Maxammad, Badhan is growing in population, laga yaabaa dadku iney wax ku arkeen meesha! The rough and ragged land doesn't do travellers any justice. I travelled by car from Badhan all the way to Barsha-Sare (my birthplace in Cal Madow)to meet my family, and trust me, i could have reached there far quicker had i legged it! xoolahaad sheeganaysid sxb waa maxay? ma uraniumtii baad aasatay? ...Haha! Waxba inagama xigaan inaan dhowaan iyada qudheeda dhulka kasoo nuugno! Lets first finish the Myrrh and Frankincese! Meesha biyo maleedahay? ...plenty waterfalls to soothe your sore eyes my Orgilaqe! Ranch malagasaameen karaa? ...Possibly! Fardo maleedahay ...untamed horses Yes, eventhough Taleex is not very far! Dadku makuyaryihiin? ...Haa, Lakiin digtoonow! Orgiyadoodana u daa! meeshu qurux intee le'eg bey ledahay? sawiro mahaysaan? Enjoy - Cal Madow Buurta Cal Madow Durdurka Cal Madow 1 Buurta Cal Madow 2 Buurta Sanaag iyo Xeebta Geel

Salaam, Sigma, Darcus Howe is a man that deserves no special attention. We all know what he is! the Channel 4 Documentary "Who you calling a Nigger" was totally prejudiced and derogatory. My Howe, gave his personal views about Wollwich and the South East, having not found a single Somali resident to speak to him about the situation - other than one middle-aged farax with no good grasp of the English language having lived there for more than 15 years! All he had to do was talk to the youth concerned right? As a Woolwich resident, i am positive he did not speak to any young Somali person at all! Yes, we have some junkies and drug addicts, but none roams the streets out of desperation or lack of abode. What Mr Howe should have done is take a good look at his native Carribeans in Peckam, Lewisham, Brixton, Hackney and such places. How can we be justified in accepting such a man's views on Somalia in Woolwich when he writes such articles as Darcus Howe - The savage Caribbean must try to sort itself out about his own people? How can a man who despises his ethnicity be called on to judge and comment on Somalis and their plight? I think all of you Londoners remember the little incident that occured between Darcus Howe and Jopan Rivers at the presence of Libby Purves, The Times columnist. Here is an excerpt. You consider such a man, who speaks like this to be a leading black figure in Media? i doubt it. He must be the laughing stock of the British Media! Howe: The use of the term black offends you. Rivers: The use of the term black offends me? Where the hell are you coming from? You have got such a chip on your shoulder. How dare you say that to me. Howe: I think this is a language problem. Rivers: No I don't. I think this is a problem in your ****** head. You had a child, you left them, your wife said you weren't there. You married a woman, you deserted her, now your son comes back he's got problems. Where were you when he was growing up, until he was eight years old? Howe: May we continue? Rivers: How dare you. Please continue, but don't you dare call me that. Son of a b***h. Purves: Right Darcus, can we just say you don't think Joan is a racist and then perhaps we can move on? Howe: I don't know whether she is a racist or not. I don't care. Rivers: You just said the word black offends me. That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Howe: Normally I wouldn't ever meet you in my life. Rivers: No normally would I meet you, nor would I choose to meet you. Howe: No she's not a racist. Rivers: OK please continue about your ****** film. Purves: Right can we talk about your tour Joan? Rivers: Talk about anything you want. Howe: I don't think you brought me here to be insulted. Rivers: No I don't think I was brought here to be insulted by someone, to be called a racist. Howe: Let's go on with my film please? Rivers: Please go on with your film. Purves: Well we have to move on for time reasons. (To photographer Andrea Jones) Andrea shall we talk about plant photography?

Originally posted by Muhammad: I would retire there! 4 good ...Muxammad, buuraha Caleed are, at present, uninhabitable! A Very few people live there. Life in such a mountainous place can be very strenuous and gruelling, But it is very beautiful and tranquil I must admit! Agagaarkeeda ladeegaa laakiinse which, of course, your welcome to be my neighbour anytime! Xoolahayga haw soo dhowaan uun, hadii kale waa dhegey farey!

