GAAJO!!!! :eek:

Somalia, 1982: Locals trying to beat away a shark that had attacked a boy paddling in the shallows at Mogadishu The shark swimming off – the boy lost part of his leg -- Just to keep it in persepective, Somali sharks according to my uncle were killers, once they tasted blood they went all out. This was as a result of the fish-markets dumping their waste in the sea which brought these creatures closer to the tourist spots, and a shark that tastes human blood usually becomes a 'man-eater'. I think safety nets were eventually established and the fish markets were told to dump their waste further at sea. However look at all the Somalis jumping into the water to save that boy, in these cases people usually run away as fast as they can, but here dozens of people left the surrounding the Beach clubs and plunged into the water with sticks and bats to save one of their one. Did this Somali characteristic die in this 'dead republic' era?

1966, when hundreds of yachts and cruiseliners used to pass or dock at Mogadishu annually: School trip; young sisters and their teachers enjoying the Indian Ocean.

I have respect for him, most of us here talk the talk but he walked the walk. Reviving a dead republic is no easy feat. There is an entire systemised cob-web of obstructionary forces that any leader in the world would struggle with to untangle if they were given the reigns. Farmaajo went ape on the domestic and foreign obstructionists too hard too fast, and it cost him his job. Abdiweli seems to be more in tune with the domestic landscape and the international one and has kept his ship from capsizing. Not many of us really understand the depth of destruction the former superstructure that is the Somali Republic - theoretically the champion of our interests on this planet - endured over the span of twenty years. The fact that the country until a month ago lacked a basic service like 'dry-cleaning' is a great indicator that we are starting from ground zero, and this includes the political scene in terms of accountability and power-projection. We measure our current politicians by comparing them with the prewar leaders, but that is a mistake, because all those presidents and prime-ministers had strong Somali institutions that legitimised their power, be it government, military, economy, international allies, etc. Similarly the Somali citizens at that time were safer, happier and more educated than they are today. Abdiweli and the other technocrats are working with what they have, and improved upon the work of the previous technocrats, and this is where the interesting pattern begins. We are in era where the Somali people are steadily seeing the rise of an educated political elite. The Somali cabinet is most likely the most qualified in the region already, and this trend is set to continue post-August when the government becomes a fully-functioning one with the capability to engage international partners on a equal level. This was the political evolution of South-Korea post-Korean War, they had to endure warlord remnants but at the same time there was an influx of educated Korean politicians that slowly but surely displaced the warlords and generals. Abdiweli's handling of the controversy regarding the constitution was poor, but everything else; from drawing in major allies like Kuwait and Turkey, to engaging the diaspora, and hitting all the August deadline targets were excellent. This new class of 'bloodless' politicians is a group I welcome with both hands.

Nooo.....nooo....noooo please god noooo....don't shatter my dreams I'm going to eat icecream at afur and lots of chocolate to comfort myself, this update is NASTY!!

NGONGE mumbles a bit about Real Madrid & Barcelona first(he's a football fanatic through and through) before he gets into the groove:

Mogadishu is half the size of a mega-metropolis like Hong Kong yet a hundred times less built than that city. Mogadishu is 300 times the size of splendid Monaco. Isn't it better to forget and move on where the situation is too confusing to rectify it? My family has old property somewhere in Hodan district, but I have no interest in claiming it. Instead I have my eyes on better land, still empty. This is not to say there shouldn't be some compensation, but twenty years is a heck of a long time, this is like opening a can of worms. The crooks are long gone, with only the purchasers who paid real money for it left in place.

Somalia;848878 wrote: It was shut down this month, the reasons are unknown . It was funded with $2 million dollars a month, over a half of the intended trainees finished their training and were deployed. LMAO! This is plain UN sabotage of a homegrown solution, because this Somali force was steadily dislodging the pirates from various places. This steady pace would result in the end of piracy by 2013, and this would instantly make the whole Atlantea operation obsolete , evendo the American, Chinese, Iranian, and Indian navies rubbing shoulders and forming cordial relations at our expense greenlit further operations to as late as 2014 and beyond. Somalia is bringing the world together lol, while any sort of domestic capacity is severly limited through an arms-embargo. One only has to look at the specific quotas that were set for the Somali military at independence, pure limitation, limitation, limitation because a Somali can sack a city with a single tank. Now we witness the same system of limitation in the form of backdoor arm-twisting, media propaganda in portraying any Somali force as incompetent, and outsourcing to foreigners. The previous Somali governments bypassed this sh1t through powerful allies, we need to do the same today. We have to use our oil-card hard and fast, and threatened the Chinese and Indians to follow Turkey's lead and become Pro-Somali, both in the Security Council and on the ground, or promise no Somali oil will ever reach their shores. (bs of course but a great incentive.)

May their troop strength grow in size, until the number of professional Somali soldiers outnumber the undisciplined militiamen. I really wonder whether Somalis truly want their country back, or whether its just talk, because a professional standing army won't just drop from the sky magically, it takes time. The lack of a standing army certainly destroyed our erstewhile military reputation as warriors, embolden our traditional enemies and enabled the last twenty years to happen. NO MORE!

Haha, Blue, you've been collecting alot of male apologies on SOL, more than any other female poster. I'm impressed.

Piece of sh1t article. Somalia is moving forward regardless of whose president, prime-minister, mayor or ugaas. All these nasty characters will still be here five years from now, just as the nasty South Korean characters were still there five years after the Korean War and beyond, but the country move forward nonetheless. As long as there is a superstructure or the resemblance of one it will be infinitely better than our current predicament.

