The SSC ComeBack
By Mahado Sheikh Dahir
January 10, 2012
William Topaz McGonagall (1825–1902) not only won notoriety for being the most dreadful poet of all time in the English-speaking world, but also for showing no regard or recognition whatsoever for his peer’s views of his work. Yet, if history were to be charitable to the Scot, he could have been remembered for chronicling momentous battles and events he witnessed, with farcical but candid prose packaged as poetry. "The relief of Mafeking", one of his counterfeit poems, is entertaining for its horrendous pretense than for its lyrical potency. Here are the first lines, which will rock your kidneys for a much-needed release by way of a lengthy laughter:
“Success to Colonel Baden-Powell and his praises loudly sing,
For being so brave in relieving Mafeking,
With his gallant little band of eight hundred men,
They made the Boers fly from Mafeking like sheep escaping from a pen”
“Success to Colonel Baden-Powell and his praises loudly sing,
For being so brave in relieving Mafeking,
With his gallant little band of eight hundred men,
They made the Boers fly from Mafeking like sheep escaping from a pen”
 |
Faisal Ali Waraabe |
McGonagall’s personification in the Somali political circles is an opulently bald man named Faysal Ali Waraabe, chairman of one of the opposition parties in Somaliland (North Western Somalia). He is callous, full of vitriol, rough and all. But he captures the mood of the day and the talk of Hargeisa town rather fittingly and also says it with exceptional candor. And, lately he is breathing fast and short, is in combative mode, and remonstrating.
His problem? - The secession dream of Somaliland is getting into a dead-end, the passageways of recognition are getting blurry and befuddling. He is not worried about Presidency and the higher perch. He is worried for the fate of his “home-land”. It is fragmenting, he says.
Somalia is coming back, he wailed. Sool-Sanaag-Cayn (SSC) is rising, and so Somalia is coming back, he declares. It is a correct transposition of fates. SSC must rise for Somalia to revive. He should indeed be worried, vexed even. For like McGonagall, what he is saying is comical but true. The dream of a clan enclave is turning into a midday fantasy.
After two decades of arduous voyage, the secessionists are finally sleepwalking into the final interment. Because the die is firmly cast in Taleex, and there is no going back. Taleex - a dying village which is home and the birthplace of an undying idealism of Somali nationalism!
The SSC magnitudes, themselves politically footloose and utterly divided, are now coalescing for the cause they are famed for, the cause of Somali unity. With purpose, with determination! And each baby-step they take towards setting up a viable SSC regional administration is a dagger in the heart of the secessionists in the North. With the strong come back of the SSC, and the declaration of Awdal State, it is evident that the secessionist agenda of the Somali Nationalist Movement (SNM) is now not only damaged but it is, in fact, over and the SNM drive of mutilating Somalia, as we have known and experienced it, is kaput, finito and gone. Continued
His problem? - The secession dream of Somaliland is getting into a dead-end, the passageways of recognition are getting blurry and befuddling. He is not worried about Presidency and the higher perch. He is worried for the fate of his “home-land”. It is fragmenting, he says.
Somalia is coming back, he wailed. Sool-Sanaag-Cayn (SSC) is rising, and so Somalia is coming back, he declares. It is a correct transposition of fates. SSC must rise for Somalia to revive. He should indeed be worried, vexed even. For like McGonagall, what he is saying is comical but true. The dream of a clan enclave is turning into a midday fantasy.
After two decades of arduous voyage, the secessionists are finally sleepwalking into the final interment. Because the die is firmly cast in Taleex, and there is no going back. Taleex - a dying village which is home and the birthplace of an undying idealism of Somali nationalism!
The SSC magnitudes, themselves politically footloose and utterly divided, are now coalescing for the cause they are famed for, the cause of Somali unity. With purpose, with determination! And each baby-step they take towards setting up a viable SSC regional administration is a dagger in the heart of the secessionists in the North. With the strong come back of the SSC, and the declaration of Awdal State, it is evident that the secessionist agenda of the Somali Nationalist Movement (SNM) is now not only damaged but it is, in fact, over and the SNM drive of mutilating Somalia, as we have known and experienced it, is kaput, finito and gone. Continued
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