Morcheeba is really one of those rare bands with nice poems,like this one here ~Way Beyond~ Driving with your Handbrake on But you can't smell the burning Colliding with oblivion Just to keep heads turning Man i want some, pretty cash It's ugly all that saving Cause we could get so fabulous When we're out Rolex raving No craving Oh we're way beyond our means To buy these crazy things Oh we're wasting our whole lives In the struggle to survive Get yourself in Debt for me The grass don't get no greener Have it all so far upfront It doesn't take a dreamer A beamer Oh we're way beyond our means We love these spending sprees Oh we're wasting all our time On some production line But diving down the web we chute We'll be ok if we uproot Cause i don't mean no heavy family Holding me Oh we're way beyond our means To buy these crazy things Oh we're making them Swiss Francs To burst there private banks Oh we're way beyond our means We love these spending sprees Oh we're wasting our whole lives In a struggle to survive

The Nairobi Talks is the first step of a long process, the intl. community gave us a chance to make up and rebuild Somalia. We will be in a position to improve/discuss the federal charter at home. Personally i'm not allergic to the clan issue(whats wrong with that?). Barre, Aideed and SNM abused the clan system, we just have to watch out next time.

i do not agree somali to be united at all Boqor 450 miyaad waalatay, mise waad soo wadataa? Af-soomali ku jawaab hadaad somali tahay? Hadii kale, meesha iskaga tag waxba kuma yaalane.

Should Puntland declare independence if the Kenya talks fail? -- A very FOOLHARDY question indeed. What is INDEPENDENCE?!?! to begin with.

Both these gentlemen are "dameer iyo 2-diisa dhegood". They get no vote from me, but as always in africa one of them might end as the head of xsomalia.

Its a new day for Bari Region. Whats funny though , Gen. Cadde is anything but "Cadde" - of his looks that is.

I enjoyed reading your posts...some of you are more rational than the so-called somali leaders- aka-warlords. Personally I think the Crown Protectorate of Somaliland SLN is kinda outdated, somali people from that region better come up with new ideas if they wanna get intl. credibility.Dissing the Somali flag is not a solution, instead facilitating the Somali Peace Talks was a good opportunity for the northerners to show good-will.So far the SLN argument for recognition is a farce and a "non-starter" in the eyez of the world community and to Somalis at large.Thats a fact, as it has been for the last 12 years. Now what? A: flexibilty is needed when dealing with these issues..you are, after all is said and done, a somali and that means a lot, tho you may not realize..and thats a fact.

The british laid many traps or "time bombs" (whatever you wanna call it) for somali unity..this is one of those exercises to keep nomads just nomads, nothing more! When will somalis see the bigger picture?

Hey Barre deserves a chance, i'd definitely vote for him.

For the neocons, Somalia is already taken care of...it is a "failed state", or smt like that. Ethiopia and Kenya are No.1 and No.2 enemies of the Somali nation, bcuz they're TOOLS in keeping Somalia in that bad disposition.Another damaging factor is those of us yearning for the rule of the war-lady, the queen of GB. The good news is; our so-called neighbors are not that better off themselves.Don't be surprised if & when they get more problems at home by alienating own muslim populace.

Boycot CNN, BBC, FOX...I did that long ago.God, how i hate O'reily! EuroNews is by far better and more balanced in its reporting.And there's always the WEB.

This war is a GOOD LESSON for all the Arabs who hate each other! About the innocent civilians "lost", well they're not lost...they're in heaven.We'll all die.

1. To kill the euro-currency 2. To protect Israel 3. For oil 4. To test new high-tech weapons (incl. more DU weaponary) 5. Humilate Arabs as desert-niggas good 4 nothin!

