lool@Xaawiyo Aadan, that made me laugh. Good to see the great AT&T back with another classic story.

Let us wait and see what the Arab brother Steve Jobs can pull off on the 27th.

Wallee NGONGE waa shaydaan.

That was really painful. What a small man. Maybe someone who speaks Turkish can translate it for us. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=560_1263476607

lool@the picture. Ayalon is so childish. Couldn't he think of other ways to voice his concern? That was silly. Let the Isrealis now deal with hyper-nationalist angry Turks.

Originally posted by NGONGE: I like Faysal (don't agree with most of what he says) but still like him. He plays the game well. One thing about Faysal is that he comes off as an honest politician. It is also possible that he makes up things because he enjoys the limelight and the public interest. NGONGE, you should be enjoying this because you are a Riyaale fan.

Subhanallah. This is beyond absurd. Ninkan hala daaweeyo.

What Ibti is saying is accurate. Intermarriage between main clans is still thorny let alone marrying beelaha la yaso. The Somali community is still ignorant when it comes to this issue. Many families (including many relatives of mine) don’t easily approve men from any other clan marrying their daughters. As far as I have seen myself, it is always an ideological scuffle between daughter and family on such issue. I, myself, have witnessed innumerable “daughter hebla married belaayo iyo reer hebel” excuse right here in North America. The absurd sense of arrogance that still thrives in our communities has no bounds. In the older days, it was even worse. When I was a kid, my mother’s aunty (she was very young) wanted to marry a man from Somaliland’s main clan. From what my uncles told me, this man and ayeeyo went through “misery and hell” as everyone glared up with a sour taste of disapproval. There was nothing eccentric about the man for he was a very pleasant, pious and cultured man who met the criterion essential for a typical parental consent. My Ayeyo ultimately married the man she loved, moved to Somaliland and had many children for him. The only grounds given for the condemnation at the time was the “shisheeye, isma-guursano, ma nin kaley wayday” card, the sort of thing that would mind-boggle this generation of ours. There is a glimmer of hope that things are changing for the better, but for the most part, this tradition is still alive in many of the communities I am familiar with.

The link didn't work for me due to firewall, but what is this?

Togane at his best!!

Good music indeed. I actually liked it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/04/dubai.burj/index.html CNN) -- Dubai is Monday due to open the world's tallest tower -- a 160-plus story structure hailed as a monumental architectural achievement but seen by some as a symbol of the city's unbridled excess. The city-state's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is due to lead celebrations to unveil the majestic silvery construction that houses a luxury hotel, apartments and offices.

I only see 15 or so bodies. The Ahulsunna side must have suffered more (35 killed) if the total death was 50 according to the same source above.

A man charged with the attempted murder of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard after he allegedly broke into the artist’s home wielding an ax is carried into court on a stretcher Saturday in Aarhus, Denmark.

^^Waraa Tuujka, reerkii ka warran awoowe? waa lakala lumey beryaahaan akhii. Salaan iga gaarsii everyone 100%. MMA is in the UK and he shall be back shortly.

Peacenow, assuming you rant above is genuine and you are not a “mole” pretending to be Somali, ask yourself as to why you really feel this way about your own. I am not too certain as to what emotions you are currently reacting to, but it is very likely the caricature you decorated above is more of a reflection of your own struggles with identity and self. Perhaps your frustration stems from your own shortcomings, or it could be a symptom of an underbelly of own persona. Awoowe, take a profound look at your own self and see why you feel such pain. Just a humble observation.

A video that apparently shows a brave, and inventive, Chinese cyclists response to street crime has become a hit on YouTube. The CCTV footage appears to show what happens when the bicyclist witnesses two men on a scooter snatch a handbag outside of a hotel in Wenzhou, China. WATCH to see his innovative approach to crime fighting. source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/30/chinese-bicyclist-hero-st_n_407035.html

Happy new year nomads.

Originally posted by Che -Guevara: Unlikely allies,now I have seen it all maybe not all but dam. Hopefully their rush to defend is privily not based on the claim that Samatar's clan is originally from Israel.

"This foolish doctrine ......" What kind of a journalism is this???

