hour ride. As we get there we went to 3 different hotels and refresh ourselves with worm baths. We then went out for a lunch at a restaurant that wasn’t that far. We took the Friday off since we were taking the SAT’s the next day.

Because I heard a lot about the way the SAT’s in America were done. We were all very nervous. Our teachers tell us that we shouldn’t do anything that would seem suspicious which could be mistaken as cheating like stretching. We were very naïve about the whole examination thing so we did as our teachers told us. Unfortunately, all the other kids who we were taking the exam were cheating.  That was unfair to everyone else who was taking that exam. That act of insincerity made us all unhappy with the test supervisors. I even found myself in the middle of section, a bit absentminded because I was thinking of ways to punish the cheaters and the supervisors too.

Overall, it was fine experience. We had some good food, went shopping and most importantly had a lot of fun with friends who we aren’t going to see each other a year from now. Wherever you go, there will always be something that will disappoint you but you should always focus the good parts because that’s the way life works.