What now?

Somalia my beautiful country. I sit and wonder what will happen to my people whom we left back home? They face constant danger of being hit by a stray bullet, but yet remain to stay put and not abandon their land. Growing up in the U.S. for the past 16 years of my life, I feel a sense of shame. This shame comes from the fact that we as the students who are pursuing higher education in the diaspora have become too comfortable in our current situation. As sad as it is for me to admit I am one of those people. I can't imagine being in Somalia and enduring the pain and constant struggle that those back home face on a daily basis.

With that said, I feel a deep passion to do my part in at least raising awareness about the struggle of those back home. Luckily we've been able to escape the mayhem, but that shouldn't keep us from thinking about what we can do to better our beautiful Somalia. Yes Somalia has been without a central government for quite sometime now, but then CHANGE will come. Change comes with the mindset of having hope, and translating that hope to organizing people to take the leadership role in making it happen. After organizing then can we act as ONE people, with one vision in mind of making Somalia what it once was. That dream will come true INSHA'ALLAH with the help of Allah. It requires for us to put aside our differences, and remind ourselves of what Somalia was. With the images and memories of what Somalia was we can be HOPEFUL that with hard work and determination CHANGE WILL COME!!!!!!

I pray that I live to see a UNITED Somalia. I pray that my kids will see it as well, and be PROUD to state that they are Somalis. I want to preserve and carry on the Somali culture and language. May we act on our wishes and remember that wishes/dreams are the starting point to creating lasting change. CHANGE will come.......

MAKE Every Week AIDS WEEK!!!

It’s AIDS Week, and as I surf the Internet I come across many facebook wall pictures as well as twitter pages showcasing the red ribbon. Now don’t get me wrong, but SERIOUSLY do we need a week to remind us of all the people dying of AIDS?
I don’t mean to sound cynical but we as people need to do more to not only educate ourselves about this disheartening issue, and ask ourselves what role we can play in getting antiretroviral therapy to those living in the poorest of countries. Maybe we ought to start, right here in America, after all CHARITY DOES START AT HOME. Sometimes it irritates me of how we picture Africa as the nation that is good for nothing and in desperate need of not only our financial assistance but of our medical advances. But then if we’re honest with ourselves, we come to realize that one doesn’t have to travel far to find people who are unable to pay for antiretroviral therapy to not only tend their lifespan but to reduce their infectiousness. Truth is we have come too overly individualistic that it’s more about ME, ME, ME rather than WE.
We need to think of what we can do to really make a difference in the lives of those living with AIDS, and make it OUR problem rather than just theirs. Harmony and happiness comes from helping others and working towards the common good rather than assuming that there’s nothing You can do. It takes someone to create a movement that can change lives. That change needs to start somewhere, might as well work to create it.
It’s a start the people are taking interest about AIDS, but we cannot pick and choose which parts to be parts of. We need to be PROACTIVE and work to make EVERY WEEK AIDS week because after this week, AIDS will continue to kill hundreds of thousands of People. Let us work towards creating lasting change that will increase the life span of those living with AIDS and work to create awareness. AIDS is not the problem of those living in AFRICA; AIDS is our problem. Together we can do it.

Remember we must all strive to become the change we wish to see in the world…

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.

Power and how it pertains to leadership

My feelings in regards to power and how it pertains to leadership is a positive one. Naturally people fear those in higher societal positions. I personally feel that if people use power for reasons deemed right, it can be utilized to recruit people to work towards a desirable common goal. Power can be used negatively as well, but with the right intensions and the right type of people; I personally believe that power can be a positive thing.

Youth violence has really been a problem in my community and this issue has taken the lives of several of our young people. Somali on Somali crime is something common within the Somali community. Somalia is in a state of anarchy due to conflict between feuding tribes. Many families have fled from that country of war and terror to seek refuge in the west. For quite a while the Somali community here lived in peace and harmony and people had hopes to someday rebuild their country along the lines of unity. A new form violence in terms of youth was ignited here. Somali youth violence based on tribal lines slowly started to appear. Crimes due to gangs based on Qabeel (tribes) became frequent in number. Now, youth are being killed one by one and it seems like the situation in Somalia is being duplicated here. If we don’t take a stand and stop this situation while its still in its earlier stages than we will be facing a catastrophe. This issue has existed for quite some time now but people have ignored it, and as sad as it is for me to say this, it took 9 young men to lose their lives before the community decided that they would react to the problem. Even now, although it looks as though the topic of discussion seems to be youth violence there still seems to exist a division that is getting in the way of people coming together to work for the common good of saving today’s youth. A division that has still carried over from the divisions that started back home.

