Category: Africa

Canada: Somali “kids” killing each other

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is not the first post we’ve written on Somali gang violence taking the lives of Somali “kids” in Canada.   (check our Canada category for more if you are interested).

Here is one thing I wonder, what is the age at which Somalis don’t call their 26-year-olds “kids” anymore, and when do we call them men?

This is the latest, this time from Toronto, on the violent deaths of Somali men.  From the Toronto Star:

Last week, Abdul Warsame spent an afternoon at the Khalid Bin-Walid mosque in the Rexdale neighbourhood mourning 28-year-old Abdulaziz Farah. In a fiery sermon to the hundreds gathered, he warned parents and youngsters that “it’s a matter of time until another Somali kid is killed.”

Within days, those words had come true.

Four days later, early on Tuesday, two young men were shot to death on Jamestown Cres., in a notorious west-end neighbourhood. They were the fifth and sixth Somali-Canadian men to be killed in gun violence in Toronto since early June.

“I am heartbroken,” said Warsame, co-founder of a mentorship program for Somali-Canadian youth. “What should we do … our kids are dying.”

He’s not exaggerating.

The bloodletting started when Ahmed Hassan, 24, was shot dead at the Eaton Centre on June 2. Hussein Hussein, 23, died on June 23. Abdulle Elmi, 25, on July 8. Abdulaziz Farah, 28, on Sept. 8.

And then on Tuesday, Suleiman Ali and Warsame Ali, both 26, were found dead with gunshot wounds in an alley in an Etobicoke townhouse complex.

The spate of violence has left the Somali community in Toronto crushed, its leaders desperately seeking answers.

They want more programs and services, yup that will fix the problem (not!)

They have held meetings throughout the summer to understand why their young men are getting killed and how they can help keep them safe. They’ve asked federal and provincial politicians for more programs and services to help young people get through school and find jobs. They have asked Toronto Police to help.

Somalis have highest unemployment rate of any ethnic group in Canada (gee, whose fault is that?)

There are an estimated 80,000 Somalis in Toronto, another few thousand in Ottawa and, community leaders say, about 3,000 in Fort McMurray, Alta.

For long, the community has battled poverty and unemployment. It tried to deal with many single-parent households. The unemployment rate for Somali-Canadians is above 20 per cent, the highest of any ethnic group.

Canadian Somali “kids” also thumbed their noses at Canada and went for jihad training in Somali.  Are we going to blame this on lack of services, or on what they are being taught in some mosques?

Between 2009 and 2011, at least two dozen young men from Toronto and Ottawa — and two young women — disappeared, allegedly to fight alongside Al Shabaab in Somalia, an Islamist youth militia aligned with Al Qaeda.

Comment worth noting: “I was welcoming and tolerant in the beginning….”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A reader from Minneapolis has sent this comment in response to our post yesterday on Bowling Green, KY (emphasis below is mine):

Reading this reminds me of some of the comments made by Minnesota residents about the huge Somali population which has been settled in Minnesota:

Everyone in Mpls is fed up with the Somali population abusing the generosity and hospitality of the Midwest. I am from the east coast and predicted the current problems years ago. Although some of the population are assimilating well, I live in the Cedar-Riverside area and I experience hostile, insular, disrespectful behavior especially from Somali men. The Somali leaders have needed to address this for years and refuse to. They are in Minnesota because no other city would allow what transpires in Mn. If they will not assimilate they need to be repatriated to Kenya (or anywhere outside the US) if Somalia is unable to form a government.

MN is peaceful – we must keep it that way. The citizens are much too tolerant and have been fleeced due a high trust level and belief in the goodness of people in general. There is no honor among the thieves that have arrived and squatted. And yes, we need a China one-child policy to stop them from replicating.

MN must attend to its own unemployed citizens. Hennepin County is making dramatic cuts in funding the indigenous poor. Whenever I have been in at Hennepin County to assist clients in applying for benefits, the place is full of Somali women wearing expensive gold jewelry/carrying iPhones/driving BMWs APPYING & RECEIVING ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE! This is not a population that needs any economic assistance. You will also find them shopping in the most expensive department stores. An affront to every Minnesotan without a job or health care. My building is FULL of Somalis on Sec. 8 paying little rent while Minnesotans cannot qualify to pay reduced rent to get into the building. And I am not living in Cedar Square. That mess is spilling over into the entire area which is becoming a ghetto.

