He's not? I thought only Arab presidents could attend the Arab League conferences or meetings. Are you being sarcastic or are you simply just misinformed?

Posting daily incidences in Mogadishu is increasingly becoming the new motto these days in SOL. Are these daily updates posted out concern or some other hidden agenda? We all know that there is no law and order in Mogadishu and that anything can happen to the ordinary civilian. All of things that are happing have already happened before, so why wasn’t it posted before? What is so special about it now? Daily incidences occurs throughout the Somali peninsula some to the same extend as Mogadishu ones, and some to lesser extend. Some reach the Somali news sites some don’t but deep inside of us we are all aware of what really happens. We show a fake outrage when a few individuals outside Somali run into trouble with the laws of their host country. Haddad It’s an insult to me and many others here in SOL to state that it was a fake outrage.

Thanks brother Suldaaanka for info I’ll check if the first part have been released on BitTorrent.

If I’ am not wrong Hargeysa-yarey should be 20 km from jilib town.

Now this is personal, or was it friendly respect/joke? huh.. No, it was merely a description of his first post. If “roll†means how we act, I can assure you that we are very nonchalant Somalis. As for Sweden being boring place comment, all I have to say is come and visit then the place before you make your childish judgements. For the weather conditions comment well I can’t complain to mush for the lovely spring weather. By the way how is your city’s weather treating you? but you shouldnt acted the way you did, without knowing for sure that i will get banned. now, you just made a total fool outta yourself. and believe me, im laughing at ya. Well I’ am glad that my “should’ve got†comment made you laugh some mush and in your eyes made me completely fool wish only goes to say what I said about your behaviour before. ps. the n-word wasnt an insult. Black.hawk you might like to be called the n-word but I really hope you know that there are people in this world whom don’t like to be called the n-word.

Originally posted by black.hawk: why was my post deleted without any notice? it went like this: i wonder how many meaningless threads nobody replies to, the SOL forum can sustain? LoL No it was more like the “N†word followed by “get the hell out of my thread†and then bla bla “why are you doing this†and finished with “I don’t like your presences†You sound just like a kid who got his candy taken by other kids. How many times does one have to jog your memory that this is an open public forum and not a disclosed one? Anyone can have a say here got it? You’re lucky, calling someone the N word should’ve got you banned.

LOL

Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

A truly twisted guy with a lot time on his hands and with one cruel way to make money or should we call it some form of extortion. It's repulsive what lows people will go to make money these days, well anyway I say let this guy eat the bunny. savetoby.com

LoL

Blaming others for the Somali problems seems to be the Somali dictum these days huh? And now you’re blaming Oromo for the Somali problems? tell me what else is new on the horizon?

A likeable character with a lust for life, you do what gets you by while continually pursuing your own interests. Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.

