Alpha Blondy;921184 wrote: it was a little crude, but, if, possible, could you perhaps divulge the key contents of this threatening message....i know that NORF and Blessed are typical reer burao in their ways. also freedom of speech is crucially important and must be held in the highest regards at all times. its a little disappointing that such threats are all too familar on SOL in 2013. Unfortunately I cannot share the content of the messages, partly to preserve the privacy of the Private Messages but also because I do not want to further endanger my life, more than I have already done I might get shanked or something :eek: Your support is note Alpha, we need to let it be known that honetly will not silenced, the truth shall prevail! Its good to know you got my back, in case there is trouble :cool:

Bluelicious;921190 wrote: Have you only been to Somaliland? Hargeisa to Garowe and back (by land).

Malike I wasnt really planning to write this today so It is brief and un organised but below are some of my thoughts. If you have any specific questions, please ask and I'll do my best to answer them. The youth & the state of the society. The youth I took a keen interest in the youth while I was there and I saw a number of things. There was good and bad. I saw that the vast part of the total population is youth. Our population is a very young one where there are probably more children than middle aged or older people. I saw an ambitious, aware and inquisitive youth more cultured, educated and aware than the Somali youths of past generations. A very large number of these youths have gone to school and are literate, they regularly use computers and the internet throught internet cafe's and a very large number of the youth now have mobile phones - enabled by cheap phones imported from China. In addition to schools, those who can afford it go to extra night lessons in English, Maths, Arabic, quranic classes etc. But many cannot afford education or health. These youth are very bright, inquisitive and full of life - they have never seen conflict and only know the times of peace. Howevery they desperate lack in opportunities for further education and jobs. They will go to primary secondary school and some go to university. WHen they have completed their education there is nothing for them to do. Many then leave the county and go on tahriib - in fact this is still the case although the routes have changed with less going through Yemen but through Sudan instead. Some of the youth are finding employment in the comapnies and in government with the large employers being xawalas, Telcomms companies, the military. Local companies are also growing in scale and employing more youth one example being local furniture manufacturers who take on apprentices, train them, salary them. As more investment is made into factories and the like, more jobs are generated. But the quality of the education is not very good at all and girls are still very often kept behind to "look after the house and younger siblings". Men as ever are very absent and the mothers take the responsiblity of running the homes and they represent 90%+ of traders. The country is a country of women and children, where all the men have gone, nobody knows. There are a very large number of orphans whose father has died in the wars. There are even more mentally ill persons. The young men are a problem group. They are layabouts more so than the young women - who have found solace by marrying returning elderly men and becoming their holiday wifes. Qat, alcohol and smoking is a problem among young men and also young women to a lesser extent. Despite the blaring adhan from the mosques, I saw a place as morally corrupt as the Western Countries. This is especially the case for those born into wealthy familities or who have family abroad - they were born after the 90's, have never seen hardship but yet have nothing to do by way of work. SO they eat, sleep, chew qat, drink alcohol and fornicate. Seriously. The youth still keep in touch with the nomadic culture. It is routine that youth are sent into the mii/baadiye' for the duration of the school holidays. Community spirit Somalis are good neighbours, they really are. The community spirit is stong and lively - people eat together, watch eachother children, do shopping for eachother etc. It was heart warming to see young kinds playing footbal on the streets in peace and hanging around in their groups without hassling anybody on the street as you might see in Western countries. On one occasion there was a fight between two young kids on the street and an elderly woman who was walking past intervened, pulled them apart and told them to stop fighting. They listened to her and she gave them a good smack too. The community spirit is stil alive. I saw that the people are very peaceful and friendly. No one will start trouble with you, call you "dhaqan celis" or even stop and stare at you (for the most part). Only Oromos will beg and hassle you. Everyone else goes on with their business and treats you as just another Somali (well if you speak good Somali anyway, if not you might have a different experience). And dont bother trying to "fit in" or wear clothes that make you look like a local, they will spot you from a mile away Mental illness On every street you will find several people chained up or you hear their screams as you walk down the street. these are people who lost their sanity in the harsh conflict years and they receive no treatment. You will see naked mentally ill men along the highway, especially as you travel between the cities, who just wonder along. their clothes are ripped, they are malnurished, they have long bears and timo raamoobay - they are known as the crazy men. The number of mentally ill people whose illness does not translate into noticable signs is even greater becaus you can tell from how people behave that they are not ok. I would say that up to 70% of the adult populace has some sort of mental illness. Theft and burglary is a serious problem. Every night there is a break in. Thiefes are becoming very daring and nobody can stop them. It is said that they are Oromos/Ethiopians career thieves but they are never cause because they dissappear into the night. They will come to your house at the dark of night, armed, park outside, break the windows come in with weapons take EVERYTHING and nobody can do a thing. If you have bars ont he windows, they will get roped, attach them to the bumper of their car and the window frame of your house and pull the entire window frame out, clean out your house and leave. Burglary is a real problem. It is not entirely safe for women to walk around at night, it has been known that where are men who hide in the dark streets and alleys and prey on women and girls to rape them. Although I felt very safe to wonder about at night, women are not so safe to walk alone. Private security firms are forming in the cities where armed private secutiry will guard your street during the night where every house in the street will pay a fee - no doubt that this system is open to abuse in that if you refuse to pay the security guards they might dress up as thieves and burglar your house to incentivise you to take up their service. Unemployment & underdevelopment unemployment is rife. People really have nothing to do. They sleep, wake up and have breakfast if they can afford it, pray, sleep at duhur, wake up and eat, pray maqrib, and sleep. All year round. The lack of opportuntiy and lack of economic activity is shocking. The lack of infrastructure is also very obvious. The main problem is the bad leadership and lack of skilled human resources. What you have is unskilled nomadic people that have come to live in the cities - they sit there and await the monthly $100 from their gacal in the diaspora. The country needs its educated people to bring it level with the modern world and to make use of the resources of the country and realise its opportunity. The new educated youth needs to be mobilised in productive economic activities. The country is very scantily populated - between the major cities there is very little life. Everybody has an immediate family member who is either in the diaspora or has recently tahriibed. You get the feeling that a huge portion what would have been the population is abroad. Healthcare Healthcare is in its entirety private and out of the reach of 95% of the people. Although some free vaccinations for kids are done every so often with the support of the NGO's, it is very difficult and expensive to get treatment for any other disease. Most diseases that cannot be treated because of lack of equipment, drugs or because the patient cannot pay the costs, are a death sentence. This is a really big problem area. Infant mortality if also a huge problem because there is a lack of care and the care that is there is centred in the large cities, by the time the women are brought to the city's its already days or hours too late.

