I am more of a baseball fan than basketball...but I always loved NCAA basketball. I find them exciting....too bad I missed the championship game...

I am for eradicating these senseless warlords who, as observer mentioned, lack any kind of vision which would help Somalis get out of this cycle of endless violence.I am for anybody who wants to unite Somalia under one banner. If this man is he who claims to be….WHY NOT HIM?

This problem is universal miskeen. You can’t expect these young people to preserve their traditions; there is an immense pressure for them to “fit” in. Let me ask you this buddy, what will you do differently to safeguard this distinctive culture of ours?

#25 had me rolling too maan...Where do you guys get these stuff?...loool good stuff

This topic was discussed on many instances; that being said let me throw in my two cents. There is no single approach of getting out of this decade old cycle of endless violence, and killing off the warlords certainly won’t help alleviate the problem, if anything it will just make things more complicated

Somalis are capable of building a state with one political unit but not if they expect team of power hungry criminals to solve their problems. Nationalism is a radical concept to the Somalis and their African contemporaries. Whenever a disputer takes place, they look to their clans to solve the problem as oppose to institutionalized public court… We lack that national outlook. The problem will always be there as long as the Somalis are looking these criminals to lead them. Eldred and all of those previous held summits were recipes for failure from the get-go. For heaven sake, how do people expect to reach a positive end when the people involved are the same people who have wreaked havoc in the country? If Somalia in the future reaches agreement and a central government is established, it will have to be done by individuals of high caliber.

I love older women maaan. It's not a taboo, it's just not desirable from the stand point of women to be with a younger man. They would rather be with a man who has more experience than her….I think women have this deep-seated need to be dominated by men…call me a sexist if you want.

Angel We all want to implement Shari’ a, but it will encounter with many problems, devastations that we can not afford to face now. The ulema in Somalia are not in agreement with themselves, and if we implement Shari’ we will have to condemn some of them and this will indulge us into another twelve years of civil war. I am for implementing the Shari’ a but the prospect doesn’t look so promising

What Africa needs is a radical redefinition of “democracy”, So far they have been working with the definition given to them by the colonial masters. Imitating the western democracy has proved to be fruitless for Africans. Having drawn that conclusion, let’s discuss if there’s a superior political system that most African countries can implement into their institutions. Instead of just reiterating what was already said, why don’t we discuss how this so-called “dark continent” can compete with the rest of the world? These negative analyses of Africa will soon graduate to self-hating mind-set, that’s just how I see it.

I agree with the last person. The people who are outraged by the social injustice are just reinforcing how other clans viewed them when they try to conceal their true identity. There's no shame in being “midgan” (if anyone has a better term for this please let me know), when someone explained to us last time as to why they were considered “inferiors” everyone in here was equally stunned, the reason whey they’re classified as socially “inferior” is to say the least, dim-witted and I think that consensus was unanimous. There’s no decisive way to defeat tribalism, but I think it can be channelled in a constructive way. For instance most Somalis are inclined to help extended family, which will eventually have a positive change, that’s if we find people with good intentions. This topic was beaten to death, let’s move on people.

So you saying being gentle and polite is western and unislamic?

I agree with kook Kat (scary prospect, isn’t?) The same people who broke down our country are asked to rebuild the country. Where is the logic in that? Eldred and all of those previous held summits were recipes for failure from the get-go. For heaven sake, how do people expect to reach a constructive end when the people involved are the same people who have wreaked havoc in the country? If Somalia in the future reaches agreement and a central government is established, we should charge these men, the men we are currently expecting to end our problems, we should charge them with genocide and all the other unaccountable crimes they have committed. Like brother Malcolm would say, “You don’t take your case to the criminal, you take your criminal to the court."