Originally posted by Qudhac: does Soo Maal exist more discution here

Qat vs Sustainable Development Unsustainability as interpreted by Jodha (1992) refers to intergenerational inequity, an adaptation of the original Brundtland Report that starkly stated: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (WCED, 1987). The problems associated with qat, primarily the reduction in the quality of the land resource and the rapid overpumping of stored water, preclude sustainable development. As for economic development, one subset of sustainable development, unquestionably qat has brought great benefits to the villagers engaged in growing it. But as Kennedy (1986) points out, the economic growth that has occurred "must be viewed as shallow and temporary." There is an illusion of economic prosperity in Yemen, which the profusion of Toyotas on the streets and electronic goods in the stores amply demonstrates. However, the essential societal changes that are a prerequisite for economic development are not present. Yemeni social critic Saad Saleh Khalis (1993b) writes that: "No development can be achieved in Yemen as long as this plant called qat takes up 90 percent of the spare time of the Yemeni people.... Some may argue that this is an old tradition of Yemen just like the arms and jambiyas. But even if that were so, harmful traditions must be thrown away.... The people and the government are satisfied with cursing qat and its effects." Indeed, the people and the government are satisfied with merely - and rarely - cursing qat; the government has no adequate policies to apply to the problem. In the interim, the population of Yemen is expected to double every 19 years. As in other developing nations, urbanization is rapid: by 1991, 30 percent of the population was urbanized, compared with just 13 percent in 1970 (World Bank, 1993; Anonymous, 1994). High infant (131 per 1,000) and child (190 per 1,000 for children under 5 years) mortalities are indicators of malnutrition, as is a maternal mortality of 10 percent per birth (Kolaise, 1994). The expulsion of 1.2 million Yemeni workers from Gulf Cooperation Council states following the 1991 Gulf War as a result of Yemen's support of Iraq has exacerbated unemployment (Fandy, 1995). Food prices are rising, and poverty is increasing. While on the one hand many households are becoming increasingly dependent on income from qat (Dr. Abd Al-Rahman Dubaie, pers. comm. with authors, Nov. 1994); on the other hand low- and mid-income qat chewers most certainly contribute to their own impoverishment. For example, Mahdi, an English-language teacher at a rural school 40 km west of San'a, in 1994 earned 9,000 Riyals a month, and spent 250 Riyals each time he chewed qat. He chewed three or four times a week, thus spending 33 to 44 percent of his salary on qat. We witnessed Mahdi asking for a cash advance from the local school administrator - not to buy food but to purchase qat. This codependency between producer and consumer is perhaps fragile. Since qat is not a physiologically addictive drug, one hypothesis suggests that most households will ultimately choose to eat rather than to chew qat. An opposing hypothesis contends that since some qat chewers are already willing to subject themselves to malnutrition, a possible scenario is that more will choose to do so, particularly because qat effectively reduces appetite. If the first hypothesis dominates, the demand for qat will diminish, pushing prices down. The question then is, how will producers react? Will they plant more qat in an attempt to maintain their income, or will they allow the reduction in price to stimulate demand as suggested by classical economics? While the latter response of producers is bad, because it does not address the issue of how Yemen can break out of the grip of qat, the former is worse. Since the enhanced supply would contribute to keeping market prices low, ever-increasing areas of land would be locked up in qat, and the tapping of water resources intensified. National food security would diminish, since it is always the best, most-productive lands that are converted to qat. The government will have to spend ever-larger sums of hard currency on food imports just to maintain the status quo, contributing to the inflationary spiral and increasing poverty levels. In the face of predicted population growth, malnutrition levels may greatly increase. And as we indicated above, malnutrition enhances the adverse effects of qat. In such a weakened physiological state, we speculate that many Yemenis would be unlikely to survive sustained, drought-induced food shortages that could occur at any time. Qat, then, is unquestionably beneficial to the households that grow it, but we believe it is severely damaging the national weal. http://ag.arizona.edu/~lmilich/yemen.html

By Riaan Manser I've missed my second Easter egg hiding session. I guess my routine of hiding Easter eggs in the garden for my dogs to uncover will have to wait until next year. Because Djibouti is a predominantly Muslim country Easter is not even mentioned. Not that these guys need any more holidays - they have probably the laziest existence I've yet encountered. For 80 percent of the male population, this is what an average day would look like. Slowly start work at about 8.30 or 9.00am, until 12.30. Then scramble to find your supply of the narcotic leaf "qat". Qat (pronounced "cat") is chewed for hours while reclining in a chair or sprawled on the ground. One cheek will be crammed with these chewed leaves, making the user look like a hamster with sunflower seeds stored in its mouth. The fine pulp of the chewed leaves makes its way on to the front teeth and is sprayed out in greeting. It's an undignified sight. The qat chewing takes up to four hours and people return to work at 4.30pm for three more hours. That adds up to a gruelling day of six and a half hours. Many people return to the "qat dens" after work to continue chewing this addictive drug. Adding insult to the productive, capitalist mindset that many of you may have is that Thursday afternoons and Fridays are write-offs for getting anything done. Hardly a soul moves on Friday morning, although more people seem to rise the closer it gets to the afternoon prayer time. Qat consumption is a serious problem that has received national and international attention. Studies have found that people living below the bread line in countries where qat is available spend about 10 percent of their income on this leaf. A supply of good quality qat for an afternoon session will cost around R30. Qat is flown in daily from Ethiopia and receives priority clearance before many other important consignments. I have seen people chase after the trucks that bring qat into town for distribution. A story doing the rounds here is that when then-United States secretary of state Colin Powell visited Djibouti before the Iraqi war in 2003, he was mobbed by angry locals. Many believed that they were demonstrating against the US and its policies, but this is untrue. Powell's flight had taken precedence over all air traffic coming into Djibouti International. And, you guessed it, the Ethiopian flight carrying the qat was circling above while the Djiboutians were going into withdrawal and Powell was handing out "God bless America" T-shirts. But what sort of person would I be if I merely criticised? I carried out some first-hand research and found women were the main distributors of qat. It didn't take me long to find a "dealer" who could supply me with a bag of the Ethiopian leaves. I found some locals I knew and ordered the customary cup of tea and a sheet of cardboard to sit on. The leaves taste very unpleasant and I had to laugh thinking about the goats that were walking around us - they were eating plastic and here was I eating their food - leaves. There were no fireworks for me, although I did have some cold shivers, even as the mercury was hitting the high 30s. I also found it very difficult to sleep. And, to top it all, I had a souvenir headache to start the following day. Some locals told me to use qat while cycling home to South Africa. One old (wise?) man asked me how many kilometres I cycled a day. Before I could answer, he said. "Don't worry, just add a zero to that. That's how much you can cycle with qat." Tempting! But quite honestly I don't understand it. Why would people, in such large numbers, be so fascinated by this drug? The greatest ally a dictatorial regime needs is a big distraction like war, religion or qat! But other people's lives, so different from our own, are guaranteed to be interesting. I wish I could write more, because Djibouti was an eye-opener. For more information about qat and how it has affected peoples' lives, look up: http:/ag.arizona.edu/~lmilich/yemen.html

