Mabruuk Caakifah. Wiil iyo caano. wishing you all the best sister. Originally posted by Gediid: Raggi SOL waxa ladhaafey mid kastaaba siduu isu lahaa si jamacadeysaan wax ku shukaanso lol@Gediid. Oo ma waxaad leedahay abaar xun ayaa raga intiina hartay ku soo socota?

I have never liked this iddiot . He is the most selfish Brazilian player ever. His game is also very predictable and I hope he finds no place. He is also the biggest cheater. I still remember that "fake foul" riwaayad he performed at the world cup. What a shame. I honestly think he is not that good compared to other Brazilian internationals. He is just another Brazilian except he is the most selfish of all.

Illmatic and Still, this is the Star Tribune article that was written about those girls. Our culture is indeed beautiful. Somali girls coming of age are caught in cultural tug of war Allie Shah, Star Tribune [/b] At gym time, teenage girls in the locker room strip off T-shirts and jeans and squeeze into tank tops and spandex shorts. But Fartun Nur, 17, peels off layers of shiny fabric that shield her from the outside world. First goes the floor-length skirt. Then the long-sleeved shirt. She keeps the hijaab on, adjusting it to make sure it still hides her hair. Next, she slips on a knee-length tunic and billowy trousers and hustles to the "girls-only" gym class. Nimco Ahmed, 18, strolls into the locker room, her headphones completing her western look. She trades her boot-cut jeans for track pants, not caring, as other Somali girls do, if they're too revealing. With one last look in the mirror, she trots to the co-ed gym class. For Fartun (pronounced far-TOON) and Nimco, life is a daily test. Far from the civil war in their homeland, Somali girls confront a cultural war in a country so unlike their own. America, with its melting pot, equal rights, and obsession with sex and youth, beckons them at every turn. These new values collide with traditional Somali values that call for clear roles for men and women, respect for authority and an identity based on family, not self. Nowhere is this clash more visible than at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. Far from the days when Gov. Jesse Ventura and other working-class whites dominated the hallways, today's Roosevelt boasts the largest Somali student population in the city -- and perhaps the nation. Nearly a third of the 1,550 students enrolled at the start of the school year were Somali, in part because Roosevelt offers special language services. Roosevelt, with its clangy school bell and yesteryear feel, is a haven for Somali girls. School is about the only place where they can roam free of their families' scrutiny. Somali families expect the females to carry the culture and maintain the family honor. So while Fartun's brother can blend in with male classmates who wear the same baggy jeans and T-shirts, she stands out in her Somali clothes. Sons may visit restaurants or hang out on the basketball courts, but daughters are expected to stay home, out of public view, protecting their modesty. It's at school, in the hallways, classrooms and cafeteria, where Fartun and Nimco confront America. Mingling with kids from Iran, Vietnam, Mexico, Somalia and the United States, they navigate the currents of the American mainstream. Nimco: Life in two worlds Like a turtle, Nimco has learned how to live both in water and on land. At home and at Roosevelt. In her mother's clothing and perfume store in Minneapolis' Phillips neighborhood, she speaks rapid-fire Somali, laughing and joking with her relatives. "Galab Wanaagsan. Seetahay?" (Good afternoon. How are you?) At school, she expertly shouts, "Whassup?" to friends from all nations. "I'm kinda international," she explains. Armed with a cell phone and a Discman, she weaves through the halls, waving and smiling at people who call her by name. "I like this guy. He is funny as hell," she says, passing an Asian boy with frosted hair. Spotting some Somali girls, she playfully charges into them. They push back and laugh, and she walks away, grinning. All the while walking and talking, she fishes a piece of gum from her purse and places it in a friend's outstretched hand. But for the transparent scarf wrapped snugly around her hair, Nimco looks like other American students. Same Mudd jeans and platform shoes. Multiple earrings on each lobe. A giant blue hair claw to keep loose strands in place beneath her scarf. She loves American fashions. When she first got to Roosevelt in 1998, after spending eight years in Germany, Nimco didn't wear the hijaab (pronounced HEE-job)-- the Arabic word for "cover" used to describe the scarf Muslim women wear over their hair for modesty. The other kids saw her bare head and assumed she was Ethiopian. "I started feeling bad," she said. These days, she wears the hijaab, when she feels like it. She does it to let everyone know she's Somali, and so she can get used to the feel of the fabric tugging at her hairline, reminding her who she is, what she is. Somali. Muslim. Woman. Someday, when she's married with children, she'll add another layer to her modesty, she says. She'll wear the jalaabiib (pronounced Jawl-a-beeb), the larger head covering that resembles a nun's habit. It's the one her mother and Fartun wear. By then, Nimco will stop wearing pants, too, she vows. These changes she will make to set a good example for her kids and to raise them right in Islam, the Muslim religion. "I have a lot of respect for the religion," she says solemnly. Which rules to follow? Sitting in her bedroom, a pile of colorful scarves resting on her dresser next to a purple Minnesota Vikings cap, Nimco reflects on the challenge of living in two cultures. At school, she sidesteps the fistfights and verbal taunts that are common between Somali and American kids. "Some of them say, 'You smell bad,'" Nimco said. Some kids don't understand or flat out don't like Somali customs, such as washing hands and feet in the school bathrooms before praying. To visit the Roosevelt cafeteria is to witness the cultural apartheid. Somali girls gather on one side of the room, apart from the Somali boys, the Asian kids, the whites and the African-Americans. Immanuel Huggins, an African-American friend of Nimco's, counts Somali girls among his friends. "A lot of them are pretty," he said. Most of the tension between Somalis and other kids stems from misunderstandings