LOL, that's the sister I remember.

I'm glad you're content, I remember you as a girl with adorable dreams and now you're a dignified woman doing away with childish things, I get it. I just recommend that you still demand a lavish wedding, and motivate the Farah into saving money. You could tell him eventually that you are okay with a small wedding but instead would like that money invested in a specific business, with you owning half. With 25k you can open a successful shop with 50k you can open two, etc and live comfortably.

Cambuulo, I keep reading your name as Cambaro. I think Abtigiis does aswell, hence you are on his carefully catalogued data list of SOL females lol.

Aaliyyah, that's sad, you were the one sister I hoped would get all she used to dream about on SOL and more.

We Somali Kings should continue this tradition of giving our Queens the best of the best, in the form of an amazing celebration, but it should not come at the expense of the kingdom itself. Its highly important that there is enough gold in the treasury to maintain a nice warm Palace and to sustain a joyful childhood for the future princes and princesses. If your Queen wishes to impress other royal wives and maidens from other kingdoms with the grandness of her wedding, a wise King should point out; that those who invested their fortune towards the harmony of their palace, as well as into the fruits of commerce were the kingdoms longevity cherished above all.

One of the few next generation SOLers who is sweet, smart and a breath of fresh air, no lie!

Odaysomali, a clear dig at me. I care not.

Enigma

Chimera;683351 wrote: An Asthma suffering boy from Barawa stared into the abyss of the Indian Ocean for an entire day, before falling asleep. When he woke up, he found himself standing on the bottom of the ocean, with his urge for air gone. Then slowly the ocean resurfaced him to the beach. I expanded this into a novella.

Another memory involves me and my family driving through Europe in 1993, and coming across other Somali families, and the continues reference to the situation back home. I remember feeling this yearning to go to my grandparents house in the outskirts of Mog. I think these memories are the foundation behind my love for Somalia.

I was 11 months old, somewhere in the outskirts of Mogadishu, there were alot of kids and I vividly remember that they played with old truck tiers, while I crawled across the wet grass, which had that distinct odour of moist grass drying up in the morning Sun. The smell is the only reason why that pleasant 24 year old memory endured within the vortex of my mind.

I'm content with my Somali heritage, good looks, faith and culture, I wouldn't trade them for anything, they all combined landed me the greatest woman of all time.

People accuse eachother of being someone else all the time, go check out an old thread called "scripts", it's just banter. Though I do agree that its best if Blue and Carafaat put eachother on their ignore lists.

Sorry guys but I was referring to you two in my previous post, There is no need to attack a fellow nomad like that, Carafaat got his flaws but he doesn't deserve that. Blue, if you were in his position with Knight ignoring your advances and then see him attack you with the Girl he does like, I would've similary object to that behaviour, its very venomous and unnecessary in my opinion. You don't need to ingratiate yourself with someone you like by humiliating another person, it's very artificial.

Some people are taking internet dynamics & interaction a bit to serious me thinks. Carafaat, plenty of fish in the sea.

