Castro, so it meant what it said! that was too obvious. my bad. G'night saaxiibayaal..

Dhariga kasoo rog ^^kasoo tuur or lasoo dhaqso ? Im not sure this one!

Castro, waxaasi waa hawlahayga adeer. laygama badiyo . Cara, another name for fulay is biiq.

LOL@Farta Xiin ma la galiyey. ^^that's gross waryee. Ku jiidhay means ku madax-maray. al yacni waad ku ku khafiiftay. Maaha? Northern. You're off by hal mayl iyo hodhodho saaxiib.

^^Waykan is what i would respond. Castro, kuwaasi ma tirsana adeer! lol@hebel farta ma la geliyey. Sounds too gross. Hebel ma la baaray miyaa ?

Originally posted by Castro: What's the response to 'ku aaway dee'? 1) Waa ikan? 2) I waakan? 3) Waa ikanaa? What a language, eh? 1 & 3 waa sax. Laakiin 2 far baa ku mudan!

^^Mystic is a fine writer and always manages to arrest the central theme of the tfg propaganda propagated here. Somali politics has become quite a depress these days. Men of religion have been paraded and sold away to the enemy. With the backdrop of such a national tragedy, it’s not surprising at all that only those with perfidious and punic characters would have a feast to celebrate for the victory of the invaders!

^^Actually i was thinking about to find and post it. He's elequent. Thanks for the link.

^^That’s a timely and good hadith yaa Aaminah! I do think however that if previous mistakes are to be avoided we need to examine what went wrong. We don’t know what went wrong, that much is true, but we need to inquire and examine why things totally have gone down the way they did. Geel_jire, I take and accept your subtle point about people not being onboard with icu agenda. I also agree with you that banning qaat was a misplaced effort. 1 down. 1 to go. I will wait where you go with your second point.

Lily, that's a white lie, i say !

Originally posted by -Serenity-: I’m afraid that doesn’t do much Xiin , I was hoping for something along the lines of ‘6 foot, well built, handsome (LL Cool J’s almost identical younger brother), no-grey hair in sight…’…. That sort of thing. ^^ inama caadhi maoho! In all fairness, my bashfulness does not allow me to do that yaa Serenity . I am more than i can say. LOL@Castro.

Brownnie, you're overanalyzing it adeer . Take the advice of the expert. Paragon, biid-xaar ka daa ninku waa qaali ahe'e ! Ah, Serenity has finally come out. How does Xiin look? It all depends at what point of his age. You know, there was a time when I was an ideal stud in my look and in importance had an alpha male like character. But now adeer talaf baan ahay : Xiin’s build: Wuxuu u dhexeeya gaabni iyo dherer. Xiin’s color: wuxuu udhexeeya maarriin iyo madow. What say you yaa Serenity? How does that fare with the picture you have of me? edit. LOL@Brown. Waryee biid waa xarrago dee. Aggah!

^^Centurion, right on. I agree with you that individual achievement dont matter and we need to evaluate our status holistically. And that's where we failed.

Paragon; ragga sawirada aan ka haysto waa sidan: Paragon- nin cas oo gar weyn. Castro- oday gaaban oo okiyaale qaba. Brown- biid & caqli badan Che- arday caato ah oo aan wajiga wax timo ah ku lahayn.

^^Don’t pass her on that easily yaa Brownie! Work something out. Nothing is impossible you know. Besides I am detecting a sense of understanding in her, a quality many lack today. Allow ma taliyey !

lol@ashiq ba ehaayoo! Brownie, this is an opportunity for doubling i say !

^^please do. But the third point did not go wrong so concentrate on the first two points instead yaa Geelle .

lol@Aggah! Waryee Paragon, is that really you? Weligey inaad garkayga oo kale leedahay baan u qabay .

LOL@Val’s three month old shoes. NGONGE, I wasn’t prescribing alternatives for we all know that anything would fare better with our negative tribalism. But I got really curious about how weak the defense put forth was. Look how some people countered when the obvious was pointed at. We do indeed have some fundamental anomaly in our character. And it’s sickening. We have utterly failed to grow out of it. If you observe Somali politics the absurdity of it is quite suffocating. Look at Somaliland and Puntland, two societies who have lived together for centuries. The west tells us that both are peaceful and developing. Yet they don’t have any meaningful relationships to assure us the said stability will not be at the end spoiled. While both comfortably feel at ease with Ethiopia and show no sign of mistrust of it, they sadly look at each other with deepest suspicion. While their leaders frequently travel to faraway capitals, none of them has thus far sat foot on others soil. The trade between them is at a minimal level hence the people-to-people contact is depressingly not at the rate it should be. This has been going on for sixteen years adeer. What gives? How can one explain such an anomaly yaa NGONGE? I somehow find this creative ability that spectacularly succeeds to cultivate and develop a working relationship with other states but miserably fials to have one with own brethren quite uninspiring. It’s odd! Surely there are other more acute conflicts in our continent. Needless to say such civil strives caused far greater casualties than ours. But I some how find them explainable. Ethiopia, Suudaan, Brundi, And Congo all had costly civil wars. The root causes were known and addressed; some were halted by force while others were solved through legitimate means. But Somalis my good brother are still killing each other for no apparent reason. No apparent meaningful reason that is. Castro, aside from semantics I gather you are not disputing the fact that we are indeed back-warded in many ways. Back-warded because we as a society failed to organize and live in a form that’s compatible with the world. Back-warded because we still kill each other more frequently than the rest of other societies in the region. Back-warded because we are divided into segments that proved to be obstacle to make any meaningful development or any progress toward any subject. Why people who were farming yesterday in the deepest jungles of the Dark Continent are today able to have some sort of governance of their own while you are eclipsed in the gloom of anarchy yaa saaxiibi? You the Somali! Dave, one would not blame me for the weakness of my intellect, Hamadani once satirized, if one were assured that I am a man of Hamadan! It become quite normal for us to live in anarchy I suppose and hence any thing that resembles a progress is paraded as a one. Brother, there is some fundamental problem with us. I don’t know how to approach solving it but I can at least acknowledge its existence. We are at the rear of world index when it becomes to development. How you and Caamir attempt to depict this false picture of progress is beyond me adeer. The benchmark should not be at what have been achieved in anarchy by clannish enclaves in the helm of an autonomies region, but rather the yardstick should be held at what could be attained by Somalis as a people and nation. The lack of the latter is an obvious anomaly (in our case) and warrants a debate yaa Dave!

