Mintid you are losing your marbles awoowe! What gives? Kismayo is on the move awoowe. Peaceful gathering by the residents of the region to decide their future within Federal Somalia. And decide they did. Juba State will be the second federal state in the SFG. Throw the book at them and they will come out unscathed for they have the constitution on their side [Due to loop hole-ridden and unfinished draft ] Imisaan niri war document marka hore meel saar inta aadan dagaal siyaasadeed oo dhicis ah aadan galin So far so good. I can tell ya that folks in Gannaane seem to be sure of themselves for a good reason. Remember JL proponents are supportive of their government -- fully supportive. That is -- they don't question its legitimacy but they do have reservation about its policy toward federalism and its implementation. Folks with different political goals and objectives have always clashed politically. This political difference between the opposing sides are conducted in peaceful manner. That's really great. We should be happy about this new developement. They are for Somalia that gets its grooves back. They want to see a just government cognizant of its responsibilities and the rights of its citizens, mindful of the dark chapter the country has just emereged from, and willing to learn from the causes of the civil strife that descended the country into anarchy and so on. For those who expect Somali civil war veterans to waive the flag and sing kumbaaya for the President a la Guulwade style awoowe you have my sympathy. That era is over. Twain said it best -- "Patriotism is supporting your COUNTRY all the time, and your government when it DESERVES it. As the sarifaad biz you seemed to be peddling here in the forum -- awoowe it's all good. Clan segmentation is the oil that greases the partisan clan politics. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? We may see internal clashes due to untamed ambitions and what not. So far so good. Other than intensive campaigns and subclan horse trading things are proceeding exceptionally and smoothly wonderful. Awoowe noted that you and a handful secessionists want to see a different results Understandable .

Oodweyne what's the difference between Ethiopians that supported Col. Yussuf's drive to get rid of UIC and the Ethiopians that supported Tuur in his drive to get rid of Inna Siyad Barre. I know you are emotional and I understand your faith in rightousness of durriyada creed but please, if you would, try to your best to be rational in your reasoning on this one Don't start in throwing mud slings as that would only make us look juvenile

The author of this piece should take solace from the fact that Obama WH has refused to head the unsoliceted advice from the likes of Sen. Linsey Graham who is up for re-election in the deep south state of SC.

^ If Oodweyne thainks Silanyo is looking out for them that is music to our ears . On your last para. you are giving away the ball buddy as you are implying the SFG can block the gate. Spin masters at work again I suppose our ESL is good enough to discern and interpret the language contained in the communique. The fact that we are reading the same communique and drawing a different conclusion from it is a sign of how proponents and opponents of secession are injecting their own wishes to the document. I guess we can all agree that SFG is the gatekeeper of the territory under Somalia that once existed. We can also agree that existing recovery zones have been given assurances that Mogadishu will not have the power to dictate or change the rules of the game without their consent. We can also agree that Somaliland is special case in the sense that the admin in charge was not part of the roadmap and the placeholder (clan-wise) is coming off as it should be. We can also agree that powers that be are force for moderation in the sense that while they empower SFG and recognize it as the sole authority of Somalia they still want to manage this crucial post-conflict transition period. Somaliland has arrived and is now at dirrin. We the unionists said it so few years back that’s where Somalis will end up. Now they are at the dirrin and they are talking about the issues that matter to Somalia’s unity. That’s a progress. Ngonge has asked several times what’s in it for Somalia. The answer is simple. A lot! Somalia is a recognized sovereign state. Somaliland wants to change the status. To do so they are forced to sit the head of the household. All the communique you are rubbing on our faces says is that Somalia will talk to their brothers and will ensure that they get their share of the pie until the talks are finalized one way or another. That’s all awoowe. Now on Khatumo! They have my sympathy. That’s all I can say. Their politicians are not shrewd enough to unite their folks and play this cutthroat game like a pro. But no worries Hassan has their back. If he drops the ball, Farole is there to pick it up for them.