ElPunto;783613 wrote: No there is no onus on me - I told why at this juncture it's irrelevant. Time flies sxb, in March the black liquid will be gushing out of the rig, and we still won't know whether these current characters are capable of making the kind of deals that will transform our people's future for the better. I take it you're not disputing it is unproven. In Somalia and on the planets. The weight of evidence and expertise tips the scale from theory to reality. I speak of the future when I have an idea of what it may probably be and plan accordingly for it in the present. I don't make current plans on daydreams of what the future might be. We are discussing a country here with a population of 10 to 12 million people, and another hundred million creatures in our land and oceanic habitats. Future planning, and being ready can't be misrepresented into being "day-dreams". One can deduce from the material available that Somalia will be a major oil-producing country, hence we should learn from other countries' mistakes and prevent such mishaps. It's as if I plan and build beach hotels in Somalia now on the basis that Chimera will be the president of Somalia in the near future and tourism will boom. Oh trust me, Somalia becoming a tourist giant is not even a matter of "if" but one of "when", so that would be a great investment in the long run. Complain to those who called you hater not me. Environmentalist is a badge of honour. The heckling by intellectual light-weights doesn't bother me in the slighest. Most of them are Somalinet refugees, nobodies basically. But you're confusing that with Chicken Little. That is not a badge of honour. A fallacy, I did not say we shouldn't have explorations in Somalia, however if there is no accountability nor transparency what's the point of these explorations in the first place when we don't even know if the deals will benefit the average man and woman back home? I agree - we should see the current deals. But we are at the exploratory stage - it doesn't matter much at this stage of the process. It will be vital at the stage of extraction and production. There is a difference. As I said before; time flies. A few months ago I noticed an article with pictures of trucks and equipment heading towards the Dharoor Valley, not long after articles galore of the fully-fledged Oil-rig in place. It took me by surprise, and a similar fast leap will occur with this exploration. I'm tempted here to tell you to re-read what I wrote but I will try once again. They didn't/don't know there was oil - they hoped for it. The oil resources are unproven. This is what this stage of the process is about - proving them. You can have a hypothesis and then move to prove it. But you can't make plans on the hypothesis being true without proving it to be so first - ie make an environmental agency/contingency. Granted, but its better to be safe than sorry. You can wish for that. But you're facing scarce resources. Quite frankly I'd rather the money was spent on wells and schools rather than an agency whose very need for existence you have yet to establish. An all-encompassing environmental agency is very must justified today, even if no oil were to be found. Plenty of competent Somali activists and professional that could be part of such an organisation. In fact this a pet project of mine if things pan out for me financially. Yes - you have shown me one mishap. What does that mean for Puntland? That they should cancel the exploration in Dharoor? Should they cancel all contracts? We're talking about the present here. Caution is not a vice its a virtue. The exploration companies are already planning their profits and their shares, why shouldn't Puntland demand they also plan contingency plans? And if they have, why is it not available to the public in simple writing? I can find anything I want to know about Apple Inc with a simple mouse-click, and this is the most valuable company in the world, why is there such a lack of info on this project prospected to be worth 20 Apple companies? The other thing - before you can impugn the environmental record of this company - you do have to show it is a clear and willful pattern. 2 cases is a pattern, and in the most powerful country in the world to boot. Otherwise this is more chicken little. You're curious about the oil beneath Somalia's soil and willing to shove all other important matters aside. We both know what curiousity did to the Cat. No one - but the petty dictates of this flawed leader can't be compared to potentially hundreds of millions if oil is found. The central government, oil producing districts and even sub-sub-clans will demand to know where the money went. They will get pocket-change to what they actually deserve. A few hundred million would be enough to shut the clan-leaders up, while the flawed leader - held accountable by no one - will stash the billions in Europe, which already houses 800 BILLION DOLLARS from African clowns dubbed "leaders". I don't either. We're not at that stage. And really you think the present situation in PL/Somalia is better than LIbya or NIgeria in terms of infrastructure, access to services, etc. I don't believe so. Somalia's current living standards are result of a paralysing conflict, otherwise major investment would have put Somalia in a good position. We shouldn't sacrifice our resources or nature that holds the potential to benefit the next twenty-five generations just because of our current situation. Nothing suggest the situation will get better when the oil is pumped out at disadvantaged deals. Somalia root causes need to be addressed first, for all that Oil could not save Libya from a brutal civil-war. Becoming like Libya or Nigeria is a step up for Somalia. A peaceful Somalia without tapping into its resources made bigger gains in women-rights, education, democracy and self-sufficiency than both those countries. Neither could the latter countries have survived two decades of state-collapse. Somalia is going its own path and will evolve into a genuine robust country, much like the evolution of European countries a century ago. Though I and you have higher aims. Oh, most definitely. A Malaysia with better beaches, or a Turkey in Africa - atleast by 2030! Don't we have to have an inkling of the future before we make plans for it? Isn't it prudent to wait and see before plunging into plan making? Won't it make a differnce to our plans if the oil found is 200 million barrels or 20 billion barrels? Don't you have to marshall your scarce resources effectively rather than speculatively? People make contingency plans without something being found all the time, its part of business. In fact in some countries this is compulsory, much the same way architects and real-estate giants have to take a myriad of things into account when they plan to built a highrise building in the middle of a city, Your argument is based on a premature and alarmist conception of the future. Not sure there is anything that will change that. My evidence of corruption and non-accountability occuring in Puntland has already been established in previous posts, and the cases of pollution at the hands of foreigners and their Somali collaborators is well-known, hence my alarmist conception is very much justified.

