Lack of peace in Somalia affects the whole of Horn of Africa region and that is why we are so behind than the rest of Sub-Sahara Africa. We have to learn how to live together and reassure one anothers' fears.

MMA, These guys should be given the biggest environmental prize in the world for their sacrifices for life in order to defend and protect the environment from the asinine charcoal traders.

Isn't the TFG the government you completely deny its existence, then why question its legitimacy? Somalia is just like Iraq, an ungoverned space where the state has no monopoly over the use of force in its entire borders. For instance, Turkey bombarded Kurdistan in its pursuit of PKK elements, an organization it considers a terrorist. Though it is a violation of Iraq's border integrity, the state of Iraq is still fragile and powerless to deal with conflicts inside its borders as it is hampered by ceaseless attacks from home-grown insurgents with foreign elements.

Originally posted by GJ_Goate: Somaliland is irrelevant, ya? Then why so much attention and worry about Somaliland? SL is irrelevant in the sense that it doesn't possess any of the attributes it claims in its quest for statehood. You should have understood the context of the topic from its content.

Qudhac, your membership here needs to be revoked since you don't really contribute a meaningful debate to this site other than cantarabaqash. Shockingly, you're lacking the basics.

The article discusses in detail how the international normative regime behaves against and for the dismemberment of an existing country. Since Kosovo was granted Independence by EU and U.S.A, it may set precedent for other secessionist movements. Somalia's metalic and oil Resources are contributing factors of the view that the reconstitution of the Somali Republic puts Ethiopia at a greater disadvantage in the strategic Horn The irrelevancy of Somaliland One of Multiple entities emerging from the wreckage of Somalia by Mohamed A. Elmi Friday, February 29, 2008 In the past four weeks, a flurry of news articles, commentaries, official statements, and opinions of different perspectives some sympathetic to and others against the moral case of the Northwestern secessionists have sprung up. The proliferation of such diverse but controversial subject has been given much weight by the underhanded involvement of unnamed officials from the Pentagon department, in an article by Ann Scott Tyson published at Washington-post on Dec 4, 2007. The consideration of this shift of policy by the United States seems to be in total defiance and disregard of the principle of nonintervention under the United Nations’ charter. The principle based on the sovereign equality of all states affirms that existing member states be allowed to freely exercise a monopoly of jurisdiction within their borders (1). Thus, the United States was guilty of conferring legitimacy on the secessionist insurgency and bypassing the current transitional government of Somalia over its own internal affairs. The conferral of diplomatic legitimacy on Somaliland was confirmed by the surprise arrival of U.S Assistance Secretary of State for African Affairs in Hargeisa to meet with leaders of the break-away region of Somalia, Somaliland. Before delving into a somewhat deeper analysis of how the Somaliland entity has normatively sunk into irrelevancy, I would first discuss reasons for the creation of Maakhir State of Somalia; a new sub-state whose model for regional self-governance is tailored to the successful realization of the system of building blocks, a federal legislation for restoring the Somali Republic. In addition to Maakhir’s federalist and moral position in preserving the territorial integrity of Somalia, its historical imprint of the survival of a “Muslim Sultanate” (2) until 1920 and its experience of self-governance after the collapse of the Somali state refute the argument that Maakhir would fail to self-sustain itself and so regress into an unviable state. Conversely, I would discuss the geographic dimension of the former British protectorate, its colonial history, and the contentious legal and political issues in seceding from Somalia and finally conclude my paper with a synopsis for a case study of Kosovo, whose declaration of independence on ….was recognized first by EU followed by the United States. A little zoom into the political development of Somali history prior to our independence from Italy and Britain clearly proves that the two Somali regions agreed to merge forever as one juridical family prior to their unitary independence and therefore had one flag and one constitution. Second, the history of the SNM, which was a rebel Somali faction like the SSDF, reveals that they had no Manifesto that said it was fighting for secession from the rest of Somalia. The primary objectives, therefore, for the formation of these political movements including the United Somali Congress (USC) were to whip up the sleeping masses under repressive dictatorial regime of Mohamed Said Barreh, so they all united under the banner of the forceful eviction of the last Somali regime. However, the Somali Republic was gradually let to slip into the current, intractable disintegration bringing about massive starvation, displacement, ethnic-cleansing and all the other consequences of civil strife. Somalia now being a failed state needs to be reconstituted and in the meantime preserved the North (Puntland, Maakhir and Somaliland) into its mutual peaceful relationship. The formation of Maakhir state, for instance, on the northeastern part of Somalia is a great asset to the northern unionists. Its political geography falls mainly in the region of Sanaag and western part of Bari region. Its independence was declared on July 1, 2007 at a communal conference in Badhan and Dhahar districts, in Sanaag region. Since then, Maakhir state has unilaterally joined the federal constitution of Somalia. Though it has been startling to many outside the community, the idea is not strange to Maakhirites to either remain independent or neutralize the separatist intentions “Somaliland”. However, dominant actors in the TFG who hail from