FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Partial Notes/Summary on "Getting Somalia Wrong" by Mary Harper

Partial Notes/Summary on Getting Somalia Wrong: Faith, War, and Hope in a Shattered State by Mary Harper (her blog is GREAT)

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

1960's Catholic Church in Mogadishu














Snapshot Takeaway:
Before a journalist writes a Somalia story for a paper—they should be required to first read this book.

NOTES:
Intro:
Harper take issue with the notion of the ‘failed state’ label which is important because as she points out, when was Somalia ever a working state. 

Importance of not simply equating idea of Somalia with Mogadishu—the two aren’t interchangeable. 

2007 intervention overthrow first source of stability in almost 20 years. 

“Trouble in Somalia can mean trouble across the Horn of Africa.”  This stems from the idea of the “Greater Somalia” and the substantial linguistic and ethnic Somali population living throughout the neighboring countries. 

Clan and Country:
- Camels a symbols of Somali life—as a currency—as a lifeblood of society at large—for transport, for trade, for marriage. 

Oral history and storytelling remains central to Somali life.  Oral poetry stems from figures like the Mad Mullah of late 19th century (to early 20thto popular rapper K’naan

Qat is also central and a point of contention and economy.

4.5 formula for clan is widely contested: Darod, Dir, Hawiye and Rahanweyn.  Al-Shabab seeks to subvert/overtake clan culture.  However, lineage still remains of incredible importance.    Harper aptly describes the complexity and fluidity of clan structure today where alliances are important but there are so many sub-clans that outside observers (and even students) are unable to permeate their web. 

History:
Harpers devotes only 25 pages to Somalia’s history but does so with journalistic flair and skill, interspersing colorful quotes and anecdotes through her retelling of drier dates and figures.  It is here that she hits her stride and were graduate students steeped in the mundane, heavily-reviewed but poorly written academic writing will appreciate her writing prowess. 

She hits the high points as she takes reader through Somalia’s contact, conflict and expansion

Following Siad Berre falls, she describes a “country without government, affected by vicious, unpredictable and widespread violence.” 

The international intervention of course did little to stop it and in many ways served to only further solidify the position of the warlords, encourage mal-intentioned entrepreneurs and intensify the urban conflict (Bradbury 63). 

Her mention of the myriad ‘self-declared’ presidents is apt as this is a very real occurrence.  A new one was ‘elected’ just recently: http://www.somaliareport.com/index.php/post/3317/Harardheeres_Newly_Declared_Female_President

She points to the ingenuity of the Somali people in living without a state as holding myriad lessons for addressing the issue today in Somalia and throughout the world. 

Islamism:

Most Somalis don’t practice militant Islam—they are in fact mainly moderate Sunnis.  They’ve mainly clung to sufi theosophy—not sharia. 

While militant jihad has reared its head throughout their history it has often play the role of reaction in their history

Show Al-Itihaad as an Al-Shabab precursor—and as a purist reaction to amalgamated Somali Islamic practice. 

The effectiveness of the UIC and the order brought (at the expense of personal freedoms)

Fascinating details of her own communication and efforts at insight into the Al-Shabab organization.  She also captures the noted worry of their import and exportation of radical jihad. 

She correctly surmises that violent Islamism has always existed in Somalia’s peripheries and has reacted to outside intervention—taking advantage of it to move to the forefront. 

Islam does not equal bad—all the time. 

NOTES PENDING: 
A Failed State
Piracy
Somalia and the Outside World



Want to read more on Somalia?  I received Warriors: Life and death among the Somalis for Christmas and I look forward to reading it.
 

I've also frequently commented on Somalia in this blog:
The story of a small group of adolescent girls who are dropped into Kevin’s life from half a world away in war-torn Somalia.  After surviving a childhood marked by violence and deprivation, they now find themselves in a strange land with little to hold onto beyond the familiar comfort offered by family, culture and religion.

My post "Famine and Photography Examined" or "The Children Cried Thunder Through My Feet" about Barry Malone's thoughtful article Me and the Man With an IPAD by Barry Malone.

This is an important article and is striking in its honesty and self-examination.  Particularly cogent is 
when he writes the following:
"Because it’s a cycle. African governments know that drought is coming and they don’t prepare. Foreign
charities working there talk about long-term plans to help people become self-sufficient but they’ve been
failing to achieve them for 20 years. It’s as much about politics and war and poor economic policies as it
is about no rain. I’m no expert but I know that much."

