Time: 2000-01-02 02:14:15  http://www.puntin.org/Literature.htm+++++ Puntland Intelligentsia Network (PUNTIN) SEES NO CAUSE FOR MILLENNIA CELEBRATIONS++++++++ January 1, 2000

(Galkaio) - The "world" seems to be dancing to the tune of a new millennium's euphoria. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to celebrate the demise of the old millennium and the advent of the new one. The skies of this world were illuminated with colorful fireworks. Sounds of wild joy reverberated long before the zero hour. Laser beams crisscrossed the dark midnight skies of the most populous cities in the word. World leaders made historic speeches to address the huge festive crowds gaping at the decorated skies and the below with awe and admiration. What world is that world? That is the world of "haves", the world of the developed nations. Some believe that it is the world of the "heartless","the soulless" and some of the snobbish other-worlders. The snobbish other-worlders are well defined by the Somali proverb whic has this wisdom, "baqashii fardo la mirataa ka-mid bay is-mooddaa!" which literally means, " a mule which grazes with horses overnight thinks that it is an equal. Here is the other world, the world of "have-nots", "hostages to poverty, anarchy and lawlessness". Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to illuminate the skies of certain world cities of the "haves", while hundreds of millions of people are wallowing with the painful bangs of hunger and disease, whose only cries are cries of agony not the cries of joy and ecstasy marking the celebration for the new millennium. In this latter world the only sounds of difference are explosions. The only sky illuminations apart from the natural ones are the deadly projectiles of the firearms showering on them. Would a moral human being's celebration for the millennia be justified while witnessing the fireworks over Chechnya "fireworks meant to annihilate the innocent helpless civilians than to celebrate"? The two worlds share the same firmament, the same sun that brings the first hours of change in millennia and above all, the same globe. A happy new millennium for some, a horrendous one for others. The Somalis who have been held hostage for a decade by uncompromising notorious half-human warlords share the same globe as well. The Somalis that the same celebrating world has thrown to the wolves, listen to the wild celebrations on the electronic media and wonder if the world has taken a leave out of its senses. "After all," they would like to reason it out, "this costly fanfare is for presumed dates that culminated in the hypothesized millennia not something natural which deserves all that cost and attention." Let the "other-worlders" be herded to the doom by their next of kin; let the demons torture, kill and maim; let others be wild with joy, unconcerned with the suffering of their fellow human beings; and still let "the pretentious" simper at the new millennium celebrations. The fact remains that the haunting bugs in the cyber world might have been conquered, but still the bugs in the minds of the warlords and the moral values of soulless is still taking its toll. It is PUNTIN's wish that all these bugs are eliminated once and for all. That will be the time the humans will have a genuine reason to celebrate.