after being away for a while but I have been busy in the real world, especially that of broadcasting. My Somalia series have been finalised and are now posted on the VOA website as well as shared across all the Africa services. It will also be aired on the Africa service's main daily show Africa News Tonight the whole of next week. I am stoked! The links to the stories for those of you who would like to listen to it/read it are below.
-Somali traditional healers
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-08-17-voa48.cfm
-Somalia's telecomms industryhttp://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-08-06voa33.cfm
-Somalia's street childrenhttp://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-08-18-voa45.cfm
-Somalia's Islamists change wedding celebrations
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-08-17-voa37.cfm
-NGO cannot access Mogadishu
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2009-08-13-voa43.cfm
I was also on Inquiry a few times, the latest discussion was on witchcraft in Africa! Yep, go figure. It was hilarious though, lighthearted as usual and plenty of laughs to go round! link is below if one feels like being amused lol!
http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/inquiry.cfm
I also managed to stumble onto TV to Africa's In Focus where I appeared to discuss Muslims in America with them. I enjoyed that one. It was an issue that has been on my conscious for a while and was hoping a platform would appear where I can contribute to somehow trying to tackle the misperception Americans have of Muslims and the Islam faith. Check out the interview below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z515IFnjiwc
On a personal note I can honestly say I don't know where to draw the line between work and life anymore as I seem to be always doing something work related. Fortunately I get to be off from the 10th of September for two weeks when I'll go back home to unwind and switch off from the world of politics.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
viva Las VOA
It was showtime in here last friday with one of our journalist showcasing a theatre play telling the tale of a friendship between two Siera Leonian men, one who's the chief's son and other is a poor foreigner from another village. The play captured the essence and atmosphere of Africa. It was a pleasure to watch. It's called 'friendship in Sierra Leone' by David Vandy, in case it ever hits your town don't miss it.
Insomnia has yet again greeted me with her presence I am falling off my desk chair as we speak. Anyway all hell is close to breaking loose in Somalia with Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a gaining more ground in the Gedo region and Al-shabab being pushed back along with their allies Hisbul Islam. However since these territorial power grips change all the time, we live to see who will be in control of the same region tomorrow. Mind you rumour has it Kenyan troops might forge an alliance with Ahlu Sunna and that could boost Ahlu Sunna's power...
I miss the earlier days when I was full of energy and I could go to uni, work and still have energy in abundance to go out and paint the town red. Now all I can think of after a day's work is my friggin bed! Is ageism getting to me already?...
Insomnia has yet again greeted me with her presence I am falling off my desk chair as we speak. Anyway all hell is close to breaking loose in Somalia with Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a gaining more ground in the Gedo region and Al-shabab being pushed back along with their allies Hisbul Islam. However since these territorial power grips change all the time, we live to see who will be in control of the same region tomorrow. Mind you rumour has it Kenyan troops might forge an alliance with Ahlu Sunna and that could boost Ahlu Sunna's power...
I miss the earlier days when I was full of energy and I could go to uni, work and still have energy in abundance to go out and paint the town red. Now all I can think of after a day's work is my friggin bed! Is ageism getting to me already?...
Saturday, August 15, 2009
airtime on the loose
So we went on air this afternoon with me gasping for air whilst reading the news and the producer and the engineer having a complete breakdown of communication. The problem started with the producer not having all his material in the right order and then continued without communicating all the necessary information to the engineer who essentially puts the recorded material on air. Long story short, we the presenters were trailing one thing and the engineer was playing something else. Fortunately we were able to salvage the playback.
Which leads me to announce I have started to present the shows regularly and having a good time with it. Mind you I do get annoyed when people bring their introductions and news items too late for me to have time to read it or rewrite so I have to correct it whilst on air. What's more frustrating is that it can be prepared in advance but folks just love leaving things till last minute and rushing it at the very end. It feels like the place is filled with sheeple! (That was my rant for the week).
Staying on the presenting of shows, I have met with the lady of fairfax public access TV and Radio station where I get to have my own hour long radio show on Monday. She was ever so lovely and got me even more excited. I am very much looking forward to it, October cannot come soon enough!
This week has been another hectic one but glad the weekend is here. I'm toying with some ideas for projects to dig into. One of them is to set up workshops to inform and demonstrate to young journalist wannabes what the ethics of journalism are and examples of how to build a successful career in journalism. I have particular interest in grooming young African students/ upcoming journalists since there is not enough of them. Anyway I'll keep on brainstorming, for now I'm off to put my feet up and fall into a deep sleepathon.