xiinfaniin;783576 wrote: No to exploitation, and no to shady deals. Yes to transparency , and accountability. But at this point both No's and Yes's are neither her nor there. We are at the exploration phase. Once the ninety-day drilling operation is complete and prospects are known/estimated, there will be production agreement that will be signed. Somalia's federal government will be involved. Possibly, companies doing the drilling now, may not be the ones entering production contract with Somalia. In short, we are putting the cart before the horse. Consider this: Somalia has been neglected for twenty plus years. War, famine and terrorism has become the whole mark of our national identity. When the world financial papers and mega media outlets are dedicating segments discussing the prospect of oil and how it can transform the region and its people, reasonable Somalis should welcome the respite of bad coverage , instead of commenting hypothetical scenario of environmental disaster and what have you. Xiinfaniin my call for more transparency and accountability comes as result of reading the Oil-histories of countries like Chad and Equatorial Guinea, and the environmental destruction ongoing in Nigeria. I will take a decade of bad media coverage with our resources and nature safe, over a decade of cleaning an environmental disaster, or having to deal with a Siad Barre on steroids high on oil-money. Are you hundred percent sure, those negative hallmarks of our current national identity will disappear once the oil start flowing? Do we have the type of leaders to raise our people's standards of living? While Oodweyne recently called me a bootlegged version of you - which I take great pride in, I however do not share your optimistic view in this case.

ElPunto;783585 wrote: ^I'm sure SOLers can enlighten you here. From my perspective not important at this time. I'm sure they can, but the onus was on you! Really? - it is believed that the oceans contain vast quantities of resources but that is neither here or there until it is proven. I'm afraid your analogy is a poor one. Ah, yes, until its proven and so we can say the myriad of planets scientists are 100% sure of having water are "unproven" claims because they haven't actually taken water from the surfaces of those planets. You do know agreements can be changed in the future? What is this? Elpunto the "presentist" speaking of the future? No way! If the Chadians were duped why do you assume we will be too since we have you and Bilan to stop us from that folly. Yet we are called "haters" or more amusing "environmentalist" as if its somekind of insult, its a badge of honour. Ultimately deal terms don't much matter now - let's see what we have - and then the real negotiating will begin. Wouldn't it be better to see the current deals, and deduce from that whether those signing them are actually competent to do so when the real negotiations start? No - you're illogical. They set up that agency to prospect and to spur business in the hope that they will strike oil. How do they know there is oil? You just told me it was "unproven", why bother then? In one part of your post you're dismissing 80 years of geological surveys in Somalia, and in the next part you assume there is actually something beneath the soil. It makes no sense. But you're asking them to set up an environmental agency/contingency to prevent oil spills when they don't even know they have oil. It's not a proper comparison.You make plans on what is possible and probable - you don't make plans on something that is not a possiblity. Why can't the likes of Bilan wish for Puntland to show visionary planning by establishing such a protectionary agency? By the time the oil would be exported this agency would have matured sufficiently and trained the necessary people for contingency plans, not to mention acquired expertise. What about it? Is this part of pattern of behaviour? What is their overall record? I need more information than one case. As to shady - I refer you to Ngonge. RR is a small company, yet their mishaps in America can't be swept under the rug, since that is the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, a clear motive to be on good behaviour, and still this mess happened. Puntland has none of America's institutions to hold them or any other company part of this or future deals accountable for their mishaps. How do you know there will be no one to hold Faroole accountable in the future? Who is holding him accountable for his extension? Who is holding him accountable for missing funds? Who is holding him accountable for the deportation of IDP's from the South? Who is holding him accountable for the arrests of journalists? Answer = Nobody. Is this about Farole or RR and the environment? All of the above! I don't want to see a one man show a.k.a Gaddhafi 2.0, nor do I want to see the type of practices American oil-companies are unleashing on Nigeria's environment. If Faroole - let's see if oil is there and before production demand an environmental mgmt plan. If about RR - find out their record and their procedures first. But all that is hypothetical . I think reason dictates we wait at this point. Why wait, what would the negative side be of caution? None! What would the negative side of lazynimo and myopia be? See the Niger Delta! Pipeline on to tanker. It's done all the time. To make a comparison between BP and the PL onshore is mistaken. Again - it's odd to be talking about this at this juncture. What? People can fantasize about Somali cities reaching Tokyo and Dubai status but how dare someone give a thought about our People's rights and Nature's health? If you have nothing - can you be exploited? If you don't know what you have - how can you know if you're being exploited? Illogical and shady decisions can be changed and transparency/accountability demanded - but what is needed right now is facts regarding the oil resources in Somalia. Without facts to go upon - illogical/shady/accountability/transparency are words on a screen. Your attempt at a counter-argument is still stuck in the presence, while my argument and that of Bilan is firmly rooted in the future, for this entire endevour is a futuristic project, which needs futuristic planning. If you think RR or those other companies like Africa Oil are waiting for "facts" to make a fortune in the future then that is a clear delusion of reality, for they have planners, and they have gone through all the geological surveys of the last 80 years in Somalia to plan the future of their businesses and wealth, why shouldn't we do the same?

