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Somalia has elected their first new president since 1986. Meet Xasan Maxamuud.

13 points by cup 14y ago

mahmud 14y ago
This is FAR from the truth. We have had several presidents since, including Cali Mahdi, Cabdulaahi Yusuf and Sheikh Sharif. All "ruled" out of armored vehicles on foreign financial life-support. This new guy is no different: we will see him get chased around by opposing factions, including Islamists, and much of the North and North East of the country is semi-autonomous.
- dkarl 14y ago
  Maybe it refers to direct election. As best as I can tell from Wikipedia, Cali Mahdi was chosen by a conference in Djibouti, and Cabdulaahi Yusuf and Sheikh Sharif were both elected by a national assembly, not by the people. I'm not clear on whether even the national assembly representative were elected, so by the standard of direct democratic election it might be correct to say Cali Mahdi and Sheikh Sharif were not elected. Now that I think about it, the problem is that the English wording doesn't mean what it logically ought to. When it says Somalia has "elected their first new president since 1986" it's easy for me to read that in context as "elected a president for the first time since 1986" (which seems to be correct if "election" means "direct election") even though a more logically straightforward interpretation is that the person they elected is their first president since 1986 (which you pointed out is false.) Just another bug report to file against the English language :-/
  - dmoy 14y ago
    Being elected by parliament is not being directly elected. It is closer. Also, I didn't really see any mention of how much of Somalia the government actually controls. Last time I talked to my Somali friends from back in Minnesota, it was like 10% - most of Mogadishu and some of the surrounding area. (That info is years out of date though) So I take this with a grain of salt.
    - aaronbrethorst 14y ago
      Last time I talked to my Somali friends from back in Minnesota In case this catches anyone by surprise, here's some background: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/19/good-question-why-did-somalis-locate-here/ http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/19/good-question-why-d... The Twin Cities also have surprisingly large populations of Bosnians and Hmong. After living in Minneapolis for 21 years and Seattle for 9, I can easily say that Minneapolis is, by far, the more diverse of the two.
- cup 14y ago
  What do you think the best outcome is for Somalia?
  - mahmud 14y ago
    Don't know and don't care, sadly.

13 points by cup 14y ago

This is FAR from the truth. We have had several presidents since, including Cali Mahdi, Cabdulaahi Yusuf and Sheikh Sharif. All "ruled" out of armored vehicles on foreign financial life-support. This new guy is no different: we will see him get chased around by opposing factions, including Islamists, and much of the North and North East of the country is semi-autonomous.

dkarl 14y ago
Maybe it refers to direct election. As best as I can tell from Wikipedia, Cali Mahdi was chosen by a conference in Djibouti, and Cabdulaahi Yusuf and Sheikh Sharif were both elected by a national assembly, not by the people. I'm not clear on whether even the national assembly representative were elected, so by the standard of direct democratic election it might be correct to say Cali Mahdi and Sheikh Sharif were not elected. Now that I think about it, the problem is that the English wording doesn't mean what it logically ought to. When it says Somalia has "elected their first new president since 1986" it's easy for me to read that in context as "elected a president for the first time since 1986" (which seems to be correct if "election" means "direct election") even though a more logically straightforward interpretation is that the person they elected is their first president since 1986 (which you pointed out is false.) Just another bug report to file against the English language :-/
- dmoy 14y ago
  Being elected by parliament is not being directly elected. It is closer. Also, I didn't really see any mention of how much of Somalia the government actually controls. Last time I talked to my Somali friends from back in Minnesota, it was like 10% - most of Mogadishu and some of the surrounding area. (That info is years out of date though) So I take this with a grain of salt.
  - aaronbrethorst 14y ago
    Last time I talked to my Somali friends from back in Minnesota In case this catches anyone by surprise, here's some background: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/19/good-question-why-did-somalis-locate-here/ http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/01/19/good-question-why-d... The Twin Cities also have surprisingly large populations of Bosnians and Hmong. After living in Minneapolis for 21 years and Seattle for 9, I can easily say that Minneapolis is, by far, the more diverse of the two.
cup 14y ago
What do you think the best outcome is for Somalia?
- mahmud 14y ago
  Don't know and don't care, sadly.