The story of Somali immigrants in America. Since 2003, Abdi Roble - who came to the US from Somalia in 1989 - and Doug Rutledge have been documenting the lives of Somalis who have fled to camps in Kenya and to the US. This book follows the story of a family as they struggle to survive in Kenya and then in America.

A FALÊNCIA DO ESTADO SOMALI E A PIRATARIA EM ÁGUAS INTERNACIONAIS: UMA ABORDAGEM ILUSTRADA A PARTIR DO FILME “CAPITÃO PHILLIPS”.

Kasım 2002 yılında iktidara gelen Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi'nin (AK Parti) dış politikasında Somali'nin özel bir yeri bulunmaktadır. Türkiye'nin Somali ile ilişkileri, dönemin başbakanı olan Türkiye Cumhurbaşkanı Recep Tayyip Erdoğan'ın 19 Ağustos 2011 yılında şiddetli kuraklıktan ve iç savaştan etkilenen Somalilere destek olmak amacı ile bu ülkeye düzenlediği resmi ziyaretin ardından gelişmeye başlamıştır. 2011'den sonra Türkiye, Somali'ye en büyük insani yardım kampanyalarından birini başlatmıştır. Türkiye, Somali'de sadece bir yumuşak güç politikası geliştirmekle kalmamış, aynı zamanda bir sert (...) güç politikası da uygulamaya başlamıştır. Bu kapsamda Türkiye, 2012 yılından bu yana hem Ankara’da hem de Mogadişu'da yüzlerce Somalili asker ve polise eğitim vermektedır. Aynı zamanda Türkiye, 2017 yılında yurtdışındaki Türkiye’nin en büyük askeri üssünü Somali'de açtı. Bu araştırma, Türkiye'nin Somali'de güvenlik politikasını derinleştirmesinin ardındaki nedenleri ve dinamikleri incelemekte ve Türkiye'nin güvenlik politikasının Somali için ne anlama geldiğini tartışmaktadır. Araştırma, sosyo-kültürel, ekonomik ve jeopolitik dahil olmak üzere Türkiye'nin Somali'ye yönelik güvenlik politikasını yönlendiren faktörlerin bir kombinasyonu olduğunu savunuyor. Bu çalışma, kavramsal ve teorik perspektifler kullanarak Türkiye'nin güvenlik politikasını bütüncül bir yaklaşımla incelemektedir. (shrink)

Before 1972 Somalia had no official writing system for its language. In spite of this, those who bred animals (camels, cattle, sheep, and goats) and who, owing to a lack of water in the country were forced to become nomads, had an authentic oral tradition that found its voice in a rich oral literature. This was well and truly oral in that it was composed, memorized, and passed on without having to resort to any type of writing or other means (...) of communication or recording. Many of these genres are typical of any oral tradition: various dance or work songs, fairy stories and other tales, riddles, sayings, proverbs, and so on. (shrink)

This article reviews, compares and contrasts the film "Black Hawk Down" by Ridley Scott, with the book by Marc Bowman. The book has a third of its contents devoted to the Somali experience of, and perspective on, the "Day of the Rangers," that is, the day that US troops were militarily involved in Mogadishu, Somalia (October 3, 1993). However, the film almost entirely conveys the U.S. servicemen's experience, with hardly any sympathetic Somali characters. I argue that many of (...) Bowman's original points are lost by not being portrayed in the film. While the film's director Ridley Scott says he intended his film to be an anti-war film, the impression of viewers, and the use of the film by the larger media (and the film's release timed during the US War in Afghanistan in 2002), seems to come to a different conclusion, not only about history (and the "inevitability" of war), but about the current US war on terrorism: support our troops, and don't question a war's intent or methods. (shrink)

The use of traditional ethical methodologies is inadequate in addressing a constructed maternal–fetal rights conflict in a multicultural obstetrical setting. The use of caring ethics and a relational approach is better suited to address multicultural conceptualizations of autonomy and moral distress. The way power differentials, authoritative knowledge, and informed consent are intertwined in this dilemma will be illuminated by contrasting traditional bioethics and a caring ethics approach. Cultural safety is suggested as a way to develop a relational ontology. Using caring (...) ethics and a relational approach can alleviate moral distress in health-care providers, while promoting collaboration and trust between providers and their patients and ultimately decreasing reproductive disparities. This article examines how a relational approach can be applied to a cross-cultural reproductive dilemma. (shrink)

This essay examines Joseph Carens' open borders argument in the light of a case study of recent Somali migrants to the UK. It argues that, although arguments for significantly more open borders are compelling, they must take into account existing domestic injustice in receiving states as well as existing global injustice.