ElPunto;783542 wrote: Is the deal an utter cloak of darkness? I haven't seen a single piece of writing regarding this deal. Yeah pretty dark to me. What specifically would you like to see that you haven't seen? What is missing from this agreement that is standard practice in well run developed countries? Fill in the blanks. - The duration of their leases. - The percentages. - The role of the federal government. - The role of the governments the oil-companies are registered in. - The conduct of exploration and contingency plans. I want to see this in writing, not Al-Jazeera videos or BBC articles. Let's assume for your sake that this deal is an utter cloak of darkness. Assume? Where is the deal in writing? Everything now is just through hearsay from those involved, no disclosure of the agreement has been made, hence its an utter cloak of darkness. Is it important at this juncture - when we have no idea whether there is oil there if RR gets 95% and PL gets 5% or vice versa? No - any deal terms are purely hypothetical at this point since we don't know what we're dealing with. Somalia has oil, and it has alot of it, geologically and geographically speaking its tantamount to wondering whether there is ice in Antartica. Its therefore absolutely important that whatever deal is signed, benefits the Somali people, otherwise we will be duped like the Chadians, I'm pretty sure they had the same mentality as you when they entered into those agreements. This is more than a little ridiculous. How can you suffer environmental destruction when you are not even producing oil and when you've no idea if you even have oil. How can the government make an environmental protection agency or contigency plan if they don't know what they're even dealing with? How can you be bringing this up when we haven't even reached the starting line? You're illogical, how can Puntland set up a "Petroleum and Minerals Agency" if they have no idea of there being oil in those basins? Why invest in green-energy today when there is plenty of oil around? Why go to a damn college if your not sure you're going to graduate or be alive in four years time? What's the point of the bloody future if your illogical argument wants to force us to look only at the present? Before raising this point - which is so premature - did you find out whether Range Resources has a good environmental record in other places it operates? Or what sort plans and procedures it generally has with regard to environmental protection? If you haven't examined those aspects - to raise this point at this stage is completely without merit. What about this: http://www.lhup.edu/rmyers3/MyRange.htm On its website Range affirms its commitment to safe water: "Because Pennsylvania has one of the largest water resources in the nation, we recognize that being good stewards of these resources is extremely important." But apparently the folks at Range define good stewardship in a slightly different manner than is customary. On May 27, 2009 a leaking waste-water pipe from a Range gas well polluted a tributary of Cross Creek Lake in Washington County. The spill killed fish, salamanders, crayfish, and aquatic insects.[1] On May 14, 2010, the DEP fined Range $141,175 for spilling 250 barrels of fracking fluid into a high-quality waterway in Washington County in October 2009. [2] Range claims on its website that their "commitment to protecting the environment" can be seen in their erosion control efforts. According to the DEP, Range was cited at least six times between 2009 and 2010 for "failure to minimize accelerated erosion" at sites in Clinton, Lycoming and Green counties.[3] The citation of September 28, 2009 noted that their failure to implement and maintain an erosion plan resulted in sediment discharge into Hoagland Run. Range also insists that they "work every day to train our employees and contractors and see that they follow and understand regulations and company standards related to safety." If that's true, it's difficult to understand why Range was cited twice in 2009 for "Failure to notify DEP of pollution incident." In the Cross Creek incident, Range employees waited nearly four hours before contacting DEP.[4] Range's website notes that "After drilling is complete, our aim is to be a good guest and leave things the way we found them - or even better." However, according to the DEP, one of Range's Greene County operations was cited on March 22, 2010 for "Failure to restore site w/in 9 months of completion of drilling or plugging." This is in America, which has an established system to deal with shady companies, and hence RR was forced to rectify its mistakes, what exactly does Puntland have in place to force them to do this? How do you know Faroole will give the slighest damn about an oil spill in Bosaso, as long as the money keeps rolling in? I do, he won't give a damn, and there will be no one in the future to hold him accountable, because some genius in the past told us "how do you know there is oil in the first place" lol. One more point - you and her keep bringing up the BP disaster. This is has nothing to do with how the oil, if we have any, would be extracted. In PL - it is on land - and with BP in the Gulf of Mexico - it was from the bottom of the seabed. These 2 different locales have entirely disparate environmental risk. It's not an appropriate comparison even if Somalia was extracting oil. What? Somalia is going export oil by air through the careful positioning of pipelines upwards in to the sky that will shoot out the black liquid to China and beyond? Oil is exported by ships, plenty of situations where oil-spills have happened in such scenarios, off-shore drilling is not the only threat to an ocean's eco-system. These five points are moot. Make or break an oil-blessed country?? Damn - you don't even know if you are an oil blessed country or in what quantities. Stuck in the present again, Somalia has oil and it has alot of it. People raising objections at this point are simply illogical. Their thinking is - we have no idea what we have but we shouldn't even look to see if we have anything because we're afraid of x, y and z. Clear misrepresentation of the concrete argument you have such a hard time countering. Instead to be more factually correct you should have stated that we do not want to be exploited, nor do we want our future generations to suffer from the illogical and shady decisions of our time, hence we want transperancy and accountability. Why are you so afraid of these two terms?