Salaan Sare Dhamaan Dadweynaha! Glad to see some fellow bloggers! What i would love to see though, is the SOL females' blogs! I am sure they would be an interesting read! what do you think ladies? Castro, SOL is in fact better than personal Blogs - there is much better interactivity here! Miskiin-Macruuf, I remember when everyone was hooked onto Geocities. I remember singing up for one, i think it still exists. I strongly doubt that blogs will dissapear and be forgotten about just like yahoo and Geocities. Blogs are now the new thing - they replacing the traditional forms of Journalism!

Any Bolggers out there?

Femme, The art of writing letter is sluggishly diminishing. Here is an excerpt of a typical letter i wrote to my brother many many years ago. Walaal Waan ku Salaamay. waxaan kugu salaamayaa salaan kasoo go'day kasha iyo laabta oo qiimo iyo qaaya badan . Salaan kadib anigu waan caafimaad qabaa boqolkiiba boqol (100%) adna sidaas iyo si kafiican ayaan Alle kaaga rajaynayaa. Walaal....

Kya Kare, Kya na kare, Ye keese mushkil Hai, Koi to bataade iska hal o mere bhai, ke ek tarf ise pyar kare hum, or usko kehne se dharee hum, Kya Kare, Kya na kare, Ye keese mushkil Hai. Jazakallah Ukhti Sheer!

If nature's aim is to 'cause superior species to evolve' through natural selection where the weak are inevitably eliminated, where do you stand?

Originally posted by sheherazade: Dude, I reckon I saw u too .Not as many Somalis there as should have been. U'll have to say a little more than Mashallah to get attention though I won't suggest anything. A lot of innocent things can come out wrong if the timing is wrong or if the lady is armed with attitude. Well done volunteering. ...I bet i saw you too, was you wearing a Khimaar? Sheer, I tried the Masha-Allah plus a few compliments such as "Masha-Allah Ukhti we need more people like you" and my conclusion was "Insha-Allah i will see you at the next event Ukhti". Unfortunately none worked! Not even my attempts of asking them to fill out the feedback forms!

SheSheherazade, almost everyone was wearing a Khamiis and had a beard! as for Somalis, i wonder why there was a huge turn-up of muslims sisters and very few men? or were they busy chewing away the whole previous night that by morning they had a "hang-over" Masha-Allah the sisters were plenty, and despite all my attempts of finally settle down and pick one of those lovely Muhajjaba's by working as a volunteer, i failed miserably! I spent the whole day saying "Masha-Allah"

"though someone's big head is obscuring the view. Couldn't be you, Raganimo, could it?" ...Nafta, hooyaan kuu sheegayaa, waad i cayday! i hardly got to the front though i was helping people fill out feedback forms and so on..which means i couldn't possibly be the big-headed person who obscured your shot! You guys should have told me you were coming though, i would have reseved some VIP tickets for you. Waryaa Orgi-iyo-Wan-laqe, Do you know that there were other separate conference rooms upstairs where some prominent speakers including American Siraj Wahhaj were delivering their sermons? Most people didn't go up there because of the capacity of the rooms (200) and how closely guarded they were. There the speakers spoke the Truth and exactly how they felt. On the main podium, they were speaking as the media expected them to! You've missed a great talk brother Tukaale, but despair not, for there soon will be DVD's and VHS ercording of the event. It's Electronic/Information age remember, nothing can pass by that easily! The most moving moment, however, was when the woman took the Shahada! Masha-Allah

