Garissa county will hold a major investor forum in three weeks. Speaking in Garissa town, Governor Nadhif Jama said the forum will help market the county to potential investors and showcase its potential. "We are targeting small, medium and large scale investors to open up shop in our county with our main target being the more than 300,000 residents of Garissa in the diaspora," he said. Jama said there are discussions to co-host the exhibition with Wajir and Mandera counties, who are facing similar challenges. He said there is need to start build factories and industries to create job opportunities and industrialise the county whose economy is pastoralist based and has just one small textile industry. On the issue of devolution, the governor said the county is ready to take over all the functions devolved by the central government and will immediately embark on them. "We have the capacity to handle all these functions and we are ready for work. we have already put in place teams and measures to run all the aspects being devolved," said Jama. He called on residents to support the county government as it sets out deliver on its promises and not engage in side shows and divisive politics which he said hinder development. http://allafrica.com/stories/201308122230.html

Another pic of Karmel: Very nice landscaping.

Tallaabo;974596 wrote: I suspect nuune is the mukhalas. Just like xaaji xunjuf is the SOL's resident expert of all things Ukraine, nuune is the only man who talks about PNG in these threads and also as he is a frequent flyer he must have an insider knowledge about these f*to biciid islands. Waaryaa nuune ilasoo xidhiidh saaxiib inaadeerkay ayuu buufis ku dhacayee;)

Alpha Blondy;974560 wrote: fish farming? Haatu, Abti, since when did this poverty-stricken hell-hole have a coast? is uncle Ahmed 'Kibaki' Madoobe allowing access to Kismayo port? i have never heard the Queen's English vicariously abused like this. Af-Somaali maxaa u diiday? that Ifrah Ali, the radio presenter, would be good for a date or two, you know. Yes fish farming inaar, in the river. And yes of course we have a coast, it stretches from past Baraawe to Ras Kaambooni It was in English because it was made by the donors USAID or something like that. It's still terrible I know. Ifraax eh? You must be blind to spot her and miss the other one inaar

^^However, that said, progress has been made in the past 13 years or so. Thanks to grants from the Saudis and other donors, most of the city today has a supply of fresh tapped water. Although the supply isn't constant owing to mismanagement and water theft, it's a big improvement from fetching water on a donkey cart The city is also doing relatively well on the electrification front. Most houses are connected and the supply is actually pretty good without much blackouts and fairly cheap. Also, the sewage system for the town is being redevloped and expanded and should be complete in the next few years or so. So although there are challenges, some things are being done to overcome them. In the past two years a masterplan was made for the city (I posted a video about it on the Garissa thread) where it was properly structered with ring and arterial roads, parks, clinics, residential areas, commercial areas, industrial areas, an upgrade of the airstrip into a fully functional airport etc. However, due to lack of funding and other issues, it was put off until the county government was established so hopefully we should start seeing some progress since a lot of money was spent on developing that plan. If it does happen, then the city's industry and economy would grow exponentially.

YoniZ;974534 wrote: Thanks Haatu, I enjoyed watching the doc, huge educated youth potential. I wonder if the top university graduates from NFD ever come back to their counties and share the benefit with their communities not as politicians running for parliament but civil servants and entrepreneurs. You're welcome sxb. Unfortunately as Nuune said there's not much opportunity for the young graduates to secure jobs in the whole of NFD. Outside of like one bread making plant that I know of there's virtually no industry in the whole region. Sad I know. Even more unfortunate, our useless politicians do next to nothing for their people and the small amount that Nairobi sends for infrastructure development they share it between themselves. You see, the politics of the County is virtually run by two men and their minions, Mahad Kunnow and Duq Maxamuud. These two old men are the kingpins of Garissa and they literally decide who the next leader will be. The hapless common folk simply follow the directives of these 'elders' and after being paid 250 shillings each do as they're bid. Not a good system for accountability. However, there is some hope on the horizon. The new Governor of the county seems to be a good man with a vision. As of yet it's still too early to judge him but we have at least a slither of hope. On a side note, the city and region at large is truly rich. We have a year long river that can easily sustain industrial agriculture and supply fresh water. The city is also a huge animal market and transit route. If someone bothered to just set up just one slaughterhouse and sell off the meat and leather separately they would be rich. Unfortunately, the people with money from the region are all obsessed with real estate in Nairobi and Mombasa and the ones with the vision are penniless.

MMA, what would the Somalis of NFD gain from starting an uprising other than having their villages bombed, animals slaughtered and the women, children and elderly massacred? We tried that in the 60s and it didn't work. We'd much rather wait in peace in our homes for whatever Allah has in store for us than die in the bush wielding an AK-47.