Puntland Province seemed to have disregarded the call and placed Maakhir under the mercy of Puntland for strategic calculation. Despite the silent rejection of the TFG’s endorsement for this new state, it is within a general consensus that the creation of a number of political units within Somalia is an essential conflict resolution mechanism in order to restore the collapsed Somali Republic. The successful implementation of the model from bottom up approach has yet to be initiated by the Transitional Federal Government. Its feasibility, nevertheless, to resolve the cleavage between coalitions of various clans embroiled into a perpetual intra-conflict arising from the effect of what the political realists call, the security dilemma, has been questioned. Barry Posen best illustrates the concept of the security dilemma and its theoretical underpinnings: a collective fear of physical security and wellbeing among various entities vying for power. Consequently, and in this relevant case, an intense social and military conflict is inevitable after a state collapse, where the state neither monopolizes the use of coercive actions nor guarantees the safety and social equity of its people. A sweeping natural competition for power, self-defense, control of the state, or the acquisition of state property and power is viewed to be as the clan’s greatest achievement or its greatest enemy. In this theoretical illustration, it appears to be an insurmountable hurdle to determine the political and economic feasibility of the building blocks model in order to restore the proper Somali state, but it provides the incentives to build the broken units from the bottom up. The TFG, for instance, equally recognizes Somaliland and Puntland as accepted members of this model though both entities proclaim different political identities of self-rule and of making giant strides towards peace and security. These two administrations have benefited from the endorsement of the United Nations’ legitimacy for their states’ respective territorial jurisdictions within Somalia (known as local levels of rule). However, both political entities, took radical positions towards one another by launching proxy war against their claims on Sool and Sanaag regions due to the security dilemma concept discussed above, therefore contributing to the security and economic deterioration of Sool region and the invasion of its capital Las Anod. The region of most of Sanaag by contrast has enjoyed a relative peace. The fall of Sool to the renegade entity has now attracted sheer political mobilization among the Dholbahante clans in the Diaspora for a collective military action in response to the military aggression of Somaliland as it is pronounced in the declaration of a Liberation Movement at a communal conference in London. Does Somaliland have the normative legitimacy to their quest for statehood? Only a few cases of secession from existing member states of the United Nations were legally recognized as possessing normative legitimacy for their acclaimed right to an external self-determination, and those few cases came from states or empires constitutionally arranged as federal systems. Federally arranged states partly disintegrated owing to egregious violations of their federal charters prior to their legal merge. For instance, Eritrea was an autonomous unit federated with Ethiopia under the sovereignty of Ethiopian Crown, and the ratification of their subsequent agreements was sanctioned by the U.N. Therefore, these unique territories (such as the Baltic states, Eritrea, and East Timor) under states constitutionally arranged as federal systems, possessed legitimate struggle against annexation, not secessionim struggle because the administrations of the states with which they were federated dissolved the federal agreements protecting their religious and linguistic rights as well as their widest measure of self-government. Besides the population in these new states were demanded of absolute loyalty and to submit to other assimilationist pressures for reasons of state integrity and security. According to Raymond C. Taras in his article Ethnic Conflict and International Norms, he captures the legal exceptions to the international normative regime on secession. “Between 1945 and 1990, many separatist movements existed, but only one-Bangladesh—succeeded. In the early 1990s, a number of successful secessions did take place, but they were mostly concentrated in Communist states that were organized as federal systems and were in the throes of collapse. (2) Evaluating further on whether “Somaliland” had possessed the attributes of statehood based on the history of the legal merger of the two regions of Somalia, let us revisit the Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), and the UN General Assembly Resolution 1514(XV) of 1960, the latter was implemented through the Charter-based mechanism. In an analytical framework to the time when both British and Italian Somaliland were granted independence and merged thereafter, one would come to know whether the break-away entity of Northwestern Somalia ever transpired into a state of its own. Under article 1 of the CCPR, the subjection of peoples to alien rule and exploitation violates the UN charter, so it can be said immediate steps were taken, in non-self-governing territories (Colonies), to transfer all powers once and for all. Article 6 of Resolution 1514(XV) also proclaims that, after the transfer of all powers in non-self-governing territories to the people concerned, disruption of the political and territorial integrity of a country formed subsequently is incompatible with the charter. As it is evident from the widespread protest demonstrated by our leaders in 1959, the Legislative Council in Hargeisa appointed a commission to represent their voted resolution passed on April 6, 1960 by the elected members of the Protectorate on their political desire and heartfelt aspiration for an independence and immediate union with Somalia(3). Britain was quick to acquiesce to such popular demands though it regretted the short interval of timing under which the responsibility of the protectorate were