^^Loool Hada ayaad mujahid tahay, you see abti, all what we saying in all over the place,apart from Islamic conrner is plain nac nac, unless someone is ordering the good, or stopping the evil, or paying sadaqah. my bortherly advice, be a caalim, or mutacalim, and dont be the third. Ramadan karim.

InaaLilaahi wa inaan ilayhi raajicuun.

To kill 3000 unarmed civilians is gross, to kill like this without warning is more gross, if muslims did this its wasn't the way early muslims fight, truely they used to take fights to their enemy, but they used to fight face face. Whoever did it, muslims payed the price, for how many death in iraq,Palestine Afghanistan,lebanon,pakistan,Somalia, and how many rapes and destructions, aboveall how many people are disappeared in america, europe,and arab countries - those pro-american regimes, and how many torture centres accross the world. muslims are cowed, harrassed and beaten up, but SubxaanAllah, when you see from another corner, militarily only few muslims have the tommy to fight and making great impact, in iraq, they looted 4 thousand years of artefact, 150k of marines are on the loose, killing savagely, they got the backup of all shi'ites, the allies of the willing as they called it,but then again they losing the war, only few sunni mujahidiins are making all this loss to Usa, trillions of dollars, and 4 thousand marines are few meters under the ground(dead). now Bush is on the run,like injured tigger(read how they humiliated his 4 star general in the congress, see how this kenyan congressman put him in hotwater yesterday). in Afhanistan, only few cueless talibans keeping the enemy at bay, and who is the enmemy btw- Nato, 20 united armies of the west and world's wealthiest, militarily most advanced nations. Geeljire, Iread somewhere, his brother's family was in usa at that time, and bush ordered to take them savely to thier country by special plane. his borther apart from his business with Bush, he fianances/sponsors the Harvard uni's engineering depart. paying them millions of dollars yearly as benefactor from his trust.

Originally posted by Tallpoppy: quote:Originally posted by Sharmarkee: [qb] ^^And you too, waan ku denbi dhaafnee iska tag ayar, oo joogi rebshada Gosh did you thought that i called you a doqon? well you know yourself best my dear .i am not that rude, But i was refering to the women you quoted in your previous post. Buuxo, Waa ujeeday inaad Gabadh(arta) sheegaysid, but Gabartu as you said was xikmaawiyad(Wise) - "wa man uu tiiyaa alxikamatah - qad utiyyah khairan kathiira" She was wise - as you admitted - she knew her creator, and Xikmah is nothing but putting right things in the right place. she reaffirmed and reframed putting her hubby where he belongs. Ya Salaam.

Originally posted by Ghanima: [QB] sharmarkee: p.s.s. Some Arab women and (men) are suffering some major obesity problems, in the endocrinology & urological department at the hospital, they moved all the Arabic speaking staff there as most of the patients are Arab. Not suprising when you see their food :eek: This was since they bring Pizza hut,Macdonalds, and ready made fast foods, Saudis like the somalis they used to drink camel milk, and live on dates and camel meat, they were a healthy nomads, roaming the desert, now its all different me thinks, dont you heard the poplular song which says _ ji'tak min carcar - I came for you from carcar (nothern town in arabia). Now Pizza hut, Macdonalds, and fast food, is taking its toll, I wonder why not the diabetes is not epidemic.

LooooooooooooL,that was jacyalbaro's when he was a student of jacyl , bad student produce bad sheekh. looool. Now he is claming Sheekhajacylka, akhir Zaman, ooh yeah aakhir zaman loooooool Ghanima, Ng is not pure burcawi anymore, he lived one of too many other places for long time, in that case he lost his citizenship, he was in shariqa when shariqa was just a roundabout, and was in london,since in the early days, Wembley was just a middlesex countryside county. North is no better too.

