As we know Somali Islamist insurgents have been implicated to have links with Al-qaeda, the terror machine of the 21st century. They have applied strict version of Islam in Somalia at a time when they have no service to offer to the public other than bullets and rocket mortars. Recently they have banned all types of music including somali songs, forcing radio stations in the areas of their control to either abide by the new law or just quit. I write this to express my deep displeasure over these measures to frustrate freedom of expression. Freedom of speech is under fire in many parts of Somalia but the south is the riskiest area to work as a journalist or an activist. Freedom of expression is a force that can dismantle evil if it attains the necessary environment to function and that is why Somalia is famous in eliminating or silencing voices of change. Here I depict what these extremists say to themselves to hunt down somali civil society with the aim of avoiding any democratic change to take place in Somalia.
Change?
Be careful of this virus
It can destroy our empire
When you see it conceived
Make it suffer in the womb
Beware of seeds of change
When you see them planted
Deny them to germinate
Target the agents of change
Brand them spies and traitors
Call them enemy collaborators
Like abandoned eggs
Let them rot in the soil
Change?
Be careful of this virus
It can destroy our empire
Once a revolution is born
It will spread everywhere
It is like fire in the bush
You can never contain it
Be alert, be vigilant boy
Keep eye on creeping shadows
Change?
Be careful of this virus
It can destroy our empire
Kill the human rights defenders
Kill the journalists
Kill the activists
Kill them all
Kill them without hesitation
But be not hard with them
Just shoot them in the head
Let them pass away in peace
They write with utter impunity
But we shoot with due respect
One must be polite in his killings
We must protect their right to die
We have to observe the ethics of death
Once freedom of expression leaves us
We shall live in a freedom of shooting
How nice to see no pen at work
No word in print no voice on air
Nothing Nothing Nothing
When bullet is the pen blood is the ink
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Reviews of "When Bullet is the Pen Blood is the Ink"
Like a Catch 22 in reverse, kill one oppressive emperor to put another one in his place, although the new one, will be ten times worse, until we do it all again with yet another...one hundred times worse...and...
It upsets me SO much that extremists take the cloak of religion, abusing its teachings. And sad that not enough see through this (or don't want to see through this!) for other reasons (int'l politics, nat'l politics at home, economics...). And who is biggest victim yet again? The ordinary person who's got very little power to change things. Br Abdi-Noor, keep writing, let's all keep praying for peace and action what we can to achieve world peace! In peace, Rianne
Reviewed by Peter Schlosser (Reader)
Reviewed on April 15, 2010
US foreign policy does not support democracy. It supports tin-pan dictators who oppress their people so that the Globalist/ Corporatist Empire can install neo-liberal economics thereby divesting nations of their resources and wealth while plunging the populations into poverty and despair. This is the new paradigm. Which is actually an old, IMF-World Bank loan-sharking paradigm started in the 1960s and working its bloddy way through S. America, SE Asia, Central America, Russia, Eastern Europe, Africa, then soon into Western Europe and the US. Radical Islam, far from being the stated enemy of the US, was created, supported and furthered with covert US/ British help to radicalize the regions rich in natural resources thereby avoiding any kind of pan-Arab nationalism and allowing heavy-handed rulers to step into power and hold the country in check with brutal police-state measures. Democracy only for trans-national corporations. The people can go to hell. The Pentagon set up Africom (African Command)a few years back. This will be the new theatre of war in the never-ending GWOT. Somalia included. I like this poem a lot. I should read more of your stuff. Well done. Very happy to see others exposing real truth and injustice in the world. Also like the way you chose to write it in the first person. I've emplyed the same technique myself. Much more effective that way in certain instances. This is one of them. Take care.
Abdi-Noor, certainly freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential to sustaining freedom and peace -- freedom of speech and freedom of the press and religion are each under attack in the U.S. at this very moment -- let us pray we are both successful in our efforts to secure these basic freedoms and rights of all people -- peace and love be always with you my friend -- Jon Michael
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