to be transferred to Somalia. Another important document states that widespread political protests arising from the secret liquidation of the Hawd Reserve to Imperial Ethiopia forced Britain to “accept the eventual unification of British Somaliland with Italian Somaliland,” (4). Whereas the newly formed state of Kosovo possessed the attributes of autonomy under federal Yugoslavia, Somaliland had possessed no such attributes of autonomous status. Kosovo had its own separate assembly, police, and bank until 1990 when Serbian rule was imposed on them that repressed the ethnic Albanians who are ethnically distinct from the Serbs. The existence of historical rivalry and animosity between the two also dates back to the Ottoman period. For instance, Muslim Albanians were in better position than the Serbs. A further root cause of their conflict was when Albanians allied with Germany and Italy during WWII in their quest for pledged “Greater Albania” during which Muslim atrocities against the ethnic Serbs occurred. It appears, nevertheless, that the Bush administration is still perched upon its unilateralist approach on global issues, inclined to overlooking and infringing international treaties and conventions. The Pentagon system, as writes by Chomsky, has long been “the [u.S.] engine for economic growth and preserving the technological edge”(2). In my personal struggle to construct a political framework for unraveling the geopolitical mystery in the Horn of Africa is whether the United States’ foreign policy is complicit in Somalia’s protracted conflict for her potential solidification of critical interest in Somalia; of course, the U.S. considers the Middle East in which Somalia is part of as an area of vital concern. American multinationals want to exploit Somalia’s resources by resuming, after perhaps an imposed but not mutually acceptable partition, the exploration of the untapped vast reserves of oil deposits and minerals in Sool and Sanaag regions of Somalia, mainly inhabited by the Dolbahante and Warsangeli sub-clans of *****-******, respectively. However, the recent statement by the State Department lends credence to the territorial integrity and national unity of Somalia. The statement unfairly acknowledges Somaliland’s de facto status and so instructs the transfer of its responsibility to the African Union to decide whether to bring “Somaliland” into legal existence or not. This raises the suspicion that if AU, a financially bankrupt and ineffective organization controlled by corrupt and tyrant African leaders, recognizes “Somaliland” the United States and its EU friend will follow suit, which also bypasses the fair dealing of this case by the United Nations based on the principle of non-intervention and the territorial integrity of member states. There are official reports, confirming the existence of vast reserves of oil deposits in Sool and Sanaag regions, from American multinational corporations such as Shell and Conoco that held contracts in these two regions before declaring force majeure. For instance, in an article, “Oil hopes hinges on North Somalia” published by the Petroleum Economist on 30 October 1990, states; “Results of analysis to date, which indicate that the region is definitely oil-prone as well as gas-prone, are to be presented at this month's meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Eastern Hemisphere group, in London. Regional connoisseurs pick out northern Somalia as particularly prospective. Exploration here dates from the turn of the century and was conducted in the former colony of British Somaliland by British and Italian geologists. The area rewarded explorers with numerous oil seeps and oil and gas shows in wells drilled in the 1960s. It is geologically analogous, in parts, to southern Yemen, on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, and almost the entire area was under licence to companies by the time hostilities with the central government broke out in 1988.” Shifting the U.S policy from the core nucleus which holds the intricate parts of Somali unity intact will not be a practical solution but building an effective and robust central government is the panacea through the tangible support of unitary policy by taking the following steps: Giving pledged financial support for the implementation of the fragile civil institutions of the TFG; Genuine support for conflict management mechanism for the various political groups; and most importantly adopting and enforcing nonintervention policies in the region. It is true and feasible, as Erich Weede argues in his much celebrated piece, “The diffusion of Prosperity and Peace by Globalization,” that “co-opting conflict-prone states into a capitalist world order” is prerequisite to the spread of democratic peace and the strengthening of global economic interdependence, which is vital to the peace and prosperity of the United States and its major allies. By restoring the Somali Republic, Ethiopia’s fears for the Greater Somalia ideology will be reassured. The United States should not be swayed that the reconstitution of a Somali state raises the specter of this ideology, which endangers the internal security of its great ally in the Horn. The concern for Democracy over security best serves the survival of U.S interests in the Horn over more competing forces in the future. Somalis have resiliently evolved into natural capitalists and innovators over the entire duration of Somalia’s state collapse and anarchy. Thus, if given a benign chance and nudged toward the global system, by resuscitating its collapsed state, Somalia shall demonstrate its credibility and ability to strengthen free-market institutions and policies and consequently enhance peace and security in the Horn of Africa, a region that has been extremely isolated from the rest of the world by intractable conflicts and poverty though it can be a potentially sizable market for major foreign direct investments. Will the West change their old foreign policy options or will China fill the vacuum and turn this benighted Horn of Africa nation into Dubai? Time will tell. Mohamed A. Elmi Email: Almadowmt@yahoo.com San Diego, CA

