Today Secretary of State Hilary Clinton met with the war-weary Somali President Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed at the US Embassy in Nairobi. This poem is a message sent to President Obama. N:B. poem posted before but updated now to fit into the message context

Mr. President, I am not a famous person or a TV personality, not a politician either or a writer, not even a human being. I am a flower of peace growing on a metal scrap remained from the debris of a US helicopter shot down in Mogadishu in a 1993 firefight between Somali Militia and US Rangers.

That incident which was later dubbed as "Black Hawk Down" by Hollywood left a wound that had run deep in the heart of US Somali relations. Since the day of "Black Hawk Down" Somalia has been cut off from the rest of the world and its status has been reduced to a land of chaos run by disgruntled warlords and relgious extremists. The people of Somalia have suffered from this chronic neglect as they were pushed into the hands of horror which saw hundreds of thousands of Somalis to die or flee to other countries for safe haven.

Mr. president I have sent you this advice when you were elected as president of the United States of America but I am afraid it did not reach you. Now I can re-send it to you through the Somali President Mr. Sheik Sharif Ahmed who is supposed to meet your Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton in Nairobi. Hope contents will reach you untampared.

First Let me ask you, Mr. President:

While you are a President
Will order return to Somalia
Will the children enjoy peace
Will clouds of terror dissipate?

Will the sky rain peace
Or will it give birth to war
Will the water of love flow
Or will they get blocked
Over the rocks of terror

Will the war on terror come to an end
Or you will follow the footsteps of Bush
Will a new dawn break out for Moslems
Or they will be hunted down worldwide
Will the policy of stereotype continue
Or only the guilty ones shall be punished?

Will you recruit warlords as your agents
Or you will put them to where they belong
Will you preach peace while killing justice
Or you will lend a hand to forces of change
Will you export democracy on a military truck
Or you will let it be born by itself in freedom

My Advice Mr. President:

While fighting with terror fight for peace, too
Set a two-pronged attack against terror
Srike poverty first to attack terror at the base
Deny terrorists a ground to grow and flourish
Use water to extinguish the spreading fire
Use not fire Dear president to put off fire
In Clinton time we had only one Binladin
Now we have far too many of them around
With the cheap policy of "Attack Islam"
A storm of fundamentalism has been created
Innocents are paying the price of that mistake
Something must have gone wrong somewhere.
Learn from experience though at any stage
We seldom suffer from lack of experience