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29771. Global Remittances: Update on the UK-Somali Corridor

Author:
Mohamed Aden Hassan and Giulia Liberatore
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
In May 2013 Barclays Bank in the UK announced it was shutting down the accounts of four Somali Money Service Businesses (MSBs) includ- ing Dahabshiil, the largest remittance company operating in the Somali regions. Following international uproar, and a Somali diaspora-led grassroots campaign, the UK government took on the task of setting up an Action Group on Cross Border Remittances and a Somali-UK Safer Corridor Pilot Project with the aim of finding a durable solution to the problem. Two years later, however, the Safer Corridor Project has collapsed. Legal remittance flows persist, albeit in a fragile and precarious environment. This paper provides a brief update on the Safer Corridor Initiative, its challenges, and how the money transfer sector has been adapting to the process.
Topic:
International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, Diaspora, and Legal Theory
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, Europe, and Somalia

29772. Economic Recovery in Somalia

Author:
Timothy Wilson
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
There were high hopes for a brighter future. After more than two decades of conflict, political uncertainty, multiple droughts and Soma- lia’s worst famine in sixty years, the landscape began to change. The Federal Government lost its transitional status and became officially of State, John Kerry. It appeared that the recovery was not just political. Economic for- tunes were improving as well. Trading activity began to increase again. Shops reopened, rising numbers of diaspora started return- ing and investment firms began opening in Mogadishu. The national post service resumed operations. The Central Bank Act was passed, which simultaneously gave the institution a stronger mandate as well 3 as preclude it from lending to the Government. A veritable construc- tion boom kicked off in Mogadishu, the city received its first ATM cash machine and in June 2015, an agreement between MasterCard and a Somali bank launched the first ever domestic issuance of debit cards. The Wall Street Journal wrote of ‘glimmers of hope’4 while Afri- can Development Bank wrote of a ‘turning point’ due to the ‘positive political and security developments as well as the commitment of the international community.’5 Emerging from the clamour of countless conferences, consultations, summits and high-level meetings, a belief was emerging that this time, something was different. This time, Soma- lia was recovering. Or was it? What turn did Somalia take? As the Federal Government approaches its fifth year, new developments have raised concern over the trajectory and pace of progress. The Prime Minister was dismissed by a no-confidence motion in December 2014. The new Prime Minister, Mr Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, took three attempts to success- fully appoint a new cabinet endorsed by parliament. Concerns about corruption have threatened the steady flow of development finance. High profile attacks by Al Shabaab, both within Somalia and beyond, have raised questions about whether the organisation can be con- tained. Meanwhile, instability in Yemen has led to large numbers of refugees arriving into Somalia. It seems timely, therefore, to reassess the pace of progress and trajectory of recovery in Somalia. More than that, it is essential to examine whether economic recovery is occurring at the same pace and align- ment with political and social recovery. If this is not the case, as we will argue, peace-building gains may be temporary. The roots of conflict are grown in the fertile soil of economic desperation. The contribution of this article is to provide an overview of economic recovery in Somalia that is largely absent from the academic litera- ture. We collate and summarise the most recent quantitative statistics available and match these against qualitative information, including government reports and economic analysis. Our primary conclusion is a positive one; for the first time in more than two decades, Soma- lia’s economy is finally beginning to recover. Growth has returned. New market opportunities are being generated. The trade structure is diversifying and confidence is rising among investors, the diaspora and donors. To be clear, this trajectory is fragile. Political uncertainties and the looming arrival of oil exploration are threats that we discuss in this regard. Nonetheless, our primary thesis is that the five years since the establishment of the Federal Government has been, on balance, a positive period for economic reconstruction in Somalia. Our paper is structured as follows. We first make the case for the importance of economic development despite the massive social and political challenges that prevail in Somalia. We then outline the path- way to recovery that has been delineated by the Federal Government. We assess progress along this route and then identify some of the major threats to further progress.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Foreign Direct Investment, and Recovery
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

29773. Stability and Security Danish Somali Remittance Corridor Case Study

Author:
Danielle Cotter and Tracey Durner
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The vast majority of Somalis who have remained in their country con- tinue to rely on remittance money sent from abroad. Although smaller waves of immigration have occurred for many years, prolonged political and economic turmoil coupled with periods of violence and humanitarian crisis have caused the number of Somali immigrants to spike in the last twenty years. This population outflow has resulted in an extensive diaspora network across the globe, with communities established across the Greater Horn of Africa, the Gulf States, North America, and Europe. Estimates on the size of the Somali diaspora range from 1–1.5 million people globally,2 or approximately 14 percent of Somalia’s total population. These diaspora communities have traditionally remained actively engaged on Somali political and economic developments from their adopted countries. One of the diaspora’s primary ties to the homeland comes in the form of remittances—money that is sent on a regular basis to family and friends in Somalia. These funds have often been called a lifeline for the Somali people, covering the costs of needs such as food, education, and health care. Although the exact scale of remittance flows is difficult to pinpoint, estimates have ranged from $750 million to $1.6 billion annually and these funds account for nearly 60 percent of the Somali recipients’ average annual incomes.
Topic:
Security, Diaspora, Political stability, and Immigrants
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