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1254.shtml Rachel Corrie: In her own words Rachel Corrie, writing from Rafah, occupied Palestine 17 March 2003 Excerpts from an e-mail from Rachel Corrie to her family on February 7, 2003 Rachel Corrie I have been in Palestine for two weeks and one hour now, and I still have very few words to describe what I see. It is most difficult for me to think about what's going on here when I sit down to write back to the United States--something about the virtual portal into luxury. I don't know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I'm not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere. An eight-year-old was shot and killed by an Israeli tank two days before I got here, and many of the children murmur his name to me, “Ali”--or point at the posters of him on the walls. The children also love to get me to practice my limited Arabic by asking me "Kaif Sharon?" "Kaif Bush?" and they laugh when I say "Bush Majnoon" "Sharon Majnoon" back in my limited Arabic. (How is Sharon? How is Bush? Bush is crazy. Sharon is crazy.) Of course this isn't quite what I believe, and some of the adults who have the English correct me: Bush mish Majnoon... Bush is a businessman. Today I tried to learn to say "Bush is a tool", but I don't think it translated quite right. But anyway, there are eight-year-olds here much more aware of the workings of the global power structure than I was just a few years ago--at least regarding Israel. Nevertheless, I think about the fact that no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing and word of mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it, and even then you are always well aware that your experience is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli Army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, and with the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells, and, of course, the fact that I have the option of leaving. Nobody in my family has been shot, driving in their car, by a rocket launcher from a tower at the end of a major street in my hometown. I have a home. I am allowed to go see the ocean. Ostensibly it is still quite difficult for me to be held for months or years on end without a trial (this because I am a white US citizen, as opposed to so many others). When I leave for school or work I can be relatively certain that there will not be a heavily armed soldier waiting half way between Mud Bay and downtown Olympia at a checkpoint—a soldier with the power to decide whether I can go about my business, and whether I can get home again when I'm done. So, if I feel outrage at arriving and entering briefly and incompletely into the world in which these children exist, I wonder conversely about how it would be for them to arrive in my world. They know that children in the United States don't usually have their parents shot and they know they sometimes get to see the ocean. But once you have seen the ocean and lived in a silent place, where water is taken for granted and not stolen in the night by bulldozers, and once you have spent an evening when you haven’t wondered if the walls of your home might suddenly fall inward waking you from your sleep, and once you’ve met people who have never lost anyone-- once you have experienced the reality of a world that isn't surrounded by murderous towers, tanks, armed "settlements" and now a giant metal wall, I wonder if you can forgive the world for all the years of your childhood spent existing--just existing--in resistance to the constant stranglehold of the world’s fourth largest military--backed by the world’s only superpower--in it’s attempt to erase you from your home. That is something I wonder about these children. I wonder what would happen if they really knew. As an afterthought to all this rambling, I am in Rafah, a city of about 140,000 people, approximately 60 percent of whom are refugees--many of whom are twice or three times refugees. Rafah existed prior to 1948, but most of the people here are themselves or are descendants of people who were relocated here from their homes in historic Palestine--now Israel. Rafah was split in half when the Sinai returned to Egypt. Currently, the Israeli army is building a fourteen-meter-high wall between Rafah in Palestine and the border, carving a no-mans land from the houses along the border. Six hundred and two homes have been completely bulldozed according to the Rafah Popular Refugee Committee. The number of homes that have been partially destroyed is greater. Today as I walked on top of the rubble where homes once stood, Egyptian soldiers called to me from the other side of the border, "Go! Go!" because a tank was coming. Followed by waving and "what's your name?". There is something disturbing about this friendly curiosity. It reminded me of how much, to some degree, we are all kids curious about other kids: Egyptian kids shouting at strange women wandering into the path of tanks. Palestinian kids shot from the tanks when they peak out from behind walls to see what's going on. International kids standing in front of tanks with banners. Israeli kids in the tanks anonymously, occasionally shouting-- and also occasionally waving--many forced to be here, many just aggressive, shooting into the houses as we wander away. In addition to the constant presence of tanks along the border and in the western region between Rafah and settlements along the coast, there are more IDF towers here than I can count--along the horizon,at the end of streets. Some just army green metal. Others these strange spiral staircases draped in some kind of netting to make the activity within anonymous. Some hidden,just beneath the horizon of buildings. A new one went up the other day in the time it took us to do laundry and to cross town twice to hang banners. Despite the fact that some of the areas nearest the border are the original Rafah with families who have lived on this land for at least a century, only the 1948 camps in the center of the city are Palestinian controlled areas under Oslo. But as far as I can tell, there are few if any places that are not within the sights of some tower or another. Certainly there is no place invulnerable to apache helicopters or to the cameras of invisible drones we hear buzzing over the city for hours at a time. I've been having trouble accessing news about the outside world here, but I hear an escalation of war on Iraq is inevitable. There is a great deal of concern here about the "reoccupation of Gaza." Gaza is reoccupied every day to various extents, but I think the fear is that the tanks will enter all the streets and remain here, instead of entering some of the streets and then withdrawing after some hours or days to observe and shoot from the edges of the communities. If people aren't already thinking about the consequences of this war for the people of the entire region then I hope they will start. I also hope you'll come here. We've been wavering between five and six internationals. The neighborhoods that have asked us for some form of presence are Yibna, Tel El Sultan, Hi Salam, Brazil, Block J, Zorob, and Block O. There is also need for constant night-time presence at a well on the outskirts of Rafah since the Israeli army destroyed the two largest wells. According to the municipal water office the wells destroyed last week provided half of Rafah’s water supply. Many of the communities have requested internationals to be present at night to attempt to shield houses from further demolition. After about ten p.m. it is very difficult to move at night because the Israeli army treats anyone in the streets as resistance and shoots at them. So clearly we are too few. I continue to believe that my home, Olympia, could gain a lot and offer a lot by deciding to make a commitment to Rafah in the form of a sister-community relationship. Some teachers and children's groups have expressed interest in e-mail exchanges, but this is only the tip of the iceberg of solidarity work that might be done. Many people want their voices to be heard, and I think we need to use some of our privilege as internationals to get those voices heard directly in the US, rather than through the filter of well-meaning internationals such as myself. I am just beginning to learn, from what I expect to be a very intense tutelage, about the ability of people to organize against all odds, and to resist against all odds. Thanks for the news I've been getting from friends in the US. I just read a report back from a friend who organized a peace group in Shelton, Washington, and was able to be part of a delegation to the large January 18th protest in Washington DC. People here watch the media, and they told me again today that there have been large protests in the United States and "problems for the government" in the UK. So thanks for allowing me to not feel like a complete polyanna when I tentatively tell people here that many people in the United States do not support the policies of our government, and that we are learning from global examples how to resist. American peace activist Rachel Corrie (23) from Olympia, Washington, was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver on March 16, 2003 in Rafah. Rachel was in Gaza opposing the bulldozing of a Palestinian home as a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movem