Originally posted by NGONGE: Secondly, an open letter on the internet and in a different language is the worst option anyone could choose to communicate with his own clan! [/QB] NGONGE, I didn't know you are such a naive as to grasp the importance of the letter. The letter carries a political message that transcends the clan/nation or whatever you termed it.

Reading this article will give you the undeniable impression that Obama is trying so hard to appease a Nazi-type-culture known as Islamophobia. It's no slur to be called a Muslim Mar 1, 2008 - by Naomi Klein The turban photos affair was a missed chance for Obama. If he really is to repair the world, he must tackle this Islamophobia. Hillary Clinton denied leaking the photo of Barack Obama wearing a turban, but her campaign manager says that even if she had, it would be no big deal. "Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely." Sure she did. And George Bush put on a poncho in Santiago, while Paul Wolfowitz burned up YouTube with his anti-malarial African dance routines while World Bank president. The obvious difference is this: when white politicians go ethnic, they look funny; when a black presidential contender does it, he looks foreign - and when the ethnic apparel in question is vaguely reminiscent of the clothing worn by Iraqi and Afghan fighters (at least to many Fox viewers, who think any headdress other than a baseball cap is a declaration of war on America), the image is downright frightening. The turban "scandal" is all part of what is being referred to as "the Muslim smear". It includes everything from exaggerated enunciations of Obama's middle name (Hussein) to the online whisper campaign that Obama attended a fundamentalist madrasa in Indonesia (a lie), was sworn in on a Qur'an (another lie), and if elected would attach speakers to the White House to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer (I made that one up). So far Obama's campaign has responded with aggressive corrections that tout his Christian faith, attack the attackers and channel a cooperative witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. "Barack has never been a Muslim or practised any other faith besides Christianity," states one fact sheet. "I'm not and never have been of the Muslim faith," Obama told a Christian News reporter. Of course Obama must correct the record, but he doesn't have to stop there. What is disturbing about the campaign's response is that it leaves unchallenged the disgraceful and racist premise behind the entire "Muslim smear": that being Muslim is de facto a source of shame.Obama's supporters often say they are being "Swift-boated" (a pejorative term derived from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against the 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry), casually accepting the idea that being accused of Muslimhood is tantamount to being accused of treason. Substitute another faith or ethnicity, and you'd expect a very different response. Consider a report from the archives of the Nation. Thirteen years ago Daniel Singer, the magazine's late Europe correspondent, went to Poland to cover a presidential election. He reported that the race had descended into an ugly debate over whether one of the candidates, Aleksander Kwasniewski, was a closet Jew. The press claimed his mother was buried in a Jewish cemetery (she was still alive), and a popular TV show aired a skit featuring the Christian candidate dressed as a Hassidic Jew. "What perturbed me," Singer said, "was that Kwasniewski's lawyers threatened to sue for slander rather than press for an indictment under the law condemning racist propaganda". We should expect no less of the Obama campaign. When asked during the Ohio debate about Louis Farrakhan's support for his candidacy, Obama did not hesitate to call Farrakhan's antisemitic comments "unacceptable and reprehensible". When the turban photo flap came up in the same debate, he used the occasion to say nothing at all. Farrakhan's infamous comments about Jews took place 24 years ago. The orgy of hate that is the "Muslim smear" is unfolding in real time, and it promises to greatly intensify in a general election. These attacks do not simply "smear Barack's Christian faith", as John Kerry claimed in a campaign mailing. They are an attack on all Muslims, some of whom actually do exercise their rights to cover their heads and send their kids to religious school. Thousands even have the very common name Hussein. All are watching their culture used as a crude bludgeon against Obama, while the candidate who is the symbol of racial harmony fails to defend them - this at a time when US Muslims are bearing the brunt of the Bush administration's assaults on civil liberties, including dragnet wiretapping, and are facing a documented spike in hate crimes. Occasionally, though not nearly enough, Obama says that Muslims are "deserving of respect and dignity". What he has never done is what Singer called for in Poland: denounce the attacks themselves as racist propaganda, in this case against Muslims. The core of Obama's candidacy is that he alone - having lived in Indonesia as a boy and with an African grandmother - can "repair the world" after the Bush wrecking ball. That repair job begins with the 1.4 billion Muslims around the world, many convinced that the US has been waging a war against their faith. This perception is based on facts, among them the fact that Muslim civilians are not counted among the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan; that Islam has been desecrated in US-run prisons; and that voting for an Islamist party resulted in collective punishment in Gaza. It is also fuelled by the rise of a virulent strain of Islamophobia in Europe and North America. As the most visible target of this rising racism, Obama has the power to be more than its victim. He can use the attacks to begin the very process of global repair that is the most seductive promise of his campaign. The next time he's asked about his alleged Muslimness, Obama can respond not just by clarifying the facts but by turning the tables. He can state that while a liaison with a pharmaceutical lobbyist may be worthy of scandalised exposure, being a Muslim is not. Changing the terms of the debate this way is not only morally just but tactically smart - it's the one response that could defuse these hateful attacks. The best part is this: unlike ending the Iraq war and closing Guantánamo, standing up to Islamophobia doesn't need to wait until after the election. Obama can use his campaign to start now. Let the repairing begin. Source: Guardian (UK)

