BBC' Shiino striked by a stroke

[Sagaashan]

Mohamed Hussien was living the kind of up-by-the-bootstraps American dream that would have prompted Horatio Alger to turn a cartwheel. Until a month ago, when his plans suddenly got put on hold.

After emigrating from Somalia to the United States in the early 1990s, unable to speak a word of English, Hussien's remarkable career path began on the night shift at a poultry plant in Moorhead, Minn. It peaked less than a year ago, when he landed the job of his boyhood fantasies -- Somali-language correspondent for the prestigious BBC, a primary source of news for Somalis everywhere.

He was happy, healthy, on top of the world. Then, on Jan. 27, as his flight from Minneapolis neared the East Coast, he suddenly felt weak. When the plane landed in Philadelphia, he got up to retrieve his bag in the overhead bin, and fell down. He tried to stand, and fell down again. "That's when I knew I needed some help," he said.

At age 37, with no prior health problems, he had just had a stroke. He was rushed to a hospital, the extent of the stroke's damage unknown. His wife, Farhiya Mohamud, a public-health nurse with Dakota County, flew east to be with him. The couple have four children and live in Burnsville.

"It was terrible, waiting," she said. "We didn't know if he would be able to move or speak."

He was soon able to do both, but with difficulty. Because of his relatively young age and otherwise good health, he has made greater daily gains than do most stroke victims. But as he sits at the kitchen table in his cozy town home, surrounded by family, it's clear he still has some way to go. His right arm is still stiff -- he's learning to write with his left -- but his handshake is much firmer than it was the week before.

Before the stroke, Hussien was fluent in English, which he also needs for his job. He now speaks it in short phrases, briefly pausing to focus before each comment. Sometimes he speaks a few words in his native Somali, which has come back more easily. His wife translates.


"I know most of the English words in my head, I just can't say them," he said. "Like when I was first in the hospital, I could understand people talking, I just couldn't answer."

Hussein, a skilled and passionate communicator, can't tell his stories.

Running with the big boys

In early January, before his stroke, he recalled his journey from daydreaming child to international broadcaster. As a young man in Mogadishu, Hussien and his uncle listened to the BBC on the radio every day. "I always wanted to work for the BBC," he said in an interview before the stroke. "It's where the big boys play, the place to be once you've reached your greatness. I thought the announcers talked like elderly cousins. I would imitate their voices."

Yusuf Garaad, head of the London-based BBC Somali Service and Hussien's boss, says Hussien's humble broadcasting days in Minnesota laid the necessary groundwork for the demands of his current job, but that his background and connections haven't hurt.

"He has knowledge of African affairs as well as the challenges of the Somali-speaking community in the U.S.," Garaad said. "He also has a very good Somali network from all walks of life including academicians, community organizers, Imams, and past and present politicians."

Hussien grew up in the northern part of Somalia. Following the civil-war violence that scattered so many of his countrymen, he was sponsored to come to the United States in 1992. Nineteen years old, with a new bride working in Germany, he hopped a Greyhound to Minneapolis when he heard there were jobs. "I didn't know anybody, just that some Somalis lived here," he said.

His first weeks in the city were spent crashing on the floor of a new acquaintance's apartment and working daily temp jobs. He soon got a $6.10-an-hour night-shift job cutting up turkey parts in Moorhead. "I was young and skinny and unable to lift the big turkeys and hang them," he said.

His wife joined him at the turkey plant in 1993. Two years later, they moved to Minneapolis and began their upward career climb. She studied to become a public-health nurse, while he took courses at community colleges and held a series of jobs, including parking-lot attendant, cabdriver and clinic case manager.

But he hadn't forgotten his first passion. In 1997 he started volunteering on "Somali TV," a cable-access program started by Minneapolis teacher Abdul Osman. He also did on-air informational reports for ECHO, a nonprofit program that gives health and safety messages in a variety of immigrant languages.

"He was always coming up with ideas for topics; he was naturally inquisitive," said ECHO director Lillian McDonald. "He has a very good on-air presence. It's a gift."

The turning point

In 2006 he got his first big break. He tried out for the Voice of America news service, and despite his lack of professional journalism training, they took a chance and hired him to present programming on-air. Hussien's second break came the next year, when he snagged an interview with Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, then-president of Somalia's transitional government.