^^bal adaan ku dhiibe, furnish me inayahay, when an open minded liberal came from burco, besides dont say anything about saudi arabia, walaahi i still love saudi arabia,and always think when i gonna go back riyadh, ooh Layaali Riyadh, wa saharat al khaleej. you cannot miss the tall slim girls in cabyaa

^^And you too, waan ku denbi dhaafnee iska tag ayar, oo joogi rebshada

Originally posted by Dahia al Kahina: [QB] Originally posted by Sharmarkee: [qb] Originally posted by Keyf: Women who love too much rings a bell here...especially the last woman putting up with such a man! She sounds like she has given up,lacking self esteem etc etc.. Blaming on Allah! even Qaadir Allah can be changed by the power of prayers and dua. Sharmaarke bring something else! Dahia Those women are talking big deal, and cementing relationships to new hights, and you two, bal maxaa ku so kor dhiseen Umu's thread aan ahayn buuq, qaylo iyo sawxan, trouble-makers waaxid

Originally posted by Keyf: [QB] I think it all depends on the woman, you see a women ( not girl) knows how to get what she wants without yelling and screaming or complaining to other women. it all depends on the woman summarised by Keyf, a beautiful, smart and lovely wife,and on top of that a great chef was asked the reason her hubby is so mad in love with her, what is the reasons?, she said - Choosing the right one in the first place is all that matters, then you should knwo how to perserve him like a food, and when asked how? she said: Be careful in the selection; do not choose one too unripe, or too old. Best results are obtained if he has been grown in a healthy atmosphere. Some insist on keeping him in a pickle. Others prefer to keep him in hot water. Such treatment, however, makes the husband sour, hard, and sometimes bitter. Many of you will find that even poor varieties can be rendered tender and good by a garnish of patience, the sweetening of a smile, and the flavoring of a kiss, to taste. Wrap him in a mantle of charity, place him over a warm, steady fire of domestic devotion, and serve him with peaches and cream, then he's all yours a fav and a fab dish - just bloody enjoy! Another one was also very beautiful, smart and brainy too, she was been asked how come she married this short, ugly and bad-tempered husband, It deosnt take long when she told her postive attitude towards her husband, and said: It depends , perhaps I have done something bad and Allah punished me to marry this guy, or Perhaps he have done something good so he was rewarded by Allah for that - marrying me. Who know... Said. Ukhati Umu, it's all about attitudes, but some born complainers - qaar uun baa niic daasuun gura.

Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11 Robert Fisk The Independent Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver". His – or her – question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth – that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11? The assumption in each case is that Fisk knows – that Fisk has an absolute concrete, copper-bottomed fact-filled desk containing final proof of what "all the world knows" (that usually is the phrase) – who destroyed the twin towers. Sometimes the "raver" is clearly distressed. One man in Cork screamed his question at me, and then – the moment I suggested that his version of the plot was a bit odd – left the hall, shouting abuse and kicking over chairs. Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, I am the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, not the conspiracy correspondent; that I have quite enough real plots on my hands in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, etc, to worry about imaginary ones in Manhattan. My final argument – a clincher, in my view – is that the Bush administration has screwed up everything – militarily, politically diplomatically – it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001? Well, I still hold to that view. Any military which can claim – as the Americans did two days ago – that al-Qa'ida is on the run is not capable of carrying out anything on the scale of 9/11. "We disrupted al-Qa'ida, causing them to run," Colonel David Sutherland said of the preposterously code-named "Operation Lightning Hammer" in Iraq's Diyala province. "Their fear of facing our forces proves the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them." And more of the same, all of it untrue. Within hours, al-Qa'ida attacked Baquba in battalion strength and slaughtered all the local sheikhs who had thrown in their hand with the Americans. It reminds me of Vietnam, the war which George Bush watched from the skies over Texas – which may account for why he this week mixed up the end of the Vietnam war with the genocide in a different country called Cambodia, whose population was eventually rescued by the same Vietnamese whom Mr Bush's more courageous colleagues had been fighting all along. But – here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field? Again, I'm not talking about the crazed "research" of David Icke's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster – which should send any sane man back to reading the telephone directory. I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive". Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11. Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers – which could well have been the beams cracking – are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound. OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error. But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter. Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.

There is two sets of xawaashes, Xawaash Qaxwee, and Xawaash Hilib, differntly they go to different pots,Xawaash Qaxwee goes to tea, not bunn or coffee, and Xawaash hilib goes to heavy duty soups(Suugo),and mainly meat dish or/and dalac meats, & isku dhexkaris, the latter one gives a good and sweet smelling flavour for the food which is the main course of the dish. apart from that, then there is :filfil, geedo adari for stew meats. These kids are from semsem street, needs big time dhaqan-celis.