Dave & Caamir, highlighting some positive aspects of us does not diminish the painful fact of our other ailments. It’s like tallying the artistic achievements of an abusive husband---it’s futile for it doesn’t speak to the validity of the said charge. I don’t mind us being clannish---I think it’s unavoidable given how elemental tribe is to our nomadic life. But why are Somalis so overly clannish to the determent of their own unity as a nation? I somehow missed the value of the supposed genius of succeeding in and actually contributing to the development of the other people’s while utterly destroying ours. Sure, since the arrival of Somalis more shopping malls were erected in Eastlight section of Nairobi. But isn’t that a relegating act to have destroyed your beautiful capital and come and seek to flourish in other people’s ghettos? Be serious folks. Why are we so back-warded? That’s the question. Lest you mistaken the question is not whether we are back-warded.

Although I can’t, for the moment, agree with this author, the central theme of his post, I must admit, warrants a debate. Why are we so immersed in this clannish thing for a decade or so now? Why are we so prone to external manipulation? What’s so unique about our conflict to have continued endlessly for sixteen odd years with no hope in sight? What is it that makes the Somali character, in its holistic make, uninspiring? I need some answers yaa Jamaacah!

Originally posted by bilan: this is what the sayid said about women: waa wada dabrima diisan iyo dalab sikiireeye waa wada dahar siiban iyo dabo dhurwaalay'e waa wada dumbulo foolxun iyo madax danduulley'e .... forget about hadraawi, environment influenced them, and they had no choice, but let me hear raage ugaas , sayid maxamed, cali dhuux, ismaaciil mire oo amaanayaa dumar.ragaas waaye kuwa gabayadooda uu saldhig u yahay somali poetry.unless aan indhaha la iska tirayn somalidii hore ma tixgalin jirin dumarka. LOL@Sayidka. bilan, that was the exception, and not the norm. I am sure you could find poems produced by the Master himself in which he praises her the somali woman. Raage Ugaas, the prince of Somali poets, composed the most heart-wrenching eulogy to mark the accident death of his wife. One of the more memorable lines of his poem is: Xalay kalala’aygii ma ledin kaamil reeruhuy’e Wixii laygu kuunyaayey miyaa igu karaamoobay Kub miyaan ka jabay biixi aan kabayo loohaynin Kob abaara oo dhexe miyaa kaabe ila meeray . Afyare was qouted to have said about Haweeya (i think that was her name): Ashqaraar udhimay Aadanow nimay agjoogtaaye'e Marka bilaney, suugaanta soomaalidu hablaha aad baa loogu ammaanaa. of course you could choose to qoute few selected verses, but in the vast majority of somali poems, somali women are held with admiration. ps--Lily waad iga qoslisay wallaahi; how did you not know what rafiiq meant?

^^Xiniinyacaddow, dumar labo nin lagulama tartamo. 1-lajooge; is the one who's always with them for some reason or other. He has many names and comes to them in different associations. 2-loojaaje; well kaa adaan kuu daayey ee school them about him . I dont think you need a hint to explain the wonders this type of man can produce to capture womenfolk's heart. ...or so i heard.

^^I am disappointed in you yaa Serenity . This Socodka man, insulted the womenfolk, demoted them, and described them as dull beings. Yet he managed to activate the faculty of your laughter! What is this world coming to? I am tempted to flood him with irrefutable facts about the Somali literature and how it often chants the heroic deeds of our womenfolk. But again as eloquent as Socodka is, Somali literature is not his turf .

LOL@Brown. It's a tricky question. Estimating lives is not an easy business bro. Castro, I don’t buy it was an accident. Not till I get the full story adeer. They said it was donkey that caused this fatal accident… I think the man failed to moderate his rhetoric. When you are in Somalia in general and in Mogadishu in particular, adopting Bush’s terror fighting slogans is a risky business indeed. If he survives this and when he goes back and assumes his role as tfg spokesperson, lets see how measures his tone.