Software first or hardware

Hardware first or software; by: Prof. Abdi Ali Jama.

It seems to me we are putting the cart before the horse when it comes to re- building the nation which is the main challenge we are facing after state has completely collapsed. The task of setting up a nation  tends to be much more difficult than ever before as there are currently  a lot of impediments and deterrents both local and international that did not exist , for example,  in 1960 when first state  had to be built after independence. Globalization, social media, divergent ideologies, larger population, more politicized citizens with higher tribal awareness, less nationalistic and more skeptical—being exposed to brutal deceits--- will render almost impossible to re-create a nation state at this point in time.

Hardware being raising funds,  building roads, government headquarters, schools, hospitals and equipping them, software is creating values, ethics, moral responsibility,  discipline, setting policies, rules and regulations and complying to them in voluntary or with least effort. Having being said that, I hope we can now easily answer the question as to which one we should start doing first, though both of them are essential for building a nation. Software first… seems to be the correct answer--if you see what I mean.

The second question we need to answer is which one do you think is harder to accomplish. Some people may think that hardware stuff is harder because it needs a lot of money and financial resources that we don’t have. The reality, though, is that software part is far more difficult because it requires knowledge with wisdom, special education with orientation, expertise with maturity and leadership by example, not by rhetoric and hollow promises which people are tired of.

The irony is that we-- be government officials or Somaliland citizens-- are very much concerned and interested in doing hardware first. We may think that the major obstacle we are having is lack of adequate money to accomplish the hardware things. In contrast, our major obstacle is getting to know or realizing that what is more important to do first is giving special education and orientation-- as we said earlier-- by devoted, honest, lead by example pioneers with the objective to create the values and ethics that are required to produce hard working honest elite. The second thing is to discipline them. Discipline, Discipline and  Discipline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The third thing is to establish public institutions by setting policies and regulation for both within and public at large. This is the software we need to do first; not the other way round by beginning with hardware activities and trying to provide public services by public institutions that are neither established nor equipped with disciplined staff and objective oriented policies in the first place. Trying to do so is like putting the cart before the horse. Let me shorten the article into this Somali statement: Dadka ha la galiyo lacagta iyagaa dhisi doona gidaarada.

Prof. Abdi Ali Jama

Abdirrahman99@hotmail.co

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