Yawn, how droll! Well, for what's it's worth, at least you have the integrity to admit you're a racist. But you're also presumptious and poorly informed. My family fled english colinisation too, my friend. More than 400 years of it, which destroyed our language and nearly drove my people to extinction. But then again, we all look the same to you don't we? I do what I do because I'm appalled by US and British imperialism and I want to do something about it, not because of your quaint and narrow minded world views that all whiteys are the same. Unlike yourself, I'm prepared to put my money, and my butt, where my mouth is. I'll be going back to Somalia, and Afghanistan to do what I can to help those Africans and others suffering from the effects of US and British imperialism. Somehow, for all your talk, I don't think I'll be seeing you there...

My goodness Wind Talker, you are such an arrogant little sod aren't you? Methinks your nickname is quite apt yet don't you think it a little hypocritical that you bellyache about us Gaals being presumptious about African culture when you've completely co-opted that of another yourself (the North American indians) and from a ridiculous Nicholas Cage movie no less. Oh, I see. So, you should feel better about yourself because you simply did what others have done for a long time. You're not guilty - you're just following the traditions of anthropology. Xenophobic and limited english may be but obviously too subtle for you. You completely misunderstand that I was refering to _you_ and your puerile, racist little post. I tried to give you a gentle nudge but you completely missed it didn't you. But go on, keep on banging on about the Macawi if it makes you feel better. You could try being a little more spontaneous (and a tad less racist) yourself.

I found this forum by checking the statistics of my blog and was surprised to see so many references from the forum. I'm encouraged that many of the readers here took the time to read the rest of my writings before jumping to conclusions about who I am and what my experiences have been with Africa and her peoples. I'm also surprised that somebody found my writing of any interest at all, especially those about Somalia, which as I mentioned in a previous post, were originally letters home. Somalia occupies a special place for me. It was neither my first nor last African experience but certainly the most challenging and rewarding. As for the men sleeping together in the same bed, our guards did it regularly, as the only option was to either sleep on the floor, or, er, stand guard We Gaals find it a little hard to do this because are notions of masculinty are very different in some respects.

Of all the posible quotes you could take from my writing to make your point I think you may have chosen the wrong one. To assume that when I say skirt in this qoute that I am only talking about the Macawis is quite presumptious. The writings taken from my weblog and posted by someone else to this forum were originally a series of emails written to close friends and as such are part of an ongoing dialogue, one that covered a variety of topics such as the perception of men and their choice of clothes in _many_ cultures, not just Somalia. The word skirt is from english, my native (but not sole) language and describes the various loose garments that men all over the world wear. I could just as easily have substituted Falda (Spanish), Kilt (Scottish), Lap Lap (Papua New Guinea), Lungi (Tamil) etc etc... But the discussion is in english to other english speakers about men living in cultures and countries all over the world, not just a sandy strip of desert clinging to the east coast of Africa. Therefore using skirt in the sentence makes more sense then using Macawis. Of course, there are plenty of other sentences you could have grabbed from my writings to prove you hypothesis of my 3-days-in-africa-know-it-all-white-boy attitude but the the one where I say that after 6 months in Somalia: "Now that I’m finally understanding what’s going on, it’s over" wouldn't have given it much support. But then again, when you're desperate to prop up a hypothesis about a person you've never met from a country you've never been to, one can be inclined to take such leaps, no? I've met lots of people in many countries who consider themselves experts on my country and culture (and those of others as well) without ever having been there. Their pomposity and arrogance equally stands out in their writings, regardless of the colour of their skin. But I wouldn't know, when it comes to race, I tend to find myself colour blind.