Drawing on positioning theory this study investigates how Somali diaspora mothers actively struggle to be recognized by teachers in Danish public schools as equitable partners in their children’s education. The study takes into account the historically and politically constituted conditions for positioning work and argues that these mothers navigate skillfully in these conditions explicitly positioning themselves as both ‘supportive assistants’ and ‘responsible parents’. However, the analysis shows that these mothers have narratives of unjust treatment of both themselves and their (...) children in schools, but the struggle to be recognized as equitable partners inhibits their possibilities of taking up the position of ‘advocate for their child’. They are thereby drawn into a position of ‘passive complacency’. Additionally the article argues for a more encompassing understanding of positioning theory that takes into account the constituted conditions as well as embodied and material aspects of constitutive here-and-now negotiations. (shrink)

Le but de cet article est double. Il s'agit d'une part de donner une représentation des verbes trilitères (i.e. comportant trois consonnes, autrement dit les verbes de forme CvCvC) du somali qui rend compte de l'ensemble de leurs propriétés. D'autre part, au travers de cet exemple d'analyse, je m'attache à discuter du rapport qu'entretient le phonologue avec les corpus, en particulier, leur constitution, leur exploitation, l'appréhension et la résolution des contre-exemples ; on verra aussi que l'analyse proposée (comportement des (...) verbes [CvCvC] du somali) ainsi que ses dividendes, capitaux pour la compréhension de la phonologie de cette langue, auraient été impossibles à obtenir ou du moins non crédibles sans l'utilisation de l'outil informatique. Dans le dernier paragraphe seront discutés les problèmes que posent la constitution de corpus électroniques ainsi que leur exploitation automatique. (shrink)

Le but de cet article est double. Il s'agit d'une part de donner une représentation des verbes trilitères (i.e. comportant trois consonnes, autrement dit les verbes de forme CvCvC) du somali qui rend compte de l'ensemble de leurs propriétés. D'autre part, au travers de cet exemple d'analyse, je m'attache à discuter du rapport qu'entretient le phonologue avec les corpus, en particulier, leur constitution, leur exploitation, l'appréhension et la résolution des contre-exemples ; on verra aussi que l'analyse proposée (comportement des (...) verbes [CvCvC] du somali) ainsi que ses dividendes, capitaux pour la compréhension de la phonologie de cette langue, auraient été impossibles à obtenir ou du moins non crédibles sans l'utilisation de l'outil informatique. Dans le dernier paragraphe seront discutés les problèmes que posent la constitution de corpus électroniques ainsi que leur exploitation automatique. (shrink)

The attacks on commercial shipping vessels by Somali pirates have introduced a business dilemma for ship-owners. While maritime piracy has been outlawed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ship-owners must determine whether to pay ransom demands to Somali pirates or not. There is no easy answer to solve this ethical dilemma for ship-owners and other interest groups, however, this article proposes a solution which takes into account all of the parties involved.

This study examines the cross‐cultural generality of Hering's (1878/1964) color‐opponent theory of color appearance. English‐speaking and Somali‐speaking observers performed variants of two paradigms classically used to study color‐opponency. First, both groups identified similar red, green, blue, and yellow unique hues. Second, 25 English‐speaking and 34 Somali‐speaking observers decomposed the colors present in 135 Munsell color samples into their component Hering elemental sensations—red,green,blue, yellow, white, and black—or else responded “no term.” Both groups responded no term for many samples, notably (...) purples. Somali terms for yellow were often used to name colors all around the color circle, including colors that are bluish according to Hering's theory. Four Somali Grue speakers named both green and blue elicitation samples by their term for green. However, that term did not name the union of all samples called blue or green by English speakers. A similar pattern was found among three Somali Achromatic speakers, who called the blue elicitation sample black or white. Thus, color decomposition by these Somali‐speaking observers suggests a lexically influenced re‐dimensionalization of color appearance space, rather than a simple reduction of the one proposed by Hering. Even some Somali Green‐Blue speakers, whose data were otherwise similar to English, showed similar trends in yellow and blue usage. World Color Survey data mirror these results. These within‐ and cross‐cultural violations of Hering's theory do not challenge the long‐standing view that universal sensory processes mediate color appearance. However, they do demonstrate an important contribution of language in the human understanding of color. (shrink)

