Kelly-Family in my Ipod-Gym playlist lol.

1-Pathetic 2-Government of Bladland 1- Marx 2- Polanyi here are some more. - Wareer badana!! - Tinny revolution - Garaad Salaax Garaad Maxamad Dauud Abdirizzaq Dualeh supports....... - Hokeey - Women are mad - Bash Bash iyo Barwaaqo

Skin pigmentation is not an issue, I've seen dark-skinned Somali girls that eclipsed(no pun lol) their light-skinned Somali sisters many times over. Its all about facial features; the eyes, the smile, the hair-type(me love long curly hair). Same with guys, Black Michael Jackson sold 50 million albums with Thriller, White Michael Jackson sold considerably less despite the quality in great music being the same. One shouldn't underestimate the effect pop culture has on kids, including Somali kids. Its good to have them play with hijabified dolls of brown-skinned barbies(in the case of girls).

I've been working on a illustration, similar to the image below only of 60s/70s/80s Somali Icons like Hassan Adan, Magool, Khadija Qalanjo, Mooge, Qarshe etc and Saado in front of the yellow National Theatre, but I can't find a single image of a young Saado, very frustrating. Would I find such images at Toronto's Somali Hall of Fame?:

Bisinka I was still editing my post, and you already replied lol. Aim as high as you can sis.

Its 2011 Aaliyah, build your own business empire, instead of potentially allowing yourself to be at the mercy of someone else (from a monetary persepective). I'm still convinced though that you will end with a handsome Farah who has a humble bank account.(This is not habaar, I'm sure he will be a good man, better than you could hope for, only every once in a while his cheques will BoUnCe lol)

It's such a mystery how a large disciplined army completely disappeared between 1990-1991. Well actually its not that big of a mystery; they were swallowed up by the dark sea of Qabiil, and the result is devastating. I hope the new breed of Soldiers understand their own significance and importance. They together with Somalia's finest(police) will be seen as the surrogate fathers and mothers of our society's many orphans. Better set a good example.

Its highly likely the prolific SOLer "The_Siren" is the same person. I knew I recognised the writing and humor.

Haha, I found out who this talented writer is, I used troll with her on the S-life forum, she's good-looking too, now I know what kind of fantasies revolved in her head. Ibtisam, then she is making the biggest mistake in her potential writing-career. I myself wanted to blog a novel, only to find out that MOST publishers will not touch a story that has been self-published on the internet for free(because that's what blogging a story essentially is). Unless she's going to self-publish, it would be wise for her to pull everything off the internet, finish the story, then submit to an agent. There is a high chance she will find one, as writers from largely unrepresented communities, with unique stories are something the big houses like Harpercollins love to purchase.

LOL, if I had caressed my fiancee's hair on our first encounter, she would've given me a headbutt. This seems more like romantic literature to me than anything real-life.

Don't --- Jealous -- Me -- Sheeeet'hey bisinka, now that's what we call AIRBAG lips, in case of a car-crash, his lips will be all that he needs to come out alive, no need for a real airbag. sheeet'hey

Its best to end the discussion here, to much about me, nothing about the article I posted(aside from the London guy, who seems to be struggling with plenty of inner demons himself). Aaliyah, mahadsanid!

Majestic Mogadishu, no doubt! Potentially the grandest and most resilient city ever once its back on its feet. In the mean time, an isolated and elaborate lodge in the lush parts of the North, or a five-storey high appartment in the epic cities of Merca and Barawa would be great. Thug life

Lol, as long as I'm breathing my ventures are very much alive as well. Your self-opinionated bile aside, your previous incarnation as "Queen Arawelo" continuesly leaves a smile on my face whenever I'm sad by remembering how you had cat-fights with most of the resident girls. I should pay you lol.

Ibti, you're a good sister, khayr allah ha ku siyo. The root issue was me following the conflict, over the years it desensitized me as a person without me noticing that it was also responsible for bringing me down periodically, which is the sole reason why I subconciously decided not to continue that ambitious (and money-draining) website project I mentioned to you years back, as much of the fun was zapped out of me, even threatening other related hobbies of mine. Now that I have blocked all of that out of my life, I'm doing well alhamdulilah. I'm not the type of guy to discuss my personal life or issues on a forum, since I'm not interested in attention, or want to give away that kind of vibe. I just mentioned it to highlight the article regarding similar issues in our wider community.