Suaad Hagi Mohamud: Ottawa saw an imposter Toronto woman who was stranded in Kenya waits for $2.5M lawsuit to get to trial Suaad Hagi Mohamud came home to frenzied enthusiasm in mid-August, vindicated by DNA results that prompted Canadian authorities to repatriate her from Kenya. Since then, the Toronto woman of Somali origin who became one of the summer's top newsmakers has disappeared from public view, resolutely declining all interviews. She was last heard from in late September, having recovered from a respiratory infection picked up in Kenya but not yet returned to work. Her ordeal began May 21, when a KLM airlines employee in Nairobi stopped her – or a woman claiming to be her – as she attempted to board a plane home to Toronto. The next day, Canadian migrant integrity officer Paul Jamieson interviewed the woman and declared her an imposter, setting in motion events that led to a jail stay and Kenyan charges of immigration and passport violations. A lengthy prison sentence looked certain. The woman was free on bail while awaiting trial and eventually the case was picked up by the Star and some other Canadian media. Under pressure, the Canadian government agreed to the DNA test which showed the woman who took it was Mohamud, a Canadian citizen. The furor around her plight prompted a political debate about whether the federal government has double standards when dealing with visible minority citizens in difficulties abroad. Since then, documents filed in federal court show neither Mohamud nor Canadian authorities had been entirely straightforward in their public dealings. Throughout the affair, Mohamud portrayed herself as a single parent, travelling alone to visit her mother after leaving her son in Toronto. In fact, she is married to a Kenyan resident and was in the country partly to visit him. She disclosed the marriage when claiming $100,000 in damages on his behalf, part of a $2.5 million lawsuit against Ottawa for "callous and reckless treatment" on the imposter allegation. At the same time, publicly released emails between federal bureaucrats in Ottawa and Nairobi show they agreed to state the opposite of what they knew to be true. When federal officials closed their file on Mohamud on May 28, turning her over to Kenya for prosecution, they decided to state publicly that they were still investigating, the exchanges show. "Canadian officials are working with Kenyan authorities to verify the identity of the individual," foreign affairs spokesperson Daniel Barbarie told reporters from a prepared script. And when the officials reopened their investigation – "It is important to ensure our t's are crossed and i's dotted," a minister's assistant wrote – they agreed to say publicly the file was still closed. "Following an extensive investigation, officials at the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi have determined that the individual arrested by Kenyan authorities is not (Mohamud)," Barbarie told reporters. In a federal court affidavit this fall, Jamieson speculated that the woman he interviewed was Mohamud's younger sister Jihan. Such a sister was listed on Mohamud's original Canadian immigration application, he said. Mohamud said in a phone interview that she has no sister. Somebody else had filled out her original immigration application, she said. "The person they (stopped) at the airport, it was me," Mohamud said. Her lawsuit against Ottawa could take months to go to trial. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/743527--suaad-hagi-mohamud-ottawa-saw-an-imposter?bn=1

We already beat this very topic to death back in October. http://www.somaliaonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=020610;p=0

Waaryaara, Ibtisam yaa ka xanaajiyey. War gabadha daaya oo yaan la dhibin. NGONGE is always a troublemaker.