Those Japanese alleyways are amazing, and full of life.

You need a lock on your wardrobe closet, problem solved. However they say people that have trouble saying no, lack character and confidence, because you're worried about their feelings, while forgetting they did not consider yours when they went on a shopping spree. Better that you put your foot down now and say no to your sibling/friends than continue in this matter and stumble into marriage as a raaliyo and become a 'yes' woman, because there will be plenty of things he's going to want borrow from you as well, though it may not be in your wardrobe but rather in your bank-account.

Cars should be banned from driving in those 'bazaars', and the disorientating text on each shop should be replaced with a single professional display. Secondly, an attempt at establishing cobble-stone streets can be observed but weak material was used instead of something more visible and bigger than the small stones in place now. Also, the complete absence of shop-windows in these traditional peaceful areas of Somalia makes absolutely no sense, instead this should be the standard: Oujda, Morocco

These clan elders always look so lazy and degenerate, buncha decadent SOBs! The world is busy putting lawyers, inventors, strategists, engineers, politicians, academics, etc on a pedestal while we turn individuals- that don't even know what 2+2 is - into kings. SMH.

Funny video, the kid was clearly futuristic in mind, I could never wait 20 years. If I look at old videos of myself I look stoned, vain and self-absorbed, like I'm in my own world, not much has changed I guess.

Persepolis, ancient Persia's greatest city is a Greek name, it doesn't mean the Greeks build it. Mogadishu is a 1200 year old city, with foundations dating back another 500 years as Sarapion. The native name was always Xamar because of the red-soil of the city, like the Tamarind fruit. The only way we can destroy this argument once and for all is to dig up our ancient Pre-Islamic cities and towns, that should silence these cultural appropriators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(mythology)

Congrats to brother Thierry & family. Valenteenah.;848801 wrote: ^ You don't know the member being congratulated, soo maxaa meesha ku keeney aan ahayn gardarro? What a rude little faarax. LOL

'Somali professional networking dinner'.......is that what they call speed dating these days? lolololol

I was a toddler/child in the 90s but if I was a grown man then, I would seriously have tried to bring these entrepreneurs together and headquarter them somewhere in the South, preferrably in the Bajuni Islands, where we could create our own police force, courts and institutions. Remember for most of the 90s the conflict was exclusively in Mogadishu between the retarded warlords, it only became a regional conflict post-ICU and the rise of al-Shabaab. These wealthy men had the resources to establish an equivalent to Somaliland or Puntland in the South, and this would have been a major bulwark against Al-Qaida, the famine and the illegal internationalization of our civil-war. Also, there is clearly a clan-element at work here, because they could have transformed peaceful Somali cities like Hargeisa, Bosaso, Qalcaio, Garowe, etc with that kind of money. I strong believe in keeping Somali wealth inside Somalia because it will generate jobs for the locals. The only benefit to the current situation is that the entrepreneurs from Somalia have empowered their marginalised brethren in NFD.

Blackflash;848474 wrote: I understand, I didn't want to come off as being holier than thou or considering myself a leader authority on infrastructure development. In-fact, I look to the future with optimism,the silver lining to the civil war is that Somalis have acquired skills and knowledge abroad that will allow them to be in a better position to exploit their resources. The profit sharing agreement that Puntland signed for their oil blocks is unprecedented in Africa and offers hope, but I still think we should look at country through conservative lenses, and not let future oil wealth lull us in to a false sense of security. One example would be Ethiopia diverting water from the Shabbelle and Juba rivers for reservoirs and hydroelectric dams (it's inevitable), let's plan for the worst and ensure our descendants even a hundred years removed never need to look outside their borders for help. Your points are valid, however, one can walk and eat at the same time. You have to understand in this pointless conflict Somalis have eroded and destroyed $50 billion worth of infrastructure, and denied themselves another $100 billion in the span of twenty years. Our neighbours have managed through loans, deals and taxes to raise and implement that sort of big time money in their transport and economic sectors, they are literally twenty years ahead of us, and in this coming decade their social-indicators will quadruple as a result. The good thing for us is our sizable population, our business acumen and the gigantic resources that could propel us into the richest and most advanced country in Africa within a decade. If Ethiopia is going to dam those rivers, then we need to establish water-desalination plants all along that vast coastline, and for that you need lots of money, and Somalia under no circumstance should be allowed to take foreign loans when it has enough resources to buy Europe. You dismiss the Gulf countries, but they are far superior to any African country when it comes to healthcare, education and standards of living, if we can achieve that, then it's a step in the right direction. We can always reform, and shift our wealth in a more sustainable direction, but for that to happen the resources have to be drilled and mined instead of sitting in the ground benefitting absolutely nobody. I have said it several times in the past, Somalia's true destiny in Africa is to be a Malaysia with better beaches, and beyond that if we got our act truly in order. Tell me brother if you dropped the Malaysia of today right where Somalia is located, who would be the king-pin in Africa? Just remember in the 60s and 70s Somalia had a higher standard of living than Malaysia.

Why couldn't they invest all their money in 90s Kismayo, Merca, Barawa, and the hundreds of other towns in the South if Mogadishu was too dangerous? In that scenario such a business hub could have spawned a mini-superstructure in the form of a regional state, until the return of the megastructure that is the Republic, at least then we wouldn't have to deal with the crap of today, nor would these entrepreneurs live in the fear of a xenophobic Mugabe-Idi Amin type of backlash and dabaab would be empty. Well it's their money I guess.

Welcome, and enjoy your stay. Fresh fish, muahahaha.