Why Israel Should Plan for US’ Decline Uri Avnery, uri-avnery-admin@mailman.sweethome.co.il The Arab News IN THE year 701 BC, the Assyrian King Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. The Bible records the words which the Assyrian general, Rabshakeh, addressed to Hezekiah, king of Judah: “Now, behold, thou trusteth upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust on him.” The writers of the Bible were so impressed by this phrase that they quoted it twice (2 Kings, 18, 21 and Isaiah 36,6). One has to understand the historical context: Egypt was then a great power. For hundreds of years, it had dominated all its neighbors, including the area of present-day Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The Assyrians, on the other side, were an upstart force. After conquering the Kingdom of Israel in Samaria, the more important of the two Hebrew kingdoms, they tried to occupy the tiny kingdom of Judah, which relied for its defense on mighty Egypt. Judah held out. For unknown reasons, the Assyrians lifted their siege and retreated from Jerusalem. The kingdom of Judah remained intact for another hundred years — until the Babylonians, who took the place of the Assyrians, conquered it, too. Egypt could not save it. By that time, it had indeed become a bruised reed. The USA is the modern heir of ancient Egypt. It is colossal, rich and strong, a cultural, economic and military power. Pharaoh, king of America, dominates the world as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, once dominated the Semitic region. And like any dominating empire, it is interested in the existing world order and defends the status quo against all rising forces in the world. Israel, therefore, considers its special relationship with the United States as the foremost guarantee of its national security. No occupied territories nor weapon systems can be a substitute for the umbilical cord that connects Jerusalem with Washington — a connection that has no parallel in the present world, and perhaps even in history. Many have tried — and are still trying — to explain this special relationship, but nobody has yet succeeded in measuring its full extent. This relationship has an ideological dimension: The two states were created by immigrants from afar who took over a country and dispossessed the indigenous population. Both believed that they were chosen by God, who had given them the Promised Land. Both began with a beachhead from which they set off on a historic march that seemed irresistible — the Americans “from sea to shining sea”, the Israelis from the coastal plain to the river Jordan. This relationship has a strategic dimension: Israel serves the essential American need for the domination of Middle East oil, America serves the Israeli government’s endeavor to dominate the country up to the Jordan river and overcome the resistance of the local population. This relationship has a political dimension: The US has immense influence in Jerusalem, and Israel has immense influence in Washington. This influence is based on the millions of Jews who emigrated to America a hundred years ago, They now constitute a powerful community, admirably organized, with a political-economic impact on all centers of social power. The combined might of the Jewish-Zionist lobby and the Christian-Evangelical one, which also supports the Israeli Right, is immeasurable. (There is a story about an Israeli politician, who proposed joining the USA as the 51st state. “Are you mad?” his colleagues retorted, “If we were another state, we would have two senators and a few congressmen. Now we have at least 80 senators and hundreds of congressmen!”) Dozens of small countries throughout the world see the way to Washington as passing through Jerusalem. When they want to curry favor with the US, they first establish close relations with Israel, as if it were a door-keeper who cannot be passed without a bribe. This influence is not unlimited, as some believe. The Jonathan Pollard affair has shown that all the assembled might of the pro-Israel lobby is not enough to secure a pardon for one minor Israeli spy. And Israel has just failed to prevent the sale of massive quantities of arms to Saudi Arabia (though of course it is getting even more aid for free.) Neither is the influence a one-way street. When the US gives Israel a direct order, Jerusalem obeys. For example: When Jerusalem decided to sell China an expensive intelligence airplane, the pride of the Israeli industry, Washington compelled Israel to cancel the deal, causing grievous damage to Israel-China relations. But in Washington and Jerusalem there is a deeply entrenched belief that the interests of the two countries are so closely connected that they cannot be told apart. What is good for one is good for the other. These Siamese twins cannot be separated. Neverthless, it is worthwhile, from time to time, to come back to the words of the Assyrian general 2,708 years ago. Great powers arise and fall, nothing stands