Singing about being away from my country. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2LUj8g5fXY

lol she's a sandwich made of a long crusty roll, and filled with meats and cheese.

Everyone knows the solution to all of Somalia's problems is a parliament with 1 million MPs.

Originally posted by sheherazade: ^Ibts, wiilka claims to love us. Love is unconditional. He'll get through it. I'm not sure why there is a need to go easy on the kid's reasoning. He says the woman did it out of love for us. Please. One he doesn't know that. Two, It's an argument that is often used to perpetuate and hide behind ego, gain and evil. I don't care or know why she did it(love, ego, gain) but why dump the love burden on us? And expect us to be grateful as a result. Castro, shall we send him a belt buckle saying hero in Somali for choosing to be here and participating in this thread? Go ahead. I'm sure you'll find a Texan cowboy willing to create a bespoke leather belt. Apparently I'm not the one who needs to grow up.

As for the comparison with Daniel Pipes... I fear my skin is growing a bit too thin for these jokes lately.

Originally posted by Benson and Hedges: Shebel with his western liberal attitude and his lack of understanding of Somali affairs and psyche are a deadly mix. shebel are you on a civilising mission to save somalia? My western liberal attitude? My lack of understanding of Somali affairs? My civilizing mission to save Somalia? Comments such as these are part of why this forum has gone downhill in the past couple of months.

You can mock me all you want, it's not making you look any smarter And if you think journalists being kidnapped/killed is such a laughing matter, please consult this website: http://www.rsf.org/Wars-and-disputed-elections-The.html Unlike soldiers, journalists aren't out to kill anyone. They're out to show that there is killing, so that one day maybe the killing will stop. And, unlike soldiers, journalists don't have tanks and jets backing them up. Attention, glory? Why not become a professional athlete, a singer, a dancer, an actor, whatever? Adrenalin? Why not become a racing driver, or a pilot? 99% of reporters do their job out of love and dedication. Also, you should know - since you're not a kid like me - that love isn't earned. It just comes into existence or it doesn't. And that's that.

Shahrazad, I need to see the world more and hit some history books? Who do you think you're talking to? Yes, I know very well how much cr*p cadaan people are responsible for, sometimes under the guise of help, but that is neither here nor there. Is admiring this woman justifying or denying the horrors that white people have done, in your mind? It makes absolutely no sense. You keep on repeating the same things over and over again. You haven't addressed - or aknowledged - a single point I've made. Your message is basically "she couldn't have done it out of love, because she must have had some other interest". Very well, if that's your opinion so be it, but don't try to back it up with your incomplete and poor understanding of journalism, because it's not working. My guess is you're not after a rational discussion. You had some sort of emotional reaction when you saw the article (my guess is of the negative sort) and now you try to hammer that home at the expense of logic, truth and other stuff people like.

^Which is why it's so easy for me to recognize

^Which is why it's so easy for me to recognize

^Which is why it's so easy for me to recognize

Ngonge would you like to see my transcript as well? LOL

Before the ridiculous CIA claims get out of hand: Shabeel has nothing to hide, always remember that.

What don't you believe lol

PL & SL manual on.... HOW TO HANDLE EMBARASSING HANDOVERS OF O-PEOPLE Stage 1: Deny that it ever happened. Stage 2: Ask for sources. Stage 3: Question the credibility of all the sources you are shown. Stage 4: When all the above fails, deflect the conversation and whine about how the ONLF is a dirty clan movement who deserves everything that's happening to it. Stage 5: Deflect the conversation even more, make ridiculous demands such as "ONLF should change its name blahblahblah". By the time Stage 5 is completed, everyone will have forgotten what this is all about, and no apology will have to be given.

PL & SL manual on.... HOW TO HANDLE EMBARASSING HANDOVERS OF O-PEOPLE Stage 1: Deny that it ever happened. Stage 2: Ask for sources. Stage 3: Question the credibility of all the sources you are shown. Stage 4: When all the above fails, deflect the conversation and whine about how the ONLF is a dirty clan movement who deserves everything that's happening to it. Stage 5: Deflect the conversation even more, make ridiculous demands such as "ONLF should change its name blahblahblah". By the time Stage 5 is completed, everyone will have forgotten what this is all about, and no apology will have to be given.

