A NEW DAWN

Hoping for that new dawn when Kenyans will wake up to face the reality, that they haven't given enough for
themselves, their beloved country and the world.. Hoping for a new dawn when all Kenyans will learn to respect their identity,their common course and be united by their collective accord and spirit to having a better future than their past.. Hoping for a day when all Kenyans will be able to defend, fight and sacrifice for their ideals, virtues and norms that makes a society a home,a country a nation and the globe a haven for humanity... Hoping for that new dawn when Kenyans will learn to say NO to what is wrong and YES to what is right; to shun the legion of negative ethnicity and to learn to embrace the beauty of our diversity.. Hoping for that new dawn when Kenyans will open their hearts to understanding, to learn from their previous mistakes and accept them so to as take off.. Hoping for that new dawn when Kenyans inner eyes will be opened to see the vast resource they have in and within themselves, to hold onto the virtues of our forever 'living' hero and heroines.. hoping that new dawn when Kenyans will always work in their stations of duty knowing where they are heading and always be fierce to fight any monster that barricade their path towards their destiny!!

THE SOCIAL MEDIA

Interaction

What started as a campus social site is now looking forward to a billion subscribers, facebook has within a short period of time transformed itself into a grand platform for socializing, activism, sensitization and a popular informative channel on braking news and other vital information necessary for our consumption.

Twitter a close rival to facebook too is another social site that has so far attracted more than  half a billion followers. Its ability to chat with anyone one follows allows its users to exchange ideas with the ‘who is who’ in the society on a none discriminative platform. Its ability to provide enchanting bits of tweets on various topics enables its users to easily access information they require with little or no hassle. The same applies to braking news, where its users are able to receive quick information and news on various issues through various twitter handles they have followed or groups  and pages liked with the case of facebook.

Culture swing

With its new dynamics the social media has imparted new cultures to its users. The facebookers and tweeterians now have certain way of life that somehow cuts across these newbies. These new ways of life range from new market preferences dynamics, new fads in town and  the way of life of popular personalities in the society.

A friend of mine recently told me he was forced to change the price of a certain commodity in his store due to what he saw his friends post in their facebook accounts.

This kind of influence by the social media awakened a critical consciousness within me that, profit hungry businesses and other cutting edge corporates may use such avenues to thier advantage. For instance they may hike the prices of their commodities using a bottom-up approach effectively. They may also use this channel to know how flexible their pricing capability is, by altering the prices of their commodities. It is also an ideal place for accessing feed-backs on  new brands that have been introduced in to the markets.

Marketing

These social sites have taken marketing to new great heights, by shaping marketing strategies and consumer behavior. It also creates an avenue for marketers to access their target group of potential customers easily. Electronic firms have been one of the greatest beneficiaries of these new platforms. Apple inc. for instance have been able to introduce a new consumption culture around the globe, courtesy of the social and media and other related channels. Apple inc. with their ipods, iphones, ipads and their imac computers have with the efficient use of the media, the social media being a key component of the means been able to  keep their clients on toes waiting for new products to be availed. This consumption  culture  is characterized by long queues in their stores worldwide when new products are being released. Samsung a key competitor too follows suit with an exellent approach.

Activism

The social sites have been a blessing to activists worldwide who have been very opportunistic to this new dynamic of information age. Facebook and twitter with the assistance of other smart phone application for instance BBM for the blackberry have been key in organizing, planning and orchestrating demonstration and other kind of activism. Facebook and twitter for instance has been the main facilitator of  revolutions and uprisings in the Middle East and has  enabled the change of regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Other countries too for instance Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and Oman have experienced mild attempts of regime change. The most profound one is that of Egypt that has since been referred to as the ‘facebook revolution’. This kind of achievement leaves something down the history line to be remembered.

The most memorable moment  came when an Egyptian couple named their kid facebook, after a successful regime change with the aid of the social media facebook. The iconic kid received overwhelming amount of presents from well wishers from all over the country ascribing her to a celebrity status and marking a vital era in the information age.

The same happened in the UK, the USA with the famous occupy Wall street and other cities in the capitalist western world where  activist were able to effectively use the social media to its fullest. In the UK certain services of the smart phone services were shut down, the blackberry application for instance was blacked out, however twitter and facebook were able to provide an alternative to the activists who capitalized on them. Activists have since taken their activism to the virtual world in a style, giving sleepless nights to those who used to stay comfy on public duties and responsibilities.