Takbeer, Allahu Akbar, Takbeer, Allahu Akbar, Takbeer, Allahu Akbar, the 23,000 strong crowd shouted en masse. Dr Naik, had entered the hall, surrounded by more than 50 Islam Channel volunteers including myself, as he was due to give his speech. The wait was finally over and the Muslim Ummah had, finally, braced themselves for the most eloquent speaker to take the podium. Before that, Iqbal Saccranie, the head of Muslim Council of Britain, was invited to the stage to deliver his speech. Half the people present there yesterday, walked out of the hall not wanting to listen to him. It was a blow in the face for a rather “prominent†man. Despite the massive walk-out, he continued a speech that was somewhat expressionless and unresponsive. George Galloway, of RESPECT, tough an impressive speaker could not be dragged away from the podium. After Yvonne Ridley and Ahmed Bukhatir left the stage, people became irritated, and were squirming restlessly in their seats, waiting for Dr Naikstart his speech. When he finally took to the platform, silence spread across the enormous halls. People were lending their ears to him and were completely engulfed by both his wisdom and humour. He has the ability to quote extensively from the Qur’an and Sunnah and even from the Bible. Concerning the statement “Islam is intolerant†he said, “Yes, Islam is intolerant. Islam is intolerant towards anything anti-social, Islam is intolerant towards racism, Islam is intolerant towards discrimination….†“The only reason these powerful nations are scared of us, scared of Islam, is because they know that Islam is the only religion that can bring Peace in this world†And with that he ended his speech. What followed was a massive uproar. Takbeer, Allahu Akbar, Takbeer, Allahu Akbar, Takbeer, Allahu Akbar The day ended with Talaca-al Badru Calaynaa, Min Thaniyaati-l-wadaac… and the crowd of 23,000 people made their way to the exits to witness the fireworks outside. What a pleasant day, what an environment! To be surrounded by such a number of Muslims was simply remarkable! It was the most invigorating speech, I have heard in my entire life and, indeed, a day that will live in the memory of many a person! What i did not understand though was the amount of protection given to Zakir Naik and the fuss they made out of it. More than 50 people sorrounded him and barged through the crowd shouting "move out the way". That must have been the silliest thing on the day. Wa-Salaam!

"There's absolutely no excuse to write bad grammar if one has lived in an English speaking country more than 5 years. None." ...Castro, some people are not as gifted as you are, my friend!

Welcome Aboard Daan-Yeer, From a Higher Primate!

Salaan Sare Dhamaan! Seef-la-bood Castro, Ina adeer bal is deji. Can you confidently declare that the information given by this Polish student is accurate? My post was there just to highligh the possibility that she might not be what she says she is! Besides, judging by her English, it seems like she/he is pretending.A person learning the language would have terrible difficulties with tenses and her/his spelling is perfect! "Are you related to Alle-ubaahne by any chance? These things are usually hereditary" ...What things? War hoy ina kala ilaali ninyohow, yaanan saacada la joogo sarajooga kugu cunine! Simply_I Comparing Brixton to lawless Xamar is absurd. Trust me, Brixton is nothing compared to Wardhiigley alone, let alone all Xamar! Have you read a book entitled "A Story of a Xamarweyne Family"?

BeWare, she works for the CIA! pretending to be polish. They are trying to get as much information from Somalia as they could. They are patrolling the coasts and have their marines there as we speak. They, also are working out strategies by which they could turn Somalia into another Iraq. The usual approach - It's a haven for Terrorists! btw, Anyone watched that documentary on CH4 (UK) about Mogadishu the other night?

Israeli Basketball Rules "Information Clearing House" Rule 1: Israelis have the right to play on both sides of the court, whereas Palestinians can only play on their own side. Rule 2: For security reasons Palestinians do not have the right to pass the ball between players, the ball could hit an Israeli player. Rule 3: There will be no basket on the Israeli side. Rule 4: Israel is allowed to shoot at any time even during time-outs. Rule 5: Palestinians are not allowed to have supporters. Only Israelis should be supported. Rule 6: Israel selects the press and what the press reports: Rule 7: Israel encourages Palestinians to shoot into the Palestinian basket. Players who refuse will be nominated as terrorists and will not be allowed to play. Rule 8: Palestinian players are allowed to leave the field, but cannot return. One exception: A Palestinian can be replaced by an Israeli! Rule 9: Israel selects and instructs the referees, and tells them when to look away. Rule 10: Israel selects the captain of the Palestinian team. Rule 11: sraeli faults and Palestinian good plays will not be shown on TV. Rule 12: Israel takes the money sponsors pay to Palestinians. Rule 13: Only Israeli players get refreshments. Rule 14: Palestinians are required to play, when and where designated by Israel. Rule 15: Rules only apply to Palestinians, Israelis may change the rules during the game and are not required to advise the Palestinians of the changes.