First, the losers: * Israelis and Palestinians: Sadly, these folks have ended up on this list so often (or they would have had I ever done this list before) that they should be retired from future consideration. Once again hope and hype has been followed by a chilling dose of reality, an opaque "peace process," and in the end by the fact that you can't cut a deal between two groups when one of them isn't quite organized to either represent their views effectively or implement any deals that actually get done. While the world wants to blame it on the Israelis, the thing that slammed the break on this process toward the end of 2009 was the fact that the Palestinians couldn't get their act together. * Hamid Karzai: The Taliban once banned the use of paper bags because theoretically the bags could be made out of recycled pages from old editions of the Koran. Oh, and they brutalized their citizenry and offered a safe haven to those craven characters from al Qaeda. And they're still more popular than the current Afghan government. They were our enemy and we're still flirting with the idea of how we can work with them because Karzai is THAT BAD. * The G8: It seems like years since this particular talking club has been truly relevant but 2009 will be the year that gets carved on their gravestone. Oh, they'll meet from time to time, but it'll be an exercise. The world has learned you can't throw an economic party without the economies that are actually driving global growth, home to the world's largest banks and the world's largest bank accounts. * Yemen and Somalia: While these two would almost certainly be finalists in any global Shithole of the Year competition -- building a Denny's in either of them would be a cultural transformation roughly akin to the onset of the Renaissance in Europe -- things got worse this year. These two blighted corners of the globe became the designated new havens for the world's worst bad guys which means that they will soon be receiving some of that extra special attention from the Untied States that has done so much the other countries on which we paint big red "X. * American Capitalism: Oh sure, we're recovering now. At least that's what helps me sleep at night (after I tuck all my earthly possessions into the hidden compartment in my mattress). But that's the problem, dontcha see? The biggest problem with the recent financial crisis was that it was not severe enough. The United States will continue to practice its form of lightly regulated, inequality boosting, corporate giant driven capitalism ... but now with all its flaws more exposed and, for the first time, while other approaches to capitalism producing greater growth. Not only is the world's economic center of gravity shifting ... so inevitably will be its philosophical center of gravity. * Steve Walt and the Realists: No, this is not another boy group put together by disgraced impresario Lou Pearlman. Instead it is a group of political scientists who conjured up one of those self-congratulatory labels for themselves (like "smart power" only even more insidious in how automatically dispatches anyone who opposes it) -- "realism." They thought Obama would see them as the alternative to the "idealism" of the Bush administration (how ironic can a label be?) But instead they discovered -- despite support from big names in the punditocracy-that Obama would defy labels (he rejected both "idealism" and "realism" in his Oslo speech) as he defined new ground as the ur pragmatist. And then on top of that, the core objective of realists -- ditching Israel -- didn't turn out to work so well as the new administration discovered what all before them have, we are allied with the Israelis not because they are perfect but because all the other alternatives are so lousy. * The EU: President who? A foreign minister with no experience with foreign affairs? When a faltering institution picks leaders whose only distinctions are that they are the least objectionable characters in the room, they are casting a big vote for irrelevance. We hear you, Europe ... adieu, auf wiedersehen, ciao. You'll be around for a while but just listen to your voice being drowned out in Copenhagen if you want to know what's actually happening on the global stage. * The dollar: Got a pair of pliers? I think I still have a gold filling in there somewhere that I can get to... * Entertainment ****** and Golf Journalists (tie): Kanye disses Taylor Swift which is a little bit like stomping on a kitten at a PETA convention. And in the year he becomes the first athlete to break the billion dollar barrier thanks to his extraordinarily well-crafted public persona, Tiger Woods crashes his Escalade into a fire hydrant and causes, I don't know, probably a few hundred million dollars in damage. And the only ones more red-faced than Tiger with the revelations that he seemed to be playing more than just 72 holes every weekend have to be the media who cover golf who have apparently known about the story for years but just neglected to write it. And, the winners: (Read on) * Barack Obama: Did I mention that he also has a lovely wife and family? A cute dog? Clearly, Barry O is the big winner of the year and the single individual who made the biggest difference on the global stage during 2009. We can tear him down in years to come but face it, the guy's a phenomenon and all things considered, the entire planet is better off at the end of the year thanks to the choices he has made as president. * Chimerica: I hate this cute hybrid name. Probably because I didn't come up with it. But look at the scoreboard folks, in 2009 there wasn't a major challenge on the global stage that wasn't in large part defined by how these two powers chose to act. It's a watershed for weltanschaungs everywhere. * The Taliban: See above. Nine years ago we went to Afghanistan to bomb these guys into the Stone Age only to discover the only political infrastructure in the country belonged to these women-hating living fossils of dark ages gone by. Now, the search for Bin Laden has effectively been replaced by the search for a "moderate Taliban." Why? Because one was the reason we went in and the other is our ticket to get out. * Asif Ali Zardari: I'll admit it, I'm no fan. He's a lousy president. He's totally unreliable. His government is a feeble joke and barely keeps a lid on the most dangerous country in the world. But he's still alive at the end of 2009 and still in office and frankly, both defy the odds in a big way. Everything's relative. * The G20: See the G8 above. (But face it; the G20 is really just a beard for getting China, India and Brazil seats at the head table. Everybody else there is just a speech the real decision-makers have to sit through before they tell the rest of the members what decision the big guys have agreed to.) * The Superclass: This is just my way of sending a note of thanks to Lloyd Blankfein for defending the premise of my last book (Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making) by turning the biggest failure of the ruling class into yet another obscene payday. If you ever doubted their power, just look at how they shrugged off government interference in markets until they needed it, then profited on it and excused the government from further involvement. Oh sure, there will be some financial reform ... but the big inequality driving, financial system jeopardizing flaws in the system these guys have created to serve their self-interests will remain ... and so will they. And I will remain violently opposed to them until they co-opt me with a big stinkin' check. * The IMF: For sure they were a dead institution walking. The Asif Ali Zardari of the global financial system. And like the Superclass, they emerge as a big winner of the financial crisis. They have more influence and people are even lusting after their SDRs. Which just goes to show: it kinda helps to be the only game in town. * Bibi: Admit it; you thought he would be disaster.But here's the reality, he engineered the most remarkable bit of political kung fu in Israeli history. All he did was turn Obama's initial realist-induced skepticism into the first time ever that an Israeli government benefited by having the United States seemingly turn against it. This in turn gave the Israelis much more leverage in the on-going peace discussions. (That and the problems with the Palestinians cited earlier.) Every time Obama or his team would lecture against a Netanyahu position, it would inadvertently help the sly Israeli PM. * Pragmatism: When the economy is circling the drain and existential threats are everywhere around you, posturing and slogans are seen for the window-dressing they are. Isn't it interesting that a U.S. president primarily known for his rhetorical gifts is crafting a presidency in which words are really secondary and everything is about the deal. (Arguably, in some cases, to a fault.) * Gold: Damn, I got the filling but now I am going to have use it to pay the dentist. Maybe I'll just wait until they extend Medicare down to my age group. * Avatar: Early reviews this week from London say this $500 million movie may change the industry. Given how lousy reality is, being able to conjure up entirely new ones (in 3-D even) seems like a great idea. PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images http://rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/12/14/2009s_winners_and_losers_the_international_editio n