That film is a national treasure, and not the Dervish film Jac is ranting about. Your best bet is to contact the director himself(impossible) or the ones that were in charge of the "Somali Film Agency" and check whether they managed to salvage the tons of movies and short films Somalia used to produce before all hell broke loose. I'm pretty sure though their storage facility suffered the same fate as the once largest museum in East Africa, that used to house our national heritage in Mogadishu. Civil-wars don't just kill the "living".

Well said, also in this current twisted situation, if one day I decided to built a coffee farm, a university or a hospital anywhere in the country, I'm sure the clown in charge of that specific region would ask for my qabiil or political affiliation, yet at the same time a Chinaman or a Swedish entrepreneur would be embraced like kin. This is based on anecdotal evidence. © - Bladland official, part-time moonwalker.

Vile comments ment to degrade an entire people won't bring back the secessionists, only strengthen their resolve and in fact you'll only end up alienating the Unionists like me( of which there are many), for I would never share a house with an individual(s) that shares such sinister sentiments. G.O.E.T.I.A;721306 wrote: Djiboutians fought like hell, bravemen indeed, and got defeated. What unknown "war" or "battle" was that? It is known that the colonisers were burried across Greater Somalia, but I have never heard of a resistance in modern day Djibouti. It was Somalia's pressure that led to your independence, that I do know.

Been there, excellent place.

What does days of depression - after (for example) seeing a picture of a washed up body of a sister mauled by sharks, or reading about the daily scores of war-casualties and drownings - have to do with my identity? I let myself get sucked in, but not anymore. As for my creativity, you will see soon enough, though you won't know its me.

2nd part: SOMALI FAMILIES, UNPREPARED FOR THE DANGERS When Somali-Americans talk about a crisis among their children, they usually mean their sons. After all, young men are the ones joining gangs and committing crimes. The success stories often belong to Somali girls who are staying out of trouble and graduating from college. It's difficult to say if Somali women are truly faring better than men in America, according to Professor Cawo Abdi, who has researched the gender question within her community But Abdi, who teaches sociology at the University of Minnesota, says the patriarchal Somali culture may have inadvertently helped girls here in the long run. "There was more scrutiny paid to girls -- because when boys and girls spend a lot of time outside of the house, it's the girl who can come back pregnant, not the boy," said Abdi. "So, what it meant was girls were staying close to home, they were doing their homework, and they were succeeding in high school, whereas some of the boys were not doing that." Somali families couldn't have forseen the dangers that lurked in the inner-city neighborhoods where many of them resettled, Abdi said In Somalia, Abdi said, parents saw no harm in shooing their sons out of the house, because they knew other adults would be watching out for them. But that approach didn't work once parents moved their children to Minneapolis. The boys were sent outside, where drug dealers and gangs roamed the street corners. Social worker Abdulahi Mohamed said many of the young Somali-American people he works with came to the States at a young age, and had problems adjusting. They dropped out of school, and either joined gangs or picked up drugs and alcohol. "I feel like the youth are trying their best to fit in.They're trying to survive the way they know how to," Abdulahi Mohamed said. In the end, Abdulahi Mohamed said, they were rejected by both the American and Somali communities. Abdulahi Mohamed , who was born in Somalia, said part of the problem is that when a family resettles in a new country, the roles of parents and children can reverse themselves. Somali parents learned once they arrived in America that they couldn't discipline their children by hitting them. One of their top parenting tools was now considered child abuse, Abdulahi Mohamed said. Meanwhile, their kids picked up English with relative ease, and they became interpreters for their parents. "So parents became powerless. Children became powerful. And they took a dominant role that they never would back home," Abdulahi Mohamed said. OVERCOMING THE MENTAL ILLNESS STIGMA Safiya Mohamed is a single mom raising five kids in a sparse Minneapolis duplex. Her family embodies some of the biggest challenges for struggling Somali families in Minnesota: She feels like she has no control over her teen-age boys, she depressed and she worries that she's not capable of nurturing her youngest kids. Safiya said she knows she's not well. "I'm sick. Coming to America, I'm very, very sick. I have the pressure. Kids have problems. I don't speak English nice," she said. Safiya used to be a businesswoman in Somalia, running her own grocery. But when the war broke out, her life of comfort quickly slipped away. She lost her home, her business, her mother, and even her husband. He fled in a separate direction, and she only learned he was alive, and in Kenya, two years after she heard he was killed. She still talks to her husband on the phone every day, but she says she's been unable to bring him to the States because of immigration problems. Safiya knows his absence is taking a toll on her children. "Their dad is not here, and that's the problem. Since I've been in this country, I haven't worked. I'm sick. They need a lot of things that I can't give them. They feel neglected," Safiya Mohamed said in Somali, with Abdulahi Mohamed translating. But it's her three oldest children, all boys, who were giving her the most stress."Right now, I'm worried, because they don't have jobs, they can't go to school because they are over school age," she said. "They don't do anything here. And there are bad kids outside standing in the streets, and I'm worried that they may influence them. If my sons join that group, there's going to be trouble." Safiya's youngest daughter, 12-year-old Hodan, never met her father. She said if her dad were around, he could help the family. "And he could make my brothers stop doing bad stuff," Hodan Ali said. Hodan said it's not easy seeing her mom when she's sick, like she was just a few days ago. "She was on the bed, sleeping most of the time," Hodan said. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/21/civil-war-kids-part2/