PL & SL manual on.... HOW TO HANDLE EMBARASSING HANDOVERS OF O-PEOPLE Stage 1: Deny that it ever happened. Stage 2: Ask for sources. Stage 3: Question the credibility of all the sources you are shown. Stage 4: When all the above fails, deflect the conversation and whine about how the ONLF is a dirty clan movement who deserves everything that's happening to it. Stage 5: Deflect the conversation even more, make ridiculous demands such as "ONLF should change its name blahblahblah". By the time Stage 5 is completed, everyone will have forgotten what this is all about, and no apology will have to be given.

Shahrazad & others: I'm a journalism student (at Concordia University if you must know), and I've said this before so no surprise there. The security guard job was just to get me some money to leave for Alg & Rom last summer. You can't possibly think I'd make a career out of it lol But back to journalism: Let me let you in on how this profession works. A "scoop" (lame word you use to give out an impression you know what you're talking about) means getting a story out before anyone else. I fail to see how this can apply to the stuff Amanda was reporting on, the suffering of the Somali people. I don't see how that is exclusive in any way, since it has been reported a million times before. But let's say there was going to be some exclusive stories to send back from Somalia (and there always are if you look hard enough). An exclusive from Somalia is worth no more than an exclusive from, say, Dubai (see the murder of the Hamas man recently). An exclusive is a superlative in itself, it doesn't come in degrees, so you don't get extra glory for reporting from Somalia - as a matter of fact most people will think you're a nutcase! You don't get extra money either - in fact, you can probably make more with travel writing. Also, I think you should know there is absolutely NO news organization in the world who sends its journalists to Somalia - even Reuters uses local correspondents. One exception would be Al Jazeera: they have Maxamed Cadow, but even he is there of his own free will, and you can kind of consider him a local correspondent. So your claims that she was "just doing her job" are unfounded, as there is absolutely no employer in this world that would expect a reporter to go to Somalia. Do I make myself clear? So, just in case I wasn't clear enough in my first post: there is not a SINGLE reason a sane journalist would go to Somalia, if not out of LOVE for the Somali people. This woman felt empathy for a people she has no blood or kinship ties to, and was moved enough that she decided to go to their country to try and help in any way she could. She put her life at risk for the Somali people and that's what makes her a hero. DAMN RIGHT she is a hero and DAMN RIGHT foreign correspondents are heroes, for putting their lives at risk every day for people they barely know or don't know at all! If it wasn't for them, you would have NEVER known the horrors of Gaza last year. How little you would know of the world if it wasn't for them! Your posts are not only an insult to Amanda Lindhout, but to an entire proffession, and to every cadaan person in this world who has ever loved Somalia, myself included.

Some IGNANT replies up in this thread. I'm not gonna say everything that comes to my mind now, because I might come across as unable to control my anger. So let me just reason you: Before you go throwing journalists in the self-interested, cynical bucket, please remember most of these men and women do their job out of love and empathy for fellow human beings. If it was money we were interested in, we would have become investment bankers or lawyers. Journalists don't make fortunes, and that's one of the first things you learn in journalism school. Without dedication, you can't do this job. Amanda could have lived a comfortable life reporting in Canada or Western Europe, or travel writing across Asia. She could have lived her entire life not caring about Somali people, kind of like everyone else. Instead she chose to go to Somalia, to speak to Somalis and try to understand them and to show the world that they still exist. No one forced her to go there, she went there out of love and that means a great deal. She almost sacrificed her life for Somalis. What the hell have you done for the Somali people?

^Yeah but people living in cities have no use for AKs

Originally posted by Shaakirullaah: Miskiin,, they govern more of Somalia than your apostate traitor uncle could, and they have done more for the people than he will ever do. I agree 100%, but the time has now come for them to make peace with the legitimate, elected, President of Somalia, Sheekh Shariif. There has been enough bloodshed.

Heartfelt congratulations!

I find the article very interesting, especially since the mingling of animist/pagan traditions with mainstream religion is a field which interests me a lot. And perhaps I may come across as superstitious, but I do believe in some of the curses and magic associated with voodoo, especially since similar beliefs are held by a part of the Roma population in my country. But if you think about it, even the Muslim world has magic of similar kinds, good and evil. I'm sure you've heard of old women in Algeria and Morocco stealing a dead man's hand and cursing the cous-cous with it, destroying the life of whoever eats it. And hundreds of similar practices. Perhaps the less one knows of these things, the better. But it is very interesting.

