WONDER WHY SOMALILAND IS NOT RECOGNIZED?

February 12th, 2009

In the field of marketing and sales, the concept of communicating the benefits of the product to the consumer is extremely important. In a nutshell the customer must easily and quickly understand how they are going to benefit from the product and what particular problems it will help her solve. If you find difficult to communicate the benefits the less likely you are going to be successful selling it.

Imagine you are very hungry, ready to eat, and just walked into a restuarant,
then right before you placed your order with a waiter the owner came up to you and said "you know Mr. Customer it has been 3 years since we last cleaned our kichen because of the shortage of water in the region". You will mostly likely get out of that restuarant quickly and look for another place to eat.

This example above shows you a person who was suppose to tell you " how delicious the food is at his restuarant, that their service is top-notch, and thank you for giving us an opportunity to serve you and please let me know if there is anything I can to make your dinning experience more enjoyable:, but instead told you the one-thing that will make you get out of the door as quickly as possible. In otherwords he really forced you not to purchase food from him.

The Vice-President of Somaliland spoke with Diaspora UDUB supporters who attended the UDUB conference in Hargeisa where President Dahir Rayale and Vice-President Ahmed Yassin were again nominated as the party candidates. In his speech he praised the newly nominated President of Somalia; Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed, further he declared Somalia will always be together, there will never be a border between Somalia and Somaliland. I should point the vice-president said "his statement was taken out of context", but it is pretty hard to see how his statement was taken out of context when you hear the tape.

Now, imagine if you are one of these foreign dignataries that come to Hargeisa or one of the foreign government officials who meet with Somaliland officials during their foreign trips; and you have just read this statement from vice-president Ahmed Yassin. How would that statement make you feel? you would probably think that Somaliland, its government, and its people are not serious about their desire to have Somaliland recognized by the international community. If they are serious about it surely their elected vice-president would not say something like this. It is the same question, if the restuarant owner wants you to purchase food from him, why did he tell you the one thing he know will make you run-out of his restuarant "they did not clean the kichen in 3 years".

It is painfully obvious that not only the Somaliland government does not know how to sell the recognition policy to the international community, rather their actions and words are in fact telling the international community that Somaliland is not interested in recognition. if you are wondering why the world did not recognize Somaliland; the answer is because the elected government of Somaliland told them they do not want it - in this last incident the VP told the international community he likes Sheikh Sharif and he can do busines with him, and there will never be a border between Somalia and Somaliland. There are many things that need fixing in Somaliland, but it is pointless to speak about how to correct them without change in leadership. Somaliland is desperate for change in leadership. Fortunately the people have an opportunity to do that in few months.

Somaliland American Council