I initially intended to post a positive article, but I think this would be a form of denial. There are certain issues that we can't sweep under the floor. Inner turmoil being one of them. As a person with a high level of creativity in multiple mediums, active in sports as well as a sociable person, you wouldn't be able to tell if you saw me that I experience periods of depression that I can't explain, I never realised until I spoke with a sister(who is a doctor) that these were some of the classic sympthoms of a potential Bipolar disorder, and she eventually concluded that it was directly linked to the stress of following what's happening back home, which I have stopped doing since. Indeed prior to 2006, these random episodes of feeling down was completely alien to me. Things like going to the cinema with your friends or having dinner with your fiancee were what I used to look forward to, yet slowly but surely they eventually felt bland, though I maintained a mask of joy. Denying this would be unfair to them especially if it evolves into something more severe than the mild situation i'm currently dealing with, which is only such because of my structured daily life, friends and family, being busy alot with my projects, being active at sports and having no history or interest in substance abuse. If I lost all of that, I would be like the guys at the maaqayad whom I used to look down upon, but now understand. I know there is an ignorant stigma with regards to the things I just confessed, and i'm sure for the remainder of my stay here I will be seen as a looney, but I really don't care since I don't know anyone here and couldn't care less about the Internet other than to inform my fellow kin. If you have a friend or a relative that show signs of change, it wouldn't hurt to look up these signs that are potentially sympthoms of something. Ignoring it, denying it, is another form of "abandonment". A good article that touches upon some of the stuff I wrote: The turmoil within: Somali families try to fit in, struggle to forget In our second of a three-part series, "Civil War Kids: Young Somalis in Minnesota," reporter Laura Yuen explores the psychological scars inflicted by the bloody Somali civil war and how they are felt by the young generation in Minnesota. St. Paul, Minn. — Ismail Osman had Hollywood dreams when he escaped Somalia's civil war and arrived in the United States eleven years ago. "When I came here, my goal was to be a movie star," he said. That would be a lofty goal for any young person. But it was particularly daunting for the 28-year-old Osman, whose childhood memories from Somalia could make for the most violent kind of movie. Osman said he witnessed the murder of his aunt and uncle. He watched the brutal rape of a young girl. He's still haunted by what he saw in his war-torn homeland, and by what he did. Though he doesn't want to give details, he said that even at age 12 he was big enough to carry an assault rifle. "I don't like to say it, but in self-defense, I've done some horrible thing that I don't like to talk about," Osman said, his voice breaking Osman is one of a number of young Somali-Americans who are struggling with mental illness. Some, like Osman, suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, others have bipolar disorder or substance abuse problems. Once homeless, Osman now lives in a south Minneapolis bungalow with other young Somali men who bear the psychological scars of war and the trauma of seeing loved ones killed or tortured. "In my nightmares, I get shot in my sleep," he said. "Somebody will say, 'You remember me? Ismail, you killed me. You take my life. Now I'm here to take yours.' And I jump out of bed. I'm sweating, hot. Sometimes I get up screaming." TREATMENT: GETTING BEYOND 'CRAZY' Social worker David McGraw Schuchman said it's important to recognize that every refugee in the Somali-American community has been personally affected in some way by the civil war. If they weren't shot at or beaten, their relatives were. But he says many aren't getting the help they need. "For many Somalis, as I understand it, they have no concept of mental illness except 'crazy,'" said Schuchman. "And when they think of crazy, it's extreme cases, like practically throwing-off-your-clothes-in-public kind of crazy. So you're either crazy, or you're sane." Schuchman's clinic, run by the nonprofit Volunteers of America, focuses solely on East Africans. He recalled failed attempts at drum up support for mental health services at an elders meeting in the late '90s. "I realized what the people had heard was, 'If you know any crazy people, call David.' So they were very