Take loans, if you’re a lawyers surely you can pay them off, think of them as investment. Most of us have taken loans, and we’re paying them off with every penny. I was going to go law school, that’s still an option. Btw, did you say undergraduate law degree --- don’t you have to go to law school? Post-undergrad studies, or you’re thinking about it now?

somalism, looks good, clean design, good colour coordination, but you need to make it fire fox friendly --- all in all it looks wonderful.

Goodluck with your studies, and inshallah your results will be positive --- we do need more Somali doctors - there was a girl that recently became a doctor, she getting major publicity. there's this forum for Somali doctors, its www.somalidoctor.org -- i think that's it. Enjoy

So you want to go back to Africa huh? Those billions could transform some cities, and modernize them with technological sophistication and set them up to be vacation destinations. Where do you go from here? Live your life the way you see it best, the world is yours pass through – think like a global citizen. Do you live in New Orleans?

Psychologically when we feel comfortable in setting we are able to express ourselves more easily – i don’t think we needed research to make that observation. For example, the expression of idea within racial groups – we are likely to make a derogatory remark against another race/group – just look at Somalis when they’re with their tribal peers, and listen to the kind of words they use against other tribes. We’re in the age of political correctness, and Somalis no matter how ill mannered we are -- often we indulge in the politics of modernity.

The best government would be a Islamic one, they see it as the best option – along with all the chaos that has taken place, the people need some sort of an explanation – although they missed a minor detail about tribalism that its only there so that we can distinguish one another, but its not there to kill. Here’s a true story I was told couple of years ago to illustrate how important religion is, even when all of its elements are being violated. The place was Xamar, and there were gangs who had set up roadblocks in the entraces of nieghbourhoods in Xamar. There was this old man, he needed to see his kids, and they were in a different block of the city. When he approached the entrance area, he was asked to pay up in order to pass through --- he told the gang of youths that he didn’t have money, and to let him pass for the sake Allah. A youth approached him and said to him even if Allah himself comes here, he would not go through without paying, and therefore your prayer does not count here. All of the sudden, another youth gunned down his own gang member, arguing how could he say that. The old man told the youth to drop his gun and go home. This illustrates that even amid all the civil disruptions, people are able to obey and respect the religion. The story indicates that people are willing to civilize themselves with the guidance of the deen – I believe the incorporation of Islam into public policy would help Somalia achieve stability – because the Somali psyche is naturally programmed to decline man made laws. For now the religion is only governing on the personal level and not on the level of policy, look at the privatization of religion – clearly religion has been left out of the public domain in Somalia, at least when it comes to politics. The only way to get people to realize their predicaments is to get the new leaders of Somalia to preach the importance of religion in their politics, because that is the only way the population will believe them, otherwise they will think qabil politics is the only motive. Then again Somalis are the biggest skeptics when it comes to politics, and that itself is a difficult task. Before I continue my ramblings, all I’m saying is this, clearly the people have faith in Islam, why not encourage them to manifest those ideas within the realm of politics, why perpetuate the privatization of religion. A little note, people have who tried to introduce methods of incorporating the religion in public life have been murdered in the south, Puntland, but I have yet to hear a case in Somaliland, but I’m sure there is one. Castro don’t worry, Somalia will not evolve to a Taliban like state anytime soon, there are too many barriers, the secularists and the tribalists are clearly winning in the court of public opinion. But I may have contracted a bad case of cultural schizophrenia, occasionally daydreaming about a Somalia that only exists in my imagination and carrying mock debates with the stakeholders of Somali politics.

I’ll give you one answer in each list you’ve asked for. Five things you have done. I graduate from High School, never thought that would happen. Five things you have never done. Graffiti a train in Europe/Japan Five jobs you have held. Graphic Designer Five insecurities. Hell or Heaven? Five people you have loved. -- love is overrated, but I have worried about people, is that love? Five things that have happened to you. Be in a plane crash Five cars you have owned. Never owned a car, but does a bike count? Five places you have lived. A refugee camp in Kenya. Five reasons you won't contribute to this thread. I did contribute

Club going is a phase, you’ll soon realize that its better to invite a group of your friends and blast your stereo in your basement, because that’s what clubs are. However, if you decide to go remember that drinks are expensive, and I’m not only talking about alcohol, I’m talking about a water bottle costing you 6 bucks, and not to mention the fights, especially nowadays you can get shot accidentally – and that is not a pleasant place to be exiting from in transit to the preliminary interrogations of this universe. But if you feel like going, see for yourself – who knows your might like it or hate it.