Which leads me to announce I have started to present the shows regularly and having a good time with it. Mind you I do get annoyed when people bring their introductions and news items too late for me to have time to read it or rewrite so I have to correct it whilst on air. What's more frustrating is that it can be prepared in advance but folks just love leaving things till last minute and rushing it at the very end. It feels like the place is filled with sheeple! (That was my rant for the week).
Staying on the presenting of shows, I have met with the lady of fairfax public access TV and Radio station where I get to have my own hour long radio show on Monday. She was ever so lovely and got me even more excited. I am very much looking forward to it, October cannot come soon enough!
This week has been another hectic one but glad the weekend is here. I'm toying with some ideas for projects to dig into. One of them is to set up workshops to inform and demonstrate to young journalist wannabes what the ethics of journalism are and examples of how to build a successful career in journalism. I have particular interest in grooming young African students/ upcoming journalists since there is not enough of them. Anyway I'll keep on brainstorming, for now I'm off to put my feet up and fall into a deep sleepathon.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
delayed reaction..
towards my poor blog. I have been inundated with floods of work. It is 10pm now and I've been at the office working back to back since 6.30am this morning and going home isn't on the horizon anytime soon. The weekend cannot come soon enough. I've actually started daydreaming about trivial things like reading books in bed, cooking, going to the park, watching TV (see I'm getting carried away again!).
I was covering a youth event over the weekend in Virginia where plenty of youngsters gathered to connect and exchange knowledge and information. Very well organised, with experts of all fields in abundance. Sadly some of the typical old Somali men decided to tag along and managed to shift the focus away from the event's purpose and tweak it towards.. you've guessed it, SOMALI POLITICS! In particular when professor Ahmed Samatar (who's highly intellectual but known for being controversial) was doing his speech. They started reciting flipping poetry from 1879 and 1764 arguing with him over irrelevant subjects like Al-Shabab, each fighting for the microphone so that we can all 'have the privilege of benefiting from their elaborate intellect'! The average age of the audience was between 13-18. How these men expect the kids to comprehend and benefit from whatever palaver they were banging on about is beyond me. On top of that they were wasting time that could've been utilised towards a much more productive activity (like actually allowing the guests that were invited to speak, speak!)
Apart from that it was a great success and I really hope they'll organise more of them since there is a clear need for them.
I also had a good opportunity to take advantage of the experts that attended so I ended up gathering audio for two programs on top of covering the event. All in all, though I've disappeared from the blogosphere I had a productive weekend.
Back to work and all the news is happening in Kenya! Clinton has started her tour around the African countries America is planning to help there but has met with president Sharif on the sideline. What's amazing is that the plight of Somalia and the core issues the country is facing has been overshadowed by Clinton and Sharif's hand shaking. Go figure.
Living up to my job title, I am now off to record a discussion between two Islamic scholars about whether women and men shaking hands is allowed or not... drums please.
I was covering a youth event over the weekend in Virginia where plenty of youngsters gathered to connect and exchange knowledge and information. Very well organised, with experts of all fields in abundance. Sadly some of the typical old Somali men decided to tag along and managed to shift the focus away from the event's purpose and tweak it towards.. you've guessed it, SOMALI POLITICS! In particular when professor Ahmed Samatar (who's highly intellectual but known for being controversial) was doing his speech. They started reciting flipping poetry from 1879 and 1764 arguing with him over irrelevant subjects like Al-Shabab, each fighting for the microphone so that we can all 'have the privilege of benefiting from their elaborate intellect'! The average age of the audience was between 13-18. How these men expect the kids to comprehend and benefit from whatever palaver they were banging on about is beyond me. On top of that they were wasting time that could've been utilised towards a much more productive activity (like actually allowing the guests that were invited to speak, speak!)
Apart from that it was a great success and I really hope they'll organise more of them since there is a clear need for them.
I also had a good opportunity to take advantage of the experts that attended so I ended up gathering audio for two programs on top of covering the event. All in all, though I've disappeared from the blogosphere I had a productive weekend.
Back to work and all the news is happening in Kenya! Clinton has started her tour around the African countries America is planning to help there but has met with president Sharif on the sideline. What's amazing is that the plight of Somalia and the core issues the country is facing has been overshadowed by Clinton and Sharif's hand shaking. Go figure.
Living up to my job title, I am now off to record a discussion between two Islamic scholars about whether women and men shaking hands is allowed or not... drums please.
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