Brown, he is not being put on trial by just 'some Arab judge'. The judge, Jury, prosecutors were all given intensive training in the United Kingdom to tackle Saddam! I am not a Saddam supporter myself, but as Suroor said i am against the Trial itself! I believe in a fair trial, saddam wasn't even given time to prepare his defence adn recently met with the british QC. While the Shia's adn the Kurds are quite happy that this trial is taking place, in his hometown, Saddam's supporters shown their allegiance by taking to the streets with placards. Some even were ready to put their lives down for him! Wa-Salaam!

Sunday October 9, 2005 The Observer Ghetto poverty has troubled white consciences. But a gulf just as deep and persistent separates middle-class and poor blacks, reports Paul Harris in Atlanta It was once a street so rich and central to black America that Atlanta's Auburn Avenue was known simply as 'Sweet Auburn'. It was the site of America's first black-owned daily paper and first black radio station. It was here Martin Luther King was born. It was here King preached freedom from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church. In the 1960s, as the civil rights struggle raged, Sweet Auburn was wealthy and middle-class. Its businesses prospered, its nightclubs boomed. Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin played at the Top Hat Club and partied at the Palamat Motor Lodge opposite. As American blacks freed themselves from oppression, Sweet Auburn stood ready to reap the benefits. It never happened. Sweet Auburn is not very sweet today. The Palamat is overgrown with weeds. Auburn's sidewalks line abandoned lots and shuttered buildings. Homeless men (all black) cluster on street corners. Freed from segregation, Auburn became an impoverished ghetto. Perhaps nothing else so encapsulates the endless paradoxes of being black in America. Never have blacks had so much legal freedom, yet there are record numbers in jail. Traditional black neighbourhoods have collapsed into drug-ridden crime strongholds, even as the black middle class is the biggest in history. It is now 40 years since the Voting Rights Act that secured the black vote. It is 10 years since hundreds of thousands of blacks came to Washington in the Million Man March to demand a way out of poverty. It is a single month since Hurricane Katrina exposed the racial faultlines that fracture the big cities. Almost four decades after King was killed, there are still two Americas. One is largely white and wealthy, one largely black and poor. They live cheek by jowl in the same country yet in separate worlds. The shocking thing about the TV pictures from New Orleans was not black poverty, it was the reaction of whites. 'Most whites were shocked about the amount of poverty in New Orleans, but black media have talked about poverty for the past 20 years,' said David Canton, professor of history at Connecticut College. Bare statistics tell the story. Black life expectancy is six years shorter than that of whites. Black unemployment is twice as high. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to die from disease, accident or murder at every stage of their lives. About 24 per cent of black families live below the poverty line, compared with 8 per cent of the white population. Yet nothing about race in America is that simple. In the Savoy Bar of Atlanta's Georgian Terrace Hotel, young blacks sip Martinis and flirt, dressed up to the nines. Outside, crowds spill out of the Fox Theatre dressed for an evening out. They are all black. 'It is great to be black in Atlanta,' said Monique Williams, a pretty 26-year-old legal clerk at the bar. 'This is our city.' Certainly Atlanta, unofficial capital of the New South, can sum up the best of black America. It has a majority black population, a black mayor and an economy that is home to some of the biggest businesses in the world, including Coca-Cola and CNN. It has wealthy black suburbs, black universities and offers every opportunity for aspiring young blacks. It is a long way from the city of Gone With the Wind, where the only blacks were maids and slaves. Mayor Shirley Franklin seems to sum up this hopeful city, often hailed as a beacon for black Americans. As Atlanta's first black woman mayor, she has won a national profile after a term aimed at rejuvenating a rundown downtown. She is hard-working, putting in 12-hour days and seven-day weeks, and has ended a series of corruption scandals that plagued previous administrations. She is likely to win re-election next month, backed by black voters and white business. But Atlanta's politics are defined by race. A new law, backed by Franklin, made begging illegal in the downtown area last month. The move triggered a race row, with some politicians saying the law targeted young black men. When it finally passed, emotions ran so high that police arrested seven people, including a clergyman and a former city councillor. At every level of US politics race is never far away. King, were he alive, would have rejoiced at the fact that successive Secretaries of State, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, have been black. He would also have been impressed that one of the hottest Democratic tips for the White House, and a possible running mate of Hillary Clinton in 2008, is Barack Obama, who is black. But those stories have twists. Powell and Rice sprang from solid middle-class backgrounds. They have risen by playing down race. They have also emerged in the Republican Party, not the traditional home of black support. Moreover, Obama's blackness does not come from America. It is a legacy of a Kenyan father. He was born in Hawaii and his mother is a white woman from Kansas. In the world of race in America in 2005 nothing is ever as simple as black or white. Yet the racial line often seems starkly clear. Nowhere more so than in New Haven, Connecticut: home both to Yale University and one of America's poorest black communities. The border is well known and obvious. It is where Elm Street, lined with Oxbridge-style student cloisters, suddenly changes to Dixwell Avenue, main thoroughfare of the black ghetto. On one side is the world of the elite, where Ivy League students bustle from lecture halls to cafes. On the other side is north-west New Haven, where Dixwell's shops struggle to make ends meet, houses are in decay and drugs and crime are rife. One world is mostly white, the other almost all black. As he sits on New Haven's famous green, surrounded by the trappings of Yale's wealth, there is no doubt on which side of the divide Nelson Brown falls. Black, poor and homeless, he pushes a shopping cart full of metal cans he picks up to recycle. The cart is draped with a faded and dirty US flag. 