Innovation democracy travels to somaliland republic

We wish the Republic of Somaliland and its wonderful people the best of success in  rebuildi ng their ancient, strategically situated, country in the Horn of Africa. The country needs  an d deserves to be legally recognized by the world’s community of nations and should be  priv y to the world’s commendation and support for having accomplished three democratic  elec tions. By: Liisa Välikangas


A well known professor from Finland who visited to Somaliland a week ago has created an Article about her experience in Somaliland Republic and urges the world to recognize  Som alialnd.

December 17, 2010 – Landing at Berbera airport off the coast of the Gulf of Aden, we learn that its 4,100 meter Soviet built airstrip was used by the Kennedy Space Center for twenty years as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.

Disembarking from our African Express McDonnell Douglas aircraft we are treated to  wond erful Somali hospitality in the first class reception area as we wait for our entry papers. We are introduced to the armed guard, who by Somaliland law has to accompany us in our drive from Berbera to Hargeisa on a very potholed but paved road. The speed limit is 80, we are told, to avoid the car from spinning out of control when hitting a pothole.

The two of us, Liisa Välikangas and Jaak Treiman, are visiting Somaliland on an invitation to celebrate the opening of The Institute for Strategic Initiatives, which seeks to support the Somaliland government in its reform and reconstruction work. The trip had its beginning about two years ago when Mr. Abdi Jama, a Somali-Finn with an impressive entrepreneurial and software background, walked into Liisa’s office at Helsinki’s Aalto University and shared his vision for an institute that would be instrumental in rebuilding Somaliland’s society after the brutal civil war, still going on in Somalia, south of Somaliland. Abdi said then and still says that his project “is Somaliland.” He has returned to Somaliland’s capitol, Hargeisa, with his family and now works with the Civil Reform Commission of the newly elected democratic government of Somaliland.

Somalis are an old culture with Egyptian and Arab roots. It is told that during the early  yea rs following the birth of Islam they left embattled areas for the Gulf of Aden to live in peace. More recently, in 1991, Somaliland severed its ties with Somalia re-established itself as the independent Republic of Somaliland having the same borders it had prior to 1960, while it was governed as a British Protectorate. Somaliland is a rare enclave of democracy in East Africa and has succeeded in attracting many members of the Somali Diaspora from Finland, UK, and Canada back to the country.

While “Somali” is too often used as an ethnic slur in many news reports (as in “Somali pirates” or “Somali terrorists”), we learn Somalis have a wonderful culture of oral poetry and tale telling. In one story, a lion steals a sheep. Only the person “who does not know the lion” can get his sheep back. It strikes us that the people of Somaliland now need so much courage that in this story’s terms, they have to go after the lion to get the sheep back even though they know how powerful an animal the king of the jungle is.

We wish the Republic of Somaliland and its wonderful people the best of success in  rebuildi ng their ancient, strategically situated, country in the Horn of Africa. The country needs and deserves to be legally recognized by the world’s community of nations and should be privy to the world’s commendation and support for having accomplished three democratic elections. Unlike the Ivory Coast, for example, where the incumbent is currently refusing to give up power, in Somaliland this summer’s election, as its previous two elections, brought change without conflict and a seamless transition of power. More than that, there is a  thri ving opposition led by another Somali-Finn! (The speaker of the House of Representatives is also a Finnish citizen

Beyond statehood recognition, Somaliland needs to be able to employ its youth. In  particu lar, people graduating from universities need a job to pay their debts to their family that has supported them. They also dream of a better future, of course. Here is where  Innova tion Democracy can perhaps help – work with graduating students to equip them with  empl oyable skills while also pooling their talent to address the country’s challenges  entreprene urially. How would the students solve the challenge of water shortage despite evidently abundant ground water resources? Or what could be done about the lack of sanitation? Currently donkeys carry water tanks around the city and goats serve as a waste  manage ment system, eating everything except plastic (which are ubiquitous, the blue plastic bags hanging on bushes, trees, fences and rocks being called the “flower of Hargeisa”). There are some entrepreneurial people filling in potholes in the road to Berbera as cars pass by. Why don’t we task the teams of university students with these issues and help them find beginning solutions for the persisting problems, in a modular and culturally appropriate way?

Contact:

Professor Liisa Välikangas, Aalto University

President, Innovation Democracy, Inc. (Innovaatiodemokratia ry) liisa.valikangas@aalto.fi; +358 50 496 7134