The youths these days need direction, there is too much labelling too -- Somali youths lack proper role models to be honest, fathers missing, and mothers are worried about the next outfit they'll wear for the next wedding - our culture is internally doomed, its only a matter of time - and the wise are locked in forums and only words they spread to those we have the right path or have a sense of direction, end this divide between our youth, and reach out to them and give them words of wisdom.

Somalia will never become like Iraq - secondly, why are all of us in the Diaspora suddenly interested in Somali politics, because its in the news now? Ever wonder some people in Xamar might want some sort of government, and all the good things a viable government provides, security, growth, progress - call them a sell out or words of your choosing, but there has to be some sort of hope, wherever it might emerge from. I am not supporting any side, nor do i follow any politics back home, but somehow, anything that promises some sort of change must be acknowledged. Whether it'd be the courts, or a internally weak government.

Congradualtions, keep up the good work, we need more educated people to educate others.

I loved the first two, i can't wait to see the third, somehow supernatural horror movies are too artificial for my taste, i like human horror stories, like hostel, texas chainsaw masacre and saw.

Congrads Mobb Deep I wish you all the best you and your wife.

^^ LJ as always nice pic ---- keep up the good work --- same for everyone who have posted their pictures.

Great topic, i think many people will post great pictures, at the moment my camera is broken and seeking a new one, but i will post pictures from the past, although they feature people, are people are allowed, or just scenery? Abdi2005 those are amazing pictures, the colour setting is truely remarkable, are they photoshoped?

^^ I think the above images convey a distinctive significance whether it’d be in support of the courts or against them. As far as flooding the site with these images goes, I think pictures are worth a thousand words – why would they even document these events if they didn’t want people to see – they prolly thought people would support them in light of these images. I think documenting these events to be disgusting, chop off the hands, but please keep it to yourself --- I think the Islamic courts have employed unseasoned public relations agents. Stop documenting cruel punishments for the world to see, instead document images of people enjoying the taste of peace and freedom in post-warlord Xamar. Not to mention, no one ever questions the validity or the circumstances of these images, we often view them without historical knowledge – lets look into the life of this butchered man and we might find many reasons as to why he was sacrificed – maybe politics, maybe he was from a weak clan, and just maybe we might say it was wrong that he was chopped up. Again, I’m all for fair butchering as long as the crime fits the punishment – but lets not let powerful clans butcher weaker ones under the disguise of the religion – after all Somalis have always valued tribalism over any other ideology – and those who say otherwise, have not been tested under those condition where clan ideology literally means life and death – so please spare us the bs carried by those in the west disenfranchised by utopian notion of what Somalia is and who think they can actually survive under these conditions if they were to go there, look closer and you will see that these people you support will literally disgust you in the end when you see their true intention – even more sickening if the way they use religion to advance their clan politics. Questions, where are all those militiamen who murdered, raped, and looted, they have now switched uniforms, and even worst they have legitimized the torture of the weak and powerless, let them sort themselves out first by chopping and stoning each other for the crimes their family and clan members have committed first, then I’ll gladly support the butchering of others pending that they have been tried fairly without politics.

Make enough money to not ever work again. The fact we task ourselves or write goals down, we move from i can't to i can mode -- heard it from one of those do it yourself life coaches -

Imagine this, the Nazis didn’t have advanced technologies and many devoted allies, it might be possible for a total global dominance initiated by Bush in the name of democracy. He has the resources, and a strong ideology.

Fists in the air, they’re the first to know, the revolution that many optimists have been waiting for – we only support the destruction of the warlords who have held the nation hostage for more than a decade now. What will happen if they take over Xamar – the sheiks that is – we can only hope they don’t become a Taliban like state, cuz I think most Somalis will not be willing to accept many restrictions in their daily lives.

The politics of divide and conquer is what the American people are experiencing, belonging to different camps that ascribe certain roles and responsibilities – the media has been able to divide America into two, the red states and blue states. News has become entertainment mediated by a selected few who are considered experts – the problem with westerners in general is our trust in experts – and as Jane Jacobs suggests in her book Dark Age Ahead, we are headed towards a dark path, because these experts are entirely left to self-regulated and they are unable to – look at the Enron case, journalists in bed with the pentagon – what happened to responsible journalism. Even rights become self-regulated, we subconsciously limit our own rights – like Somalis being afraid if a white person knocks on their door, even thou they might be selling vacuums. Now even mainstream Americans have become Somalis in a sense, in terms of their relationship with the state – it’s a culture of fear and the testing of loyalty and devotion to the state – America is a well managed state, nothing is left unmanaged by the state.

Dragon you are right in a way, the sheiks offer safety in a sense for the people there, whereas the warlords somewhat extort the public for their resources – however, they are not entirely the best interest for the people there – for minorities that don’t have political power, they are executed for public relations purposes – tribalism is a major factor in the religious squat. As you remember the stabbing of the man with a knife – if the man was found guilty, he should have been executed with a sharp knife, and it should have been swift. His execution was barbaric. There are also tapes circulating in the west with other religious punishments documented for the sake of recruitment and monetary support. Such as amputations, lashings and stoning. Again, I’d rather choose the religious camp any day over the warlords, at least they have some sort of governing guidelines that are not man made, in essence they fear and answer to a higher power which advocate a sense of humanity, assuming many of them will actually respect that fact, although some might deviate at times. When we have another alternative other than the warlords, I might choose to take that route – and the current ‘other’ alternative is unable to make movements – no wonder why many see the sheiks as the only alternative.