29774. (Re)claiming the Body of the Somali Woman in Nuruddin Farah’s From a Crooked Rib

Author:
Helmi Ben Meriem
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Nuruddin Farah was born in 1945 in Baidoa, west of Mogadishu. In 1976, he was declared a persona non grata by the Somali president and dictator Siad Barre, who banished Farah into exile because his writings were seen as a rigorous and harsh critique of Barre, especially four of his early eight novels, which attacked the dictatorship in Somalia. However, Farah’s fiction not only attacks the dictatorship in Somalia, but it also criticizes the country’s most cherished traditions, values, and beliefs. For example, in his first novel From a Crooked Rib (1970), he breaks the homosexuality taboo in Somalia by questioning the inabil- ity to think of sex outside of the paradigm of heterosexuality, and in some of his later novels, he brings in the issues of incest, pedophilia, bestiality, and murder. Farah is one prominent figure of Anglophone literature in Africa, along with Achebe, and Soyinka. He is also con- sidered as the next most likely African Anglophone writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature after the Nigerian Wole Soyinka in 1986 and the South African Doris Lessing in 2007. Farah is described, among other things, as the “gift from Africa to contemporary world literature” (Bardolph, “On Nuruddin” 121). Farah’s fiction extends over more than eleven novels and other fictive and non-fictive writings. Most criticism of his fiction focuses mainly on four issues: the writing about Somalia in exile, the intertex- tuality between his fiction and other writers, the poetics of Farah’s fic- tion, and the feminist aspects of his fiction and how it presents a new image of Somalia. Indeed, one of the most interesting readings of Far- ah’s fiction is a gender-based one; the authenticity, with which Farah tackles the issues of womanhood and gender has pushed some of his readers to think of him as a woman, even sending him letters address- ing him as “she.” In this respect, the Nigerian scholar J. I. Okonkwo has argued that Farah is one of few others who have “done the greatest justice to female existence in his writing” (217). In a comparison estab- lished by Okonkwo, Soyinka is seen as depicting women as either a disguised or undisguised prostitute, Achebe depicting women as an appendage to men, and Farah depicting women simply as women, with all the variations and at times contradictions (216). Farah’s feminist attitudes have given him the title of “Africa’s first feminist male writer” by Kirsten Hoist Petersen (249). Indeed, Farah is well aware of his feminist attitudes; he states in his essay “A View of Home From the Outside” that he is interested in those denied their rights, be it women or men, and in the struggle behind it (qtd. in Okonkwo 217). Eventually, the women in Farah’s fiction become instruments to reconstruct Somalia and to reshape society by giving a new meaning to womanhood. In his fiction, women’s struggle for freedom and for the right to voice themselves become an allegory for a nation in search of its voice. New womanhood becomes interchange- able with a new Somalia, and eventually, Somalia becomes once more the mother, as opposed to its status as a father-land in a dictatorial system. His first novel, From a Crooked Rib, seen by Richard Dowden as “a dazzling spark” of light in the dark tunnel of silencing women (Intro- duction, vii), could be regarded as a feminist manifesto. If we were to describe this novel, we would resort to a line from “The Rights of Women” a poem by Anna Laetitia Barbauld: “Injured Woman! Rise, assert thy right” (28). From a Crooked Rib is a third person omniscient narrative about the story of Ebla, a Somali woman defying her society and escaping her family, who were forcing her into an arranged mar- riage. This novel, with its genuine depiction and voicing of oppressed women, has been widely read and acclaimed, and studied as an authentic representation of the Somali society. This paper aims at read- ing From a Crooked Rib from a Foucauldian perspective in order to highlight the forces that shape the lives of Somali women. The empha- sis will be on the relationship between the discourses used to contain the Somali woman and her body. We will try to set a link between the different discourses and the body within the dialectics of writing/(un) writing and silencing/voicing. Thus, this paper is divided into two major parts: first, a concise overview of the Foucauldian approach to discourse and power, and second, an examination of the different discourses that govern the body of the Somali woman. The second part will root the Foucauldian approach in a gender-related reading and will be divided into two sub-parts: the writing and the un-writing of the woman body.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Literature, and Sexuality
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

