Thursday, November 19, 2009

Unspoken Topics in the Somali Community!!!



The title says it all, unfortunately have a lot of topics that are not spoken about in the community I come from. This then creates space for a number of things to occur, which eventually hurt the very people who are falling to speak about the matter. Take a moment to read this, holding back your judgements and try to understand why these topics are unspoken? What are the social factors that contribute to it being unspoken? Don't stop there, think about religious,cultural and other factors that can make the world we live in the way it is.

-Poverty
- Safety
-Lack of Health Education
- STD is not an issue with the older generation, but with the younger youth they are indulging in sexual intimacy before marriage.
- Topic of sexuality is very taboo in the community.. Youth in cedar riverside are having high number of cases in STI’s as well as STD.. Hard to comfort such issues.. High stigmatized let alone talk about it. The only education is out of sight out of mind…(Abstinence only)
- Community has come with a lot of baggage ex.(their diet is not in line with that of their new adoptive country)..Young people come to this environment and look at the culture of rock and roll, sex and drugs and the parents are not aware of what their kids are exposed to. The younger generation are at risk because their parents are not aware of what their children is exposed to..
- Children are exposed to the content that is featured in rap songs, where there is a lot of talk about sex and female body parents, drugs..
- You cant get away from the exposure of sex, drugs and experimenting and doing what you want to do
- If your not married you should not be having sex
- Its not about education in terms of prevention but educating the youth about what the religion says about sex
- Get religious scholars to talk about the issue of sex before marriage and how to seek help if one was to engage in it..
- No one talks about AIDS/HIV we talk about youth violence
- Formation of attitude towards SEX
- You don’t go into an event thinking that
- If I get AIDS/HIV I won’t die any sooner than I’m suppose to
- Religion teaches you to do what you have to do to be
- TV shows nothing to do with culture but everything to do with society
- We are all in those situations to make choices
- We are all provided with the education and information, but the exposure
- The way that we eat
- Culture a lot of sugar and oil which results to diagnosis in diabetes or high cholesterol as well as high blood pressure
- Find a way to disaggregate the moral issue of sex from the public health issue of AIDS – break the silence in order to be able to address AIDS without making victims outcasts.
- Media doesn’t explain why the numbers are so high in one particular community so never use the media as a scapegoat.
- Immigrant communities the tvs are turned on all days of the day and is used as a form of entertainment for children

Food for thought



Its 12:02 am and I sit here thinking about all the things I am in and why I do what I do. For those of you who don’t know me, I am someone who is involved in just about any organization you might know think of, truthfully speaking I am in 4 demanding organizations/groups who all have one thing in common: ( A sole purpose to improve the conditions of the communities they identify with and in the end the world. They say change starts somewhere might as well start where you life.

I see myself always running from meeting to meeting and always discussing the same issues which is to create a sense of community, reduce youth violence, getting people to become the change they wish to see and in general just to make the world a better place.

It seems as though there are far more good people out there that want to do positive work, but all are sitting silently somewhere in the universe not acting on their gut impulse. What this does in return is create a nation of WISHERS rather than DOERS. Honestly speaking we don’t need wishes, if you’re not ready to put your mouth where your time and energy are.

Going back on my community involvement, I just turned 21 and I want to do positive work where I bring the fruits and knowledge of public health, youth studies and leadership studies ( my major) to the poorest of communities.

A community doesn’t have to be rich in money in order to find people who are rich in thought. I am from the neighborhood of cedar riverside, not because I live there but because that’s where my heart is.

The world has decided to lump people of the same socioeconomic backgrounds in the ghetto leaving them with busy streets, more bars than parks, and a number of disparities not only when it comes to poor health, but less grocery dairy stores and more fast food chains, less working adults, more dependence on drugs and an overall environment that will leave anybody hopeless.

But what that is not the case in Cedar. Yes there have been a number of shootings, and just last year a young man who was tutoring was killed after finishing his shift as a tutor. But one must be in cedar riverside to understand the beauty and determination of people who have been presented with the worse of situations, but have decided to smile and make something meaningful out of their misfortunate’s.

Cedar Riverside Plaza

Cedar Riverside Plaza
"Little Mogdisho"