Driven by clannish interest and the need to level the playing field so that what transpired during military junta cannot be repeated, Somali politics has entered more divisive clan-politiking phase. If adopted in its current form, federalism will institutionalize clan interests as legitimate constituent interest group. The only limiting factor to the clan federation political paradigm is geography and it appears committee that was tasked to draft the constitution slipped in a clause that will minimize this inconvenient pump on the road to normalized Tribalism. Since all stakeholders have accepted Federalism let’s count the ways each stakeholder would like to handle it if he gets the upper hand in the wrestle of Somali clan dinosaurs. Hassan Sheekh and constituents he represents would like to see Somalia as three major federal member states with minor corrective action done to smooth the geographical edges of the provisional administrative regions. South Somalia (former administrative regions governed from the center. Regions whose governors are appointed by the President) Puntland Somaliland Faroole and his allies in the south have another vision in mind. Puntland Jubaland Part of Somaliland (Kahtumo is in PL) Bay/Bakool/Sh.Hoose Central Somalia ***Mogadishu becomes nuetral capital of FS or else the status of the capital will be settled through the constitution by finding willing clan to sacrifice their flagship city in return of the coveted capital with all its economic and political status conferred to their territory. Siilaanyo and his advisers have a different ball game to play. They want confederacy between former British and Italian Somaliands. Somaliland Somali Proper

malistar2012;937103 wrote: crying for Kenyans and jubile when Somali citizen voiced his opinion gets arrest is a sham and embarrassing ... Sxb HAG Fought The Ethopian Invasion and influence... Kenyans are weak ... This is direct attack to Somali i sovereignty ,,, At time when Somali National Army is getting new Weapons to Play with kenyans are playin with fire....... Kenyans Naked aggression against Somali Citizens and land will be their downfall. They wan keep Somali in war and anarchy fearing a Strong Somali will crumble Kenyans Economy .... Yaaba is dhegaysanaya. Wallahi waa la isku wareersan yahay. War heedhe bal horta si miyir ah isu dhageysta si haddalku xubin la qabto u yeesho. Laan dheere gob ahaan jiray ooy gocashadii heyso, Iyo kii gaabnaan jiray oo haatan garab taagan, Gadda kaa yahaa, kan kale, gaar is leeyahay e, Labadaa garaad ee gudboon yaw garniqi doona. By Cisman Yussuf Keenadiid circa 1950s during UN Trusteeship.

N.O.R.F;937078 wrote: ^See other thread. Xiin, how will Jubbaland receive parliamentary approval? If the Parlaiment takes up the motion regarding to Juba Federal State (JFS) then the approval will follow its normal parlaimentary procedure course. Simple majority will decide if creation of federal member state of JFS is in accordance with the constitution. NORF bro the system and the institutions that support it are work in progress. They are not fully developed. That being the case there are several senerios: If the Parlaiment does not take the issue up, the JFS is constitutional by default. The opposition could take its grievances to the Constititional Court. As you may know two critical institutions have yet to be established -- House of Elders or the Upper House and Constitutional Court. Also parliamentary procedure that governs meetings of legislative bodies is yet to be developed. The machinary of the state needs a lot of oolyo garaaso as they say in Xamar However you look the JLS case, the center managed this issues very poorly and today the political momentum is with JFS

What did this Xaad guy say and who is he?

I don't know. If I were to buy a land I wouldn't buy plots that are hot now in this bullish seller's market. The urban areas of the country do not have infrastructure for a modern city. Sooner or later the sewage problem will come up and the government will have no choice but to address this problem. Bringing in trucks fitted with suction pumps and hoses is not gonna cut it. Go for a ranch or beach property outside your prefered area. If you were to buy a 20x20 plot in Kismayo or Mogadishu you will have to pay crazy sum. This makes sense for rental property but not for primary residential home. I'm assuming you are in the west and would want to maintain that lifestyle. In that case go for the properties far from the overcrowded faras magaalaha. Price-wise they are bargain plus folks are not that interested in them. Health-wise they are ideal. The biggest draw is you can have some say in the planning and zonning aspect of the properties of the area. If you have the pennies recruit like-minded folks who are interested in what I listed above and proceed with caustion for if you are not committed the price tag is humengous.

NGONGE;936724 wrote: ^^ It's the furstration that everyone feels when confronted with the mad mullahs that have swept the Islamic world (be it Shabab, Qaacida or Muslim brotherhood). War ka daa. Muslim Brotherhood is a league of their own awoowe. I wouldn't put them in the same category of AS and Qaacida.

