Somalia: Preaching Message of Peace, Brotherhood and Hopefulness.
Sometimes I wonder what causes so much pain in the hearts of a man. This I ponder sitting in my unlit room in Johannesburg thinking of the families which lost their loved ones in recent blasts in Mogadishu, Somalia. Perhaps it is unusual feeling that I should feel this way while I’m far from the shores of my land of birth, Somalia.
Last month (14th Oct 2017), a truck loaded with tons of explosives blew up in one of Mogadishu’s busiest streets, the Somali capital. The blast sent shock waves for miles. More than 400 people were killed of which nearly close to 200 of them burned beyond recognition and over 1000 innocent women, children and elderly severely injured. I watched through the international media coverage; shocked and in tears for families searching for their loved ones in the rubble, indeed, this was the most devastating for a country where tragedy, civil wars and civil strives have become the norm of the day.
At the end of the day the fundamental question regarding the bombing continues to haunt us all. The root cause of these daily attacks is something so trivial and senseless death and casualties of many beautiful, innocent lives. Our people have forgotten how it feels to be safe in their country. This feeling of being unsafe is unfortunately found in the long inexplicable wars of children from the same womb, being Somalia.
However, how cruelty can be in the hearts of men, kindness can equally be of the same force or even more. This article seeks to remind our people of the ethical responsibility we have to mother Somalia and its children, regardless of where we are in the world.
We pray for Somalia deep in our hearts; may Almighty Allah pour upon it a clean security and progress. It is inconceivable that a child could be born and dies in Somalia without that child experiencing peace and prosperity.
The recent attacks left us shocked and uncertain. This is not the first tragedy that had afflicted the country, many took place before and right after this blast, sometimes, it is a daily occurrence.
We cannot let thousands of innocent civilian’s deaths meaning nothing to us, it must compel the Somali government and leadership to seek peace and protect civilians from these criminals who calls themselves liberators when in fact liberate none but imprison our future. I call for a national mourning of all young promising people and for all the lives lost. May their souls remain a constant stamina to all to the president each day when you lead our people, and may God Bless Somalia and keep safe its children.
We must be united in grief, and united in the knowledge that at the core our hearts humanity can better be expressed by kindness and love. These attacks, inexplicable as they are, must never create filth and anger in our hearts. Our duty as the living is to preach message of peace, brotherhood, sisterhood and hopefulness amongst our people.
We must do our best to rise above these cynicism and unkindness towards each other. Our people must live in hope and not in fear, they must live in the full expression of love and the ultimate belief that someday in the near future Somalia will be the world teacher on what it means to forgive and what it means to be patriotic.
I trust and believe Somalia will rise from the difficulties of the day and become a great country again and recover many years of civil wars.
Living in South Africa which has given sanctuary and opportunity to many Somali refugees across South Africa and to so many other Africans, and international communities from countries that have been plagued by long destructive wars, natural disasters, political mismanagement, corruption and so forth. Nevertheless some of these immigrant people, like Somalis community in SA come with business skills, innovations and opportunities that need to be harnessed to benefit the host country and people through sharing business skills and building partnerships with host community.
My plea to South African government, its rainbow nation is to extent their helping hand by continuing providing refugee status for Somali refugees to live legally in the republic with due consideration of the security climate in Somalia which forced many of us to flee and seek asylum in SA and in many other countries from onset.
Huge thanks goes to Turkish government and its compassionate people for their continues support.
Saeed Furaa
A banker cum Social Entrepreneur and freelance writer
Saeed is involved and passionate towards youth development through entrepreneurship
Johannesburg
E-mail: hasefsa@gmail.com
Cell: 0710837351
