The discussions so far
Recapping the yarn
On 23rd Aug 2021, I started this forum with a rhetorical question, Where to from here? A new platform for a frank discussion about Somalia. I was trying to share some ideas that were part of research on the use of IT technology and related issues in Somalia. with a rhetorical question, Where to from here? A new platform for a frank discussion about Somalia. See it here.
In fact as an update to that first post; I have managed to make contact with many Somali in the tech sector and so far there are some amazing start-ups and innovations getting established and implemented respectively such as Brickcoin in Melbourne, NFT for Somali artists in Mogadishu, see http://www.lahaansho.com/.
On 14th Oct 2021, I could not resist digressing into the Horn of Africa geopolitics after the ICJ ruling on the maritime dispute between Somalia and Kenya. See it here if you are interested.
Then early November 2021 I caught up with an old friend from school days Mr. Hussein Mohamud who finally agreed to share some amazing stories from his long diplomatic career. On Nov 23rd, 2021 we started with 12 part series we called ‘different perspectives on Somalia’ covering a range of topics such as Turkey’s support to Somalia, See it here.
And on 28th Nov 2021, we shared with you Mr. Hussein’s experience on protocol issues he dealt with while working for the Somali Foreign Affairs Ministry (FAM). If this piques your curiosity, please See it here.
Part III , Part IV, Part V, Part VI continued the different perspective theme. Mr Hussein shared some historical notes that will benefit students who are doing research on Somalia’s political and diplomatic maneuvers. There is also short post on Dubai’s expo2020 that we thought might be of interest to some of you.
More on the different perspectives where Hussein reminded us the quality and level of professionalism of those Somali FAM staff when dealing with incidents with different countries can be found on, for example Guinea (which Guinea? ) see Part VII if you are into African geography and history. With USA see Part VIII or the then USSR see Part IX.
We experimented with different medium, i.e., listen by clicking on podcasting. And will continue more of this as was suggested by some of you. We have also looked into the process and procedures in setting up Somali embassies and related issues; See Part X, Part XI, and Part XII, Hussein reflected on some of the well known Somali diplomats, see this… and we even wrote about former Somali leader’s approach to diplomacy.
Then more followers showed interest in Mr Hussein’s personal reflections, and we were obliged to change the content presented on the forum and include personal reflections.
There were a couple of posts that were not directly related to the main theme we were covering. However, we felt they were indirectly relevant to the topics we wrote about. We will continue to do this once in awhile just to provide variation of the main theme. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your feedback and comments. The more the better. Please inform your friends and encourage them to register to receive this newsletter via email. We are not doing this for commercial reasons, and your data will not be shared with anyone.
Hussein and I are taking a break during the next 4 weeks to join friends and family members during the holy Ramadan month and stay away from the ephemeral stuff and focus on much more serious and significant event. May the blessings of the month Ramadan be on all of us.