about the Muslim religion and Somali culture, he said. "When you see a girl who wears the scarf, and she might speak another language, and then they think you're speaking about them, it starts making divisions. "Their culture is probably the farthest thing from our culture." At home, Nimco sometimes suppresses her outgoing nature to respect the reserved Somali tradition in which she was nurtured. She avoids eating at Somali restaurants and coffee shops, knowing that such behavior by a girl can set tongues wagging. After all, a girl's reputation is all she has, and it doesn't take long in this cozy Twin Cities Somali community before your business is everybody's business. "If I do something bad outside the house, it's going to be inside the house. Somebody's going to tell," Nimco explains. "My mom -- she's not going to hurt me or anything -- but she's going to feel bad. I don't want her to feel bad. I want my mom to be happy about what I'm doing." Therein lies Nimco's dilemma. How to live by American rules at school without upsetting her people? Sometimes, she finds, she must lie. A member of the Roosevelt track team, she runs in shorts, exposing her legs in public. The instant the race is over, she pulls on her warm-up pants. But if her mother knew she wore shorts, she'd disapprove. So would others in the Somali community. Once during track practice, a group of Somali men approached her, and panic swept over her and other girls at school. "What were those Somali guys doing here? Did they see her running in shorts?" they asked each other. Turns out the men just wanted to talk to Nimco about a summer athletic team they were forming. The dating dilemma In the perfect Somali world, boys and girls don't date. They marry. At school, Somali girls may disappear for a few days and return married to men twice their age. Dates and school dances are tricky in a culture that prohibits unmarried males and females from even touching one another. Some of the girls at Nimco's school have boyfriends who walk them to class and call them on the phone, but they do it on the sly. Some girls dance with partners, but only a few dare tell their parents. This year's prom proved to be more trouble than it was worth for Nimco. She'd planned to go with a friend, a Somali boy. It wasn't a date, she insists. A week before the dance, her friends warned her that it might not look good to have her picture taken, all dressed up, with this Somali guy. She didn't want people talking about them like they were a serious couple, so she backed out. On the day of the dance, Nimco stood barefoot with a curling iron in one hand and hair spray in the other, holding court before a small crowd of girls in the school locker room. Instead of going to the prom, she did hair for girls who were going. Nimco's friend, Ifrah (pronounced EE-fra) Mohamed, a very westernized girl who doesn't "cover" like other Somali girls, squirmed in the chair and eyed the hijaab-clad crowd watching her. "I can't believe your parents are letting you guys go," Ifrah said to them. "Every place I go, I'm the only Somali girl." Even Ifrah used to lie to get out of the house. "Last year I had to throw so many fits," she said. At last she told her father: "Dad, this is America. Just let me have one night." Nimco smiled understandingly as she twisted the curling iron. "Sometimes it's hard to follow the right thing," she said later. "We are different. We want to do everything that people our age here do. Most of them [somali elders], they really don't get it." Fartun: Decidedly Somali For Fartun, the tug comes from another direction, from Africa. In Kenya, where she grew up, she made a conscious decision to hide her dark brown locks from public gaze. She was 14, the age when many Somali girls start wearing the hijaab. It was Eid, an important Muslim holiday, and her mother spread out an assortment of pretty scarves from which Fartun chose one. Admiring her new look in the mirror, she decided to make the hijaab a part of her permanent identity. Only at home among relatives or among women does she take it off. At Roosevelt, she wears the full jalaabiib in a rainbow of colors: turquoise, eggplant, mint green, lemon. There's an elegance about her that must have followed her from Kenya. Her family moved there before the Somali civil war broke out in the early 1990s. There, she had a nanny and a spacious house. She never lived in the refugee camps that housed so many Somalis. Her mother, Geni (pronounced GEH-nee) Nur, may speak of Somalia, but Fartun's memories of the country they left when she was a child are fuzzy at best. Her home and life in Kenya are what she misses, and she plans to go back there one day. In her poetry book, she records her longings, writing about "the country I'll never forget." "Kenya's where I grew up. ... It's just not the same when you start another different life." 'Things got changed' In the bustling hallways at school, Fartun's no social butterfly. Backpack in tow, she heads straight to class, her face expressionless. She takes her schoolwork seriously, following directions, working diligently whether she's solving a problem in math class or lifting weights in gym class. In history class, when other students debate a point with their teacher, Fartun listens silently. She wasn't always shy. Back home, she was a real "little devil." She loved to torment the nanny and play practical jokes on her friends. Everyone knew her then. Recently, one of her uncles said to her: "Is that you, Fartun? You're so quiet. What happened to the old Fartun?" "Things got changed," she replied. There are times, however, when she is laughing with her school friends or hanging out at the Mall of America when she feels American, Fartun concedes. But when she is home with her brother and sisters, playing a game of "Remember when ..." she feels a gulf between herself and her classmates that's wider than the continent she left behind. "I lost my life, where could it be?" she writes in one poem that describes her painful "thunderous silence." When the bell signals the end of the school day, she threads her way through the throngs of students running and hollering outside the building. Not until she walks through the front doors of the Somali mall off Lake Street, where she is surrounded by other Somalis, does she start to relax. "When I'm here, I kind of talk a lot. I don't know