still. The 20th century has been called the “American Century”. At its beginning, the USA was just another country on the margin of the world system. At its end, after two World Wars, which were decided by the rising power of the American giant, it had become the sole world power, the final arbiter of everything. So much so, that a learned professor fantasized about “the End of History” under American tutelage. The 21th century will not be another “American Century”. One can foresee a slow but steady decline in the status of the USA. Europe is uniting, slowly but surely, and its economic power is growing steadily. Russia is gradually becoming a great power again, helped by its enormous oil and gas reserves. And, most importantly: The two population giants, China and India, are rapidly climbing the economic ladder. Probably, nothing dramatic will happen. The United States will not collapse suddenly, like the Soviet Union, a giant with feet of clay. It will not go down in military defeat, like Nazi Germany, whose megalomaniac military ambitions were based on a quite inadequate economic base. But the relative power of the US is in an inevitable process of gradual descent. The events in Iraq are a small example. America did not enter this adventure only to protect Israel, as the two professors, Walt and Mearsheimer, assert in their new book. Nor because it wanted to rid poor Iraq of a bloodthirsty tyrant. As we wrote here at the time, it invaded Iraq in order to take hold of the essential oil reserves of the Middle East and station a permanent American garrison in their center. Now it is sinking, as expected, in a quagmire. But a country like the US, which was able to absorb a shameful debacle in Vietnam, will also absorb the coming fiasco in Iraq. The military might of the US, unequalled in the world, is based on its unprecedented economic power. But many small defeats add up to a big one. The war has hurt American prestige, self-confidence and moral standing (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib). There was a time when the US inspired admiration throughout the world. Nowadays, opinion polls show that in almost all the important countries the majority hates the US. The colossal American national debt also does not bode well. Is it really good to be tied to the fate of the US for life and death? Apart from moral considerations, is it wise to put all our eggs — all of them — in one basket? A cynic might say: Why not? America still dominates the world. It will continue to do so for quite a while. If and when it loses control, we shall say goodbye and look for new allies. That is what we did with the British. After World War I we helped them to get the mandate over Palestine, and in return they helped us to establish the Hebrew community here. In the end, they went away and we stayed. After that, we helped France, and in return they gave us the nuclear reactor in Dimona. In the end they went away, and the reactor remained. This is called “Realpolitik”, the politics of reality. We shall get from the Americans what we can and then, in a generation or two, we shall see. Perhaps the US will lose many of its assets. Perhaps it will stop supporting Israel when a new reality brings about a change in its interests. I do not believe that our present policy is wise. Our so-called “realistic” policy sees the reality of today, but not the reality of tomorrow. And after all, we did not found a state for some limited time, but for generations to come. We must think about the reality of tomorrow. Undoubtedly, the world of tomorrow is not going to be unipolar, all-American, but multipolar, a world where influence is divided between many centers, such as Washington and Beijing, Moscow and New Delhi, Brussels and Brasilia. It would be wise to start preparing today for this world of tomorrow. In what way? At this moment, we are at the height of our power. Our connection with the US, which is still all-powerful, gives us a standing much beyond our natural capabilities. This is the time to change the chips for money, exchange our temporary gains for permanent assets. To give up the occupied territories and make peace, establish good relations with our neighbors, strike deep roots in the region, so that we will be able to hold on when the will and ability of America to protect us at all costs has evaporated. That is even more true if we take into consideration the rise of Islamic radicalism, which is a natural reaction to the actions of the American-Israeli axis. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main cause for this earthquake, which may one day unleash a tsunami. Both we and the Americans would be well advised to start work soon on removing the causes of this natural phenomenon. America is far from being a bruised reed — now. Those who want to, can still lean on this staff for some time to come. But it would be wise for us to make good use of this time to ensure our existence in peace in the coming world. ==== ===== The End =========