^Waa markaad iska dhigi jidhay an authority of Af-Soomaali . It's typo bro. It does happen.

Ngonge, If this is all you got then we don't have anything to discuss . Since this discussion is not going anywhere the best thing to do is to wait the outcome of the upcoming meeting. https://p.twimg.com/Av6wsgHCAAAj1vX.jpg:large

Kenya has its deamons to deal with. Let's hope for our sake that Kenyatta has the wisdom to do what's right for all Kenyans.

Awoowe waxa la ii qaatay in aan SOL isagga maqnaado sababta oo ah shaqadii bay iga dayaceysaa. Xiin awoowe Ngonge is struggling here so you gotta lend him a hand. On the one hand, he is trying to calm down Oodweyne before he lashes out and indicts adder Siilaanyo and HJ cabbal On the other hand Ngonge wants to sell the project. Ngonge, Again awoowe you are assuming that President Hassan signed off long list of pre-conditions before he agreed to have the meeting. Awoowe waxba lagam aqaban karo all these assumptions you are making out of thin air. True Khatumo is the wilderness because the talks between one of the northern clans represented by their admin and the executive head of post-conflict Somalia. He’s trying to bring them from the cold. Silaanyo is there to put a price tag of the grand compromise. True President Hassan has not consulted House of the People because he does not intend to change the constitution nor does he want to nullify the social contract that brought him to power and set Somalia on the recovery path. Hassan’s administration recalls how happy jubilant residents of Khatumo controlled area were about him winning the presidency. Somali government has Khatumo under its column. Hassan is interested in bringing Habraha from the cold. That’s the crux of the matter. Negotiations are all about leverage. Silaanyo will claim what he could and Hassan knows about clans, where they reside and who controls what area. Unless now defunct British colonial legacy is what Silanyo intends to use as leverage. Yes PL is represented by SFG. At the same token PL is a federal member state with defined borders. I just don’t understand how you could ignore the facts with straight face. The truth is that if Ceerigaabo fate is to be decided one way or another, a national commission has to be appointed. Nah! Awoowe it’s the other way around. Somalia is a sovereign state with recognized borders. It is a recovering state. It has challenges and obstacles to overcome. World powers are helping post-conflict Somalia meet these challenges. Secessionists noise is a one line of a long list of monumental challenges Somalia has to overcome.

Oodweyne posts while entertaining and fun to read it's Ngonge who has what it takes to sell the package I ain't buying his expired eggs though cuz I can smell them from dhow meter! The beauty of Ngonge’s argument is that it’s simple, clear and well structured. He covers almost all the basis. But that’s where its strength ends. If you are not endowed with critical reasoning abilities the chances are you would buy the whole bucket without inspection. Awoowe the strength of an argument rests on numerous things. Assumption is one of the things on which an argument depends on. Ngonge is making a lot of assumptions here. If SOLers ignore personal biases he brings to the discussion and instead they try to isolate the nerve center of his argument they will find that he makes the following baseless assumptions: 1. Khatumo clans have no voice or input in resolving the secession issue. 2. President Hassan is a dictator who can make the final call without consulting and ultimately obtaining the votes of two thirds of members of The House of the People of Federal Somali Republic. 3. Somaliland administration represents all the regions that historically fall under now defunct former Somaliland British Protectorate. 4. Somaliland administration is in full control of SSC and Eastern Sanaag. 5. The dispute between Puntland and Somaliland over their overlapping borders is either irrelevant to the discussion or it’s over in favor of SL. If you agree with his assumptions about this issue then SL is on its way to attain the golden cup and adeer Silaanyo is leading the way

The man represents one of the Habraha subclans That sort of bravado is music to hardcore secessionists herd

Self-defeating act. Headline-grabbing and newsmaking act, yes, but to what end?