This is another article that truly belongs to this thread. China and the Final War for Resources

A rising China counters US clout in Africa Trade drives political role ahead of Zimbabwe's election. By Abraham McLaughlin | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor HARARE, ZIMBABWE – The Chinese economic juggernaut and its thirst for minerals and markets has increasingly brought it to Africa, including here to Zimbabwe. The fertile hills of this Southern African nation are rich with gold and the world's second-largest platinum reserves. In Sudan, Angola, and along the Gulf of Guinea, the Asian giant is guzzling the continent's vast oil supply. But lately the Chinese are digging on a different front, one that could complicate the Bush administration's efforts to promote democracy here: African politics. Last year, China stymied US efforts to levy sanctions on Sudan, which supplies nearly 5 percent of China's oil and where the US says genocide has occurred in its Darfur region. And as Zimbabwe becomes more isolated from the West, China has sent crates of T-shirts for ruling-party supporters who will vote in Thursday's parliamentary elections. In addition, China or its businesses have reportedly: • provided a radio-jamming device for a military base outside the capital, preventing independent stations from balancing state-controlled media during the election campaign; • begun to deliver 12 fighter jets and 100 trucks to Zimbabwe's Army amid a Western arms embargo; and • designed President Robert Mugabe's new 25-bedroom mansion, complete with helipad. The cobalt-blue tiles for its swooping roof, which echoes Beijing's Forbidden City, were a Chinese gift. China is increasingly making its presence felt on the continent - from building roads in Kenya and Rwanda to increasing trade with Uganda and South Africa. But critics say its involvement in politics could help prop up questionable regimes, like Mr. Mugabe's increasingly autocratic 25-year reign. "Suffering under the effects of international isolation, Zimbabwe has looked to new partners, including China, who won't attach conditions, such as economic and political reform" to their support, says a Western diplomat here. Of China's influence on this week's elections, he adds, "I find it hard to believe the Chinese would push hard for free and fair elections - it's not the standard they're known for." Indeed, Mugabe often praises China and Asia as part of his new "Look East" policy. He responded to tough questions from an interviewer on Britain's Sky News last year about building his $9 million new home, while millions of Zimbabweans live on the verge of starvation, by saying: "You say it's lavish because it is attractive. It has Chinese roofing material, which makes it very beautiful, but it was donated to us. The Chinese are our good friends, you see." China is becoming good friends to many African nations, as the US has been. Between 2002 and 2003, China-Africa trade jumped 50 percent, to $18.5 billion, Chinese officials say. It's expected to grow to $30 billion by 2006. US-Africa trade was $44.5 billion last year, according to the Commerce Department. As the world's largest oil importer behind the US, China has oil interests in Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, Angola, and Gabon. The US is also hunting for oil in Africa, with about 10 percent of imports coming from the continent. Not all of China's activities in Africa are controversial. Under the auspices of the UN, the China-Africa Business Council opened this month, headquartered in China, to boost trade and development. It has peacekeepers in Liberia and has contributed to construction projects in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, though critics say it is using these projects to garner goodwill that it can tap into during prickly issues like Taiwan's independence or UN face-offs with the US. Here in Zimbabwe, China also may be helping to support one of Africa's more oppressive regimes. The radio-jamming equipment that has prevented the independent Short Wave Radio Africa from broadcasting into the country is Chinese, according to the US-funded International Broadcast Bureau. Reporters Without Borders, a group dedicated to freedom of the press, based in Paris, had this to say about the jamming: "Thanks to support from China, which exports its repressive expertise, Robert Mugabe's government has yet again just proved itself to be one of the most active predators of press freedom." A Chinese diplomat here insists the equipment didn't come from China. And he says the T-shirts, which reportedly arrived on Air Zimbabwe's new direct flight from Beijing, were "purely a business transaction." But he adds that China-Zimbabwe relations have recently "been cemented in the field of politics and business." In return for its support, China has received diplomatic backing on Taiwan's independence, as it has from many African nations. Ultimately, China's expansion into Zimbabwe and Africa is more narrow than the 1800s colonization by European powers, when "Christianity, civilization, and commerce" were the buzzwords. For China, it's all about economics. "They've said: 'If you agree to privatize and sell to us your railways, your electricity generation, etc. - we will come in with capital," says John Robertson, an economist based in Harare. With an economy that has shrunk as much as 40 percent in five years, Zimbabwe's government uses these promises to put off critics. "The government says, 'The Chinese are coming, and they'll bring in billions of dollars in investment, and soon everything will be fully restored,' " Mr. Robertson says.