A sign of declining US strategic power Aijaz Ahmad explains why the Turkish Kurdish struggle is so explosive Based in New Delhi, Aijaz Ahmad is The Real News Network Senior News Analyst, Senior Editorial Consultant, and political commentator for the Indian newsmagazine, Frontline. He has taught Political Science, and has written widely on South Asia and the Middle East. Source: The Real News PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: President Bush held an unusual press conference in Washington on October 17, partly unusual given how rarely there are any press conferences given by President Bush. But at any rate, aside from some domestic issues, he also discussed the US foreign policy in relation to a wide range of countries and global issues. I'm joined by our Senior News Analyst, Aijaz Ahmad, to discuss the implications of what President Bush said. And let's start with Turkey. So here's what President Bush was asked, and here's what he had to say about the possibility of Turkish troops entering Iraq. White House Press Conference October 17, 2007 GEORGE W. BUSH, US PRESIDENT: We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interests to send troops into Iraq. Actually, they have troops already stationed in Iraq, and they've had troops stationed there for quite awhile. We don't think it's in their interests to send more troops in. There's a better way to deal with the issue than having the Turks send massive troops into the country—massive additional troops into the country.(CLIP ENDS) JAY: Can you start with giving us a little bit of background? Who's fighting whom here? What is it that the Turkish parliament's concerned about? And then how serious is there about a massive troop movement from Turkey into Iraq? And what would be the implications of that? AIJAZ AHMAD, SENIOR NEWS ANALYST: Well, you see, this is a very long-standing problem. There are large concentrations of Kurdish population in Turkey, in Iraq, in Iran, and to a lesser extent in Syria. These are also highly centralized states, which do not recognize rights of religious or cultural or linguistic minorities, particularly Turkey. Turkey has always been very sensitive, always said there's one Turkish nation, there’s one Turkish language, which is the national language, and so on and so forth. JAY: In terms of the Kurdish population, how many Kurds live on the Turkish side of the border, and what's the Kurdish population on the Iraqi side of the border? AHMAD: The whole of eastern Turkey is essentially a Kurdish zone in which other ethnic minorities also live. But it's predominantly a Kurdish area. Similarly in Iraq it's a very large part of the territory. JAY: So some of the Kurdish political forces want to unite Kurdish Iraq, Kurdish Turkey, in an independent Kurdish [crosstalk]. AHMAD: Kurdish Iraq, Kurdish Turkey, Kurdish Iran, and even Kurdish Syria. And if they were to be united, that would in fact form a very substantial, very large state. JAY: So all these other states—Syria, Iran, Turkey, Iraq—have a common interest in stopping this. AHMAD: That's right. And one of the fallouts of the creation of a virtually semi-sovereign state of the Kurds in western Iraq after the US occupation is that all the other three states are very nervous that sooner or later this Kurdish zone in Iraq will gain full sovereignty and will become the base from which military incursions into these three states will increasingly be stepped up towards the realization of such a state. JAY: And there's a tremendous amount of oil and natural resources at stake here. If there were an independent Kurdish country in Iraq, if it became to try to include the Kurdish population in the neighboring countries, we'd be talking a relatively wealthy state here. AHMAD: Yes. Actually, Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991 has already become quite a stable and prosperous state. It has some oil of its own, but it is also claiming that the Kirkuk area, which is so far not a part of Kurdistan, in Iraq—. Kirkuk area actually has a Kurdish population, a Turkman population, which is historically of a Turkish origin, as well as Arab populations. So it's actually ethnically a mixed area, Kurdistan. The Kurds' parties in Iraq claim that as a part of it. If they get that area, then they become a very major oil power. JAY: Now, the Kurds, certainly since this no-fly zone, if not before, but since that point have had quite a close relationship to the United States, closer than any of the other Iraqi political forces. What is the American strategic interest here? 