People consume food not only to satisfy hunger but also for cultural, religious and social reasons. In Islam there is an emphasis on cleanliness in both spirit and food (Agriculture and Agri-food Canada 2011). Eating is perceived to be a form of worship (Talib et al., 2015). Halal is Islamic dietary law derived from the Quran and Hadith, the practices of the Prophet Mohammad, Ijma and Qiyas (Regenstein et al., 2003). Halal goes beyond religious obligation. It is part of the (...) Islamic way of life which includes not only dietary requirements but also behaviour, speech, dress, and conduct (Talib et al., 2015a). Furthermore, observing the tenets of halal can guarantee food safety and serve as a business model for the Canadian export market. The benefits of halal notwithstanding, a lack of trust in the market can jeopardize the food’s perceived authenticity and provide traceability challenges. This especially affects Somali, Syrian, Pakistani and Afghani Canadians who prefer halal meat’s taste and require it for cultural and religious reasons. New policies are therefore a prerequisite to strengthening the halal food value chain thereby reducing asymmetric halal information. (shrink)

There is a growing interest in researching the plight, health, and social care needs of forced migrants and the complex ethical issues related to researching this vulnerable group. Conducting health and social care research with forced migrants is a sensitive and complex issue and can place emotional demands on contributors, requiring high ethical and moral standards which safeguard participants, researchers and the integrity of the study. Researchers and those who review research need to be sensitive to the needs, privacy and (...) fears of participants. In addition to the medical and personal benefits that can be obtained from undertaking research with forced migrants, there comes the risk of stigmatization, exploitation and harm. This paper identifies some, but by no means all, key ethical issues confronting researchers, these dilemmas include the complex issues of language and translation, immigration status, contextual issues, lack of familiarity with the research process, issues of informed consent and safeguarding anonymity. Confidentiality, sensitivity to cultural traditions and values, and avoiding re-traumatization also need to be considered as this knowledge can minimize research risks and protect the rights and welfare of research participants. This paper will draw upon experience of working with refugees and asylum seekers for many years and from experience gained from small-scale qualitative research undertaken with Somali and Ethiopian forced migrants. It argues for the need for a consistent, robust, ethical framework to ensure that the ‘researcher’ does not inadvertently ‘do harm’ by infringing on the security, privacy and well-being of the subjects of the research. This paper in turn adds to the knowledge base on good practice and research ethics and is hoped that it will provide useful guidance for those undertaking the ethical review for this type of research. (shrink)

Constitutional federalism is usually suggested as an appropriate and effective form of government for a country that is characterized by significant levels of ethnic diversity. Hence, where destructive ethnic mobilization has resulted in state failure, the suggestion has usually been for the country to adopt some form of constitutional federalism as a way to more effectively manage diversity and minimize further violent conflict. While Somalia is, today, a clear example of a failed state, its governance problems, however, do not emanate (...) from its inability to effectively manage its diverse ethnic populations since the country, essentially, is the most ethnically homogenous country in Africa. Instead, the origins of state failure in Somalia can be traced to violent mobilization by clans and sub-clans for control of the apparatus of governance. This paper puts forth several strategies that can be used to reconstruct and reconstitute the Somali State and provide the country with the types of institutions that will enhance peaceful coexistence and promote long-term and sustainable economic growth and development. The first line of business must be to secure the peace-and this will require external intervention-and then to engage all relevant stakeholders in negotiations to construct and adopt an appropriate system of government. Constitutional federalism, however, may not be well-suited for Somalia, especially given the expressed desire of many of the country's factions for autonomy. A more fitting alternative is the functional overlapping competing jurisdictions governance model, under which regional political units are defined by their physical boundaries but the delivery of public goods and services is provided jointly by various overlapping jurisdictions. Under the FOCJ, an individual can choose to belong to more than one political jurisdiction, for example, establishing his residence in one jurisdiction and purchasing water, electricity and other services from another. (shrink)

ACERBI Fabio« Archimedes and the Angel: Phantom Paths from Problems to Equations » Aestimatio 2 (2005), paru en 2006, p. 169-226. Compte-rendu J. Schönbeck, Euklid, Basel/Boston/Berlin, Birkhaüser 2003, dans Nuncius 21 (2006), p. 157-159. BABAULT SophieLangues, école et société à Madagascar. Normes scolaires, pratiques langagières, enjeux sociaux, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2006, 320 p. BENDJABALLAH SabrinaAvec Patricia Cabredo Hofherr, « Modification of the Noun in Somali: Comparative Evidence from..