On privacy

The social media has changed what used to be referred to as private and transformed them into public feeds. In instances where individuals are able to view ones profile and status updates, has ushered in a new form of a safe breach of one’s privacy. This kind of culture enabled by these social sites varies from individuals sharing their relationship status, their actions and plans and what they think (opinions in general). This acts have landed many to great problems, especially in relationships were jealous partners usually find themselves in bad situation over what their social better halves are doing on these social sites, especially those who like flirting. This problem also extends to the work place where employees who comment negatively about their jobs, bosses and rumors on the going ons in the work place. Such sentiments have landed many into problems. 

However this kind of culture have also been helpful to individuals who find it difficult to open up, to share their fears and problems, especially on relationships and other difficulties they encounter, these avenues allows them to get due help from their friends online who provide them with solutions and even enables others to come in handy and offer their help.

The future

The future of social networking is bright, its use have had both positive and negative effects. Its positive effects have far much outweighed the negative effects. This simply leaves the field with various opportunities to be explored. The Middle East and their vital use of these social sites to bring about revolution change have already signified a tangible aspect of the positive contribution of the social media to the information age of our contemporary times. Activists too have benefited a lot. The users aslo have not been left behind as they have been able to enjoy information flow from various sources of their interests. The next genius or an opportunistic use of these social sites are yet to be unveiled or exploited by nobody else but you, yes you!! The playing ground is  open to all it is upon one to stand out, and be the next star!

JUSTIFICATION FOR SOMALIAS' INVASION

Justification for Somalia Invasion

A country in turmoil

Somalia has been a country in great turmoil since the ousting of the socialist dictator Said Bare in 1991 by the opposing clans which overthrew him. This led to the formation of the de-facto self declared Republic of Somaliland in the North and a war torn south, where violence between rival warlords has led to the killings of thousands of civilians and great displacements of its population internally. These situations have led to great human suffering and despair among its citizens with majority of its youth born into demoralizing sight of warfare and know nothing close to peace. Warfare to them has been the order of the day and killings a normal situation in life which they have had to live along with. The few who have managed to escape though were left with traumas for the rest of their lives. What they witnessed in their mother country and changed their lives, and they have never been the same since.

The situations in Somalia have been watched by the international community helplessly, with intervention proving futile with little or no success in trying to stabilising the war torn country. Each time an intervention is placed the internal situation worsens, like an insect’s metamorphosis it actually matures to a complex one. This has left the country’s southern part as a haven for terrorist and other war crimes activities.

This plight has captured the attention of the international community who have so far acted by intervening. This poses a question as to whether Somalia intervention is justified.

 Responsible sovereignty

Responsible sovereignty is one of the latest customs of the 21^st century and actually one of the greatest challenges of our times. It is simply based on the notion of partaking sovereignty as a responsibility. This concept was adopted in a 2005 world summit and was endorsed by the General Assembly and the Security Council. This concept is built on a three pillar concept:

1. The first being that, states should protect their populations to include even non-citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and from crimes against humanity.
2.  The second important pillar is the swiftness put in place to easily curb the four mentioned atrocities s, for instance there is no requirement of unanimity from the Security Council to act appropriately on cases of irresponsible sovereignty. 
3. The third pillar is UN members’ acceptance of their responsibility to respond in a timely and decisive manner, in accordance to the United Nation charter to help protect population from the four mentioned crimes and violations. The use of both pacific (peaceful) or forceful measures to salvage human populations from these crimes are applicable when necessary.

In this context Somalia find herself helpless from protecting its citizens from the above mentioned atrocities. This warrants intervention of the international community to meddle into their ‘sovereignty’. 
The inability of Somalia to free their civilians from the forceful recruitment to the al-qaeda linked al-shabaab terrorist organisation that has threatened the existance of peace in the North Horn region of Africa. This has seen the intervention of African Union peace keepers, Ethiopian military in 2006 and most recently the Kenyan Defence Forces.

Self defence

Kenya invoked article 51 of the United Nations charter as a legal basis for their actions in Somalia and had it that it plainly attacked the Al shabaab basically on matters of self defence as their right to do so and nothing else, and was to brief the security council on the issue. The article provide for the right of countries to engage in self-defence including collective self-defence against an armed attack. This is the same article the US used in killing Osama Bin Laden who was the head of the terrorist group Al-qaeda.

However the lack of the international community to really act swift to normalize the situation of the war torn country is what puzzles many, especially with the rise of concepts like democracy, human rights and now responsible sovereignty after the cold war. This gives scholars a ripe scope to look into, and perhaps to try and give us answers to that.