'It's all I can do to survive,' he said of his latest haul of soft drink cast-offs. New Haven is the reality of America's urban black poor. 'People like the Katrina victims are living in every American city. We just ignore it,' said Robert Brown, a political scientist at Atlanta's Emory University. It is this world Katrina exposed to a white America that barely knew it existed outside of gangsta rap videos on MTV. This is the world abandoned by America in the post-civil rights era. It is a black underclass that failed to leave the inner city as whites fled to the suburbs, gutting cities of cash and jobs. But there are other issues at work too. The divide of black and white masks another chasm just as deep: the gulf between poor and rich blacks. In fact, this divide is even more unbalanced than the racial one. The wealth of black America is far more concentrated in its top few per cent than white America. Poor urban blacks have been abandoned by wealthy black Americans who move into the suburbs and mainstream America as fast as they can. The underclass they leave behind is a grim place and getting worse. In 1940 the illegitimacy rate among blacks was 19 per cent; today it is 70 per cent. Only 30 to 40 per cent of black men graduate from high school. That fact has prompted a bout of soul searching by middle-class blacks. Some have condemned what they see as self-perpetuating joblessness, poor education and a culture that worships crime. Others have appealed for more help, an increase in the affirmative action which has done apparently little to end black poverty. The argument was crystallised in a spat between the black comedian Bill Cosby and the black author Mike Dyson. Cosby began it with a public excoriation of bad (and single) parenting, slang English, unplanned pregnancies, dropping out of education, and high crime. He even slammed black names 'like Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed and all that crap'. Cosby then went on tour holding town hall-style 'call-outs' in black communities. It was an argument Dyson had little time for. He dubbed Cosby's roadtrip the 'Blame the Poor Tour' and wrote a book called Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? Dyson said poor blacks could not be blamed for a society geared up to see them fail and which had stacked the odds against them before they were born. Many leading blacks have joined the fight against Cosby. 'He unerringly and wrongly blames the poor. He seems to think that if they would only change their minds, all their problems would go away,' said Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland. There is one thing both sides agree on: the black experience of America has been unique. Other immigrant groups have followed a familiar pattern of four stages. They arrived poor, suffered prejudice, assimilated, then prospered. So it went for the Irish, Italians, Asians and many others. In fact, Asians are now more successful than white Americans. They are more educated and get better jobs. But much of black America is stuck at stage two, as it has been for generations. Unless one believes in racist theories, the answer must lie within black America's own historical experience. They were the only ethnic group brought to America involuntarily. For 250 years they were kept as slaves. Until the late 1960s blacks in the South were denied the vote, forced to eat in separate restaurants and segregated from society. Lynchings were still happening in the 1960s as the Beatles played in Liverpool and Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup in London. The exhibits of the Martin Luther King museum on Auburn Avenue are most shocking for showing how recently an apartheid system was the norm in swaths of America. That history lies heavy on black America's back. It is not a burden to be unshouldered in a generation or two. Certainly that racist past is still alive for Robert Howard, a black civil rights worker in rural Georgia. He remembers vividly the days when white people in and around his home in Walton County could beat - or even kill - black people with little fear from the law. It was a time of segregation and deference, of living in fear when the word 'nigger' came from the lips of white people and not rap artists. A tall, thin, graceful man, Howard exudes a calm when talking about race relations now versus then. 'Things are better. Of course they are. But you'd be amazed by how much is still to change,' he said. Howard has worked tirelessly for a memorial to a Walton County lynching from 1946 when four local blacks were butchered by their white neighbours. It has earned him both praise and insult. 'There's some black people here right now who are still scared,' he declared. But things have changed. Walton, like so many southern counties, used to be cotton country. No longer. The cotton fields have surrendered to strip malls or to forestry. It used to be strictly segregated. No more. That everyday racism is long gone too. Blacks have political power here, as they do now even in the deepest parts of the Deep South. Where segregation still exists, it is largely voluntary and economic, and not a matter of law. But therein lies the problem. Even as the old racism lies dead, its legacy endures in the American economy. As the black middle class grows and black politicians rise to the pinnacle of power, wealthy America - both black and white - has still not come to grips with the problems of its millions of poor black citizens. 'We are grappling with that. Protest will not win these issues. All the old racist laws have been stricken from the books. Now it's economics,' said Brown. It is a problem that cannot be ignored for ever. Martin Luther King's most famous words summed up the optimism of the 1960s' civil rights struggle with: 'I have a dream.' Now the poet Langston Hughes best describes black America at the start of the 21st century. 'What happens to a dream deferred?' he wrote. 'Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore - And then run?' Two worlds In 2005 black unemployment in the US was 10.8 per cent, compared to 4.7 per cent for whites. More than 70 per cent of whites own their homes. Fewer than 50 per cent of blacks do. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to die from disease, accident or murder. Black life expectancy is six years less than white life expectancy. Blacks are three times as likely as whites to be jailed and their sentences are often six months longer. Net worth of a black household is 10 times less than a white one.