'Cause one could imagine it might be in America's interest to have an independent Kurdistan, a Kurdish state, although then it positions the United States in a direct conflict with Turkey. The White House said they were opposed to this congressional resolution on the genocide of Armenians, but Congress voted for it, and then included a lot of Republicans voting for it. AHMAD: You see, it's very interesting to me that this bill condemning the Armenian genocide of 1915 came up at all, in the sense that of course there was a genocide. It's a very tragic part of Turkish history and Armenian history, I must say. Of course it happened. But why should this year, a year before the next US elections, should such a bill be—? So at a certain level it is a deliberate provocation towards the Turkish state. They want more and more Turkish compliance. On the question of Iraq, you would recall that Turkish parliament had refused to endorse the idea of sending Turkish troops as part of the coalition troops in Iraq. JAY: In the original invasion [crosstalk] AHMAD: And invasion is being prepared now for Iran. Turkey and Iran are drawing closer on the Kurdish question, because both states face the same problem. This is partly to put pressure on Turkey to dissociate itself from Iran, from improving it more, the relationship. Then, you see, these Caspian Sea, the small states that have arisen in the Caspian Sea basin are Turkic (Turkish)-speaking. They used to be a part of the Ottoman Empire until late 19th century when the Tsarist Empire conquered them. JAY: And these are the leaders that just met in Iran that Putin's visit that we're going to talk [crosstalk] AHMAD: That’s right. JAY: [crosstalk] in the next segment about. AHMAD: That is right. And those states are drawing closer and closer to Russia. Turkey has its own regional ambitions in those areas. The United States wants to press Turkey to play a more aggressive role in relation to those states in terms of containment [crosstalk] The Americans want to support a sort of Turkey-dominated Caspian Sea basin, so far as that other side which lies between Russia and Iran is concerned. In fact, it is part of the rising cold war between the United States and Russia, in which the United States wants Turkey to play a more active role. I think they were very surprised by the level at which the response came from Turkey, because the response came not even so much from the prime minister, Erdoğan, but from the chief of staff of the Turkish army. Now, Turkey has the largest army in NATO. Turkey has a kind of weaponry that the United States has not supplied even to Germany. t's an extremely powerful army. when the chief of the Turkish general staff says that Turkey will have to reconsider its military relationships with the United States, that is, when they start backing off. JAY: Are we seeing the fallout of perhaps a somewhat new strategic weakness of the United States, post-Iraq war? But all the powers in the region are starting to reassess what their strength is and what the future is. AHMAD: Absolutely. I agree with you, because underneath all this, the US is suggesting somewhere there in Turkey that if you do not follow some of these policies that we want you to follow, then Iraqi Kurdistan can remain an area from which incursions will continue and expand into Turkey. And Turkey retaliated immediately. JAY: A very dangerous game. AHMAD: Yeah. It's a kind of brinksmanship. And you are seeing this happening in country after country, where the US exerts pressure, and to the extent possible the country retaliates by saying, no, we are not going to follow the policies that you are telling us to follow. And that is an indication of declining US strategic power.