Xassan Adan Samatar he is not making money, such an icon - I saw him couple of days ago in Dixon, Toronto. Speaking of stealing songs, he has written so many songs that other musicians steal all the time - he is indeed a legend.

Castro I would agree with you that Jimcaale should take those words back – however, many Somalis hate Ethiopians so much that even our parliamentarians beat each other in discussion over Ethiopia’s involvement in Somali politics. The question about copyright infringement, we often roll our eyes --- no one cares – my point exactly.

The question is how would you go about copyrighting the songs - and if those rights are violate what are the penalties, it's very difficult to introduce such policies, let alone enforce them.

Somali musicians also take other songs, we have no respect for intellectual property rights – current singers use older songs with newly produced beats – I guess the Xabashi’s should be allowed to use – our culture is an open source culture, not only for Somalis, its for all, because we view other cultures as being open source for us – look at Somali news sites taking new clips from news agencies, and cutting and pasting the article within their homepages so they can make money from their adsense – little do they know that can get them fined $250k or ten years in prison.

Mogadishu - Thousands of angry Somali Muslims denounced the United States, and a US-backed warlord alliance fighting Islamic militia, in the capital on Friday. They vowed to destroy their opponents. Chanting anti-US slogans and comparing US President George W Bush to a "Nazi," 5 000 Muslims gathered in southern Mogadishu after Friday prayers and pledged to fight against the alliance to the death. Surrounded by heavily armed Islamist militiamen, the throng cheered as clerics accused Washington of financing a "genocide" by bankrolling the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) in Somalia. Head of the coalition of Mogadishu's 11 Islamic courts, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Hamad, said: "The US is wrongfully supporting the warlords by funding them in this war. "The US actions are contrary to international law and against the will of the Somali people." A senior cleric in the coalition of Sharia courts, Sheikh Mohamoud Sheik Ibrahim, said: "We will fight and die for Somalia and Islam." 'We will die for Allah' The US and the alliance have accused the courts of harbouring terrorists Ibrahim said: "We will die for the sake of Allah and we will emerge victorious in our war against the US proxies here. "We will never be ruled by US-paid mercenaries." Ibrahim said Bush was a modern-day "Nazi" and "pharaoh.,". The protesters included men, women and children, clad in traditional Islamic dress, who waved placards which read "Down with United States" and "No infidels in Mogadishu." Ibrahim said: "The Nazis attempted to rule the world, they failed. "The Egyptian pharaohs took the same course and they failed. This is the same path George W Bush is taking and we can see his disgraceful end." The rally took place as new fighting erupted between the alliance and Islamic gunmen north of Mogadishu on Friday, killing 11 people and bringing the death toll from three months of battles to 327. US denies responsibility for clashes More than 1 500 have been wounded. The ARPCT was set up with US support in February, in an attempt to curb the growing influence of Mogadishu's Islamic courts. The courts have declared a holy war against the alliance. They deny the accusations and claim the warlords are fighting for the "enemy of Islam". Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since 1991 and its largely powerless transitional government has blamed the alliance and the US for the fighting. The United States denies responsibility for the clashes, although it has refused to confirm or deny its support for the ARPCT. US officials and Somali sources have told AFP that Washington has given money to the ARPCT, one of several groups it is working with to curb what it says is a growing threat from radical Islamists in Somalia.

^^ I would agree with you, food tastes much better when someone else makes it --

^^ Thanks for the tip --- I’ll give it a try. I don’t know what the real name for it (Djboutian street food) is. First you take sabayat chop it up into pieces, then you take ground beef, onions, green peppers and you cook them together with oil – then you take eggs and you cook them separately, not scrambled, then you chop them up like the sabayat into pieces. Then get fresh lime and black pepper and mayo into a cup and mix’m together. Take banana and cut it into pieces. Now that you’ve got everything – you mix them together in a large frying pan – mix’m the sabayat, the beef mix, the eggs, the banana and the sauce. It will look disgusting in terms of presentation, but the taste is out of this world – enjoy.

Cooking has been made easy by corporation through packaged foods – thank god for that, the only thing I can make good is Djboutian street food – one dish at a time I suppose. How do you not get fluffy rice – seems to stick together every time.

I seen this video before under the pretense that it was a documentary. Nonetheless, it is a good video.

I would agree with many that Blane does this naturally he doesn't cheat --- Criss is much better than him when it comes to crazier performances - a lie?

In the first picture we see the redundant cliche of the peace sign – put down the gun first. In the last picture they seem very happy and content with their new found ideology and purpose – I guess faith based leaders are able to assemble armies quicker than the warlords that only offer a meager compensation, whereas the sheiks are offering what seems to be an exceptional payout that can only be achieved through sacrificial violence.

The link is not working for me -- I also tried to visit the site and search for keywords such as Somalia and execution and such --- what's in the entry anyway?