Other small examples: Cab drivers won’t pick up gay men, business people if they are carrying liquor-part of the job. Others work at checkout in a grocery store and will not handle pork (!)-no other Muslims are this crazy- or file frivolous lawsuits if the women train to become nurses aids claiming discrimination if they are required to care for male patients (WHAT??!!)-some few examples in addition the ones mentioned by jessej above – the disrespectful and violent youth coming out of Cedar Square and other places.

(The young Somali males, and I mean 5 years old, are not disciplined by the parents so what does one expect at 16. I witness this daily-had one kid yelling and pointing his finger at me giving me orders to go away – haha off of my own apartment floor!!!!!)

BTW- the shopkeepers/business are very unfriendly-refuse to learn and speak English. I was welcoming and tolerant in the beginning having mixed heritage myself. After having traversed the inside of this ethnic group, I support repatriation ASAP. They are unlike any other refugees or immigrants, African, Indian, Asian etc.

Although very polite, I believe Minnesotans in general avoid confrontation at all costs- their refugee “guests” are all about confrontation.

MN needs a self-esteem boost, cohesion, the ability to discern who to be hospitable to and a collective spine to deal with this problem.

This isn’t the first time we have heard an account like this from Minneapolis.  We reported a very similar comment here in January 2011 in a post that continues to be one of our most read posts almost every day here at RRW.

How’s that Arab Spring working out for Obama and the “weird sisters” this morning?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In light of the tragic news from Libya and Egypt today, here, looks like Obama, Hillary, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power picked the wrong side in their rush to embrace the phoney-baloney “democracy movement” in North Africa.

No time to write this a.m. but check out our previous posts on the “weird sisters’ responsibility to protect” and what it has come to.

Note that one year ago, almost to the day, the Israeli Embassy was attacked by those Muslim Brotherhood “democracy advocates” in their enthusiasm to show how democratic they can be.

I guess the White House’s Samantha Power gets her wish—no “rinkey-dink do-gooder stuff “ like protecting Christians in Iraq for her.  The Muslims in Libya have now declared war on us by their murderous act.  So much for the “humanitarian vulcans” gamble.

Minneapolis Somalis not as mentally troubled as those in London

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You (in Minneapolis) can breath a sigh of relief knowing the results of this study. Conversely, if you are one of our 600 plus readers from the UK during the last month, this is very bad news indeed.   Since Somali unemployment in Minneapolis is only 26% (compared to London’s 90%), the Somali population here doesn’t have as much mental illness.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Somali immigrants to the U.K. and U.S. appear to integrate better and have fewer mental health problems if they are allowed to work and they receive practical support during the first few years of their time in the new country, according to a study led by researchers at Queen Mary, University of London and published in BioMed Central Public Health.

The study investigated the experiences of Somalis living in London and Minneapolis. After adjusting for various factors such as age, sex and marital status, the researchers found that Somalis in London were six times more likely to suffer from major depression and four times more likely to have a psychological disorder than those who lived in Minneapolis.

Most of the 189 survey respondents and 47 focus group participants had a shared history of displacement and similar immigration experiences. Like the Olympic Gold medal athlete, Mo Farah, they came to the U.K. or U.S. fleeing violence and human rights abuses in Somalia. However, 90 percent were unemployed in London, compared to 26 per cent in Minneapolis; 98 per cent had obtained refugee status or citizenship in Minneapolis compared to 83 per cent in London.

Update:  Here is more on the same story I just found after posting.

Family from Gambia loses second son in Chicago murder spree

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

So, they are thinking about going home to Africa.

From the Chicago Sun Times:

They came to the U.S. from Gambia — in search of a better life.

But two tough decades later, some of Kenwood Academy High School student Muhammed Kebbeh’s family say they are considering going back to Africa after he became the city’s 370th murder victim this year and second of his six siblings to be gunned down on the South Side in the last six months.

“I want to pack everything up and go back,” his oldest brother, Momadu Kebbeh, 36, said Wednesday, as his devoutly Muslim family mourned and prayed at their Washington Park home. “What’s the point of staying here?”

Muhammed, 19, was sitting with his girlfriend when he was shot dead by masked gunmen in a drive-by shooting in the 8100 block of South Ingleside shortly after 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Relatives say they had been especially worried about him ever since his 23-year-old brother Omar Kebbeh became Chicago’s 68th murder victim of 2012 back in February.

Muhammed—a practicing Muslim, born in the US, and a gangbanger!

Police sources say Muhammed was a member of the Gangster Disciples street gang and his brother said that was “probably” true.

[…..]

Despite his problems, he sometimes still attended mosque with his mom, Mariana…. (where was Dad?–ed)

Just seeking a better life indeed.