^LOL

Originally posted by Khayr: quote:Originally posted by Sherban Shabeel: One does not need to know how a wave works to know it's a wave. That is the new age motto and the age of the twitters - "speaking before thinking" There are more times to say things and to speak. You don't come in to someone's neighborhood and dictate to them things and then say - "my knowledge is definitely limited, but I stand by what I said ". Wisdom before speech. Humility before over confidence. Unless I'm very angry, I think before I speak. Also, I do not speak without knowing what I'm talking about. I think you gravely misunderstood my statement about limited knowledge. I didn't come in to anyone's neighborhood to dictate things, and that's a statement that I've been coming across over and over again lately, and that I've come to resent DEEPLY. If there's anything I said that you would like to challenge, man up and say it. Beating around the bush doesn't solve anything.

One does not need to know how a wave works to know it's a wave.

BBC AFRICA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8535189.stm ------------------ Millions of dollars in Western aid for victims of the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85 was siphoned off by rebels to buy weapons, a BBC investigation finds. Former rebel leaders told the BBC that they posed as merchants in meetings with charity workers to get aid money. They used the cash to fund attempts to overthrow the government of the time. One rebel leader estimated $95m (£63m) - from Western governments and charities including Band Aid - was channelled into the rebel fight. The CIA, in a 1985 assessment entitled Ethiopia: Political and Security Impact of the Drought, also alleged aid money was being misused. Its report concluded: "Some funds that insurgent organisations are raising for relief operations, as a result of increased world publicity, are almost certainly being diverted for military purposes." Multiple rebellions The crisis in 1984 prompted a huge Western relief effort, spearheaded by pop star Bob Geldof's Band Aid campaign and Live Aid concerts. Although millions of people were saved by the aid that poured into the country, evidence suggests not all of the aid went to the most needy. At the time, the Ethiopian government was fighting rebellions in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigray. Much of the countryside was outside of government control, so relief agencies brought aid in from neighbouring Sudan. Some was in the form of food, some as cash, to buy grain from Ethiopian farmers in areas that were still in surplus. Max Peberdy, an aid worker from Christian Aid, carried nearly $500,000 in Ethiopian currency across the border in 1984. He used it to buy grain from merchants and believes that none of the aid was diverted. "It's 25 years since this happened, and in the 25 years it's the first time anybody has claimed such a thing," he says. He insists that to the best of his knowledge, the food went to feed the starving. But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims he was, in fact, a senior member of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). "I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. This was a trick for the NGOs," says Gebremedhin Araya. Underneath the sacks of grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with sand. He says he handed over the money he received to TPLF leaders, including Meles Zenawi - the man who went on to become Ethiopia's prime minister in 1991. Mr Meles, who is still in office, has declined to comment on the allegations. But Mr Gebremedhin's version of events is supported by the TPLF's former commander, Aregawi Berhe. Now living in exile in the Netherlands, he says the rebels put on what he describes as a "drama" to get the money. "The aid workers were fooled," he says. He says that some $100m went through the hands of the TPLF and affiliated groups. Some 95% of it was allocated to buying weapons and building up a hard-line Marxist political party within the rebel movement. Both Mr Aregawi and Mr Gebremedhin fell out with the TPLF leadership and fled the country. Much of the money that ended up in the TPLF's hands was channelled through affiliated groups such as the Relief Society of Tigray. Band Aid's accounts show that it gave almost $11m to the society and other groups close to the rebels, but the charity has declined to comment. Soviet confrontation It should not be forgotten that this all took place at the height of the Cold War. The Soviet Union had poured $4bn into Ethiopia, and provided Soviet officers to direct Ethiopia battles against the rebels. In January 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Directive 75, which aimed to confront the Soviet Union across the developing world. "US policy will seek to limit and destabilise activities of Soviet Third World allies and clients," it said. In a November 2009 speech, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates - who was deputy head of the CIA during Mr Reagan's time in office - said that the president's approach was to "impose ever stiffer costs on the Soviet Union for its Third World adventurism". He included Ethiopia among the states in which "Soviet surrogates soon faced their own lethal insurgencies". Mr Gates was unwilling to expand on whether the US backed the Ethiopian insurgents. But since there were only a limited number of rebel movements, the suggestion cannot be ruled out that the CIA not only knew about, but supported, the diversion of aid funds to the TPLF.

Originally posted by NGONGE: ^^ Again, the result tells us all we need. Very bitter ninyaho (are you Algerian?). The result? 1. Egypt 2. Ghana 3. Nigeria 4. Algerie but only 2,3, and 4 are going to the World Cup

^lol uncle NG you're too old for them. They only want fresh meat.

Allah yarxamhu

Yeeee welcome back Kashafa!

A brave and intelligent man. We should all go with dignity if we can.

my knowledge is definitely limited, but I stand by what I said

You never read his poems?

^^For real, admins, the title is a personal attack on Maaddeey. Just change it to Shabaab bullying...etc As for Dhubad, KK was being sarcastic, as I suspect are you

I'd love to teach!

Maaad, I'm a big fan of him. I even wrote a huge essay on him as a misanthrope. If I posted some of his work on SOL they'd take it down in two seconds loool

what were they waiting for?

For real! Some people need lessons in comprehending irony.

I'm not touching this thread with a telescopic banana-picker.

Blessed, is the John Wilmot in your signature the celebrated poet and 2nd Earl of Rochester, or some other guy with his name?

The media ARE wretched but they are a vital organ of mankind.

meow! cat fight!

I smoke, even Obama smokes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/01/barack-obama-told-to-quit-smoking

I see that even the religious sisters aren't immune to the clan-induced name-calling that has gripped SOL.

oh boy

Originally posted by Raamsade: quote:Originally posted by Sherban Shabeel: Again, follow Hamas coverage on BBC. And go to Gaza. Do not speak of what you don't know. I didn't speak of what I "don't know." I posted what Hamas speaks. You're in denial. Hamas is fascistic organization that throws its fellow Muslims (FATAH) off buildings. It sends masked gunmen to shoot its opponents in the leg, oddly enough. They quote the virulent antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion forgery. 1. Are you aware of what Fatah does to its political opponents? 2. Are you aware of the fact that Hamas is an ELECTED party, as opposed to those other movements you were talking about? 3. Are you aware of the fact that I am a Christian, and thus in no need to be in denial about anything concerning Islamic parties? 4. Are you aware of the fact that Hamas leaders have said they are willing to negotiate with Israel a return to pre-'67 borders? If you answered "no" to even one of the above, then we shouldn't be having this debate.

Again, follow Hamas coverage on BBC. And go to Gaza. Do not speak of what you don't know.