Minnesota (Sunatimes) The Minnesota Somali Community has no Somali Spokesperson, period. This is not because of lack of education or there is something wrong with the Somali Culture or how Somalis do business but it is because becoming a spokesperson entails countless important factors including dealing with the media almost all the time. In contrary, there is also an element in the Somali culture where every person (absolutely not a kid) is an informal spokesperson in the realm where only family matters are being discussed without any news value. This means engaging with the media is new to the Somali culture and you rarely see a Somali individual fond of becoming the person for the media to call. In other words, as far as the question of being a spokesperson is concerned, the general Somali approach is outrageously informal; everybody can be a spokesperson in the context we already described, yet there is no one single spokesperson who has the full backing of the Somali community. This has created uncontested territory where few Somali individuals had dared to take part no matter the credence or credibility of their stories. One of the strangely lucky individuals who jumped on the bandwagon is Omar Jamal ( see when Somalis are in the news, so is Omar Jamalhttp://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/04/24/omar_jamal/) There is nothing personal about Omar Jamal who is widely described as a controversial figure because he is a Somali and he has every right to be a de facto spokesman or and can act if you like as an expert on the issues surrounding the Somali community, but the Somali community neglected its role in engaging with the media because if the community is inactive when it comes to the media, then it becomes not that hard that you see a few self-made spokespersons within the community grabbing the media microphone because it is easily up for grabs when you don’t have different voices in the Community but only those who either don’t have the knowledge and the skills necessary or the will to come forward to familiarize themselves with the media. If the Somali community does not take the time to fill this gap of the availability of genuine spokespersons, then the Somali individuals who had already dared to talk to the media might shape the news surrounding the Community ( seehttp://www.hiiraan.com/print2_news/2011/nov/cair_claims_2_metro_somali_leaders_are_anti_muslim.aspx)

By Ahmed Said