"I'm sitting at my desk about five minutes to transmission," Hussien said. "It was a horrible day of news, full of dead bodies. I get a call from Mogadishu offering to speak to him. I knew my boss would give the story to someone more experienced if I told him, so I just went ahead and did it."

The interview was widely disseminated, and his career took off. The BBC hired him. Somali listeners know his name. Hussien said his Minnesota connections give him professional cachet.

"People will talk to me, everywhere I go, especially politicians, because the Somali community here is so well known," he said.

On the topic of his adopted home state, he is effusive: "I cannot thank Minnesota enough. I got my education here, my first jobs, a safe and healthy place for my family."

One story sums up his feelings.

"I was going to school at MCTC [Minneapolis Community Technical College] right after Sept. 11 happened. My ethics teacher was afraid there might be discrimination against me because I'm Muslim, so he formed a discussion group with some students and they told me, 'You are one of us,' and hugged me. I always think I might cry when I talk about that."

Hope amid uncertainty

Hussien and his wife have received an outpouring of support from co-workers and neighbors as well as the local Somali community. At the kitchen table, their oldest son, Nasir, is asked if he knew what a stroke was before his father had one. "I Googled it right away," he said.

Nasir learned that with no prior personal or family history, what happened to his father is very rare. His doctor at Methodist Hospital, Leela Engineer, can't predict when he will fully recover, "but he's made a lot of improvement in just one month," she said.

Hussien goes to speech therapy four times a week. For now, his job is safe. The BBC is holding his place, said colleague Abdi Aynte, a fellow Minnesotan. Their boss, Garaad, flew from London to visit Hussien when he was in the Philadelphia hospital.

"They said they will wait for him," said Mohamud, a serene presence who observes her husband with a subtly protective eye. "I know he's a very hard worker."

Perseverance is something Hussien has plenty of, and he'll need it to get behind the microphone again. He needs his words back.

"There is so much I want to do," he said. "Somali boys missing from Minneapolis, elections in Somalia, a new American president. So much going on."

His eyes move rapidly for a few moments, trying to say what his mouth can't yet manage. Every day, he gets a little closer.

Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046

[Air Canada]

Ilaaheey ha caafiyo

Shiine is one my favourite @ the BBC. He is the guy who asked afbiijo a while back, a question that i think was the most important question a somali journalist ever asked anybody; one that was humiliating to biijo and showed everybody the true character of the Jareerteen mujrim after the way he answered that question.

He posed the killer question to afbiijo few days before he exited after suffering a political humiliation that ended what seemed like a lifetime career of dabadhilifnimo and prostitution to Ethiopia.

He asked, "mudane madaxweyne, the very last question i want to ask you is, will you give up your seat if you knew for certain it will bring a lasting peace and end the human suffering that is going on in Somalia"

Thuma walaahi afbiijo answered; "NO! kursigeyga madaxtinimada gor gortan maleh" much to the dismay of wariye shiine who couldn't help but laugh at the fool and end the interview by saying "waa kaasa madaxweynihii somaliya"

Bal fiiri suaasha sidaas u culus ee la weeydiiyay siduu uga jawaabay gaalka foosha xun.

[Sagaashan]

war dadkaan halkee ku jiraan. so this mans whole character is summoned by a question to a perceived enemy. this is why i think the somaliwyen concept is overrated

[Advo]

I was just reading this in Hiiraanonline, his only in his late 30's and suffered a stroke ......that's awfully a young age, may he recover soon insha'allah.

[hanad_mn]

allaah ha caafiyo. I am proud of Shiino. a great guy and a close friend.

[Cawar]

war dadkaan halkee ku jiraan. so this mans whole character is summoned by a question to a perceived enemy. this is why i think the somaliwyen concept is overrated

I dont know this Shiino guy and never heard of him..but may Allah help him out and give him caafimaad..,
Lakin I am curious tell me his qabil and I will tell you why this Airhead is praising him..

Even though the airhead will praise the worst enemy of mankind, let alone somalis, if he opposed majerten..thats a given.