Female genital mutilation generates passionate argument about child abuse and the limits of cultural independence. The Sudanese Women's Rights Group (SWRG), which is based in the United Kingdom (UK) issued a press release expressing grave concern about the Sudanese government's intention to legalise female genital mutilation (circumcision) (Sudanese Women's Rights Group press release Legalisation of female circumcision in Sudan, 18 June 2002). The Sudanese Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowment, together with an Islamic university, held a workshop entitled Towards the (...) Legalisation of Female Circumcision & Establishment of Training Centers for Operators (excisors). It recommended that female circumcision should be legalised, awareness about its importance in society should be raised, and the Islamic University should establish centres all over the country for training practitioners of female circumcision. The SWRG is concerned about the strong support for the recommendations among government officials, in a country where 89% of women have been mutilated.1 The Sudanese government's actions came just a few months before female genital mutilation was rejected at a 190 country strong world summit.2 The summit agreed that health care services must “conform to basic human rights and fundamental freedoms”, a provision designed to prevent female genital mutilation. Around the same time the American embassy in Nairobi said that Somali refugees who had rushed to circumcise their daughters before being moved to the US would probably be barred from emigrating.3 The statement prompted fierce debate, and the US later backtracked.4 Recent debate in the UK focused on taking young girls abroad for mutilation. Nothing in UK law specifically prohibits families from taking daughters abroad for female genital mutilation, but doctors must consider what action they should take to protect a child at risk of being mutilated. The government is exploring ways to strengthen the Prohibition of Female …. (shrink)

Religious and secular convictions have powerful effects, but their fundaments are often surprisingly fragile. Because of the conspicuous role that nationalisms, populisms, and fundamentalisms have in our globalizing world it is essential not to take their strength for granted, but to acknowledge that conviction and doubt are part of the same dynamic. The chapters in this volume demonstrate that doubt and hesitation are daily concerns even among the Maoist movement in India, right-wing populists in Europe and newly pious Somali (...) Muslims in London. In fact, new converts are often such stringent believers precisely because they need to dispel their own lingering doubts, while revolutionary movements survive only through the denial of ambiguity. By studying everyday doubt this volume unravels the mechanisms by which convictions gain and lose their force, and analyzes the dynamics that propel loosely held ideas into committed action. Whereas a focus on overcoming doubt highlights the exclusionary effects of committed action, attention to the breakdown of belief serves to better understand the cycles of hope, conviction, and disillusion that bespeak the human condition. This is the central theme in several chapters looking at ideological break-down. The collapse of communism, for instance, produced an epistemological crisis in which all knowledge became unstable, prompting gold-miners in Mongolia to go as far as to doubt the cosmos. The post-ideological environment of Western democracies also produces anxieties, as the break-down of the bonds of trust between governments and citizens results in feelings of betrayal. Questions of truth and action are always related: if nothing is worth fighting for then apathy and hopelessness may become symptomatic. By paying attention to the mechanisms and dynamics by which specific ideas gain and lose their credibility this volume sheds important new light on the role of ideas in social and political action. (shrink)

A middle-school classroom of English as a Second Language (ESL) for Somali and Vietnamese refugees is examined here. With Lefebvre's (1991) theory of the production of space and an additional help of postcolonial criticism (Fanon 1967; Willinsky 1998), this article first reviews how interplays among national flags, teaching and learning activities, and classroom arrangements served to nationalize a curriculum that ?walls? (Marcuse and von Kempen 1995) these students in national margins. Second, to further critiques and practices, the author argues (...) that an Other is critical in making a triad for becoming and the emergence of alternative transnationalism. More than defending differences in terms of originality, such transnationalism and the purpose of its pedagogy (Said 1994; Spivak 1997) reconceptualize the relations among culture, people, and place (Gupta and Ferguson 1992), and pursues more diverse trajectories of Becoming Others. (shrink)