Originally posted by Isseh: ------ Revised Part I can be found HERE I like the revised Part I. Thanks Isseh. I can't wait to read Part III

A couple of phone calls can't reach a whole nation. You must understand this is a nation scattered all over the world. Anyway this is a wake up call for the Makhiris in Hargeesa to look themselves in a mirror and refrain from actions deemed to cultivate division within the community. The letter, according to the author, is not to demonize the Makhiris on the wrong side, but to reason with them and open up a dialogue. However, the major problem in our MakhirLand I think originates from the benign neglect of the former regimes as the author put it in terms of the lack of infrastracture. Las Qorey Port is our way to reversing decades long of economic marginilzation, so he is urging them to support as much as they can. It is a wake up for the sleeping giant

Do you think he is mentally and physically determined to fight the Taliban? ----------------- Britain's Prince Harry in Afghanistan By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 28, 3:34 PM ET LONDON - Prince Harry has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan with the British Army, calling in airstrikes on Taliban positions and going out on foot patrols, the Ministry of Defense announced Thursday. Officials said the prince, a lieutenant in the Blues and Royals regiment, was still deployed in the country. "His conduct on operations in Afghanistan has been exemplary," said the head of the army, Gen. Richard Dannatt. "He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same risks as everyone else in his battle group." Harry, who is third in line to the throne, has been in Afghanistan since December. The planned deployment had been disclosed to reporters, with no specific date, and was not reported previously under a pool agreement between the Ministry of Defense and all major news organizations operating in Britain, including The Associated Press. The news blackout was intended to reduce the risk to the prince and his regiment. The news embargo was broken, however, after reports of the prince's deployment were leaked by an Australian magazine and a German newspaper, and then reported on a U.S. Web site, the Drudge Report. Dannatt, the military commander, said he was "very disappointed" that the story had leaked. Harry, 23, has been deployed in the restive Helmand province for 10 weeks, where most of the 7,800 British troops in Afghanistan are based, according to the military's statement. In a recorded interview, Harry said he was happy to be standing shoulder-to- shoulder with his colleagues. "It's nice just to be here with all the guys and just mucking in as one of the lads," said Harry, who had expressed bitter disappointment when he was banned from going to Iraq with his battalion last year. Army chiefs said publicity surrounding his deployment could put him and his unit at risk. Pooled video footage of Harry in Afghanistan showed the prince dressed in camouflage fatigues patrolling arid and dusty terrain and firing a machine gun. Harry graduated from Sandhurst military academy in 2006 and trained as a tank commander. After the decision not to send him to Iraq, he retrained as a battlefield air controller, the job he has been filling in Afghanistan. Source: AP

Isseh, what do you think of the young Somalis who are influenced to go back home from Australia and join the Al-shabab resistance? I was reading a news article on this growing issue that is affecting the Somali community in Australia.

Lilly well said sista. We should care about the plight of a society facing an open discrimination and there should be not only laws against segregation but also for instituting a national program that helps them better their lives. Yemen is a very poor country, it is difficult to expect a full grant of your rights given the prevalent social practice of discrimination--a gross violation of human rights. There is also the long-term psychological effect on them. A minority like them comes to the sad conclusion that all legal avenues of seeking justice is blocked from them and thus have to surrender to this fate of harsh treatments from time immemorial. It will take time for them to grasp and feel the principles of justice and equality until a United Nation intervention is considered by sending special rapporteurs or external activist groups who speak on behalf of the rights that were denied to them pressure the government of Yemen.

Armchairp Politician and his chearleaders, I think that input of yours explains the hardware part of the meeting. What is more important is the software or different softwares presented by the esteemed participants there. Most meetings almost have the same setting or hardware.

Walaahi garan maayo wuxuu ka wadey. Allaha ha naxariistee, he was a great poet. Gabay waxaa jira uu aad uga amaanayo dhulkaan Calmadow oo aad ka heleyso buug uu qorey Allaha ha naxariistee Faarax Cade, Aqoondaro waa u nacab jacayl. I had the book but didn't retain for that long. It is probably lost in my personal library shelves.