By Henri Astier, BBC News Miami +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ A month before Haiti's devastating earthquake, prominent musician Theodore "Lolo" Beaubrun and a few friends were summoned by spirits who tried to warn them about the impending cataclysm. "They told us to pray for Haiti because many people would die," says Mr Beaubrun - the frontman of the group Boukman Eksperyans. "I thought it was about politics. I didn't know it was going to be an earthquake." The spirits may have failed to make themselves understood, but according to Mr Beaubrun - whose music and outlook are steeped in voodoo culture - they are standing by the Haitian people in their hour of need. "We are extremely traumatised," he says. "We have seen death. But the spirits entered the minds of people to advise and help them heal. They speak to us. It's like therapy." But Mr Breaubrun's idea that voodoo should play a leading role in helping victims of the country's worst-ever natural disaster is currently little more than a hope. Haiti's traditional religion has kept a low profile in the aftermath of the earthquake. The songs and prayers heard amid the rubble and tent cities around Port-au-Prince are overwhelmingly Christian. The voodoo religion may be practised by many Haitians - the exact number is unknown - and has not been totally absent from the aid effort. Louis Leslie Marcelin, another singer who also describes himself as a spiritual guide and healer, has used his home in Port-au-Prince as an alternative school and a care centre. "We work with children and parents," he says. "We work with poor people whose relatives have died." But such efforts by voodoo leaders have been few and far between. The bulk of the religious relief aid work in Haiti has been carried out by Catholic and Protestant groups. "For a religion that's supposedly the national religion of the Haitian people, it's amazingly absent in the earthquake phenomena," says Gerald Murray, a University of Florida anthropologist who has carried out extensive fieldwork in Haiti. Some argue that voodoo's conspicuous absence in the aftermath of the quake is due to prejudice. Many Christians - especially Protestants - regard voodoo as devil worship. This idea was expressed in its most striking form by the US televangelist Pat Robertson, who said shortly after the quake that Haiti had made a "pact with the devil" when it defeated French colonists two centuries ago. According to Mr Beaubrun, such attitudes have been in evidence during relief operations. "Some Christian communities do not want to give food to voodoo followers," he says. "As soon as they see people wearing peasant clothes or voodoo handkerchiefs, they put them aside and deny them food. "This is something I've seen." Hostility to voodoo - which blends elements of Christianity with West African animistic beliefs and practices - is indeed rife among some evangelical groups in Haiti and elsewhere. However most mainstream Christians - notably Catholics - have insisted on not marginalising the voodoo faith. Father Reginald Jean-Marie of Notre-Dame, the largest Roman Catholic church in Miami's Little Haiti, insists: "Any system of belief that people cling to especially in a time of crisis can be of help to them." Blaming voodoo for the country's problems, he says, is "theological nonsense". "When the (Asian) tsunami happened it was not because people did wrong," he says. "Things happen because they are natural disasters. If you claim that voodoo is responsible for those things, then is god responsible when bad things happen to good Christians?" The three days of prayer held for earthquake victims on 12, 13 and 14 February pointedly included voodoo practitioners. And, perhaps equally pointedly, a houngan (voodoo priest) taking part in the event stressed the common element between his faith and Christianity. He told the BBC he would "pray to bondye" - referring to the voodoo supreme god, while not stressing the "loa", the lesser spirits that are at the centre of rituals. This suggests tension between Haiti's rival faiths is not the main reason for voodoo's lack of visibility after the earthquake. The principal factor, according to anthropologist Gerald Murray, could be theological. In the voodoo belief system, natural disasters are not caused by the "loa", but by a distant "bondye". The supreme being that unleashes the forces of nature is an unfathomable entity which cannot be influenced. Only the lowly "loa", Mr Murray notes, can be accessed or propitiated - often through rituals led by houngans. The main role of these specialists, Mr Murray adds, is the diagnosis and healing of an individual's illnesses. "They have not traditionally played a role of national, social leaders of any type," he says. "They will continue to be spirit healers for people who believe that their problems have been caused by the loa - but this earthquake was not caused by the loa." Many Haitians will find solace in voodoo, which remains an important element of Haitian identity. But the coping strategies it offers in the aftermath of the earthquake may be limited.

Despite what the old man says in the video, I did NOT see the thug punch him first.