FACEBOOK is the present day AK47
by Hussien Mohammed Yusuf
Sunday, December 14, 2014
The disintegration of the Somali republic into regions and self proclaimed states has passed through different stages. I remember in the 1990s, Warlords had the headlines of any story raised by the World media as they dominated the stages of those years in which millions were displaced and thousands were killed by greedy and with no excuse gangs under the leadership of the war lords. They divided and demeaned Somalia in such a way that Somalia is synonymous with a failed state in the English dictionary to date.
The Warlords in the 1990s were purely male dominated and to my knowledge there was not even a single female warlord that has participated in the first generation of warlords in Somalia. One very reason, that I believe, has not brought a female warlord into fame is that Somalis are patriarchal society where male dominates. the aforementioned reason has never created a favourable female warlord to take the lead in the war against the enemy of whoever opposed the clan based interests which was the major cause those warlords fought for.
The second generation of warlords that are today in thousands if not in millions are not only purely male but also female warlords take their share for they have got a favourable environment for establishing their own battlefields where they can take the fortress to fight against other warlords who are dispersed in different parts of the world.
Luckily, present day warlords do not fight a face to face war with guns and bullets but from their own homes and the guns are not AK47 and the other many types of guns that the 1990s warlords used to battle but simply a mobile Smartphone, a laptop a desktop computer (for Cowards) and the abundant wireless networks in every cafe and space. The fight has no timing and the bombardment is in sequence and is nonstop.
I came to know that facebook is the present day AK47 that is used by all or most of the warlords. the bullets are very cheap and the only precondition in place is that the warlord must have the knowhow of computer manipulation so that he/she can fire as many bullets as he/she can to his/her enemies without any movement from their locations.
There are websites and blogs that also play their part in the infighting amongst the present day warlords. The success of the battle is measured in *Likes* and defeat would have been measured in *dislikes* but this button is yet to be developed as has been highlighted by the facebook Chief Executive Officer.
I am prompted to write this piece for I frequently observe posts that are being constantly shared by many young facebook warlords who are so crazy with tribalism and division of people whom they left to contribute in the improvement of their livelihoods but instead trying to create hostile environment among the peace loving people in the regions and districts of their respective areas of origin.
Those young rotating armchair warlords do not have any concern of how those mostly pastoral and agro-pastoral communities are suffering with the impact of climate change that has negatively affected the environment which is the only source of living for those subsistent farmers.
It will be wise to think for the betterment of the lives of those communities but it is my firm believe that those warlords will never liberate any one with those unethical and indecent messages being frequently bombarded into the different clan based news portals and facebook pages.
At last but not least, it will be unwise if I do not mention the very view news portals web mastered by very ethical and learned people that only nurture us scholarly and up to date analytical articles penned by the different Somali scholars. It is also wise to mention that there are many people whose facebook pages carry wisdom and creative ideas that deserve readership and following.
Hussien Mohammed Yusuf
Email: [email protected]
Jig-jiga, Ethiopia