I keep seeing that plane ---- its good to never forget, matter fact a friend of mine who recently returned from there came back with many pictures of the place, he is planning to set up a memorial museum there, I seen another pic, where they were building a huge mosque and it cost around half a million he was telling, and the people were volunteering their time in terms of labour. Its funny I didn’t see a single person carrying a gun throughout the images. I say long live Somaliland, and the current elections, another friend of mine is there monitoring the elections – progress is good, independence would be amazing and some good architects.

I don’t think he should have committed suicide, you can overcome hardships with time, but death is permanent --- nonetheless, non of us ever experienced a moment such as that – we can only sympathize, and recognize his struggles. There are millions of refugees who seek to get to a better place and risk their lives, and in essence that’s a form of suicide, or those who submit their lives into slavery, whether it be sexual or physical labour.

I see there have been some changes here ---- I welcome and congratulate the new moderators.

I attended this lecture at Carleton University while back, and they were talking about the rights of women in Islam, and it turns out that women have more rights compared to men. That being said, I think many cultures transform certain translations into permanent cultural practices. We have to become cultural relativists if we want to explain social patterns within Islamic cultures. When it comes to rights, certain rights for women within Islamic societies are man made and are not deprived from the religion, these rules are sometimes deliberately set up to oppress women, to put them in their place. But, I doubt Somali women are oppressed, although domestic abuse is common in our community, not to mention mental abuse, and often as some of you have mentioned the rationality for these actions are not justified through the deen.

I think the statement applies to many people, but not all. I remember growing up in Somalia, where religion was not that big of a deal, at least in our household – when the civil war happened, suddenly my parents were more strict on our behaviours, we became more knowledgeable about Islam, we memorized chapters, and some of my siblings memorized the Quran in its entirety. When we got to the west, we continued our education. Most Somalis become extremely religious, and some fell onto the wrong path. I’m guessing those left back home have similar believes, even stronger, which is a good thing --- when death is abundant and you’re experiencing hardships – that will draw you back to the religion. They’ve already got Islamic courts in Somalia, people get their hands chopped if they steal, stoned if they commit adultery, and so forth. We have to understand, religion is powerful governing element in many people’s lives from the farmer in Somalia to the leader of the most powerful nation in the world. In that sense religion dictates a lot of things in our lives. Clearly, Somalis will want Islamic elements incorporated in the government. I doubt we can have a secularist ideology – and that isn’t an ignorant causation on the side of ordinary Somalis, and people should not attack or question their intellectual capacity because they refuse the embracement of the western model of church and state separation. I say they’re smarter and more enlightened because they seek to get answers from Allah – otherwise the so called enlightened would have you look for answers from western political culture, primarily in philosophy.

The question still remains can SOL give birth to the Blue Revolution – clearly, the young will lead the way to a prosperous Somalia. SOL connects the displaced, and sometimes we have people who are reluctant and pessimistic about the future state of Somalia – for a moment imagine and believe. Tuujiyee I’m glad you liked the analyses, only time will tell how the new generation on SOL uses the website ---- the idea of an SOL conference is a great one indeed, we just need people to entertain the concept. uchi the Blue Revolution will happen no matter what, we just have to be patient, whether it be violent or peaceful, the people in Somalia cannot continue to suffer and live without hope, aspirations and expectations. juba thank you, we need to fully utilize this medium that we constantly engage in – lets see some progress from the virtual into the reality. rudy who is this girl? Katrina I agree with you, there are many things that we have to fix in order to achieve authentic consciousness from the youth --- sadly many of them are indulging in the bad habits of qabil politics – if the poison is here, imagine those back home. Castro our controversial nomad, don’t discourage the young generation, they’re the ones that will rebuild our ruined nation – think positive thoughts this time around.

I really wanted to go to Somalia this summer --- but its was no go, I hope you brought back some pictures, I’ve got over 12k pictures from Ethiopia, Djbouti, Somaliland, and the Hiiraan region. Some friends of mine took lotta pictures over the summer during their vacation --- do you want to add your pics to my archive, the generic ones of course.