How to Provoke National Unrest with a Facebook Photo Posted by Emily Greenhouse April 8, 2013 In the middle of March, a nineteen-year-old Tunisian woman named Amina Tyler posted two topless photos of herself on Facebook. In one, she looks straight at the camera, her middle fingers up, with the words “**** Your Morals” painted across her bare chest, the black “O” of “morals” not quite closing over her navel. In the other, she is wearing eyeliner, or maybe kohl, and bright lipstick, her mouth compressed into a tight frown. Between a book in her right hand and a cigarette in her left, scrawled down her chest in four lines are the Arabic words ”My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honor.” Tyler founded a Tunisian chapter of the radical feminist group FEMEN a month prior, in February, after seeing photos of the group’s activists online. Based in Kiev, FEMEN counts over a hundred and fifty thousand active members and has become famous—to quote the organization’s Wikipedia page—for its “noticeably erotic rallies,” strictly topless, against groups and individuals it perceives as corrupt, including the sex industry, the Church, sharia courts, Vladimir Putin, and Silvio Berlusconi. It may seem laughable for a group’s sole membership criterion to involve taking your shirt off and photographing yourself. But many Tunisians were not laughing. Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, has, according to Human Rights Watch, “long [been] viewed as the most progressive Arab country with respect to women’s rights.” Yet, in the two years since the revolution, Islamism has been on the rise—the Islamist party Ennahda was voted into power in October, 2011—and women’s rights have deteriorated. In a recent Times article, Chema Gargouri, the President of the Tunisian Association for Management and Social Stability, notes a worryingly restrictive direction since President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fell. “The dictatorship was pro-woman,” she said. “The hatred against the dictatorship is expressed through action against women.” The ultraconservative Salafis, in particular, have gained in might since 2011. They seem ill-equipped to deal with the possibilities of public broadcasting afforded by the World Wide Web. The Salafi cleric Almi Adel, leader of Tunisia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, called for Tyler to be “punished according to sharia, with eighty to a hundred lashes, but [because of] the severity of the act she has committed, she deserves be stoned to death.” He warned that “her act could bring about an epidemic. It could be contagious and give ideas to other women. It is therefore necessary to isolate [the incident]. I wish her to be healed.” Tunisian media reported that she could be punished by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to a thousand dinars (about six hundred and twenty dollars). The Thursday after Tyler’s photos went up, an Islamist activist hacked the Facebook page of FEMEN’s Tunisian branch, posting religious videos and verses. One message read, “Thanks to God we have hacked this immoral page and the best is yet to come.” Another said, “The page has been hacked and God willing, this debauchery will disappear from Tunisia.” In the meantime, news agencies frantically reported that Tyler had been committed to a psychiatric hospital, that her parents had disowned her. Bochra Bel Haj Hmida, a women’s rights attorney who says she is representing Tyler, insisted that she was home with her family. When I tried to contact Tyler through Bel Haj Hmida, she replied with a one-word email that simply said “Bonjour.” She has not otherwise responded to requests for comment. In late March, Tyler told Italian journalist Federica Tourn that she believed she would be beaten or raped if Tunisian police tracked her down. She claimed that “nothing they could do would be worse than what already happens here to women, the way women are forced to live every day. Ever since we are small they tell us to be calm, to behave well, to dress a certain way, everything to find a husband. We must also study to be able to marry, because young guys today want a woman who works.” But women, she said, are ready for change: We “have reached the height of self-determination: we no longer obey any authority, neither family nor religious. We know what we want and we make our own decisions.” On Sunday, Canal Plus broadcast the first interview with Tyler since reported death threats sent her into hiding. From a village some hours from the Tunisian capital, Tyler said, “I’m afraid for my life and the lives of my family.” She told the French station that she “must leave Tunisia.” In Tyler’s honor, protesters declared last Thursday, April 4th, Topless Jihad Day. A petition in her defense had fifteen thousand signers, including outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins. In capital cities, university-aged women with crowns of orange and lilac flowers painted their torsos for solidarity: “Bare breasts against Islamism,” “No sharia,” “Free Amina.” In Paris, two dozen topless women making way toward the Tunisian embassy were averted by the police. Five women stood topless, bearing signs, in front of an Islamic cultural center in Brussels. Police in Kiev detained two women as soon as they arrived at the city’s only mosque. Three demonstrated outside the Tunisian embassy in Milan. Before a mosque in frigid-cold Berlin, a protestor named Alexandra Shevchenko announced, “We’re free, we’re naked, it’s our right, it’s our body, it’s our rules.” She spoke out against religious groups. “We’ll fight against them. And our boobs will be stronger than their stones.” On its Facebook page, FEMEN has issued a call for a new Arab Spring in a strongly worded statement against the “lethal hatred of Islamists—inhuman beasts for whom killing a woman is more natural than recognising her right to do as she pleases with her own body.” It pleads, “Long live the topless jihad against infidels!” To borrow their vernacular, “sextremism” in the name of “titslamism.” It’s easy to mock the tactics and language of FEMEN; posing naked is probably not the most effective way to fight the objectification of the female form and person. It’s even easier to lament the violent cries against Tyler. But as the blogger Sara Salem writes, it’s more complicated than a war between evil feminism—the cry of the Salafists—and evil Islamism, that of FEMEN. Some question the effect that online activism has in the real world, but Tyler’s image has no doubt provoked real consequence. To which she is the wiser: she told Canal Plus that she wants to leave Tunisia and study journalism abroad. In the digital age, no editor or mediator gets to decide how to frame a public battle. A woman has a room, a body, a camera, and a Facebook profile of one’s own. Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/amina-tyler-topless-photos-tunisia-activism.html