why," she says, smiling. Fartun and her mother trade shifts at the 10-by-12-foot store where they sell scarves, long skirts, fabrics, shoes, international phone cards and other items. Inside the stall, Fartun greets customers and arranges the inventory. When it's slow, she does her homework or talks to friends who drop by. When her mother is working at the store, Fartun's at home in charge of seven of her eight siblings, ranging in age from 16 to three years old. "I'm like the supervisor. She's the manager," Fartun says. She puts the younger ones down for naps, cleans the house and whips up whatever's available for dinner. One day it was egg noodles and meatballs. The decor of the third-floor apartment across the street from Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis breathes Somali culture. Large Persian rugs on the floor. Rich maroon curtains from floor to ceiling. The sweet, musky smell of spices and incense. Bunches of silk flowers hanging high on the walls. Even so, American culture infiltrates. The children sit in the living room, crowded around the TV set. They are captivated by "Passions," a daytime soap opera offering the typical fare of sex and violence. But when a Victoria's Secret commercial comes on showing leggy lingerie models, Fartun immediately changes the channel. With one eye on the TV, she plops on the couch, cradling her cousin. "We call her Maggie, like Maggie Simpson" of "The Simpsons" TV show, she says, grinning at the pacifier-sucking infant. The phone rings and Fartun shifts the baby and picks up the phone. "It's Daddy!" she announces happily, now talking in Swahili. She's one of the lucky ones. Many Somali teens are here without either parent, their families blown apart by famine or war. When Fartun's family immigrated to Minneapolis to join other family members, her father stayed behind with her baby sister. Fartun says he couldn't leave his truck delivery business, and he wanted his youngest child to stay in Africa, so that she would know where she belongs. Not since October 1998 has she seen her father, but she plans to visit him this summer. Both: Trying to hold on What will Nimco's future be like? Her mom doesn't know. But she is worried. Mohobo Hashi, 51, sits behind the counter of her clothing and perfume shop in Minneapolis' Phillips neighborhood and studies her feisty daughter. Nimco, clad in a flannel shirt, plaid pants and hijaab, squats beside her and translates her thoughts: "Here in America, to raise the girls, it's kinda hard. Back in Somalia, you can tell them what to do. ... Here in America, the girls tell you what to do!" At this, she throws her hands up and shrugs helplessly. Earlier this year, a Somali man said he wanted to marry her daughter. Hashi laughed. Nimco has ideas of her own, she told him. In many ways, Hashi resembles Nimco. She has the same high cheekbones and cheerful smile. They both wear sandals that reveal lacquered toenails. Hashi's are ebony, the color traditionally worn by Somali women; Nimco's are a metallic pink, the shade worn by many American teens. As a teenager, Hashi's life was nothing like her daughter's. By the time she was Nimco's age, she already had two children. Her only education came in an Arabic school, where she studied the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book. There was no prom. No shopping at the mall. And certainly no dating. Islam prohibits it. Sometimes she wonders if coming to America was the best thing for her family. "I'm really worried about that -- that our kids will change," she said. "They're really young, and they're around other [non-Somali] people all the time. They're not seeing every day their culture," she says. Wrestling with change There is some good coming out of the changes in the Somali girls, some say. At Roosevelt, the girls are working hard at their education, harder than the boys, said Abdirahman (pronounced Ab-di-rah-MON) Mukhtar, another friend of Nimco's. "Back in Somalia, most girls didn't go to universities; they were expected to marry," he said. "Right now, once they get the opportunity, they want to work hard. They want to develop new paths for Somali women." All the same, he and others share Hashi's concern that some girls and boys are changing too quickly, copying another culture and discarding their own. Girls who are so quick to change on the outside are probably not very strong on the inside, observed Muse (pronounced MOO-sah) Mohamed, past president of the Roosevelt Somali Student Association. He didn't interact much with the girls because he didn't think it was appropriate, but he noticed some were starting to wear pants. It is hard for Somali immigrants to swim against the current, Mohamed said. "It's like spilling a glass of water in the ocean." Hashi wants Nimco to have a good education and to be a good person, a Muslim, and a mother. For a woman, education is good, but, "The most important thing for a girl is to have children of your own blood," she says. Will her daughter make good on her vow to wear the jalaabiib, marry a Somali man, and raise her children properly in Islam? "Allah knows," Hashi says, pointing to the ceiling. Nimco knows the elder Somalis worry that the girls will forget their culture and take up the new one, but she insists that won't happen to her. "I don't want to have a problem with my family. I don't want it to be different," she said. When it's time to marry, and that time is drawing near, she says she'll choose a husband of her own, a Somali man who appreciates her independent spirit. Talk of marriage makes Fartun blush. She declines to discuss it. Like Nimco, she shares a passion for knowledge. Both plan to go to college after they finish high school in a year or two. Where they'll be, who they'll be in the future, neither one knows. "It's confusing," Fartun says. Just before school let out for the year, Fartun and Nimco joined other Roosevelt students of African descent in celebrating their heritage. With African drums beating, they stepped on to the stage in the school auditorium. For once, they were hard to tell apart, not only from each other but from their American-born peers. A long white gown and hijaab covered Nimco. Fartun stood nearby, wearing a new bold grin. The drums picked up. The emcee introduced them by name. And just for a moment, Fartun and Nimco were the same. Somalis and Americans, too. Somali-Americans.