MR ORGILAQE I’m sure your moms used to take care of you, cook breakfast for you – and lotta other things to help you lead a comfortable life – correct me if I’m wrong. Rahima Women are more organized when it comes to household affairs – they’re more caring, look at every Somali household those back home and those in the west during the morning rush of scrambled legs – you will find the mother organizing and directing traffic, even in western societies. There are culturally prescribed roles and duties in the family structure – although in the modern era those boundaries are becoming irrelevant. As for the disappointment part, be patient with me I’m learning to be self sufficient when it comes to cooking and cleaning – so far I only know how to boil pasta, and spread one of those canned Italian sauces on them. As for cleaning, I only use disposable plates and utensils.

Delivering pizza flyers door to door for two bucks a bundle – each bundle contained 200 flyers, meaning 200 homes or apartments – that was in grade 8 – never worked again until I was 19 – til today I dread the idea of working for someone else --- I work for me

Indeed he has improved over the past couple of years, his music inspires people, and he’s not really defined to one style. K’Naan was interviewed for Issue #5of People Are Connected Everywhere Magazine – he had some interesting things to say. BTW – for Ottawa and Montreal residents he will be coming through very soon, this month in fact, I know he is in Montreal at the end of the month, I think it’s the 29th, not sure when in Ottawa, maybe a day before that.

See the documentary on STUP!DITY --- Directed by Albert Nerenberg, informative, entertaining, and it should explain a lot.

Morning are good, you have no idea how many things you do in the morning, how many things you can accomplish before noon. As for brushing your teeth, its very important ---- dental problems cause you thousands, and those dentists are crooks. As for breakfast, most mornings I eat nothing at all, I can’t bring myself to walk over to the kitchen and put something together, I miss mom dukes so much --- should have married before leaving home.

Welcome to SOL where we don’t leave, and we write on dem post like ev-ery day, big posts, hit debates, see nomads roaming, and the debates don’t stop til eight in the mo’nin.

Clearly, the brand has developed into a unique social phenomenon, and like you Sophist I’m not surrounded by Somalis, and in my city there are hardly any Somalis, they are rare. This site has connected me to other nomads, re-socialized me as a new born Somali once more. I do agree with you that we needed to invite more progressive thinkers, young energetic people and I’ve already told people about the site, and they are fascinated by it. SOL as a medium can evolve from impersonal communication to a more effective, authentic and organic form of communication – the virtual world transformed into the real. With the meet ups I’ve been advocating few weeks back we can achieve something more out of SOL. The members of the site can brainstorm new ways of dealing with problems, or helping a positive cause. I once suggested an SOL annual conference, where we get nomads to speak about various issues, and invite the academic community to take part in the conference. The organizers of the Blue Revolution are already on SOL – they just haven’t realized their potential.