Kenya’s new president Apr 6th 2013 | NAIROBI |From the print edition IN A terse ruling on March 30th the judges of Kenya’s Supreme Court threw out petitions claiming that the presidential election held (with an array of others) earlier that month was stolen under the cover of a chaotic count. Uhuru Kenyatta, one of the richest men in the country, will be inaugurated on April 9th into the same office that his father Jomo held from 1964 until his death 14 years later. The loser and departing prime minister, Raila Odinga, won plaudits for accepting the court’s ruling, despite the “dismay” he expressed at the elections’ conduct. Though many of the 43% who voted for Mr Odinga feel aggrieved, most Kenyans have heaved a collective sigh of relief that the wide-scale violence and chaos that ruined the last election, in 2007, have mercifully been avoided. Yet the country remains badly split, largely along ethnic lines. Still, the stock exchange in Nairobi, the capital, responded bullishly to the judges’ verdict, with its strongest one-day rally in five years when trading recommenced on April 2nd. The Kenyan shilling reached its highest point for six months against the dollar. In the city’s glittering towers that have shot up in the past decade or so, traders spoke of Kenya reaching an “inflection point” presaging a drop in political risk. Foreign investors are expected to pile in. In the past, says Aly-Khan Satchu, a local financial pundit, it was political risk that held back the economy. Business leaders, many of whom hail from Mr Kenyatta’s Kikuyu tribe, the country’s biggest and richest, see him as one of their own. His first two appointments after the judges’ ruling were to inspect a port-development scheme worth $5 billion near the island of Lamu, at the northern end of Kenya’s coast, and to meet the country’s association of manufacturers. By most forecasts the economy should grow by 6% this year, up from 4% last. Recent oil and gas finds, added to geothermal and wind-power projects, may help the balance of payments and improve its erratic electricity supply. On the other hand, Kenya’s bloated government and the devolution required under the new constitution mean that money for even more essential infrastructure may be harder to find. The elections ushered in a bunch of senators and governors—posts that did not previously exist—whose costs may take at least 15% out of the national budget. But Kenya’s ratio of debt to GDP is a relatively healthy 45%, according to the IMF. And the country has a more robust tax base than most of its African peers, with revenues equivalent to 23% of GDP. With Mr Kenyatta in charge, the free-wheeling economy is expected to surge ahead. Three worries may, however, continue to dog the country—and its new leader. The first is corruption, which wastes vast amounts of public money, including aid from foreign governments. It also fuels anger among the mass of Kenyans, who resent the opulence of the political elite. Mr Kenyatta’s father, though revered as the founding president, is also held responsible for entrenching a system of corruption, greed and patronage that besmirches the country to this day. His son hails from an extended family that has long luxuriated in its wealth. To be sure, had Mr Odinga won, the scourge of corruption would have remained scarcely less potent. Second, and more egregiously, the election did little to dispel the old bane of tribalism. Mr Kenyatta’s victory was thanks more to his canniness in building tribal alliances that numerically outweighed those that Mr Odinga put together, than to any set of policies. Even Kenya’s burgeoning middle class seemed unable, as voters, to move much beyond tribal identities. Since the poll, Kenyans have been spitting ethnic vitriol at each other in their social media. John Githongo, a leading anti-corruption campaigner and advocate of political reform, says the election failed as a nation-building event. “Kenya emerged from this process far more polarised than ever before along tribal lines,” he laments. Though political violence has been averted for the time being and Mr Kenyatta is bound to appoint a cabinet that reflects the country’s ethnic diversity, tribal grievances over land and politics could yet erupt. The third worry is the new president’s indictment by the International Criminal Court at The Hague on charges related to the violence that followed the previous election, in 2007. Many of the Western governments and lobbies that invested heavily in trying to secure a fair election hoped Mr Odinga would win. Now they have to decide how to handle the new president. European Union ambassadors are already divided between self-proclaimed pragmatists who say it is essential, given Kenya’s position at the hub of a volatile region, to co-operate warmly with him, and those who are keener to uphold international justice, even if it harms relations with Kenya’s new government. Britain and America have publicly congratulated Mr Kenyatta and his new government, while privately warning that if he or his running mate and fellow indictee, William Ruto, cease to co-operate with the court, relations with the West could deteriorate fast. That seems unlikely at present. Mr Kenyatta’s lawyers are pressing the court to drop the charges against him after the case against one of his co-accused, Francis Muthaura, a former head of the civil service, collapsed. Witnesses who were brave enough to give evidence against a well-known politician must now weigh the risk of testifying against a head of state who controls a formidable security and intelligence service. Mr Kenyatta’s defence may be among the “best financed and most intimidating ever seen,” says a lawyer close to the international court. Several key witnesses have dropped out. The court is not expected to ask Messrs Kenyatta and Ruto to visit The Hague before August. Meanwhile, editorials in newspapers friendly to the new president have begun to call for tighter controls on foreign funding for anything from helping human-rights groups to digging wells in the arid north. Those who want to hold the new government to account fear this could be a prelude to a crackdown on dissent. Kenyans are hoping that their country’s 42m-odd people can cope with adversarial politics without coming to real blows. Source: http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21575775-uhuru-kenyatta-below-comes-power-wave-cautious-optimism-he-must