lool. Sixer, you always make me laugh.

Software Based Internet Phone and PC to Phone Systems Before you begin, you will need a PC with a full duplex sound card, a set of speakers and a microphone. Some people find it useful to buy a set of light weight headphones with a microphone attached similar to those used by switchboard operators. You have a choice of:- downloadable software, browser based internet telephony and private or virtual private network based systems. Net2Phone and DeltaThree are examples of downloadable software. Dialpad and Internet Phone (now Truly Global) are examples of browser based software. There are a number of network based systems available which are either privately owned and traded or are available through various ISPs on a rental/lease basis. The pages here are really for the smaller user so we haven't devoted time to network based telephone/PC systems. Should you require more information please mail us at freecalls@pc-internet-2-phone-voip.com You visit one of the VOIP Supplier's websites. You will have to register as a user. If you go the downloadable route, you will have to download their proprietary software. This is usually free. Extract the software and install it on your computer. It is normally self extracting. The software will place a console on your PC screen with clickable buttons. The console looks exactly like a conventional phone dialpad with two or three additional buttons. Providers often give you an experimental destination number such as their toll free service number to try out the software for free. You will be asked to register and most likely have to pay a deposit against future usage. This varies from around $8.00 to $25.00 depending on the service provider. The java based ones are often free. In return you will be given an account number/login name and a pin. Using the console you simply dial the number you want anywhere in the world. (You will need to be connected to the internet and online at the time). Simplistically, the software makes use of the internet to transmit your message to the closest phone exchange to the destination of your call. Alternatively it will connect you to a PC anywhere in the world where your message is decoded. When the call reaches this exchange it leaves the "internet" and goes back into analogue form and ends up at your destination caller's phone. The destination caller merely picks up his or her regular telephone and talks to you in the regular fashion. Alternatively the message reaches the destination PC. You will hear the person you called over your PC speakers and you will have to talk into the microphone to respond to them. Your Internet Phone service provider will keep track of the long distance calls you make and reduce your deposit by the amount of the call. Obviously there is no charge for a free call! When your deposit is zero you will have to recharge it before you make further calls. The software typically warns you that your resource is low. You can improve the quality of your transmission and reception by installing a VOIP enhancement card in your PC. Click here to review a good example of a VOIP enhancement card. This card enhances the voice transmission by using high compression technology which improves speed and reduces echo. Remember to factor in the cost of your internet connection as you still have to pay for this. http://www.pc-internet-2-phone-voip.com/PC_to_phone.html