Malika;921179 wrote: ^I am interested on your observation of the 'youth' and their role in the society..baal taasi igu hore..thanks in advance. Of course dear Malika.

^^ Nuune you think I am joking, the number of times I was told "mediaha sawirro xun ha naga gelinin", they keep a tight leash on what pics you take looool

I have been receiving threats via PM to edit my comments about Burco boodhweyn, can you believe it :eek: looool

Where did I get up to?... More to come. The countryside & landscape The isbaarooyin aka checkpoints The villages Berbera - kulayl iyo horumar Sheikh - doog iyo naxariis Tooray city - burco boodhweyn Garowe - the quiet nice place. Businesses - general overview. The youth & the state of the society. None existing governance & a place completely devoid of good leadership

The reason why nobody takes pictures of Burco is because darxummada iyo foolxumadda meesha ayaa Burcaawiska looga xilqarinayaa. I was in Burco, walking down the dusty road towards Tuweli market and I get my camera out. To my right was a high heap of vile trash - rotting meat and blood from the butchers, plastic containers, rubbish, basically all the trash from the market. This old man who was walking in the oposite direction stops and comes stand next to me. He stands there for a while and watches me take a picture (of the market and not the heapes of trash). He then steps forwards and dares to say "meesha ha naga sawirin" "sawiro foolxun mediaha ha naga gelinin". I was gobsmacked by his audacity and pretty pissed off, I told him to sod off, "war naga tag, meeshaanu doorna ayaanu sawiraynaa ee" I'll take a picture of whatever I like. I thought to myself, haduu gartay inuu qashinku xun yahay oo dhibaato yahay, why not take to initiative to clean up the rubbish or mobilise the populace. Honestly I took very few pictures because there wasnt a whole lot to take pictures off. You are not missing out on much. Burco is certainly an experience, nice people and a very "Soomaali" town/city but it is a place in permanent economic stagnation.

Cool thread, some great ideas and very interesting to read. But... Nuune this is a wish list. Forgive me in advance if I accuse you wrongly because I have not read everything in this thread. And it is not bad to have a wish list if you have the finances to buy the things yout want. But if you do not have those finances it is perhaps better to formulate first how you are going to get those finances. The projects you have talked about require billions upon billions of dollars to be invested in them. Several things I picked up on: - One thing you did not mention is financing, how will this be financed? - The second and other is sustainability... both are interlinked. - You only talked about public infrastructure, and not so much the private sector. What the New Somali Republic needs to focus on is sustainable job-creation by investing in industries that bring in hard currency. This will mean a particular focus on labour intensive industries as our current labour pool is for the vast majority unskilled labour. - Your expectations of job creation are excessive and is not something that the Somali economy can realize. Of the 10m population, >50+ is non-working age. The working population is a small percentage of the total population. If things worked out the way you envisage, Somalia would need to import labour because the sheer amount of jobs created would exceed what our labour market can supply. - What you envisage is an enormous mammoth public sector - this is something that is not economically viable, beneficial or desired. We need our labour to engage in productive sustainable economic activities and not bureaucracy/living off the public purse.... 50,000 coast guard, seriously ?... that's excessive man. 1m people or 10% of the total population employed in the heallth sector... to say that is an unrealistic expectation would be an understatement. But having said all of the above, you have a good idea about what we need and are sincere in your desire for Somalis to realise development and enhancement in the quality of life. Kudos to you, we need more like you.