A show of concern

Somalia’s neighbours and her African partners have been the only interested actors in trying to act towards bringing peace to Somalia that has since be been labelled the black sheep of Africa. This may be attributed to the most disturbing acts ever committed by a country in response to humanitarian aid assistance. United States soldiers who were on a humanitarian mission and later on a ground operation labelled Operation Restore Hope were killed in a horrific manner. Somalis ungratefully video recorded themselves cheering in their streets to the dragging of killed US soldiers. This later on led to the mass exit of the American forces leaving the country in chaos and anarchy.

What A Peaceful Somalia Means To The World, and Her East African Neighbours

End of piracy 

Piracy is one of the greatest effects felt by the international community as a result of anarchy in Somalia. The effects are felt by countries using the gulf of Eden as a conduit of their vessels to access their destination points. Majority of these vessels have been attacked and held hostage with their crew and huge amounts of ransoms asked from them. Statistics show that hijacked ships pay an average of $2 million per vessel and its crew. It is estimated that 80-120 ships get hijacked each year enabling the pirates to earn a whooping $200 million annually. This has forced other vessels to opt for other routes which are time consuming and expensive. This affects trade significantly and poses a great threat to the international community's well being. Piracy containment therefore means a lot to the international community.

Reduction of small arms proliferation

Conflict in Somalia and its continued control by militias has led to arms falling into the hands of many civilians. This has enabled easy proliferation of arms in her neighbors. Kenya for instance has suffered a great deal from this problem. Proliferation of arms has enabled the growth of armed violence crimes between Kenyan pastoral communities and has fuelled urban criminal activities. This is a major concern in any country that wants to uphold a stable society and that wants to sell herself as a safe hub for tourists and investors as Kenya and her East African partners are earnestly doing. Uganda and Sudan have also been a major consumer of small arms given the presence of militias in Uganda (The Lord’s Resistance Army) and war daring pastoral communities, the karamojong for instance. Sudan on the other side had been constantly on war and hence a weak Somalia meant easy access of arms for the factions that were engaging in liberation wars. A peaceful and a stable Somalia will enable management of small arms proliferation and access to unwanted groups and hence a peaceful Horn of Africa will come into existence.

A new market for commodities

A stable and peaceful Somalia will mean a lot to businesses all over the world. Multinational corporations and other regional business ventures will find a new opportunity to expand. This will mean a lot to both the people of Somalia and these business entities at large. The people of Somalia will benefit from diversity of new commodities; job creation and development of knew skill to their human resource. These will improve the living standards of her people and at the same time bring prosperity for the business ventures.

Reduction of refugee influx and human smuggling

With the persistence of conflict in Somalia there has been a major problem with displacement of her civilians from their homes and some being internally displaced persons within their own country (UNHCR 2011, 1.4 million people) while others fleeing to neighbouring countries in search for safe havens. This has seen a large influx of Somalis into Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen illegally. Some even die on transit while being smuggled, with the case of Yemen where they travel by water an estimated 150 people died over a span of 3 weeks in 2005 while trying to make their journeys to Yemen, due to their boats capsizing and others getting tortured to death will in transit. Illegal entry to these countries further causes straining the few resources in those countries. The burgeoning numbers of refugees are also becoming a worry to the international community given the cost of sustaining a growing number with no hope of curbing the problem. The Daabab refugee in Kenya hosting mainly Somalis is the largest refugee camp in the world, with an estimated 440,000. 150,000 of the refugees came within a span of 4 months in 2011 after a drought that had affected the war torn country.

 A peaceful Somalia will therefore mean that Somalis will have an opportunity to find ways of mitigating their own internal problems in a very amicable manner, may be with a little help from the international community.

Resettlement of Somalis

Achievement of peace in Somalia will enable the resettlement of the internally displaced persons and return of refugees back to their country. This will benefit the people of Somalia as they will have back their human resource, who will then help rebuild their shattered country. The return of the skilled personnel from all the parts of the world will be the greatest of them all.

The return of the refugees to will help ease the burden in they pose to the host countries in various aspects, population pressure, spread of diseases human smuggling and scarcity of resources pose a threat to provision of social amenities to the unregistered population. This will also help avert cases of xenophobic attacks in cases of heightened tensions as witnessed in South Africa.

Contingency of terrorism (al-qaeda linked al shabaab)

Instability in Somalia has provided terrorist groups a good opportunity to train and get natured ‘indoctrinated’ by terrorist groups. The main terrorist threats in Somalia are from the Al-qaeda linked Al-shabaab terrorist groups.