Minneapolis-A Twin with Mogadishu? or Mogadishu's calling Cory Booker


TZB Chronicles continue- Learning about the Somali Civil War

Key passage from today's notes on the US involvement in Somalia's civil war:

Instead of detaining or killing the warlords the US invited them to peace conferences etc
"encouraging the militias to form a government was like appointing the Mafia to run Manhattan.”  
John Fox commented: “At least I get to do what they taught me in the foreign service and have 
drinks with a room full of mass murderers."

My Post on 'On Ending Piracy in Somalia' or 'Rebooting Max Boot' or 'It's time Kelly Rowland Got Hers'


My post on Why did Somali pirates kill four American yachters?

The Christian Science Monitor asks this question and I think it's a good one to examine in that it leads to further important questions?  


Poet of the Week from Somalia: Abdirashid Omar: A brave poet of the week from Somalia!

Poet of the Week from Somalia: K'naan




Want to read more on Africa?  I put together an executive reading list here (of which Getting Somalia Wrong is Included):




Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Rabearivelo's "Zebu" from Almost Dreams

Rabearivelo's "Zebu" from Almost Dreams

















Zebu

Arched like the towns of Imerina
prominent on the hills,
or hewn like the gables
sculpyed by the moon on the earth
look! the powerful bull--
scarlet like the color of his blood

He has drunk at the river banks,
he has grazed on cactus and lilac;
look how he crouches before the manioc
still heavy with the scent of the earth,
and before the rice straw
smelling strongly of sun and shadow.

Evening has deepened everywhere,
there is no more horizon,
and the bull sees a desert extending
to the frontiers of night
His horns are like a crescent
that rises.

Desert, desert,
desert before the powerful bull
that has gone astray with the evening
in the kingdom of silence,
what do you evoke in his somnolence?
Is it his kind that have no hump
and that are red like the dust
scattered at their passing,
they, the masters of uninhabitated lands?
Or his ancestors fattened by the peasants
and led to town, adorned with ripe oranges,
to be slaughtered in honor of the King?

He leaps, he bellows,
he who will die without glory,
then sleeps again, waiting,
and he seems like a hump of the earth.

Other Madagascar Posts:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/poem-of-week-jean-joseph-rabearivelo-9.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/11/rabearivelo.51.songs.poetry.madagascar.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/11/5-from-rabearivelos-from-night-nadika.html














Some of my favorite poetry books:

Friday, December 21, 2012

How to read articles on your Kindle

How to read articles on your Kindle

Last year I wrote about "To Kindle or Not to Kindle."  

To kindle or not to kindle; that is the question
Whether tis nobler with a heavy book to suffer
The weathered and ripped pages of outrageous fortune
Or to go digital against a sea of wasted trees


Since then I have slowly moved further into the Kindle camp.  One reason for this shift was the discovery that you can send articles from websites to your kindle.  This saves me a ton of time.  I will invariably stumble across an interesting article while working or writing a paper--now I just tap one button on my browser and it emails the article (reformatted for the kindle--without distracting ads and headers) to my kindle.  Best of all, my amazon account keeps track of everything I've read all year long.

That "one button" is a bookmarklet from a company called "Readability."  You can sign up and download the free program here.

And now on to the reason that motivated me to write this post in the first place.  Stu Waterman (you can follow him on twitter) wrote a great article in which he provided a well-organized spreadsheet that contained the links for over 400 long articles that he'd read this past year.  I sent about 100 of them to my kindle for rainy days after reading through the spreadsheet.  NOTE:  this is my fate as a compulsive reader--I am always reading--if I don't have a book/magazine/newspaper while eating breakfast I will read the cereal box, in detail.










There are a few other great sites for these lengthy articles (affectionately called "long reads").  

https://www.Byliner.com
https://www.atavist.com
http://longform.org/
http://longreads.com/
or search #longreads on twitter
@Ifyouonly (on twitter, as in, if you only read one thing today)

























LINKS: http://www.readability.com/
http://www.stuartwaterman.com/everything-i-read-2012-kindle/
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvYefOhJh4dddGxabGRMTWxWWVhfcXNnVkE1YlBqMFE#gid=0
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/05/to-kindle-or-not-to-kindle-or-things.html

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Rabearivelo's "Reading" from Almost Dreams

"Reading" (from Almost Dreams (Saiky-Nofy)

Do not make noise, do not speak:
Eyes, heart, soul, dreams
will explore a forest...
Secret, perceptible forest:
Forest.
Forest rustling with silence,
forest where the bird to be trapped has escaped,
the bird to be trapped and made to sing
or made to weep --
made to sing, made to weep
the place of its hatching.
Forest. Bird.
Secret forest, bird hidden
in your hands.





















