There is no need to refine the crude if it is in fact found in sufficient quantity. Countries export crude oil as is all the time. What will be needed is a pipeline to transport the crude to tankers waiting offshore. What would be interesting is to see what agreements have been signed - the whole thing now that's it finally off the ground needs serious scrutiny.

Naxar Nugaaleed;775713 wrote: it looks like Cade Musse's tree bears fruit. How ever bad this man has been on the political side of things, his robust attempts to lay an economic foundation for the state deserves praise. Good to see this and hope it benefits the people rather then pockets of fat cats. Agreed. Historic day on the Somali peninsula. Hope this is just the start of better days for Somalis after so many years of misery and despair.

There is a difference between obnoxiousness and rudeness. IMO most Somalis are obnoxious. When they speak loudly, or ask questions about your qabiil and how much you make when you barely know them - that is obnoxious. Because they don't know where the boundaries lie. Someone was telling me about a visit to Somalia - and in a restaurant people kept asking for the waiter in this way - war jar**rki ugu yeer. For these ppl it's not a put down - in fact when asked why refer to him that way - they say waa qabiilkiisa dee. All this needs is proper tarbiyaa in the home and the greater society. Having been to the middle east many times - everyone treats South Asians like that - even other South Asians. That's not much of a surprise.

If at this point someone can't see that suicide bombing and slaughter isn't the way forward for Somalia - then there is nothing else to say.

When it comes to any aspect of Islam there is a rabid and deregatory stereotyping. And many so called Muslims are at the forefront.

There is definitely a change in leadership and outlook in Turkey towards the Muslim world. But the level of interest, support and investment in Somalia goes well beyond what would be appropriate given that Somalia is really just another Muslim country. After all why not show this level of interest and investment in Senegal, Djibouti, Mali or any other Muslim country in the world. Meeshaan wax baa lugu ogyahay. No state acts in a purely altruistic manner. I don't understand the sudden interest of the UK. It has nothing to do with piracy, terrorism or any other reason cited. These have been issues for a long time. It really could be just a counter to Turkey. Just as the west got interested again in Africa when China came along.

Little different from Ayan Ali Hersi and Ann Coulter. I guess even those will have people eulogizing their supposed brilliance and creativity. One thing is for sure - by now he has definite answers about the existence or non existence of God, Heaven and Hell.

^Good stuff.

Ngonge waging a one man jihad! In Canada - it is very expensive - only the older generation chews. In the UK young ppl born or mostly brought up in the UK are taking it up due to the easy availability and habituation. Where it is banned the detrimental effects of khat are experienced at a lower scale than the UK. Let's face it - khat is not cocaine. It's not instantly addictive - habitual and extended chewing does make it so. And that is only possible in circumstances where there are no restrictions to the purchase and consumption of khat. Ban it in the UK.

^^Haa - what a short memory u have. Back in the early 2000s we used to pay 1.50 for every USD. Plus 5% for the hawaladaha. Barwaaqo aya ku jirnaa hada.

^It's the job of the ratings agencies(and the accountants) to make sure they're not cooking the books. How else can you hope to give an accurate rating? More fundamentally these ratings agencies have a huge conflict of interest. They're paid directly by the organizations they rate. And companies routinely ask them what concotion of debt products to package together to 'merit' a safe rating. These are the same folks who took crap sub-prime, sliced and diced by adding other pieces of 'safer' debt together and presto chango you have a debt product that your grandmother can safely buy. Except that it all went to zero. And now that Europe is in trouble - they're racing to downgrade or warn of downgrades so that they won't be blamed later. S&P put all 27 member euro countries on negative dowgrade watch - just a big example of CYA. There is a reason in Islamic finance that debt products cannot be traded at any other price but par.

This is true but beside the point. Ultimately money and organization wins out in the political system of the States. Everyone has their opportunity.

Funny video. On a positive note - I see Somali style gobasho is still alive and well.

General Duke;763200 wrote: Mohamud is a family man and those hating need to stop we can run for office and his position is not different from Keith Ellisons, Barack obama's and other elected officials who Somali's voted for. However Mohamud is a Somali who cane where as a refugee and who worked hard built a family in District 59 and who is now running for the Senate. It's not hate. It is a legitimate position. This man's stance on this issue is deplorable. If he sincerely believes it - it's a travesty. If he doesn't and he's advocating this position to win office then he has no principles. Either way - it's a legitimate issue and it's appropriate to bring it up and address it.