^Foxy! Typical Brit!

Beautiful Pictures indeed! Badhan has also seen a recent expansion to its boundaries and the construction of Badhan Hospital has enormously helped!

"and I don't intend to proceed with anyone here except the big reckless fishes, who are the main reason for this topic." ...Magacyadooda maad inoo soo bandhigtid Alle-Ubaahne, eynu wada karbaashnee! Miskiin, as your contemplating dwelling in some somali city with your koob Shaah and jambal, i am here devising ways of getting back to Barsha Sare, where i can revist past scenes of delight. sitting outside the Buul with my Macawis, Shaal, a cup of qaxwe with Bun, later followed by a freshly made dhiil of caana geel, would be my ultimate relaxation!

A Beautiful read indeed! Thanx Baashi I have read DC's book more than a hundred times, yet everytime i read it again it seems more and more interesting! One quote i seem to have memorized from that book is: "I am Lavish in my Praise and hearty in my aprobation"

Some of Minor Signs of the day of judgement include: - Books/writing will be widespread but knowledge will be low! - The nations of the earth will gather against the Muslims like hungry people going to sit down to a table full of food. This will occur when the Muslims are large in number, but "like the foam of the sea". - When the last ones of the Ummah begin to curse the first ones - People will claim to follow the Qur'an but will reject hadith & sunnah

"^^^^ And there I was thinking I was not subtle enough."