****The extension of our ideas, while we entertain ourselves, Sol is our escape like high school girls and junk food on breakups. *** I remember the early days of SOL, when the admin pioneered the formula for Somali websites --- the usage of profile pictures, music, and the posts were seen as second class citizens, something that needed to be tolerated, it was just there. It was rather seen as a dating site – if seen by many at all. The creators of the site took a risk by removing those images, the music, and they also removed young nomads who were flooding the site with amateurish content. The new SOL suddenly exploded and captivated a more mature, educated audience, who employed a more sophisticated commentary on critical topics. The site became a magnet for content. I have seen SOL linked in the BBC website, under "recommended site" for Somali content. The thoughts of the nomads have also been quoted in newspaper and magazines such as the London Guardian, Minneapolis Star Tribune and countless other websites. Today when I search Google for Somalia related content, this young website comes up on the front page. Here’s the brand we know now to be SOL, our own version of AOL. Usability, Design, and Archiving One thing that distinguishes sol from most other Somali forums is that it uses simplicity which is important in web design, because that is what u should care about the most which is usability. It can be designed with complex elements, and be design great, but if it’s not usable, and the sites navigation protocols are complex as Algebra, you won’t have consistency in traffic. SOL has almost 200,000 archived threads dating back for couple of years, so at best this brand seeks to preserve our collective memory and quality as well. They have deleted over 75,000 posts to keep the website clean of tribalism, sexism, and free from personal insults. If we were to look at the design of SOL, it is simple, clean, and easy to navigate and most all everything is archived. Genius Loves SOL Web hitchhikers who are tired of the usual unintelligent content flowing around the inner circles of Somali websites, instantly rejoice in their discovery of SOL. Everyday you see young intellectuals joining this site even though Admin keeps membership closed without invitation. They get captivated by the topics, the variation of opinions, and the rational and irrational tendencies of its members. Case in point, Bathing Ape, the little brand that could from Japan, nomads in London, they’ve got a store in London Square – their brand strategy was to have their stores hidden in ghetto and beat down nieghourhoods in Japan, where the stores were unmarked, and what do you know trend setters flocked to it – Jay-Z, the Neptunes, even Cassidy gave them free advertising by wearing them in their videos. The brand even collaborated with Reebok, for sneaker fans, you’ll note that the Ice Creams line was produced by Bathing Ape, not to mention also the Billionaire Boys Club aka BBC. BA even has café shops, and now they’re building their first hotel. They achieved such notoriety within the span of ten years. I’m not suggesting that SOL will create cafes, a clothing line, and hotels or open a national library for our posts, but we can clearly see that SOL uses similar brand tactics as Bathing Ape. They hardly advertise on websites, and recently they have been listed in Hiiraan, but that has brought little traffic as was predicted by Libaax, because SOL appeals to a different breed of young, sophisticated, western educated, professional Somalis. Manufacturing the Desire of SOL As the Situationists [Guy Debord] would argue SOL has become a vacuum where we are constantly engaged in the buying of our own ideas and ultimately ourselves but I say in a non-materialized manifestations. We expose our ideas, concepts and opinions, by visiting the site we buy our ideas back, after all time is money. Now, the site has critical people with considerable amount of knowledge in their respective disciplines. Like university lectures the nomads convey their ideas in a style that’s fitting to them, they themselves have become brands within the brand. Now the brand of SOL has evolved to threads about critical issues, and surely the accompanying commentaries read like paragraphs taken from an academic journal or sometimes like words uttered in a drunken cab ride home. On sol we become our own entertainers as if we were standing in a mirror or watching ourselves on a medium. However, we are not being exploited the establishment that is SOL, we’re merely soliciting and pimping our ideas to others. The act of posting becomes the spectacle in itself, our ideas become the focal point, and they take centre state. The Nomad Spectator As you all know we’ve got non-members on the site who constantly read and find entertainment, enlightenment, encouragement, and sometimes eerie moments on SOL. These nomads view the always classical debates that go down, like a Las Vegas boxing match, they closely observe from every corner of the world wide web. Making comments on MSN conversation as though it were ESPN post-fight wrap up. Escapism Most the SOL audience come to the site for entertainment, or to escape the hardships in their lives. We log in from our jobs, even when tired and doing our homework and all of the sudden we find the motivation the energy, that idea we’ve been searching for. We make accidental discoveries, post ****** commentaries and contemplate them throughout the week. Some of us jump on the wrong side of the debate and arrogantly hold our post, but no worries, in the end it makes better arguers out of us. Culture and Technology Collide The cultural determinists and technology determinists collide on SOL – who can best explain the hype of this brand, why it exists and what fuels its continuance. The usage of language, the bilingualism and even sometimes the multilingual posts that appear on this place give the SOL brand a unique characteristic. Truly the global village [Marshal McLuhan] epoch has ushered in. the extension of the Nomad in here, as the wheel extended the foot, as television extended our sight, and so forth [McLuhan]. We are truly connected – there say the CD’s and TD’s collide in SOL, because when they collide they create SOL. As thinkers on this site, our aim should be refined and establish concrete goals. What can we do, can we set something up --- we have got the people together and their attention, so I urge all of you to always think about the collective responsibilities that we have. This is the place to exchange theories, ideas, concepts, and plans. Let us plot together for the post-conflict reconstruction of Somalia. Like the AdBusters brand, SOL seeks to gain popularity through socially conscious communications, which will have inshallah some positive outcomes in the future.

It takes seconds to take the picture, and while you’re contemplating which action you’ll lean towards, you can do both. Take the picture and save his life – you can’t let human beings suffer especially if you’ve got the chance to save them – he is human after all. If I can’t save him and its too late, and saving him means risking my own life, I would refrain, and take my pictures.

We would get married to each other if i was not married by the time i am 25. I say you should marry the person you want to be with – a contractual marriage is likely to dissolve in a short period of time. Hope things go well.