US comes down on Israeli sex slave trade December 13 2002 at 07:43PM Jerusalem - About three thousand women, mainly from the former Soviet Union, are sold each year into a brisk Israeli sex industry that takes in about a billion dollars annually, a parliamentary report said on Sunday, slamming Israel's justice system for being lax on punishments. The women, seeking to escape poverty at home, are usually smuggled in by traffickers who promise them legitimate jobs. Once in Israel, they are sold for between $3 000 and $6 000 each (about R27 500 and R55 000). They receive between $25-$30 per customer, of which the pimp takes between 80 and 90 percent, the preliminary report said. The women work about 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week and service an average of 10 to 15 clients daily, it added. Often, the women live in dismal conditions and sometimes they are physically abused or live in fear of their pimps, the report said. Israeli courts generally reach a plea bargain with the pimps and sentence them to either a few months of community service or up to an average of two years in prison, punishments which the committee said are too weak to serve as deterrents. An average of 10 to 15 clients daily It suggested that these crimes should have minimum prison sentences to deter the sex traders, who sexually exploit the women and often jail, blackmail and enslave them. In July 2001, a US State Department report placed Israel in the third section of its "black list" on countries whose laws don't meet US criteria for dealing with this crime and threatened economic sanctions. Israel has reformed the law somewhat since then, but the committee said it is not enough to confront the problem effectively. In addition to changes in the law, the committee suggested an authority be formed to fight the "war against trafficking in people". - Sapa-AP

Only the Lord knows if its authentic..but one thing i know for sure somaliland leaders are up to no good, they sympathized with the British oppressors, now with Israelis..the next in line is the devil himself. There's gotta be some bad blood in them.

This is very difficult question...we Somalis sometimes make fun of this fact and say "xaaladu waa bariga dhexe". The middle east has been the center of the world for ages, and it's no wonder the grand finale (end of the world) will be take place there. No wise politician can solve this problem, in our life time for sure.

Now I bet most of us are losing the self-control jihad, slowly getting assmilated into unholy practices , let alone talk about other forms of jihad.

The first and foremost form of Jihad is self-control so Mr. Zayed is very right in his use of Jihad. The Jews and christains hate this word "JIHAD", because if the Muslim Nation puts its house in order..there wont be any more humilation of Palestinians on CNN.

Possible if & if Somalia becomes a better place.

Watch out for the fall of the Ethiopian empire in the next 10-20 years...and the freedom of Oromia (Somali-abo) and the oppressed Somalis and minorities in that country.

Watch out for the fall of the Ethiopian empire in the next 10-20 years...and the freedom of Oromia (Somali-abo) and the oppressed Somalis and minorities in that country.

Watch out for the fall of the Ethiopian empire in the next 10-20 years...and the freedom of Oromia (Somali-abo) and the oppressed Somalis and minorities in that country.

May be they'll look like "Tiger Woods".

Well $12000 aint that much( or is it?), Hajj is necessary once in a life time and it costs fraction of that amount.Although Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, education is also a duty - top priority.In the Quran note this verse: "It is only those who have knowledge among His slaves that fear Allah." [35:28]. Our Prophet, Mohammad (SAW) told us that acquiring knowledge was a duty placed on each and every Muslim/Muslimah.For us Muslims there are two sources of knowledge: The wahee (revelation), i.e. Allah's words and Allah's creation .In this we differ with the atheists, the materialists, and all those who don't believe in Allah or who don't have a reliable book which is the word of Allah. For them the only source of knowledge is the world, Allah's creation.So sis we shouldnt always look at things from the material dimension for we are not guaranteed to see tomorrow, Subhanallah...good luck with the studies and Peace!