Interesting. I wouldn't vote for him. I suspect this is just an attempt to pander to the broader public in liberal Minnesota. I'm tired of Somali politicians and wannabe politicians who will say and do whatever they think will get them into power. Additionally - this man's position on gay marriage is in direct contradiction to what his religion stands for - if he was a non-Muslim - it wouldn't matter to me. But the position he holds on this issue simply to get elected raises grave concerns about his principles.

Old news but funny. ------------- Sep 20, 2011 It is not yet 8am but this corner on an otherwise quiet block on Sheikh Zayed Road is packed to the rafters. At a Starbucks coffee shop next door, a lone customer stares vacantly out of the window while staff disconsolately wipe down tables. Less than 20 metres away, there is something of a breakfast party going on in Tim Hortons. The entrance is marked by a cheery red sign in English and Arabic reading "Tim Hortons cafe bake shop", Matthew Clarke opens the door with a flourish right on queue, dressed in a hockey shirt and shorts, and announces: "Come on in, the coffee's fresh." The 50-year-old Emirates pilot from Canada is not even on the payroll; as a customer on his first visit, he is simply over-excited about having a little taste of home in the land where he now lives. Tim Hortons is to Canadians what the falcon is to the UAE; an intrinsic part of the culture and an inescapable symbol of Canadian life. Founded by the Canadian hockey player Tim Horton in 1964 and with more than 3,600 outlets worldwide, it is impossible to go many blocks in Canada without stumbling on one. There is even an outlet dishing up tasty doughnuts and freshly ground coffee to soldiers at a military base near Kandahar in Afghanistan. Sunday's opening in Dubai was the first of 120 outlets planned for the Middle East, with a coffee shop set to open in Abu Dhabi later this year. And judging from the crowd of about 50 diners and the constant stream of customers threatening to spill out of the front door, the franchise is already poised to be a runaway success. James O'Hearn, who rushed to be the first customer through the doors at 6.55am on Sunday, gushes: "The coffee tasted the same, the sour cream doughnut just as soft and the herb and garlic cream cheese on my bagel was just like I remembered it. But as much as I am happy, I wonder whether this will be one more thing that makes me so comfortable, I end up not going back at all?" Mr Clarke, on his first visit with his wife Nancy, 49, who works for a corporate team-building firm, does not waste time scrutinising the menu and goes straight for his usual, two cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese, a steeped tea for him and a medium regular coffee for her. "Tim Hortons is a way of life in Canada," he says. "There is one on every corner at home but the queues go around the block there. It is that good." Every morning at their home in Ontario they had the same ritual: he would drive to the nearest Tim Hortons at 6.30am, pick up hot drinks and bagels for breakfast for themselves and often their neighbours and bring them home. Mrs Clarke takes her first sip of coffee, closes her eyes and breaks into a broad smile: "It tastes exactly the same." In chorus, the pair chime out the company slogan: "You've always got time for Tim Hortons." Judging from the clientele, they are not the only ones. Despite the brand being reproduced on a mass scale, it seems to inspire more loyalty than competitors such as Starbucks, which has attracted criticism for aggressively driving independent coffee shops out of business. A series of TV ads in Canada show homesick natives hankering for a Tim Hortons and the Canadian author Pierre Berton once wrote it was "the essential Canadian story...a story of success and tragedy, of big dreams and small towns, of old-fashioned values and tough-fisted business, of hard work and of hockey." Fans wax lyrical about the cheap coffee and fresh produce - even in Dubai, prices begin at a lowly Dh7 for a coffee with staff ordered to make fresh pots every 20 minutes while no doughnut stays on the shelf longer than 12 hours. There are slight differences between the UAE offering and its Canadian part; there is no drive-through, nor "everything" bagels. But the staff have been trained to understand typical orders like a double-double (two creams and two sugars to the uninitiated) and all the favourites are there, like timbits, the middle part of the doughnut smothered in sugary coating and sold for Dh1. Anthony Lewis, the area manager, looks exhausted. With the outlet open from 6am until 2am, he has been working 16-hour days and says the crowds are constant. After 3pm, it is standing room only http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/food/tim-hortons-outlet-in-dubai-mobbed-by-canadian-expats

Kerala has a large migrant labour force in the Gulf that sends back billions. I think that does help to make up for some of the stats. But ultimately they have good leadership for developing region and that's the key difference.

Sayonara Gaddafis. Your moment has ended in a manner you so justly deserved.

Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar;760494 wrote: Garbage. Very immature and amateur cheap political cartoon. It seems Amiin Caamir has a personal vendetta against our brother, Cabdi Ismaaciil Samatar and his wonderful nascent urur, Hiilqaran. And an extended logic can also be applied purely borrowing from the accusations drawn in this cartoon -- that the same accusation can be used against Amiin Caamir because his political cartoons might seem against every political player in Soomaaliya, too. No? He's a cartoonist. He can be cheap, immature or simply wrong. The point is not to take his cartoons so seriously.

^and yet he's proud!! Poor sap. Nothing moral or courageous about his job. He's only after a pay cheque(like the vast majority who enlist). And the Kenyans don't have the decency to tamp down anti-Somali sentiment given how much of their military is composed of Somalis. --------------------------- Pain of being a Kenyan Somali The loyalty of Kenyan Somalis is questioned by many, and it does not help that such terms as ‘the enemy within’ are used with abandon. Reptilian analogies — with long anaconda-like tails buried hundreds of miles away in Somalia and heads in Eastleigh — are particularly unnerving http://horumar.com/?p=14327

Close to one month later and the whole thing is still stuck in the mud spinning its wheels. The Kenyans should go home - they haven't got the intelligence or cojones to fight al-Shabab. Better to declare victory and go home before more bombs explode in Nairobi.

Centurion;758142 wrote: This is exactly the sort of negative attitude many somalis have towards our intellectuals which has led to many avoiding getting drawn into the wreckage that is our country. There is no doubt that the Samatar brothers are genuine Somali intellectuals who have been calling for Somali unity for decades. They are both working as competent academics in American universities and have recently created a political party which for all intents and purposes is seeking to find a solution to our atrocious predicament. Tell me,what gives you the right to belittle and question the motives of those who would seek to find a way forward sxb? He certainly has done more for Somali unity than you ever will. I'm not going to comment specifically on the Samatars. But you have to ask yourself why do so many Somalis have a 'negative attitude towards our intellectuals'? The reason is simple. There have been many intellectuals who have involved themselves in the mess that is Somalia and most times they behave as badly as the rest. If Somali intellectuals were of any net benefit to the Somali nation we would not be in the situation we are now 20+ years after the downfall of Barre.

^This is mostly a pro forma statement. It doesn't tell us anything new. That there is a risk of conflict and that the conflict could have negative humanitarian consequences is readily conceded. What is the reality on the ground thus far? Are the Kenyans actually fighting? Has the Shabaab ceased to melt away and are they making a stand? Is the farmer or pastoralist in Afmadow(now in Kenyan hands according to reports) going to flee - why? - since some livelihood kept him there in the first place and that isn't threatened by the Kenyans. The reality is people in the south have seen a lot of conflict - they don't flee easily en masse which would cause a humanitarian catastrophe. The only things that have led to that in the recent past is the shelling/massacres in Mogadishu and the unprecedented drought of the last year. BTW - according to their website Oxfam has no operations in southern Somalia apart from Afgoye and Mogadishu. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/countries/somalia.html

Indeed God bless Somaliland. Xoogaga miyirka idin kadhiman ilaahey ha idin soo celiyo.

^ 1- I don't understand this argument about an increased humanitarian crisis due to the Kenyan invasion. The most desparate and destitute people have already fled - and they've mostly fled hundreds of kilometers to Dadaab precisely because Al-Shabaab wouldn't allow in sufficient humanitarian access. Whatever minor aid groups exist in the Al-Shabaab areas will remain and provide services if the situation continues as - ie Shabaab simply melting away. A humanitarian crisis may ensue if Kenyan forces invade Kismayo and Shabaab start the kind of hit and run attacks and suicide bombings they've been doing in Mogadishu. Barring that there simply is no evidence currently of civilians fleeing en masse in the wake of this Kenyan invasion. 2- This invasion will not work if as is likely Kenyan forces simply want to make a show of force and are not ready to really crush Shabaab. That is why I don't support this - simply because I don't think it will be effective. However, one never knows what the plans for Somalia by foreign powers may be. If the Kenyans do get to Kismayo and Amisom and TFG forces are ferried in by ship to establish a base in Kismayo and hold it and begin an extermination campaign on Al-Shabaab I would be supportive. If there is a real pospect of a sustained effort at eradicating Shabaab any sane Somali should be supportive. At this point though the situation is unclear.