Somali man from Twin Cities accepts position as mayor of strife-torn Mogadishu
Posted to the Web Feb 19, 17:51
http://www.idamaale.com/view_Earticle.php?articleid=1432JOE ROSSI, Pioneer Press
Mahomud Hassan Ali of Columbia Heights talks about being appointed mayor of Mogadishu, Somalia, during an interview in Minneapolis on Feb. 13.
'If not me, who else will do it?'
Somali man from Twin Cities accepts position as mayor of strife-torn Mogadishu
BY DAVID HANNERS
Pioneer Press
Mahomud Hassan Ali soon will give up the quiet life of being a family man and janitorial service owner in Columbia Heights to fill one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs in the world: mayor of Mogadishu.
Ali, a high school teacher before fleeing Somalia, was appointed to the post last year and plans to assume duties in the former Somali capital this month. By returning to an urban hell devastated by the apocalypse of civil war, famine and pestilence, he knows he is taking on a job that will be difficult at best and possibly fatal at worst.
"I decided, 'If not me, who else will do it?' "Ali, 52, said through a translator. "It was a very difficult decision, and it took two to three months to give an official response."
The prime minister of Somalia's transitional government was a boyhood friend of Ali, and appointed him to the mayor's position because his family previously had been in government.
Ali will have an office and a small staff, but little else — no police force, no public utilities workers (and hardly any public utilities), no civil servants, no one to help him formulate policy and no one to help him carry out the policies.
"We work without a budget," Ali said. "It's starting from scratch. The city is completely devastated. But the budget we have are the people. The resources we have are the people."
For better or worse, the movie "Black Hawk Down" probably forms the basis for many Americans' impressions of Mogadishu, a coastal city on the Indian Ocean. The book tells the story of the Delta Force soldiers and Army Rangers who fought the Battle of Mogadishu on Oct. 3, 1993. Eighteen American soldiers were killed.
In 1991, the military government of Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted by opposing clans. But when the clans couldn't agree on a new government, the nation fell into lawlessness and became the dominion of despotic warlords.
The American soldiers had gone into Mogadishu in an attempt to capture a couple of those warlords. The mission went awry when first one and then a second Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down.
An untold number of Somalis died in the ensuing battle, but it was the video images of defiant Somalis dragging dead American soldiers through the streets that led then-President Clinton to withdraw U.S. forces from the country.
The civil war, drought and disease have wreaked havoc on the country and left most of Somalia's estimated 10.7 million people impoverished. The fighting has wasted the economy (for example, businesses print their own money) and seriously damaged the country's physical and social infrastructure.
There is no national government. A 275-member transitional parliament, which sits in neighboring Kenya because Mogadishu is still considered unsafe, has been formed but hasn't yet taken office. It is the 14th attempt to establish a government since 1991.
The parliament will have its first meeting on Somali soil Feb. 26, and the day before, Ali will head to Mogadishu. He said he is ready for it.
"I knew what I was getting into — civil war, a country without rule of law or governance," he said. "But I decided to do it because first, I put the people first. They're suffering beyond any imagination. Second, I wanted to help bring the city back."
Ali has a slight build, sports a goatee and is soft-spoken. But he speaks with conviction and fire when he talks about what lies ahead for Mogadishu, a city in such disarray that population estimates vary from 500,000 to 2 million.
He is married, and he and his wife have seven children, and all but the youngest (who is 13) were born in Somalia. He has settled comfortably into the American dream, and his suburban life seems far removed from the rubble, rust and ruin of Mogadishu.
"It's painful," he said of his birthplace. "Sometimes I'm not able to sleep because of the level of suffering. Because of that, I'm passionate about getting everyone on Earth to help the Somalis get out of this situation."
His family has strong roots in Mogadishu and the surrounding Banaadir region. One of his uncles was mayor of the capital city from 1959 to 1963.
Ali will face a number of problems that go beyond daunting. Aside from not having resources to run the mayor's office, he may have to contend with others who have laid claim to being mayor, said Ali Galaydh, a native of Somalia and professor at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
"It's actually functioning, for good or bad, with a mayor now," Galaydh said of Mogadishu. "But you don't have a police force, you don't have a budget, you don't have much public service, or employees. You don't have any of those. How you can claim to be mayor, well, it's only that — claiming. And I don't think there's any question that there's more than one claimant."
Ali says he is the only legitimate mayor.
His journey from Mogadishu to Columbia Heights has been a long one. His family was involved in agriculture, and after getting an education, Ali taught Arabic and Italian (part of Somalia used to be an Italian colony) in high school in Mogadishu.
He even served on Somalia's Olympic committee, recruiting athletes, primarily soccer players, for the national team.
But soon after the fall of the government, he and his family fled, first to Europe. They settled in Minnesota and Columbia Heights in 2001.
Although Ali has traveled to Somali communities throughout the United States to gain support, there are those who — while wishing him well — doubt there's much he can do in his homeland.
"The reality is, he can do nothing about it," said Sidow Mohammed, a native of Somalia and a lecturer in the department of African-American and African studies at the University of Minnesota.
Mohammed said that merely sizing up the scope of the city's needs after years of civil war is a problem.
"Talking about what's going on there is very hard," he said. "Nobody can give you the reality. Everything is outside. Even the president doesn't go there. The warlords control everything."
Ali agrees that will be a challenge.
"Part of the role I'll be able to play … is to bring the people back together," he said. "I've got to bring the people's trust back into the system. After 15 years of civil war, we have to bring back the people's trust."
Xade
Minneapolis MN