Other Madagascar Posts:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/poem-of-week-jean-joseph-rabearivelo-9.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/11/rabearivelo.51.songs.poetry.madagascar.html
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/11/5-from-rabearivelos-from-night-nadika.html
Some of my favorite poetry books:

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Imazighen-State Relations in Morocco and Algeria


IMPORTANT NOTE: DON'T CHEAT. DON'T PLAGIARIZE. Notes and Papers are shared here for reference and for studying. Footnote as appropriate.

Imazighen-State Relations in Morocco and Algeria



BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Research Question

As ancient inhabitants of North Africa, the Berber populace has survived more than a millennium of invasions and myriad regime policies.[1]  Over the centuries their identity has oscillated between a proud ethnic one, a dormant marginalized one, an insular tribal one and one struggling for its voice in society.  Their ability to survive and to maintain a distinct ethnic identity throughout it all has largely been a product of negotiations and interactions with ruling regimes and an ability to balance an ethos of fierce resistance (and independence) with an evolving concept of their own group identity.  These group identities (i.e. the regional Berber tribes unique to Algeria and Morocco) have remained in various degrees of tension with a gradually developing Arab-Islamic identity since the Arab invasion in the 7th century.   During the battle for colonial independence, the Berbers consistently fought against the French and Spanish occupiers.  After independence, however, these two states each embraced unique forms of government and experienced subsequent, but varied, periods of political instability and violence due to regime changes and rebellion.  Throughout this process, Islamism (i.e. political Islam) developed and emerged as a major movement while a collective national identity superseded the Berber one for several decades.  This substrata Berber identity existed only passively until the rise of identity politics in the 1970’s.  An increasingly mobilized Berber movement would actively pursue language objectives beginning in the 1990’s and continuing into the new century.
In Morocco today the Berber movement remains strong but divided.  King Mohamed’s July 2001 creation of l’Institut Royal de Culture Amazigh (IRCAM) has created a split that still exists today with many members of the Amazigh Cultural Movement (MCA) refusing to participate in what they view as the monarchy’s attempt to co-opt and temper their movement.  Politically, Berber activists have increasingly rejected the loyalist Mouvement Populaire (MP); the most radical activists forming the Parti Democrate Amazigh Marocaine (PDAM) in 2005. This party was eventually banned by the Moroccan judiciary as illegal due to legislative prohibitions on regional or ethnic political parties.[2]  After the widespread protests fueled by the Arab Spring’s success in neighboring Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the movement won recognition of Tamazight as an official language alongside Arabic.  Even this victory remains as subject of controversy with some in the movement lambasting it as only a token concession by the palace and part of a broader (and successful) effort to weaken the February 20th movement.[3] 
Despite being overwhelmingly concentrated in the Kabylie region of Algeria, the Mouvement Culturel Berbere (MCB) has been consistent in its longtime advocacy for linguistic and cultural recognition of Berbers as a whole versus Kabylia regionally.  This national outlook is not monolithic, though, in 2001 Kabyle singer and activist Ferhat Mehenni created the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia (MAK).  The MAK asserts that because the MCB and long-time Berber supported opposition political parties (e.g., Front des Forces Socialistes (FFS) and Rassemblement pour la Culture Democratie (RCD)) have all failed in effecting reform within the Algerian state as a whole, the focus should shift for reform at the regional level.  Based in Paris, however, the MAK remains an outlier, especially due to its pro-Israel stance.  Overall, the Berber movement in Algeria remains hamstrung in its efforts to promote a national agenda by its weak regional political base and geographic seclusion.  The future of the movement may hinge on its ability to leverage its demands for recognition of its cultural and linguistic autonomy with an agreement to cooperate in pursuing burgeoning Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) forces in the mountainous Kabylia regions.[4]
The past 40 years have witnessed considerable struggles for the sizable Berber minority populations in both states.  There is an opportunity to investigate the outcomes of these struggles vis-a-vis the Algerian and Moroccan state policies.  This examination of state-movement relations may explain the two very different outcomes for Berber populations in both states as affected by the state.  With one state (i.e. Morocco) more inclusive and progressive and the other more repressive and exclusionary (i.e. Algeria), what are the factors that explain these different outcomes?   Since the awakening of a Berber identity in the late 1970’s through the Arab Spring to 2012, has one factor been most influential and emerged most consistently, or are the explanations specific to time and state?   This thesis aims to identify the factors that influence Algerian and Moroccan state interactions with their Berber minority populations.


[1] Mordechai Nisan, Minorities in the Middle East : A History of Struggle and Self-Expression, Vol. Second Edition (Jefferson, N.C: McFarland, 2002), 54.
[2] Michael J. Willis, Politics and Power in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012), 220-222.

[3] “North Africa’s Berbers Get Boost from Arab Spring,” The Cortez Journal (May 5, 2012).
[4] Ibid., 223-225.