Voltage wrote:The one good thing abouot Shabaab's Somalia today.
They have engineered a massive social transformation by destroying the existence, importance, and political nature of tribes/clans that could not have been achieved in a thousand years of normal urban social evolution by the Somali people.
You can hate them. You can accurately list the negative consequence of their rise. You can argue the fact the nation is headed for the worst under them when it comes to international political and economic aspects or the fact they have introduced heinous forms of extremist tendencies unheard of Somalia in the past such as the use of suicide bombing. You can argue all those thing effectively to conclude on the whole, Al Shabaab is a negative phenomenon and Somalia is headed for the worst under their rule.
I will agree altogether the effect bodes negative for Somalia but you cannot argue against, deny, or ignore the massive social transformation that has taken place that ironically enough prepares Somalia more for statehood and national governance then 40 years of Western colonialism, and 40 years of independent Somali governance from the time of Addan Cadde (may he rest in peace) to the end of the Siad Barre government (may he also rest in peace).
This social transformation has been the deemphasization of clan from the clutches of national power and the destruction of its existence of importance relating to matters of state, politics, or running the affairs of any one village, town, city, region, or state in Somalia.
Nothing was and is more of a curse on the Somali culture, Somali peoplehood, and the future materialization of a Somali state than the central position of manifest importance clans held. An importance that has completely disappeared from where it was most negatively applied in the extreme in Southern Somalia, the central area of Somalia that determines its fate.
I would be remiss if I did not also look at my own background and see how I have been transformed as well, although along with them and not influenced by them as the forces that affected my transformation were more practical and logical. See from a young age, I, like most other Somali youth, accepted the norm of political tribalism. The idea one belongs to a specific stock of the Somali people, live and die by them as was the case with our grandfathers before us, is and was a central existence in the "coming-of-age" of any young Somali man. It was also in a very sympathetic environment such an idea lodged itself in me because as a highly bright and curious young man, I always questioned the nature of our flight out of Somalia and the sad situation the old country continued to find itself in. After all, I was at once American and a product of my environment, but still had parents who sent money back home to aid relatives and house-phones that rang at all extremities of the hour containing the hopeful voices of helpless clansmen back home who sought aid from us, their more fortunate relatives abroad. My acceptance of and championing of political tribalism then became realized. After all, was it not a natural occurrence in such a situation?
To summarize a long story short, it became impossible for me to bridge the gap between the political tribalism I was expected to toe to with respect to Somalia and the daily environment and progressive education before me. What in Somalia's tribalized politics conformed to both the secular and religious educations I had undergone? Nothing. I would sit in a classroom full of White Americans, Black Americans, Asians, Latinos and all forms of colors and creeds. I would come to accept and champion the vibrancy and strength of diversity yet when it came to Somalia, it became hard for me to continue to accept this push to want more for political power for people of my clan at the expense of others, in fact seldom not at the expense of others. Why should a clansman of mine be privileged politically at the expense of other more qualified people on account of people of his clan owning more guns then the other clans? Why should I want the top political posts for my clan as a symbol of power when as a person who cares for the development of his nation, I should be choosing on merit? With these confounding differences and confusions, I decided to make my first visit back home to the mother land in East Africa. I went there with these two parralels and worldviews in front of me. The world view shaped by all the education I had undergone, secular as well as religious, that spoke of plurality and put emphasis on merit and the worldview shaped and written into my blood as a member of the Somali race, which stressed allegiance to clan and nothing but clan at the expense of nation, logic, and even at times sanity. In Africa, the worldview espoused by my Somali bloodline was crushed. Nothing else explains it. Going there and seeing the situation with the eyes of a Western-raised, and Western-educated young man who had no physical remembrance of Africa, I had failed to understand why so many our people continue to be indoctrinated into arguably the most primitive of social customs that has become the bane and the destruction of our nation. Perhaps I have written too long but as I flew back from Africa, I held a single worldview that has only come to maturation recently when it became possible for me to condemn even my own clansmen politically. I feel both liberated and alive because of this stance that espouses logic, reason, sanity, plurality, merit, and capability; concepts totally alien to the pervasive tribal culture shaped by centuries of Somali bush life.
The negativity of tribal politics is undisputed being the only issue in Somalia with which both Al Shabaab and the West agree on and find a common platform against. Truly, if anything else, Al Shabaab deserves a praise for doing its part to curtail the existence of such a primitive cultural tradition.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=235648 
If you don't believe me ask Somalian_Boqor, Shirib, Sadeboi etc who are my friends in real life. Not only am I not tribalistic, but I am actually a very progressive individual on social matters concerning our people. I am genuinely the most pro-Madhiban person you can meet. The most pro-Somali Bantu person you can meet. My best friends are from all Somali tribes and I rarely in mind or spirit support warlords, tribal fights, or at all regressive movements that deal with primitive categorizations. I also have also formulated a reputation on this forum for being a staunch and uncomforming "Siyaadist" and while I am still a supporter of the late president, I am not at all extreme in my support and in fact very flexible in honestly looking at the legacy of the past. Sadeboi can tell you I am the one who made him realize criticizing the former government is perfect reasonable as it was a governmantal entity and could be held accountable. Surprising isn't it? 
I'm being honest, are respect my Marehan friends more than my other friends. I feel relaxed when I'm around my Marehan friends or relatives. 