Classified;974377 wrote: No Kacaan-era official, regardless of his/her clan background will ever be charged with war crimes because they simply have not done any crimes. When a rebel movement, funded by foreign enemy attacks the military barracks and cities of your country, the government of that country has the duty and right to defend itself and civilians against ANY rebels at all costs. You've got to be kidding me. Those Kacaan thugs killed and tortured many innocent people in the name of 'crushing' a rebellion and they deserve all the lawsuits that are lodged against them. On the other hand I dislike selective justice though.

You xaley baan ku riyooday this very scenario. I saw madoobe and culusow sitting side by side smilling and happy. madoobe was smiling and said "awalba anaga iyo dawladda dhib managa dhexeyn heshiskanna waxaan ku aamusiinaynaa nagnagta nimanka SSDF" sidaad doonta u qaado :D

^It's as if no one knows where we are I just came across the Garissa entry for the ease of doing business here: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/kenya/sub/garissa/#dealing-with-construction-permits It's amazing to see the amount of bureaucracy required but at least we're doing well compared to the rest of Kenya. We're ranked 1st for enforcing contracts, 3rd for dealing with construction permits and ranked 4th for the overall ease of doing business out of 13 cities beating cities such as Nairobi, Narok and Kisumu. Not bad I say :cool:

We definitely need more of this kind of stuff. We have a lot of educated youth with a lot of good ideas that just lack the funds and guidance to make those ideas a reality. It also creates sustainable job growth for the town.

^^^All true Salafis clearly showing the salafi position as it pertains to those takfiris.

Sh Salih bin Muhammad Al Luhaydan on Al Qaeda and Bin Laden (audio): http://www.4shared.com/audio/QkJD54Uk/Sheikh_Salih_bin_Muhammad_al_L.html Sh Saleh Al Fawzaan on Bin Laden (audio): http://www.takfiris.com/takfir/assets/audio/sh-s-fawzan-on-benladen.mp3 A very well written response addressing Anwar Al Awlaki's ficticious claim of salafiyyah which can be applied to other takfiris like Al Shabab etc: http://www.takfiris.com/takfir/assets/docs/awlaki-is-qutbi.pdf

^Ninna waxtarkooda ma xaqirayo, balse waxaan ku leheeyahay labo aan is lahayn baad isbarbar dhigtay. Inkastoo uu gaal yahay, haddana waa in la aqoonsadaa odayga waxtarkiisa, oo runtii kuwa kale aysan gaareyn waayo konton sano ayuu mashruucaas waday welina wuu wadaa.

They aren't salafi.

^All they did was remove the rocks and flatten it. Even then I doubt they did it using their own hands like that old man.

Got bored of your other nick?

Carafaat, when you went to Hargeysa did you get the red carpet treatment since you are part of those circles nowadays?

NFD 4.9 million lol? Nuune malaha reer Joore iyo sarif baad midkiiba boqol boqol u xisaabisay Car sarbeebtaas fahan

Man JB is useless. He still hasn't said what it means.

Very funny. Does anyone know where I can find the full talk?

It's actually not bad but certainly not worth 10 million. Whiffs of corruption me thinks.

Allyourbase;973875 wrote: What worries me is the fact that those who hold such history are dying off and surprisingly there isn't an initiative to record this vast and valuable historical resource. With regards to literature, well I am well aware of our prowess in verse, but there is not much of a Somali library is there? Books in folk tales and fiction should be quite popular I would've thought. Haatu, how would you explain the lack of development in pictorial narrative in Somalia? I mean, the cave paintings are an example of our innate ability and they would rival those seen in places like France etc It's very worrying indeed. Much of our history and literature is held by these elders and no one is bothering to record it. For instance the Somali-Wardey wars are only briefly mentioned in one book by a European Explorer whereas there are still elders alive today who still know when and where the wars took place but they are quickly dying off. Those type of books would be popular if we were rubbish story tellers lol For now we only need them to be preserved not necessarily read as storytelling is still popular. As for the lack of development in pictorial narrative, well our lifestyle made it unfeasible. The nomad simple had no time to draw and paint and if he were to it would just become unnecessary clutter that he would have to drag across the Somali plains. That's why oral narrative is more popular as it only requires memorisation. We might find something if we excavate the historic urban centres like Berbera, Xamar, Xaafuun etc.

Allyourbase;973864 wrote: Even at that, you would expect such oral skills to translate well into literature, theatre and song writing but even at that it seems we just do not do it well. It really is puzzling. What are you on about? Literature is our only strong point when it comes to the arts. Have you ever seen Somali poetry? As for the song writing, do you even understand the lyrics? Most of them are basically poems being sung that's how good they are when you compare them to the lyrics in mainstream pop music. The only pity is that a large portion of our literature isn't written down e.g. I'm only aware of a handful of books where our folktales are recorded.