Afghans turn to Taleban justice as insurgents set up shadow government When Habiba’s elderly husband was badly beaten in a village brawl there was only one place, she said, that she could turn to for help and justice. Barefoot and weeping, the farmer’s wife, 50, trekked for four hours through Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains to meet the local Taleban commander. “My feet were bleeding and I cried the whole way but I didn’t care about my safety,” she said. “We are poor people. We know the Government doesn’t help people like us.” Corruption and incompetence in President Karzai’s Government — particularly at local level — have forced a growing number of people to seek the services of the Taleban. The shadow government is not limited to justice. In Helmand, in August, Taleban commanders issued printed travel permits on headed notepaper from the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” to let people through checkpoints on the roads in and out of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. A senior Nato intelligence official admitted this week that the Taleban “has a government-in-waiting, with ministers chosen,” ready to take over the moment the current administration failed. He warned, in a bleak assessment of the insurgents’ strength: “Time is running out. Taleban influence is expanding.” The Taleban, which Nato says run shadow governments in 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, are only too willing to help settle local disputes. Their strict, if brutal, interpretation of Islamic law is often preferable to the lengthy and costly Government alternative. “My husband had a broken leg so he sent me to find Mullah Zafar,” Habiba said. “We don’t know anyone in the Government and we know they won’t solve our problems.” Mullah Zafar Akhund is the Taleban’s shadow governor in Jaghatu district, Wardak province, a short drive south of Kabul. Habiba’s husband, Abdullah, who is 20 years her senior, fought with a neighbour called Qasim over water rights. Village customs prescribe which fields should be watered at which times. Habiba said that Qasim was stealing the water when it was not his time and turned violent when her husband challenged him. “I waited two hours to see Mullah Zafar,” she said. “He listened to my story and sent three of his soldiers to come back to my village. They spoke to the village elders who told them the same thing. The soldiers beat Qasim and ordered him to give us his water for seven nights.” Habiba, an ethnic Hazara, is not a natural ally of the Taleban. Most of them are Pashtuns, and thousands of Hazaras were massacred under the Taleban regime. The insurgents have exploited local disputes that the Government cannot solve to gain footholds in new areas, irrespective of the ethnic divides. For many years, locals said, Mullah Zafar provided an alternative to Government institutions. Six months ago he felt sufficiently entrenched in Jaghatu to issue a decree that anyone found using Government services would face summary execution. “Not everybody likes them but they were good to me,” said Reza Yousef, one of Habiba’s neighbours with a similar experience of Taleban justice. He spent four years petitioning government officials for help with a land dispute. “They didn’t care,” he said. “It took Mullah Zafar four days. “Ten years ago we had a problem with our land,” he said. “One of our neighbours was powerful because he had connections [to a warlord] and he took some of our land. “When [Hamid Karzai’s] Government came I complained many, many times but they didn’t hear me.” Mr Yousef said that he could not afford the mandatory bribe to push his complaint through the system. He took his case to the village elders, or shura, and they ruled in his favour three times. His neighbour, Younus, ignored their decisions, confident that he was protected through his links to Karim Khalili, the Hazara warlord recently appointed as one of Mr Karzai’s vice-presidents. “It was around three years ago I went to Mullah Zafar and showed him the papers which prove the land is mine,” Mr Yousef said. “He sent four of his soldiers to my village to see for themselves and the next day he came to the village himself and held a shura with all the elders.” The meeting, overlooked by insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, was, in effect, a Taleban court. “Younus was hiding in the place where they keep cows but they found him and they beat him badly. His face was bleeding,” Mr Yousef said. Younus was exiled for two months and ordered to hand back the land. “If you complain to the Government it takes years; they ask you for bribes and you have to go to their offices every day,” Mr Yousef said. “That’s why people choose the Taleban.”