Che -Guevara;919330 wrote: Someone else that went there came back with the same impression. I guess we are yearning for any normalcy and are caught in the euphoria. Yep. As it was described to me the entire city is in ruin, public infrastructure is obliterated and there are heaps upon heaps of trash on every street, dire living conditions in general

AUN

AUN, the 10 Feb is near now.

St. Valentinus day approaching.

Imagine you'd invested back then. :eek:

study time!

Apophis;916971 wrote: Snake? Tentacles? Semi-Kenyan?? WTF is this bacaac?? Apophis;916881 wrote: Been badna. Isli isn't quite because the generous and life sustaining unuka decided to move to Xamar but rather most Somalis are avoiding the area because of the upcoming elections and all the shenanigans that brings. Kenya haterz don't celebrate just yet . You are quite persistant in defending Kenya. I see you, subtly propagating your pro-Kenyan spin.

This has happened to me, very embarrasing. She cowered away from me, from my hand-shake - the fear on her face - the experience still haunts me. You would have thought I was attacking her, but on reflection it was her right to do so, though at the time I didnt quite know what to make of it. Cawaale;906196 wrote:

Alpha Blondy;916961 wrote: yeah bro. still here and doing well. how are things with you and what are these interesting stuff happening in your life? its good to hear you are doing well, Alxamdulilah ithings are well here too. As for what's happening, suffice to say unexpected directions, new environments, different people, new mindsets. I know i'm being criptic, but something tells me this is going to be a very interesting year, I have a hunch, though I know now what lies ahead. You never know, I might beat you to the TV screen ol' chap! haha But yh

nuune;916964 wrote: Alpha, I see you like when complimented, I know it is human behavior, and people can't hold their emotions, is this another way of seeking fame, or sharaf, I am not saying you don't have any sharaf left for you, but I believe your earlier comment that you will be a good politician who willbe on TV 24 hours, aka Saddam and Gadafi style, Allahuma Yarxam both Nuune, apparently humans like nothing more than the "sound" of their own name; what do you make of that statement? I would think this also the case in the online internet environment.

Disregard this thread folks, I just wanted your perspectives on a thought and the perspectives that WaranleWarrior, Qansaxmeygaag, GheelleT and others have explained it well.

ASC, How is everyone doing this fine evening, i've not frequented SOL in a little while but i've had a quick look around in the past 10min or so. It has been an interesting few weeks/months for me personally, with a lot of stuff happening and more interesting weeks and months to come. Inshallah you are all doing well. My quick commentaite on members who fequent SOL. I presume that Alpha Blondy is still "in Hargeisa" and his posts as entertaining and eccentric as ever, Narniah is still battling with the conondrums of love (jke) haha - I saw your thread and wanted to give you some heartfelt advice but unfortunately did not have the time, the semi-kenyan Apophis has been expanding his tentacles across SOL, the [reasonable] snake in our midst as I have previously called him. Che Guavera I find myself agreeing with you time and again, keep up the good work. Seccionist Xaaji Xunjuf to an extent has calmed on the politics posts and mellowed from his rhetoric, and Xiin-Faniin to an extent also. The Professor is M.I.A, ever since he was threatened by Ethiopian interests and his life was in risk - one wonders what became of his fate. Oba is currently providing the best picture thread and the most entertainment value through his posts, keep it up the good work lad :cool: Aaliyah I see you are about, how are you doing. Also, have you blocked your Private Message feature?... I was going to PM you a while back but this was not possible, give me a chance to remember what I was going to say to you if you might change the PM settings, I might just remember what it was. Can't think of anything else or who might deserve an honourable mention. Ah, of-course, Bluelicious, alles goed met u ook!

And you are perfectly normal.

QansaxMeygaag;916690 wrote: Then why do they make fun of me? They say "oi, here comes the Bishop"! They are just taking the mick, its no biggie. And perhaps they are subconsciously expressing that they would feel less bad about their "balwad" if you (to your own detriment) partook in it with them or also had a balwad. Peer pressure. Misery loves company.

http://www.somaliaonline.com/community/showthread.php/69747-So-called-Imam-rapes-and-kills-5-year-old-daughter-gets-5-months-in-jail.-Saudia-is-EVIL!!

Salaam, maxaa la hayaa caawatan?