[Air Canada]

Walaahi bilaaahi i wrote that without finishing to read the whole story.

And this is what it says somewhere in the middle.

The turning point

In 2006 he got his first big break. He tried out for the Voice of America news service, and despite his lack of professional journalism training, they took a chance and hired him to present programming on-air. Hussien's second break came the next year, when he snagged an interview with Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, then-president of Somalia's transitional government.

To me, that interview defines his entire career. I didn't know Shiine before that interview of Afbiijo.

He did an excellent job of exposing the true character of Afbiijo.

[Sagaashan]

war dadkaan halkee ku jiraan. so this mans whole character is summoned by a question to a perceived enemy. this is why i think the somaliwyen concept is overrated

I dont know this Shiino guy and never heard of him..but may Allah help him out and give him caafimaad..,
Lakin I am curious tell me his qabil and I will tell you why this Airhead is praising him..

Even though the airhead will praise the worst enemy of mankind, let alone somalis, if he opposed majerten..thats a given.

Cawar why you want to move this shid to the qabil section man

Airhead,

Shiino was doing Somali TV here in the Twin Cities before he moved to VoA or the BBC. He was ver distinguished, he already got the break he wanted before he got A/Y interview. right now the guy is a bad situation, and may allah have mercy on him and his family.

[Navy9]

My God, I knew this guy!

SubhanAllah, May Allah cure him.

[Air Canada]

Sagaashan aka Shilling

Did you had to throw the tuute which your Ethiopian boyfriend has provided you with and dress like one of us in order to escape punishment, after your Ethiopian boyfriend left?

[Sagaashan]

AirHead sxb are you on the ground horta

meeshaan maxaa keenay ethiopian iyo A/y. nin baa naf ah oo soomaali oo dhan qiima ugu fadhiya, siiba reer minnesota, ee ninyahow u ducee ninkaan.

ps not shilling

[Air Canada]

Meet the man who murdered Afbiijo with a single question.

http://www.startribune.com/video/40870967.html

Ilaaheey ha caafiyo

[Ureysoo]

A man who summed up Somalia's continues hardship by giving out the presidency seat is a legend now?. I think he still believes in tooth fairy and the land of wonder at this age and time. Anyway, Ilahay Ha Caafiyo.....

[The-Screw]

His wife joined him at the turkey plant in 1993. Two years later, they moved to Minneapolis and began their upward career climb. She studied to become a public-health nurse, while he took courses at community colleges and held a series of jobs, including parking-lot attendant, cabdriver and clinic case manager.

we used to be strong people ka waran. Somali men would hold 2 or 3 jobs working nearly 20hrs a day and never complain while Somali women also worked odd jobs even during the night. i know a lot of people that went through this, life was hard for them but they managed it and survived through thick and thin. but these days, it's become rare. most men cry about an 8hr shift and the women would rather complain about the man not working hard enough instead of looking for a job and helping out. what went wrong?



anyway, the other thing that i want to say is this. can we (men) ask our wives, mothers and sisters to go easy on the saliid and subag? this is something we never think about but when you see people that look healthy and in excellent shape get strokes it's a problem. about 3 years ago, an uncle of a friend of mine, about 40 years, tall skinny guy had a stroke. the doctor mentioned high cholesterol as one of the reasons. immediately i thought to myself, take it easy on the oodkac and bariiska iyo hilibka.

[Cawar]

Screw,

Its true that too much salid and subag in our food contribute in raising cholesterol levels and in consequence lead to heart attacks and strokes , even at an fairly young age..if you couple that with the lack of exercise and the sedentary life style in the west..then you have a recipe for disaster..waiting to happen at a moment's notice..

However, over 70-80% of these accidents(heart attacks and strokes) ..esp. the strokes and when they occur at a young age..ie. before 45-50..
It has to do with genetic predisposition , more than the cholesterol we consume, which will eventually lead into future clogging of the arteries ..and heart attacks/strokes..

Especially the strokes(dhiig baa ku furmay maskaxda).. happens a lot to fairly young ppl in their 20s-30s ..and like I said, its a combination of high blood pressure(caused or made worse by qaad consumption btw) and something else called Berry Aneurysm in the brain..unfortunately.