The Al shabaab group came into existence after the Ethiopian army invasion which was fighting against the Islamic Courts Union. They then split from them after being out powered by the Ethiopian forces in 2006. The group claims to be waging a jihad against ‘enemies of Islam’ and is engaged in daily combat with the Transitional Federal Government and the AMISOM (AU mission) in Somalia.

This terrorist group have so far committed a lot of terror acts within the East African region and within its capital Mogadishu acknowledging their actions. This terror group boasts of about 1200 foreign fighters from the Diaspora with 200 of them being non Somalis, this further make their containment complex. The Al shabaab have been accused lately of a terror attack in Uganda where 70 people were killed in a twin attack in July 2010. In 2011, with Kenyans invasion Somalia attacked a bus station with a hand grenade during a rush hour killing civilians. Other acts have been reported in the northern frontier with the terror group sympathizers terrorizing residents and engaging the police in shoot outs.

The regular ambush by the rag tagged militia to the Kenyan security agents between the Kenya-Somali borders and the recent abductions and killings of foreign tourist in Kenya forced Kenya to invoke a UN provision to go after these terrorist militia. Kenya has so far received a major backing from the international community and her concerned neighbours both willing to offer support.

The AMISOM troops have so far managed to seize the capital city Mogadishu and their Kenyan counter parts are bracing themselves to seize the Southern part of Somalia with key targets being their training grounds and main and source of income  the Kismayu port, which also serves as their escape points and a key source of their naval strength. The Kenyan defence forces victory will determine the future of these terrorist militias.

Economic boom for the threatened tourism in Kenya and Tanzania

A realization of a stable Somalia will mean a lot to the tourism industries within the East African region which boasts a major tourist destination in Africa. Majority of western countries have already issued travel warnings to tourists visiting Kenya for their holiday, which is a wreck to its tourism industry which is one of the main sources of foreign earnings to both Kenya and Tanzania.

With the curbing of the terrorism menace by the al shabaab Kenya and her East African counter parts will have a lot to reap from, the tourism industry being one of them.

End result

A peaceful Somalia means a lot to the world and will be viewed as a great success to humanity at large. To achieve peace in Somalia though will be a great task given that there are peaceful regions and conflicting ones. Merging them will be difficult. An intelligent approach is therefore needed, one with its own touch (from the Somalis themselves).

Capacity building is also necessary to enable the understanding that they are in control of their own destiny. Good governance should also be stressed with inclusive system of governance to enable all to participate in governance.

Nurturance by her neighbours will also be vital with the help of the international community especially on governance and leadership. Provision of development aid is also another aspect that needs to be looked in to. Africans therefore need to establish a ‘Marshall plan’ for Somalia to assist her pick up and stand on her feet once again. This will motivate refugees to return back to their homeland, with hope and a future to hold on to.

Otherwise the world and especially her neighbors will be sitting on a time-bomb ready to go off any time and the impact will leave nothing to smile about.

A NEW SHIFT IN THE WORLDS ECONOMY

Its a new dawn for the Asian Tigers and the middle income economies. Their opportunistic entry into the "the west" are now looking forward to hard times ahead 'thats for a realist'. These is because their share of the worlds strength hold markets in the international system are being ventured into by new actors, thanks to the free market economy. These new blood have come with relatively affordable goods and services that for a long time had been monopolized by the United States and the now European Union. Gordon Brown the former UK's prime minister too is a worried man, in his recent article to the Washington Post he projected a slow growth of these former iconic giants economically as London School of Economics graduate and his experiences, his word cant be taken for granted. His insight tells him so and so do I. Every where I go I see China flexing its muscles in what is called 'soft-power'. He further oversaw the Asian Tigers and the middle income countries the likes of Brazil, India, South Africa dominating a whooping 40% of the world market a size the US, England, France and Germany haven had in their last hundred years of existance as leading economies in the International System.
market has brought about a new shift in the worlds political economy. What used to be, and thought to be the worlds pillar of economy

    The only sure way of enabling a sustainable growth by the west is through increasing their exports. This means that they have to offer goods and services in a competitive arena with the upcoming economies.This will be an uphill task for them given that they have had an economic recession recently and  their companies are about to pick after receiving government bail outs.

   My big worry is how will the west cope with such economic hardships and struggles, recently China opened their markets for above standard goods to enter their market. These saw the likes of apple inc fetch good returns, making it for once the most valuable company in the world.

    Lets watch this space, ....are the military indebted west like the US go down(take a humble pie); how will they act to avert this crisis?!