29775. Turkey's Middle East Policy

Author:
Mevlut Cavusoglu
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
ARI Movement
Abstract:
The Middle East is blessed with a rich heritage, is the birthplace of world’s three great monotheistic religions, and has contributed a great deal to humankind’s scientific, philosophical, and cultural progress throughout history. However, for those of us who grew up in the second half of the 20th century and who witnessed the recent devastation and human suffering in the region, the Middle East is mostly associated with crisis, conflict, and turmoil. Most of the tensions we are witnessing today in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) originated in the popular uprisings for freedom, dignity and prosperity that began four years ago. Despite some setbacks, the Arab Spring has in fact shown us that the potential for change and progress inherently exists in the region. The inspiring determination of the masses to take their destiny into their own hands constituted the best answer to Orientalist views, which claimed that the region and its people were doomed to lead lives of deprivation under authoritarian rule.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Military Strategy
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Asia

29776. Democracy for Another Spring

Author:
Safak Pavey
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
ARI Movement
Abstract:
Four years after a wave of protest movements swept across the Middle East in 2011, the revolutionary impulses and calls for democratic regime change have been all but stamped out. The author argues that the region is increasingly divided along sectarian lines, a polarization that impedes stability, and which has produced an egregious humanitarian crisis. According to the author, the consequences of how the relationship between the principles of Islam and democracy are established will be one of the main determinants for what the future holds for the Middle East and its people.
Topic:
Social Movement, Democracy, Arab Spring, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Middle East

29777. Cooperation as a Way out of Turmoil foe the Middle East

Author:
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
ARI Movement
Abstract:
In discussing the turmoil that has recently engulfed the Middle East, the author considers a parallel with Europe in the 17th century and the beginning of the Westphalian order. The author lays out his vision for the future of the region, which is predicated upon four main parameters: mutual acceptance among all the peoples of the Middle East, embracing the spirit of moderation and modernization, the quest for political stability, and economic cooperation. According to the author, regional dialogue is the first step towards building political consensus and realizing this vision.
Topic:
Regional Cooperation, Political stability, Modernization, and Economic Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Middle East

29778. The Middle East in Conflict: The Empires Strike Back

Author:
Dov S. Zakheim
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
ARI Movement
Abstract:
In consideration of the general instability in the Middle East – the bloody Syrian civil war and its mounting refugee crisis, the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the emergence of ISIL and ongoing fighting in Iraq, and the war in Yemen – the author argues that the geographical map of the region based on the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement is disintegrating. Furthermore, the author argues that the region’s turmoil has to some extent had a spillover effect on the three non-Arab states – Turkey, Iran, and Israel, which further adds troubles to the region. While Israel is largely an outlier, the author posits that Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia will be embroiled in the “increasingly bitter contest for dominance of the Muslim Middle East.”
Topic:
Civil War, Imperialism, Regional Cooperation, and Refugee Crisis
Political Geography:
Iran, Turkey, Middle East, Israel, Syria, and Egypt

29779. The Iraqi Kurdistan Region's Role in Defeating ISIL

Author:
Hemin Hawrami
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
ARI Movement
Abstract:
The summer of 2014 was a fatal summer, not only for the Iraqi Kurdistan Region but also for the Middle East and the rest of the world. It witnessed the rise of one of the deadliest terrorist groups: the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Kurdistan Regional Government and its Kurdish military forces, the peshmerga, have been instrumental in deterring ISIL’s further encroachment However, the author argues that the peshmerga cannot fight ISIL alone and calls upon the international community to provide unified support in the form of arms, equipment, and training. The author makes the case that this virulent terrorist group can only be destroyed through a coordinated strategy and support given by an international coalition.
Topic:
Terrorism, Military Strategy, Violent Extremism, and ISIL
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Middle East, and Kurdistan

29780. Turkey's Islamists: From Power-Sharing to Political Incumbency

Author:
Bell Ozkan
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
ARI Movement
Abstract:
The complex relationship between political Islam and the Turkish state – from political exclusion in the early Republican era, to power-sharing in the post-World War II multi-party era, to political incumbency in the 2000s – was crowned by AKP’s landslide electoral victory in 2002. The author debunks two myths regarding this relationship: first, that Kemalism enjoyed a monopoly of political power for decades and second, that Islamists achieved victory in 2002 after being the regime’s sole opposition. According to the author, Turkey’s failed Middle East policy can be attributed to AKP’s misconception that its Islamic counterparts would achieve power after the Arab uprisings just as they had done in Turkey in 2002.
Topic:
Religion, Elections, Democracy, Domestic Politics, and Secularism
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Asia