polite, but nobody called because nobody wants to admit they're crazy or anybody else is crazy," Schuchman said. In fact, there are no words in the Somali language to describe the continuum of mental illness. Some Somalis refer to depression as "qulub." It's the same word that describes the sadness a female camel feels after she's lost her baby. Over the years, Schuchman said he has learned to avoid focusing on diagnoses. Instead, he talks about symptoms. He'll ask his clients if they have problems sleeping, or if they feel anxious. Sometimes their mental anguish produces real, physical pain. NEW COUNTRY, DIFFERENT RULES Osman and the four men who live in the Somali group home know one another like brothers. They play chess, watch soccer, swap jokes and cigarettes. But it wasn't blood that brought them together. It was mental illness or substance abuse. Osman said after he came to Minneapolis, he drank to wash away his memories and felt overwhelmed coming from a Muslim country, where alcohol wasn't tolerated, to an American youth culture where parties and booze were abundant. Osman says his parents couldn't comprehend the choices he was making. They kicked him out of the house on a cold winter night, when he says they should have gotten him into treatment instead. Osman eventually dropped out of the 11th grade. Now he's going back to school to get his GED. But to this day, he says his father won't accept him because of his past indiscretions. "He looks at me and says, 'You're a failure. You are 27, 28. You don't have a degree," said Osman. Osman said his father doesn't seem to believe that his mental-health struggles are real. His housemate, Mukhtar Hussein Abdi, described the pain his drinking and struggles with bipolar disorder caused his brothers and sisters. "I come home drunk. I would start a fight with my brother for no reason." Abdi said. "My sisters would get involved, try to hold me, then I smash a chair. Then I smash the microwave. And there's no subject to fight for. It was just the alcohol and what it did." Abdi said he started drinking about three years ago, when he was 21. But he says he just liked to party. "It was just for the love of it. I never had a rough time. I never went through torture, hunger, or anything, " Abdi said. Abdi said he stole cars, got into fights and drove drunk. He racked up felonies. He said he finds wisdom and inspiration from hip-hop, but he knows the swagger he learned from Tupac and Snoop Dog have not been the best influence for a young man trying to find his way in a new land. ANGER-MANAGEMENT FOR GIRLS At Opportunity High School, where most of the students are Somali, Schuchman's intern, 28-year-old Deeqa Mohamed, a social work student at St. Catherine University, recently led an anger-management group. The students in Deeqa Mohamed's classroom got into fistfights or acted up in other ways. All but one of the eight students were girls. "Let's just revisit what we talked about last week. Anger management. Is it working? Instead of getting mad, you can just take a breather and calm down rather than just fighting..." Deeqa Mohamed said. The teens nodded their heads. They've all been in the States for five years or less. One girl said it's tough staying calm when others pick on her. Deeqa Mohamed told the class about her similar experiences when she came to Minnesota in 1991, when the Somali resettlement was just beginning. She remembers the American students at Roosevelt High School would mock her for her headscarf. Some would even try to rip off her hijab. Deeqa Mohamed felt conflicted between two worlds, and even felt like she needed to dress for both parts. She left the house wearing traditional Somali clothing, but when she got to school, she'd rush into a restroom to change into her American-style clothes. When classes ended, she changed back into her hijab and long dress. "For a moment, I didn't even know who I was," she said

What's the moral behind this study, deploy the soldiers while you're still young or "Sperm cryopreservation"? I can't see myself fathering children at the age of 60/70. Not just for biological reasons, but you're simply not fit enough to take care off them, or be part of their childhood and adult lives. What's the chance that you will be present at your son or daughter's wedding? I know that my mother has like 30 or more siblings because of the lifestyle of my grandfather, his children and grandchildren send him back money from across the planet, nice investment strategy, I must admit. I remember as a 8 year old staring at a baby sleeping in a crib, and being told "wa abtiga".

Young Future Somali Tennis stars on Show Read story