- Hoohh/Xuux. Most likely the modern echo of an ancient Somali demon.

- Death is not the end. - Life is not the beginning. - Most women are more intelligent than most men. - There is an entire universe and there is you, there will never be another one like you. - Love is a beautiful thing that should be embraced, not feared, nor wasted. - In the Gym you don't just sculp your body into your idea of ultimate physical perfection; the positive structural reconciliation of the mind is far greater, yet too complex to fully analyse, but the state its in is simple enough to enjoy and appreciate.

People are being intentionally ignorant or are ignoring these valid points on purpose because they were already picturing highrise buildings and getting fat on oil-money, and so any individual that crashes these dreams must be dubbed "a hater" but this is another form of "running away during a debate" let me re-iterate her points: When it comes to production, who determines the cost and under what economy, the Australian or the Puntland region? When that has been determined, who will oversee the minimum cost? Usually, these companies make huge profits by taking advantage of poor countries, and in this case a region where one man controls, the President of Puntland and Australian citizen, Abdurahman Farole. This is a valid question. The deal is an utter cloak of darkness, only minuscule details have been revealed, nothing else. My Last but certainly not least question is how and who will oversee the environmental impact of this oil? Certainly the local government has not established a organized environmental protection agency. The threat of a catastrophic oil spill can be very dangerous to human, animal, and plant life. We all witnessed the oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, eleven crew members died during the explosion and it took more than 80 days to contain the spill. It cost British Petroleum Billions of dollars in clean-up cost and fines mandated by the government. Their effort to contain the oil leaks were due to the demand and outrage of the US government and it’s citizens. I don’t know who will have Puntland’s back if there is such a disaster An even more important point, Somalia cannot suffer more environmental destruction on top of what its currently going through. The small companies currently leading the oil-exploration and potentially production do not have the economic capital to pull off a BP-Gulf of Mexico, no an oil-spill in Somalia would see them pack their bags and leaves us swimming in oil, and dying from it. Furthermore extracting commerciable oil in a foreign country requires: 1. A recognized government, which can negotiate on behalf of it's people and environment. 2. A recognized elected Parliament, which represents the people of the land that can rectify the deals and contracts between the government and oil companies. 3. Huge Investment, which requires a peaceful country with a recognized government that can sign deals on behalf of it's people 4. Banks which are recognized by IMF and International Banks, to be able to conduct financial transactions and L/C (letter of credit) 5. Infrastructure and strong educated labor force. Puntland and Somalia as a whole are lacking all these requirements, therefore no genuine company will consider spending a dollar to explore oil in Somalia. If anything, it all sounds like we have a scam on our hands folks and we cannot afford to fall for it. These five points are what "make or break" an oil-blessed country into becoming a "Norway" or a "Equatorial Guinea". Don't bring Kurdistan or South Sudan for their infrastructure, expertise and international connections originate with well established central governments, they are just continuing this legacy, which Puntland does not have.

