MalasayachLink

What is Harari Sports and Cultural Federation (HSCF) from Surat

Notes from Malasayachlink:

At this juncture the only important request is for HSCF to reveal the decisions taken on the weekend the location of 2012 summer festival. Why HSCF representatives are not willing to make their decisions known to the public? What are they hiding? Come out in to the open and tell your story, nothing more nothing less.  Too bad Hararis from all strips can not handle the truth, cover everything and secrecy, conspiracy and deceits rule the days.  Different people are told different things and the art of manipulations and distortions perfected old Soviet Union styles.  Here again email from Surat makes more sense and HSCF has an obligations to tell the truth.  HNL poisoned the Diasporas environment and its agents are hijacked communities with permanent damages and mistrust.    

What is Harari Sports and Cultural Federation (HSCF)

Harari Sports and Cultural Federation (HSCF) was established some fifteen years ago to bring Hararis living abroad under one roof to establish fellowship and understanding, to build a solid social network for the younger ones, to make them  be proud of their heritage and identity, to educate and re-educate everyone on the concept of well founded community and to have a good time doing so.

In assessing the objectives of HSCF and what it has achieved so far, fair minded people will see that HSCF is nothing other than the reflection of the community from which it was established. Wherever there is a significant number of Hararis aggregate in foreign countries, it is not difficult to observe that there are competing groups of Hararis seemingly fighting for the same cause. There is nothing wrong in forming a number of Afochas even when the number does not warrant such an action, what is bothersome is the relationship among these groups or Afochas is adversarial and not healthy at all. Hararis can pick any cities that have significant number of Hararis and it just follows that there are competing groups or Afochas with unflattering attitudes towards each other. HSCF was established under these background and environment and therefore, the activities of “the organization” is no better or worse than the community at large.

The board of HSCF was composed of representatives of established Harari Afochas of the time. Each Afocha in Atlanta, Toronto, Washington, DC, Dallas, etc selected two reps and sent them to form the foundation of HSCF. And these reps selected the Executive Committee (EC) to run the day to day operations and, at first, everything went smoothly. But eventually, cracks appeared in the operation of HSCF. The EC that was running the operation in Atlanta decided to monopolize all aspects of the operation and made the board practically useless. A showdown by the Afochas followed the action of the EC and demanded that order be restored and the reps should take their rightful place according to the by-laws of the HSCF. The EC refused to give in to the demands of the Afochas and in turn the Afochas refused to recognize the legitimacy of the EC. Not only that, the Afochas gathered and took over the organization and dismissed the EC. Not to be outdone, the EC in Atlanta threw a temper tantrum and declared itself the genuine HSCF and passed the baton to new personnel. The reformed HSCF of the Afochas started running the operation even though there was a murmur in the background from the remnants of the old EC. In order to bring peace among the Harari community, all Harari Afochas agreed to form a united HSCF with reps forming the board of the organization as originally envisaged according to the by-laws just before the event that took place in Dallas in 2008. Even though a united HSCF was established, details of the structure and legal issues were left to be dealt with another day. Unfortunately, that day never arrived. To this day, there is no structure to HSCF; there is no executive committee, there is no incorporation of HSCF, there is no transparency and accountability, etc; in short, there is an entity called HSCF, and nothing else. Right at this moment, HSCF is a rudderless boat not knowing where it is heading and why it is travelling.

This is not where the story about HSCF ends. Several months ago, there was a press release posted on Harari websites by an entity called HSCF informing us that Harar Canada Community of Ontario (HCCO) will not hold an event sanctioned by the Federation anymore because we were told that HCCO refused to pay a percentage of the income generated by the previous event held in Toronto. And here is what is so comical about this. When all the Afocha’s gathered to re-establish HSCF in 2008, it was unanimously agreed among all that twenty percent of net income generated by the annual event should go to HSCF. Well, Dallas did not pay a cent when it hosted the event in 2008 and the next year Atlanta paid something like three percent after much haggling. Now, what is the logic of enforcing the rule only on Toronto? The simple reason is there is no structure and there is no accountability. If you really ask me, I don’t even know who is in the Board of HSCF. We know for sure that Toronto is kicked out and the reps from Washington DC were never included in any of the meetings or the decisions. Since these two big Afochas (Toronto and Washington, DC)  are excluded from HSCF activities, who exactly is running this entity?

As I mentioned in the beginning, HSCF is an organization that was established foremost for  the welfare of the Harari communities abroad. If Hararis in Harar would like to have an event, it is their right to prepare one anytime they want; they do not require permission from HSCF or any other entity for that matter. But every Harari by now is aware the state of affairs in Harar and there is no one sane that harbors the idea of holding such event in Harar next year. There are other burning issues for Hararis in Harar to contemplate, namely how to get rid of HNL from their back. But awarding the next summer event to Harar is a welcome gesture on the part of so-called HSCF to thwart the struggle of the Harari people that just started to see the lights of the day. But, I hate to puncture the ill gotten joy of fake HSCF and the mafia HNL, this will not materialize. Hararis have taken the legitimacy of HNL right under its feet and the same fate will follow the make believe HSCF.

Before we go any further, I have a number of questions for the fake HSCF to answer. Who are the Afocha reps who made the decision to award the event to Harar? I have the right to ask question because if this is the real HSCF, it is a public organization and the public need an answer. I am waiting in vain for an answer because this fake HSCF, like its parent mafia HNL, does not have a structure or person in charge to answer this question. A group of friends declare themselves HSCF and do everything in secrecy and try to shove their decision  in our throat believing that the public is gullible. First, I would like to have an answer before I go any further.

Surat