^^I was trying to take her for my minyaro, now look what you have done, Don't Ya spoil the whole scene?

^^^^Bal iyada maxaa afaaraha geliyay, this dudette dahia, why she dont just stay out of the way, dadka is like gareeynayaa hawada hadlaan. war anka ayaa wax arganay, hadaan meesha laga tegin goroyo heeryasan aa ka so bixi

Originally posted by Ghanima: Althougth we still have ages to go. Ramadan Mubarak people. Hopefully this year we won't return to all the bad habits we drop, and may all our fast and good deeds be accepted. Amin and good riddance of your nac nac

Death and destruction chases somalis even in diaspora, the old generation are in fadhi-kudiri in dual bombardment with opposing clans, and the young generation are in a gang warfare. David Pallister Thursday September 6, 2007 The Guardian Five young men who joined the son of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in a gang fight which led to the street killing of a Somalian student were jailed yesterday. Anwar Qasim, 17, Guled Muse, 17, Mohammed Tumaye, 18, Abdi Abdullhe, 18, and Mohamed Said, 24, were members of a north London crew who attacked rival Mahir Osman, 18, in Camden Town. They received sentences of up to five years for charges ranging from conspiracy to wound to violent disorder. Faisal Wangita, 25, the son of Amin, was jailed for five years in May for his part in the attack. His mother left Amin shortly before he died in Saudi Arabia and sought refuge first in Germany, then north London. Wangita was cleared of murder by an Old Bailey jury but found guilty of conspiracy to wound, conspiracy to possess offensive weapons and violent disorder. Mr Osman died after being knifed 20 times in front of horrified bystanders in January last year. Some 13 youngsters have now been convicted or pleaded guilty to the attack. More are still being hunted. During the trial jurors were shown video footage of Mr Osman's murder in a packed street. Brendan Finucane QC, prosecuting, talked them through the images, saying: "There are weapons clearly in open view. You will see the feathers from his Puffa jacket flying through the air as his jacket was punctured by the stab wounds." Among the many witnesses was a Somalian man who heard one of the killers call out "Stab him through the heart" in an African dialect. Qasim was caught on CCTV smashing a bottle on the prone body of Mr Osman. Sentencing the five at the Old Bailey, following two lengthy trials, Judge Stephen Kramer QC said: "This is an example of the gang culture which is all too prevalent in London." The youngsters were part of a Somalian gang called the North London Somalis. Mr Osman, an engineering student, was a member of a rival gang based in Camden.

"Should U.S. soldiers die for democracy in the Islamic world, when democracy may produce victory for the political progeny of the Muslim Brotherhood? Is that worth the lives of America’s young? " "Wa Laqad Ji'ta Cala Qadarin yaa Muusa" - Quraan Adeer, fircoon, once said, am your lord, and not believing Allah, and the rivers of egypt runs under my feet, then Allah(SwT) drowned him with the same water which was running under his feet run on top of him to his death, Muslims in general lost the grip to control their fate,and left the playing fields for someone else, never the less - "Sayac-lamana al diina dalamoo ayi munqalibin yanqalibuun", Those transagressors dont know which way they will go in the later day, bascially you cannot kill at will at least for ever.

^^Waan Qiraa, oo waa runta, Caqliga iyo edebta Ilaahay baa bixiya, waan quruxda dhabata ah. right on Canbarro, you stopped me on my track.

Originally posted by Ms Dhucdhuc & Dheylo: Lily He was 19, and I was 24 so technically I was an older woman. And believe you me girl, it was an experience Everywoman needs to experience this at least once in her life. In fact my next marriage will be to a younger stud DD, Stop turning around the chips, you been that naive 19yrs and he was that mature 24, when his love and romance like a twister turned you around, ood saaxiga keenay now u telling us in aad khatar aged tahay. Oh boy O'boy, God bless the internet

Originally posted by Ms Dhucdhuc & Dheylo: This tripe was a major turnover in my life, I started learning about Islam from the Muslims themselves. The most thing that had attracted me was, the young girls who covered their heads with ‘Hijab’ scarf, I felt so jealous from them, because I have imagined them as saved diamonds by a piece of black velvet, but I was almost half naked just like an advertisement in a newspaper that attracts a few people, even those few don’t last, soon they would use this newspaper for their kitchen or throw it in the trash. Regards, Your sister: Muslimah. Source: http://www.islamhouse.com/p/6005 [/QB] Quite a testimony

Xalimo, Do some Yoga exercise and improve your breathing technique, also practise to be quite and silent to have an inner calm. Read Quraan, and pray nawaafil and extra salats. read the prophets duca of sleeplessness: allahuma qaarat al nujuum wa hadiat al cuyuun, wa anta xayuun qayuum, anim cayni wa arix baali(should be written on xusnal xasyn)little booklets of Prophets(SCW)ducaa. Oo Allah stars in the sky are fading away, and eyes of the people are starting to sleep, and you are Xayuun Qayuum,Let my eyes sleep and relax my inner Conscious, and dont try the proverbial Xabasawda in case you feel energetic allover again....lol Allah hurada laanta ha ka kexeeyo walaalashay.