China and the Final War for Resources. Our vacation in the west is soon over ladies and gentlemen, all of us need to pack our bags and head home as soon as possible. Because when these wars starts, we are either simple-minded nomads we once were when we where colonised or fully educated nomads ready to protect what little recourses we have. These atheists, resource hunger nations will come and colonise us for our resources when they have nothing left. Instead of setting on our comfortable western homes and chit chat about never-ending Somali/Qabill topics, we need to go home and help rebuild our homeland and be primed citizens, ready to defend our land.

Interesting but false, the people of Mogadishu are not savages and I never said that. I have family in Mogadishu and Hobyo who I love, I know I said that.How you forget.. As for calling a war in Juba, no sorry I was reporting on the battles going on between Morgan and Hiiraale, me and Horn took sides but neither of us created those battles and I dont remember advocating that war be made on the people of Juba. I am opposed to warlords, people who hide behind clans and those who oppress my Somali people. I which you could see what you write when juma gets on your nerves Duke Reporting is one thing but with good intentions isn’t something neither of you did Duke.

Actually my payment was in a form of a grad few years back. Sky.african or WD or what ever you call yourself these days, if I were you I would worry about when SOL banns public proxy servers. DUKE! Grown and educated man whom constantly boasts about how nationalistic he is can’t even take the higher road and leave the nonsense clan debates with juma. Instead of trying to show us the brotherly love of Somaliweyn and all the beauty that comes with it, you show us the very thing we hate. LoL we are your brothers when thinks go your way isn’t? One day you praise the capital city and its people, another day you call them savages. You praise Warlords when they follow your uncle and denounce them when they don’t. You say you are saddened by the loss life and the fighting in hobyo, it was not too long ago when you were advocating for war in Jubba. Your double standards are crystal clear Duke

Mine advice was sole for my entertainment supplier wellbeing. As for adding comment to the thread I say “I don’t give a rat***†to what these warlords do today or tomorrow, all I care about is seeing you cry over sh1t like this and get a good laugh once in a while.

Originally posted by Duke_Valantino: ^^^Thanks for the advice.However its Bank Holiday tommorrow and I am of work. Cheers anyway.. Next time add something relevent to the thread or keep quite.. All I mean is that I wouldn’t want Yeey number one “PR†consultant to be sick-listed in times like this when I need high-quality entertainment.

Go to sleep man, before you collapse bro!