Their name sounds to be derived from the Kingdom of AKSUM--the ancient empire of Ethiopia. Racism and spatial segregation might be worst in Muslim states than in non-Muslim countries, don't you think? Might the Gypsies be faring better comparitively? Hard to imagine how endemic and pervasive racism or the caste system still is in many countries, even in the so called liberal states. Languishing at the Bottom of Yemen's Ladder More pics of Akhdam Source: The New York Times Feb 27, 08 SANA, Yemen — By day, they sweep the streets of the Old City, ragged, dark-skinned men in orange jump suits. By night, they retreat to fetid slums on the edge of town. They are known as “Al Akhdam” — the servants. Set apart by their African features, they form a kind of hereditary caste at the very bottom of Yemen’s social ladder. Degrading myths pursue them: they eat their own dead, and their women are all prostitutes. Worst of all, they are reviled as outsiders in their own country, descendants of an Ethiopian army that is said to have crossed the Red Sea to oppress Yemen before the arrival of Islam. “We are ready to work, but people say we are good for nothing but servants; they will not accept us,” said Ali Izzil Muhammad Obaid, a 20-year-old man who lives in a filthy Akhdam shantytown on the edge of this capital. “So we have no hope.” In fact, the Akhdam — who prefer to be known as “Al Muhamasheen,” or the marginalized ones — may have been in this southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula for as long as anyone, and their ethnic origins are unclear. Their debased status is a remnant of Yemen’s old social hierarchy, which collapsed after the 1962 revolution struck down the thousand-year-old Imamate. But where Yemen’s other hereditary social classes, the sayyids and the judges and the sheiks, and even the lower orders like butchers and ironworkers, slowly dissolved, the Akhdam retained their separate position. There are more than a million of them among Yemen’s fast-growing population of 22 million, concentrated in segregated slums in the major cities. “All the doors are closed to us except sweeping streets and begging,” Mr. Obaid said. “We are surviving, but we are not living.” The Akhdam have not been offered the kind of affirmative action programs India’s government has used to improve the lot of the Dalits, or untouchables, there. In part, that is because Yemen never had a formal caste system like India’s. As a result, the Akhdam have languished at the margins of society, suffering a persistent discrimination that flouts the egalitarian maxims of the Yemeni state. Even the recent waves of immigrants from Ethiopia and Somalia, many of them desperately poor, have fared better than the Akhdam, and do not share their stigma. The Akhdam who work as street sweepers, for instance, are rarely granted contracts even after decades of work, despite the fact that all Yemeni civil servants are supposed to be granted contracts after six months, said Suha Bashren, a relief official with Oxfam here. They receive no benefits, and almost no time off. “If any supervisor wants to dismiss them, they can do that,” said Ali Abdullah Saeed Hawdal, who started working as a street sweeper in 1968. “The supervisors use violence against them with no fear of penalties. They treat them as people with no rights.” The living conditions of the Akhdam are appalling, even by the standards of Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. In one Akhdam shantytown on the edge of Sana, more than 7,000 people live crammed into a stinking warren of low concrete blocks next to a mountain of trash. Young children, many of them barefoot, run through narrow, muddy lanes full of human waste and garbage. A young woman named Nouria Abdullah stood outside the tiny cubicle — perhaps 6 feet by 8 feet, with a ceiling too low to allow her to stand up — where she lives with her husband and six children. Inside, a thin plastic sheet covered a dirt floor. A small plastic mirror hung on the wall, and a single filthy pillow lay in the corner. Nearby, a single latrine, in a room approximately 3 feet by 3 feet, serves about 50 people. The residents must carry water in plastic jugs from a tank on the edge of the slum, supplied by a charity group. Wearing a brown dress, with a rag tied around her head, Ms. Abdullah said she and her family brought in no more than 1,000 Yemeni riyals a week, about $5. She begs for change, while her husband, Muhammad, gathers metal and electrical components from trash heaps and sells them. Like most people in the shantytown, they have no documents, and they do not know how old they are. “We are living like animals,” Ms. Abdullah said. “We cook and sleep and live in the same room. We need other shelters.” When the winter rains come, the houses are flooded, she said. On the cold days in winter, the family burns trash to stay warm. Source: Nytimes

Originally posted by Laba_Xiniinyood: The right people are here on SOL Malika - but like i said Kama bixi kareysid. We don't want the blame of Alla ba'ayey hoogayey guntiinadii geed baa iga qabsaday diirkiina iga muruxsey! on our shoulders Ibtisam, Adiga waxaan kaaga baqayaa inaad orgi maashid! LX, Living in Sanaag gives you longevity. Highlanders live longer than others. I heard the famous poet, Xaaji Aadan Afqalooc, died at the age of 140

Good abridged article. Thanks for posting, JB.

SL Times has learnt that the Arabs were initially told by the officials in Berbera that due to recent security breaches in Sanag region where a German NGO worker was kidnapped by an armed group, that they were temporarily to stay put inside their [Maansoor] hotel grounds in Berbera. The curfew was ordered by the Berbera police department and town authorities What about the near-invasion of Badhan by SL troops? JB, is the German-aid worker more important than the people that SL militia pose threats against their will? I don't get it.

Alla ya arxama, Garaadka.

Instinct-Poet, we have a topic earlier on this Somali girl's singing career and her true identity. She is Amazing woman. Somaliaonline

Originally posted by AAliyah416: Nice pics, love them. They are so beautiful and breath taking. share some more, if you have that is. thanks. Some info + Pics on Cal Madow More pics

A.J. to preserve nature as it is is what people spend millions of $$ for that purpose alone. After so many years of stateless-ness, how was it preserved for such a long time begs for a miraculous answer. If they can find such an answer SL should learn to model it to its development, not military aggression, you know you can't win.

She is so Gorgeous.