Gwynne Dyer, Arab News The time was bound to come when France and the rest of the world would miss that old crook, Jacques Chirac, but who could have guessed that it would arrive so fast? Only three months have passed since Chirac reluctantly relinquished the presidency — he was last seen sulking (or maybe just hiding from various judicial investigations) in Biarritz — and already he begins to look good. If only because his hyperactive successor, Nicholas Sarkozy, seems so strange. There has long been a debate in France about whether the new president is really as shallow as he seems, or whether his shoot-from-the-lip populism — like calling the participants in last year’s urban riots “scum” (racaille) — is a deliberate strategy to appeal to the prejudices of right-wing voters. It will never be settled beyond doubt, but the evidence for the “******” hypothesis is getting hard to resist. There was, for example, Sarkozy’s remark, in his first major foreign policy speech on Aug. 27, that the choice lay only between “the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran.” What if Iran isn’t actually seeking nuclear weapons right now? And what right would France, itself the proud possessor of hundreds of nuclear weapons, have to bomb Iran even if that country were also seeking them? But that kind of hypocrisy is commonplace among the “clash of civilizations” crowd; what caused genuine astonishment was Sarkozy’s comments about Africa. Just a month ago, during a brief visit to Senegal, Sarkozy gave a speech at Cheikh Anta Diop University that was addressed not just to Senegalese but to all “the youth of Africa.” African intellectuals from half a dozen countries instantly condemned it as a warmed-over version of 19th-century French colonial and racist ideology (he never actually said that France has a “civilizing mission” in so many words, but the old phrase hovered over the whole discourse), and there was a certain amount of controversy about it in France as well. What gave the issue wings, however, was the letter that South African President Thabo Mbeki then wrote to Sarkozy thanking him for the speech and praising him as “a citizen of Africa.” The letter was leaked to the Paris newspaper “Le Monde,” the South African media erupted (in English), and as a result Sarkozy’s curious views finally got a global audience. As Senegalese novelist Boubacar Boris Diop put it, “A foreign president, looking down on us from his 1.64 m (5 ft. 4 in.) height, judged the inhabitants of an entire continent, demanding that they finally get away from nature, enter human history and invent themselves a destiny.” Sarkozy also told his Senegalese audience that colonialism, at least in the French version, had brought Africa many good things, but his main message was that they had to stop being “noble savages” (as he didn’t quite put it) and join the 21st century. “The problem is that Africans have never really entered history,” Sarkozy told his African audience. “The African peasant who has lived with the rhythm of the seasons for millennia, whose ideal is to live in harmony with nature, knows only the eternal cycle of time, marked by the endless repetition of the same gestures and the same words. In this imaginary world where everything starts over and over again, there is no place for human adventure or the idea of progress.” There is a fancy five-syllable word to describe people who think like this: Orientalist. There is a simpler four-syllable word that does the same duty: Patronizing. And there is an ugly two-syllable word that sums it up: Racist. God knows who vetted Sarkozy’s speech before he gave it, but they are as ignorant as he is. As an analysis of modern Africa’s problems, it is simply pathetic. Why does Sarkozy talk like this? Because he likes to shock, and he knows his real audience is in France, not in Africa. Also because he doesn’t know history, and he lacks the patience and perhaps even the ability to tolerate complexity and ambiguity. And why did a man as intelligent as Thabo Mbeki write to congratulate him on his speech? Because that is how things are done behind the scenes; Sarkozy had also said in his speech that France was willing to commit resources to Africa’s “renaissance,” and so the South African president wrote him a letter that ignored all his ****** remarks and thanked him for his promise to help. “The president, in his gesture of congratulations, did not focus on this sentiment but acknowledged France’s commitment to the development of the continent and its people,” said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga. But in France, it is going to be a long six years.

^^Markay intaasi kugu tagto, Ensure you downed with gusto, and passion a jug of caano baraawe ah, this called faro-qabsi adeer iyo sahay qaadasho.

Originally posted by NGONGE: [QB] Since, without a shred of doubt, you form the overwhelming majority of people on this site, I thought I'd start this thread for us all to have a moan about this week's tube strikes. Did you make it to work ok? Any juicy incidents take place on your journey? I made it to work in forty-five minutes flat! On a normal day it takes me an hour and fifteen minutes. Heh. You sure you not Conning, someone saw you having a shiisha and Alhayat newspaper round the corner, chatting with friends, and no signs of work-going. Calyka Allah ya NG, al harbu sannah wal masku yoom