Alessandro Portelli tiene una larga historia de amistad con la Universidad Nacional de La Plata y con la Maestría en Historia y Memoria en particular. Ha dictado dos seminarios de posgrado en el marco de la maestría en 2013 y 2018, así como también la revista Aletheia ha publicado una traducción de un texto de su autoría (Aletheia n°7) y una entrevista en el marco de sus visitas al país (Aletheia n°9). En 2013 fue distinguido con el título Miembro Honorífico (...) y en 2017 le fue otorgado el Doctorado Honoris Causa por la UNLP. Hoy volvemos a publicar un texto suyo, que transcribe la conferencia que nos ofreció en la Universidad Nacional de La Plata, el 16 y 17 de septiembre de 2019, durante una nueva visita, invitado por el Doctorado en Historia y la Maestría en Historia y Memoria de la FaHCE, para participar del Coloquio sobre Memorias Populares y realizando un encuentro con investigadores e investigadoras de nuestra casa de estudios. En la conferencia “Archivos Sonoros y cultura popular", el investigador italiano disertó sobre “Bob Dylan, migraciones y globalización” trazando un recorrido histórico y geográfico de la lírica popular de transmisión oral. En este viaje se registran las mutaciones de la canción y las transformaciones de los sujetos que la entonan a través del espacio y el tiempo, mientras permanecen las opresiones que dan lugar al canto. En la canción de Bob Dylan se concentran las versiones de sus precursores: desde el teatro del renacimiento italiano hasta el cercamiento de los campos en Escocia, desde el romanticismo europeo al folclore del Sur de Estados Unidos. Las postales musicales que reúne Portelli nos hablan también de una canción sin tiempo, una canción que se actualiza en el presente, en un mundo global que re-traza las fronteras y dictamina nuevas-viejas restricciones a la circulación de personas entre el Norte y el Sur. El canto popular del presente es entonces el de los migrantes, de las diásporas que dispersan familias y sociedades, y las “sísporas” que reúnen diferentes generaciones y culturas tan diversas en un mismo punto de llegada. En esa conjunción de lo universal y lo particular, el folklore nos trae una y mil veces los grandes temas de la humanidad: la pérdida de la inocencia, el temor de lo nuevo, la tragedia humana de la injusticia y la desigualdad. Si allá por los años ‘60 la canción de Bob Dylan nos alertaba sobre el peligro inminente de la modernidad, hoy el sentido premonitorio de esas imágenes futuristas se revierte. El paisaje sonoro que nos muestra Portelli trae la canción de los migrantes eritreos, libios, somalíes, nigerianos y senegaleses que trabajan como braseros en Italia, trae el grito de los refugiados en Veintimiglia que desafían el futuro proclamando “We're not going back”. Como explica Portelli, la música es inmaterial, tiene pies, y viaja. La música no conoce fronteras, por eso la canción de los migrantes del Sur global sigue escribiendo la historia de las resistencias y resiliencias, la historia de las luchas de los pueblos por conquistar nuevas libertades. (shrink)

Résumé La culture est déterminée par une perspective historique, c’est-à-dire temporelle et par une autre, atemporelle, à savoir l’échelle transcendantale des valeurs. La diversité, dans les limites d’une certaine harmonie qui embrasse le tout, constitue un facteur d’enrichissement, beaucoup plus qu’un facteur de dispersion ou de division. Les héritages pharaoniques et copte, islamique et moderne de l‘Égypte et de l’Afrique noire, de même que celui des Assyriens, des Phéniciens, des Berbères, et puis l’héritage de l’Afrique noire, provenant respectivement de Mésopotamie, (...) du Levant, de l’Afrique du nord, du Soudan et de Somalie, contribuent à l’émergence d’un humanisme nouveau, bien qu’historique. L’auteur pense que la mentalité arabe, contrairement à une croyance communément répandue, se nourrit d’un pluralisme, à la fois étonnant et provocateur. (shrink)

In this paper we examine ethical issues relevant to conducting mental health research with refugees and immigrant communities that have cultural orientations and social organisation that are substantially different to those of the broader Australian community, and we relate these issues to NH&MRC Guidelines. We describe the development and conduct of a mental health research project carried out recently in Melbourne with the Somali community, focusing on ethical principles involved, and relating these to the NH&MRC National Statement on Ethical (...) Conduct in Research Involving Humans, and the NH&MRC document Values and Ethics: Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research.The experience of conducting mental health research with the Somali community highlights the fact that the principles of inclusion and benefit enunciated in the NH&MRC document Values and Ethics are particularly pertinent when conducting research with refugees and immigrant communities that are culturally distant to those of the broader Australian community. These principles inform issues of research design and consent, as well as guiding respectful engagement with the participating community and communication of the research findings. (shrink)