I am always very careful to make sweeping generalization of any kind. It’s obviously wrong to assume that the reason why Africa is in such a tight spot is because there’s something inherently wrong with Africans themselves. The issue isn’t genetics, it’s culture. There are cultural problems that are leaving African countries vulnerable. Brother you do have to admit that Africans do suffer from inferiority complex, whether they publicly displayed or not. They just don’t think they can make themselves independent of foreign aid in anyway, and when they’re giving token aid the military spend it on the army, which further destabilizes the country. Instead of waiting for the great “white hope”, why don’t they turn that energy of fighting each other into trying to built something constructive. They’re jus incapable of self-criticism, which in my view could have prevented them from so much calamities. I am sure some of the problems these Africans countries are suffering from can be attributed to the colonial experience, but how long will they blame them.

You can’t attribute the calamity Somalia is in solely on the shoulders of tribalism. Obviously there are many unaccounted factors, for instance the appalling rate of illiteracy. Many of professionals who have been educated in the west have no interest of going back. I hope sense of responsibility will pull them back one day. I will agree with you though that tribalism proved to be a very destructive ideology to the Somalis. Many of them, even the hard core ones when you sit with them, will agree with you that the discrimination less fortunate clans suffered was immoral and unjustified...but no one is willing to do anything about it. I don't know man, sometimes I just want to give up. What is the point of helping people who are incapable self-criticism?

Africans have tendency to shift the blame to other parties, the people are inclined to dwell on the experience of the colonial times. Many other countries also underwent the colonial experience and those countries recovered. Why can't Africa recover? There's a deep-rooted inferiority complex, which the Africans have. They don't believe they can help themselves to make themselves independent of foreign aid, which doesn't help them because it reinforces how the other countries viewed the Africans. It's a complex issue that goes far beyond the realm of biological factor.

Hey Nasra what's happening sis? I really can't understand the problem with that nasra. If a man holds the door for you, isn't that what a real gentleman is suppose to do. Anyway I can't believe this is coming from you.

Systematic

Aisha let me be the first one to welcome you. I totally agree with you, this is by far the best somali website I came around, according to me of course. Anyway enjoy your stay Aisha.

Mr. Kool that sort of thinking, I called it defeatist perception of reality. If we all went by your logic we wouldn’t be making any substantial progress. We need bunch of people that prescribe to radical methods of changing and improving our culture, the bad aspects of our culture anyway. I think that’s the only way to make any improvement on our country. We need a new generation that totally rejects the notion of tribalism. The Somalis have to understand that tribalism ran out of its use. It has nothing good to offer, to our people anyway. It has proven to be a very racist and a destructive philosophy. As brother Malcolm would say, “Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue

I think we have reached a consensus in analyzing the discrimination these people suffered, for a very long period of time was cruel and unjust. The reason I was given as to why the midgan are ‘inferiors” was, to say the least, dim-witted. I am just wondering as to why they’re considered inferiors. They have the same physical feature as the other Somalis and they prescribe to the same faith as the other Somalis do. So why do other tribes consider the midgan their “inferiors”?

One of my favourite quotes is from the George Jonas to which he was responding to some catholics who were saying that communism is a godless form of political system and he said, " Even the devil cites the scripture to make his point"

Hey does anyone know a good website where i can listen to somali songs, I too am part of that "lost" generation, but i am not totally lost......if you catch my drift

oooh..that's a tough one mr. qaqa! Would you mind telling us plz, if you may

I like this piece. The colonial experience was certainly very destructive. My question is, many countries were colonized and these countries recovered, but why can't africa and other middle eastern countries still insist on dwelling on the negative impact the colonial powers left behind?

Somalia is not utterly hopeless, but one major problem they have is that they put way too much emphasis on the importance of tribalism. They have to realize that in order for the country to move forward they must abandon the old tradition of the tribe coming first. We can debate all we want but the problem will still be there in the end of the day, there must be a formation of some sort to counter the century old tribal enmity. Tribalism was used for identification purpose in the old days, and even today it's still used for that very purpose. There's a tendency to blame the warlords for the mess that our country is in, of course they have contributed immensely to the destruction of our country, but that's not where the problem lies. When these men invoke the name of their fore-fathers, they will find sympathizers who identify with them on the basis of qabil, we will continue in this cycle of endless civil war. The problem is complex and difficult but the only people who could help Somalia are in the west and they don't tend to have sense of responsibility.