Burn Notice;783438 wrote: there is no point sitting on large reserves of natural resources potentially worth billions while thousands die of drought and famine...do you want puntland/somalia to help itself or leave YOUR people to live in misery & desperation? Where is the evidence that when the billions actually arrive in terms of revenue that the ordinary Puntland civilians, let alone the entire Federal Republic, will see a single shilling or dollar? What happened to the 600 thousand Range Resources fund for the Garowe Airport? Why is Kuwait footing the bill instead, after that money went missing? Majority of the current multi-million dollar development projects center around Garowe and Bosaso while the Indian Ocean regions gets a measly 1 million dollars; that would not even support a small street in London, let alone hundreds of thousands of people, and their pursuit of happiness. Yet here you are trying to emotionally blackmail us with the fantasy that Faroole will be the saviour of Somalia, and the Somali people, when he displays all the characteristics of the clowns that lead oil-blessed countries like Equatorial Guinea. whose people are in utter poverty despite the illusion of a high GDP per capita, and where the first family is busy buying real-estate in France. What Bilan and I, and every single self-respecting Somali not living in cloud 9 - wants is transparency and accountability. Plenty of oil-producing countries still have millions of people living in poverty or dying of famine, from Nigeria to South Sudan, so relatively speaking it matters not whether these resources stay beneath Somali soil or are pumped out because in Somalia's case famine and poverty are a consequence of war, not a lack of resources as Somalia is capable of feeding its population several times over if only its breadbasket wasn't plagued by conflict. Having seen the prima-donna nature of Faroole, be it with the Mogadishu government or with Puntland ministers, he's no Sultan Al Nahayn, nor does his policies with regards to equal development, the progress of democracy or free media reassure any observer of the situation.

Valid points by Bilan. Burn Notice;783466 wrote: perhaps MMA could have lent them a satellite to pin point the oil LOL Excuse me, but that kind of technology exists, and is used for exploration purposes in various countries around the world. In-fact it has multiple benefits, just recently an entire Ancient Egyptian city with seventeen Pyramids was uncovered beneath the soil of a desert through sat-technology. http://www.satimagingcorp.com/svc/exploration.html

Samjamaa, what is happening in Somalia has absolutely nothing to do with ''sins'', otherwise Europe and America - where slaves were kept for centuries, and from where armies dispatched to destroy entire civilizations and obliterate entire races of people would be feeling Allah's most severe wrath for those gigantic sins, but instead they are the wealthiest and most flourishing places in the world, its therefore insulting to even postulate that our current misery has some sort of divine connection, when its a simple situation of humans - Somalis in this case - trusting their own lives and the lives of their children in the hands of useless clan-chieftains dubbed presidents, and as a result they reap what they sow when these same clan-presidents start skirmishes, cause displacement or invite foreign mercenaries.