WW, if that's the case then let him run. If the competition is smart and shrewd then they will capitalize his shortcomings by leaking that tidbit and have a third party supporter drive the issue.

Ngonge awoowe you are absolutely correct about clan and clan-leaning emotions among folks being a fact. I was just poking fun at your taste of what insult is more refined and qualifies to be added to the coveted status of Reer Magaal. That's all By the way your write-up will change the discourse of the forum, I hope.

Negative tribalism is a degenerative desease that needs to be eradicated. That much is agreed. Don't confuse clan with clannism . The former is THE building block of Somali society. Love it or hate it or despised it -- the fact that Somalis identify and equate their persobal/family interests to that of their kin, subcla, clan or even their umberrala tribe is a fact that cannot be wished away. As always true reformer would first try to minimize its influence and find another way to give confidence and assurance to tribalists that there social contract among all clans will treat all clans same.

@bilcaan Waryee Zack wallee reer Waamo waxbaa kuu galay. Awoowe ma galti baad tahay misse giir-giir? I agree with Gheele. Gandhi deserves recognition. However he has to compete, campaign and win enough support. The beauty of running a position like this is the candidate is forced to come out to the open and spell what he intends to do for interest groups X, Y, and Z. The challenge is satisfying all these opposing interests. I don't know what Gandhi intends to do and what sort of political platform he running on. What I gleaned from the interviews he's given is that he is a rational actor and understands the need to harmonize federal member states with the central government.

Classic Ngonge He is more concerned with the delivery than say...the bigotery, or let's say hmmm the undercurrent clanish motive that drives some of the discourses folks are having here. The take away from Ngonge’s write-up is that all insults and clannish underhand digs are not same. Some are more “poetic” refined and music to his ears than others. He found Oodweyne’s “Defeated Lot” and “Looted Inc.” to be eloquent and more refined. Our resident Ustaad Oodweyne qualifies the coveted class of Reer Magaal So much of Nogonge's conception of Reer Magaal P.S.: -- the forum has lately become little bit toxic and nomads sometimes take things personal are question poster's motive ahem! than the content of the post.

Outch! Zenawi monument in Jigjiga! The submission is almost complete.