I am saddened, for I don’t see the need for this division. If everyone wants to save the youth and help them as they say, then why can’t everyone join efforts to combat this issue? I feel that although people say they want to help the youth, the number of individuals who are sincere about really helping the youth is far less than those who come out claiming that they are working for the betterment of the community. A lot of people talk about the wrongdoings of the youth, problems they are creating, and things of such sort but they never talk about solutions. The idea that they could help those people never seems to cross their mind. Talk is what a lot of elders and older youth seems to do, but I believe that talk without action is useless.

What this does is dishearten those who are sincerely working to better the situations. Individuals who want to see the youth get the resources and opportunity to make something of themselves. It breaks my heart to see people claiming to work towards helping the youth, when in reality they are fulfilling their own personal agendas. As a result the young people who need the help, don’t know whom to trust, because it is not like you can tell apart those who are sincere about it and those who aren’t.

The director of the youth program at the Coyle Center has used his power as a director to go out to different colleges to recruit and remind college students about the need for young people to be active in the community. A lot of times what happens is that there are a lot of people who want to do something positive, but because for some reasons just stop at the idea, and never really go out there to implement their thoughts and ideas into practice. So it’s nice for such a person as the youth director of the Coyle Center to remind others about the need for volunteers to help foster and educate tomorrow’s leaders. It is our responsibility as college students, those that have reached somewhere in life and know the problems to help those that are still in the process. The problem is that when people reach at a place where they are proud of themselves they chose to forget everyone else. They focus on themselves and that seems like something that isn’t fair. It is the duty of those young college students to mentor and help those younger ones so that they don’t lose their way.

I myself tutor at the Coyle center. I have decided to tutor there because; I feel that the presence of young college students can make a statement to those who come to the neighborhood to cause trouble. When young college students come to the neighborhood they are able to become role models for the youth whom they tutor. In a neighborhood such as Cedar Riverside it’s not everyday that people invest in the neighborhood. What breaks my heart is that there is a large number of youth from pre-school to high school who calls Cedar Riverside a home. If the city and the college students aren’t giving back then who do they leave these kids to? That as well as a personal passion of helping others is what brings me back to the neighborhood to leave my trace while helping the youth with their academics.

Every time I get time I talk with my friends about joining the cause of empowering our youth. A lot of them want to get involved but because of fear, they are stopped in their tracks and find themselves discussing the problem rather then working to find a solution.

Somali Class @ the University of Minnesota..

Tuesday September 8th, 2009 @ approximately 4:40pm history was made at the University of Minnesota. Somali Class was launched to give Somali speaking students an opportunity to brush up on their skills and strengthen it. For people such as myself, I was excited about the chance to enroll in a class at the University level to retain my motherland.

I was born in Somalia, but spent 14 years of my life here in this great state of Minnesota. During this time, I am saddened to announce that my Somali skills have taken a step towards the worse. I'm not proud to admit that I am unable to speak fluently in the language that makes me who I am as a person, and that is one of the stronger reasons that pushed me to sacrifice enrolling in this course that would require for me to attend classes everyday of the week. I saw more benefits, and realized that with strengthening my oral communications in my motherland, I will be able to do more for my own people. It's not the same when you talk to people in Somali compared to when you speak to them in English. People identify more with you when you speak to them in their mother tongue.

I am extremely happy that the University of Minnesota has taken a step towards the right direction, in giving Somali language an opportunity to cater to Somali and non-Somali speakers as all other languages offered here at the U of M. The class is taught by Saciid Salax who is known in the community as a teacher, poet, and playwright, he brings with him many years of experience in the education field, and a desire to teach the Somali language to all those who are interested.

Today I can proudly say that the University of Minnesota is working with the Somali community and has paved the way to retain the existence of our beloved language.

Dream lives on !!

I realized that every community has their set of problems. The only difference is that when your part of one, the problems are more clear to you. I now understand that my beloved Somali community isn't alone. That means the somali people are not alone in their struggle with tribes and youth violence. The only difference is that we as a community must connect with other communities who too have dealt with these issues. Then only can we find a solution that works. Its not a matter of organizing workshops and programs just then, but its really about establishing long lasting relationships that will link communities together. With this new found connection, can we sit down and get to the root of the problem. A plus is the fact that we other's who've experienced it and could possibly shed light on the situation, and allowing us to avoid potential falls.

I call to the youth of the Somali community where ever they might be, to be connected to their communities. I call to the youth and the educated leaders to not distance themselves from the community. We as a community must address the underlying issues that are cause our youth to turn to violence, our sisters to abort their unborn children and our elders to still sit at starbucks and discuss tribes.

We ( you) are the future of our beloved country. Yes currently the country might not be at its best to compete with the one's we are living in, but nevertheless its the place of our birth. It should be in us all to work towards bettering somalia.

Somalia lives in my veins
Somalia is the air I breath
Somalia is what gives meaning to my life
Somalia is what fuels my energy to withstand all obstacles I've come across thus far

I will not and cannot stop until I see a vibrant somali community working together solely for the purpose of bettering the community. Let us put aside anything that has ever divided us, and work together for a better tomorrow.