Software Based Internet Phone and PC to Phone Systems Before you begin, you will need a PC with a full duplex sound card, a set of speakers and a microphone. Some people find it useful to buy a set of light weight headphones with a microphone attached similar to those used by switchboard operators. You have a choice of:- downloadable software, browser based internet telephony and private or virtual private network based systems. Net2Phone and DeltaThree are examples of downloadable software. Dialpad and Internet Phone (now Truly Global) are examples of browser based software. There are a number of network based systems available which are either privately owned and traded or are available through various ISPs on a rental/lease basis. The pages here are really for the smaller user so we haven't devoted time to network based telephone/PC systems. Should you require more information please mail us at freecalls@pc-internet-2-phone-voip.com You visit one of the VOIP Supplier's websites. You will have to register as a user. If you go the downloadable route, you will have to download their proprietary software. This is usually free. Extract the software and install it on your computer. It is normally self extracting. The software will place a console on your PC screen with clickable buttons. The console looks exactly like a conventional phone dialpad with two or three additional buttons. Providers often give you an experimental destination number such as their toll free service number to try out the software for free. You will be asked to register and most likely have to pay a deposit against future usage. This varies from around $8.00 to $25.00 depending on the service provider. The java based ones are often free. In return you will be given an account number/login name and a pin. Using the console you simply dial the number you want anywhere in the world. (You will need to be connected to the internet and online at the time). Simplistically, the software makes use of the internet to transmit your message to the closest phone exchange to the destination of your call. Alternatively it will connect you to a PC anywhere in the world where your message is decoded. When the call reaches this exchange it leaves the "internet" and goes back into analogue form and ends up at your destination caller's phone. The destination caller merely picks up his or her regular telephone and talks to you in the regular fashion. Alternatively the message reaches the destination PC. You will hear the person you called over your PC speakers and you will have to talk into the microphone to respond to them. Your Internet Phone service provider will keep track of the long distance calls you make and reduce your deposit by the amount of the call. Obviously there is no charge for a free call! When your deposit is zero you will have to recharge it before you make further calls. The software typically warns you that your resource is low. You can improve the quality of your transmission and reception by installing a VOIP enhancement card in your PC. Click here to review a good example of a VOIP enhancement card. This card enhances the voice transmission by using high compression technology which improves speed and reduces echo. Remember to factor in the cost of your internet connection as you still have to pay for this. http://www.pc-internet-2-phone-voip.com/PC_to_phone.html

oops, (sp). MINOR BLUNDER. CORRECTED. THANKS MODESTY!

