WardheerNews dot com has been making enormous strides towards progress and maturity ever since its inception a year ago thanks to the foresight, commitment and the youthful energy of its editorial board.  I cannot help but recall in this connection the late President Nyerere’s statement that “we must run while others walk”.  This is what WardheerNews.com must have been doing in order to catch up with the various much older Somali websites.  Those who have eyes to see and are endowed with a sense of recognizing the good will surely bear witness to the fact that this website has surpassed all expectations barely a year after it was launched.

There is, obviously, no shortage of Somali websites for there is a plethora of them.  But when you have so many you are bound to have some that are so poor in all aspects that they leave much to be desired.  There can be no doubt that the gutter press we know in the West and some of our websites are much of a muchness.  It is of course very easy – and at times even tempting – to sink to a low level of insults, mudslinging and whipping up clannish sentiments in their ugliest forms.  I know that many of our compatriots with lower tastes enjoy reading sensational, if fictional, material as well as some juicy details of scandals which may not even have taken place.  Surely, many of us enjoy reading fiction – of whatever kind – but one would call our mental faculties into question if we confuse fiction with reality even though it often mimics real life situations: we ought to separate fantasy from reality.  However, I fail to see the entertainment value of sensational fabrications which are meant to exacerbate our pernicious divisions with the aim of perpetuating chaos and anarchy.  Indeed some of the websites have left little or no doubt they are merely instruments in the hands of renegade forces that have tried to move heaven and earth to reverse the process of our national reconciliation.

We should cherish and enjoy our freedom of expression without fear and without favor.  But we should understand that the way we use this freedom says a lot about us too. For surely the way of the sophisticated is vastly different from that of the wild and woolly lot. It is plausible to argue that some leeway should be given the masses who after twenty years of military rule are suddenly confronted with boundless freedom and are only learning how to deal with it or what to do with it.  But the decade and half that followed the collapse of that restrictive Somali State have given us a carte blanche which blurred the limits of that freedom and led to the flight of reason.  After the procrustean methods of the ancient regime we have been for the last fifteen years a Nation Unbound.  I am reminded here of that proverbial anecdote from our folklore in which a mother was worried to death about what might become of her grownup son  whose speech faculty had no signs of showing up. She prayed hard and inexorably to Allah to make her son speak.  But when He answered her entreaties the boy uttered some unutterable profanities which shocked the mother into speechlessness. Such is the situation in which mother Somalia finds itself today with respect to its sons and daughters who pen words and passages that cut through her heart.

It is my firm belief that the quality of our websites should be measured by such criteria as: objectivity; readiness to reflect different shades of opinion including those opposed to the philosophy and orientation of the website; quality of the contributions as to decency, depth and ideas; conscious effort to inform and educate the readers; furthering national unity by trying to heal the wounds of the nation; and the provision of reasonable entertainment.  A high-quality website is by definition a discriminating website because it can only accept those contributions that meet its set criteria. I fear, alas, that some of our websites have set only two criteria for themselves both of which are merely mundane: first, that the author is personally known to them; and secondly, that the article should tow the line of the owners of the website.  I think that in doing so they are unwittingly doing a disservice both to themselves and the cause or causes they profess to serve – and they expose themselves in the process to ridicule.  There is nothing innately wrong with a website being owned by an individual, a family or even a clan so long as it portrays the facts as they are, its analyses of events are reasonable, its inevitable prejudices are not grotesque, and as long as it shows willingness to give space to contrary (not insulting) views.

Now then, where does WardheerNews.com fit in all this as it celebrates its first anniversary? Admittedly, I have nothing but praise and admiration for this website considering its achievement in such a short span of time. I think it has shown objectivity and a degree of level-headedness by publishing articles depicting divergent viewpoints; and the articles are usually well-written and well-argued though at times emotions creep into some of them.  WardheerNews.com is unique, I must say, in covering and portraying pits and pieces of our culture and history to which I myself contributed and these seem to have been allocated prominent space on the sides of the frontal page.  It has also managed to unearth and post old articles by expatriates and a wonderful speech delivered by the late Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, when prime minister, to the Royal African Society in London; it is no doubt instructive to many of our young men and women.  Moreover, the Editorial Board has often shown unusual boldness in expressing their views unabashedly on controversial issues and I think it is good to know where they stand on issues impinging on national unity and on how we should get out of the current morass so that we can again be a people who lift their heads high and walk proudly among the free peoples of the World.  We may disagree with the views of the Board from time to time but healthy disagreements can only illuminate our way forward provided of course we learn from each contribution.

I can only think of two shortcomings.  The first is that the Editorial Board does not properly edit submissions for I invariably see minor typing errors as well as minor errors of grammar even in my own articles which could have been removed by simple editing, I can only suggest that WardheerNews.com pay attention to these matters for there is nothing more annoying to an author than to see his work being blemished by such minor mishaps. The other shortcoming has everything to do with our culture and nothing to do with the management of WardheerNews.com.  Like other websites this websites has been given a clan label and this I think is the reason why contributions from a much wider section of our people have been few and far between or not forthcoming at all.  I think the website should make a special effort to cross interclan barriers and reach out to those others who fear that their views might not be given space.

On the whole, I think that WardheerNews.com has performed remarkably well in the course of its one year of existence so far. It stands head and shoulders above many of the older websites and out shines them. Because of these achievements I am certain that some older websites are stealthily casting envious on it.  I am sending my warmest tributes to the management and staff of Wardheernews.com for having done an excellent job and I hope this website will grow from strength to strength in the years to come. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WARDHEERNEWS DOT COM.

Ismail Ali Ismail
Virginia, USA

E-Mail: geeldoonia@gmail.com

Copyright © 2005 Wardheernews.com