I am getting very suspicious nomads ... maybe I am just paranoid. Allah Knows Best.

I don't really blame Steve. He is a victim.

fakhanseey

Gediid, those are nice pics. I hope the best for my people. This AIDS thing is getting out of hand. Look at this innocent young child's face. He is probably so scared of this AIDS talk that he looks confused.

Originally posted by Gediid: My conspiracy theories. He's served his purpose and has now been terminated by none other than its smart creator * maybe someone from the Somaliweyn camp*.....who ever that is Maybe he is now retired into becoming his old miz-unique

lool@Gediid, My personal collection waxaan ku wareejiyey xaaska mar hore. xisaabtu sidaa uma sahlana ...

Che these unknowns are known unknowns. I think I know the unknowns he thinks we know. But what I don't know is the unknown unknown. Maybe somebody can shed some light on that mystery piece.

Talking about covers, there are surely many Somali looks to choose from. I found the following links on google. http://www.startribune.com/news/metro/tugofwar/10.shtml Source: Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune Source: Star Tribune

"We think we know what he means" "but we don't know if we really know".

Originally posted by HornAfrique: Ayoub although "Somaliland" is worthy of applause for it's peace and security, let's try to give the big picture next time bro.

Che, saxib this poverty-stricken nation of Somalia has surely become a nation infested with drug dealers and gut-totting thugs. Another bad news is that AIDS is starting to take its toll on what is left. Ilaahay dhibaatadan hanaga saaro.

CM, this is a tribal based society. A revolution against the warlords will only be seen as a tribal threat by the warlord's family. In the end what you will get is a civil war. In some rare cases it works, but Somalis have lost trust in one another.

^^^ Oh, I can't wait for my DirectTV. I will have many more reasons to tease Mancini about how shity Italian football is. I just don't watch much football nowadays because I don't have the correct chanels. I will soon Inshallah... watch out mr Mancini. You will be cryino foulo fuutbolo ... French Football > Italian Football

Originally posted by JamaaL-11: Laakinse nin ay tikniko tiradaas leh illaalinayso waa nin laga cuudu-billeysto ma is tiri... [/QB] Afku yaanu ku qaloocane, afkaaga Awliyada ka jeedi. That is why Sophist was kicked out of the Timoweynta. He was gonna be brought to justice for his not-so-nice words against the Sheikh before he escaped to Jiidali iyo halkaa. Here is a funy story. During the peak of the war on terrorism, Cabdullahi Yusuf was asked whether he thought his friend Caydiid was a terrorist. "Absolutely not" he replied. "Caydiid and I were part of the Timoweynta. Habeen walba waanu dikriyi jirney. How could Caydiid be a terrorist." ayuu ku jawaabay. Bal sheekadu meel ay marayso ila arag. Joining timoweynta is the only thing that can save you from being called a "terrorist". Marka, Jamaaloow, come back to your roots.

One of the few resources the worlord criminals have in Somalia is that they take commission from other criminals and exploit our natural resources. If that is not there, they would not survive a day. Before it was dhuxul export, now it is toxic waste. May allah help the Somali land.

^^Jenyo, Lenin was a Russian Jew. Do a little research first and correct me if I am still wrong.

Sad story indeed. The peace loving Southerners need a new RRA revolution to fight with these armed warlords and bandits. There is no other way.

Originally posted by AYOUB_SHEIKH: Libaax since when was asking people to go back to their hometowns and villages 'ethnic cleansing ... or is it part of your duties as a SOL Moderator? Ayoub Xaaji Cimaamad, intaadan "moderator conspiracy" ka hadal, bal ila eeg the exact definition of ethnic cleansing. ETHNIC CLEANSING n. The systematic elimination of an ethnic group or groups from a region or society, as by deportation, forced emigration, or genocide. SOURCE: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.