Day 3 of Shirweynihii SOL brief reminder of the previous two days: Day 1 Alpha addressed the delegates of the importance of free speech. the speech placed emphasis on the value that SOLers must be able to express themselves to ensure that alternative views and perspectives are given a platform on SOL. in addition to this, we found through our various monitoring of such restrictions, there were several incidence which we've expressed concerns over. Day 2 a) the second day was concerned with how best to utilise the abundant knowledge of SOLers for bettering the general welfare of Somalis. add to this, the suggestion that an advisory body, drawn from the plethora of talented SOLers already in key influential positions, should be set up with the view of headhunting SOLers as technicians, administrators, consultants and experts for strengthening the capacities of the various Somali Governments/Administration. Alpha further added utilising the skill-set of SOLers would be far more effective than failed projects for recruiting Somali experts like QUEST-MIDA. b) that the ADMIN and MODs should ease the registration process to join the site. it was suggested that easing the process would replenish the massive vacuum left by non-active members of the site. this would also be better for the long term sustainability of the site. c) banning criteria should be reformed to ensure there are no discrepancies in exercising the GOLDEN Rules. d) members of SOL should strive to post good informative content. it was also suggested members should cease from polluting the site with pathetic threads. e) members should uphold the reputation of SOL by observing the GOLDEN Rules at all times.

i've just had this shocking realisation that my potential wife-to-be, if ever i, get married one day, and my mum will NOT get along.....this is quite worrying.....if this is the case, will i, then, be forced to chose between them? whose side am i suppose to take? this is worrying..... any advice? p.s - haatu neednt answer. LOL.

what's the video about Wyre? LOL

i've got 479 HERE and 498 on my own trolls thread. LOL

^ you mean 12,067 times? that's extraordinary walahi. ultimate troll legend.

Alpha Blondy;918020 wrote: i'm going to miiyi again today. see y'all this evening. i went out for a site inspection visit to my land. the perimeter size was completed today. excellent. you're all invited to the manor for some summer combined harvest and some treats in 2030.

NGONGE;917993 wrote: Coofle started it, Wyre has been dying to do it and Alpha would love to keep a maid for more than one week so that he can finally propose. What's worse, V Day is tomorrow and a few more of our younger boys maybe tempted (or forced) to enter the golden cage. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL a new Ethiopian one will be starting tomorrow at 10am.

Faheema.;918032 wrote: That's all from me...byee. WHAT?? what did i do now? was it what i said? taag oo ha soo noqon.

this brother is me. NG and i are habrowaadhags. ;D F, you neednt bother. Lily, shame on you.

Faheema.;918016 wrote: lol well 'Hellooo. I am here you know Alpha, Alhamdulilah I am fine. Hope you're well. doing very well. i might be coming to Dubai soon? do you want to meet me at the DXB?

i'm going to miiyi again today. see y'all this evening. VD = dateless and hopeless.

flirt with faheema? faheema, what's NG talking about? brothers intended?

Faheema.;918003 wrote: ^Hello Alpha, how are you?

hi faheema.

Africa’s Agriculture needs effective leadership Africa is one of the few places in the world today offer such enormous potential in regard to food production. The continent’s 54 countries offer a near unrivalled diversity in regard to flora and fauna, as well as soil types and growing conditions. Whilst much of Africa is extraordinary fertile, urbanisation coupled with rapid population growth presents immense pressures that demand ever more of those engaged in and seeking to shape farming policy and practice. Effective and enlightened leadership is essential. As in some many areas of life knowledge sharing is of paramount importance, and it is therefore heartening to see programmes such as the Africa’s Land and Food Fellowship (ALFF) offering a number of African students an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of either International Rural Development or Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security at the Royal College of Agriculture at Cirencester in the UK. This innovative scheme managed by the African Fellowship Trust currently offers scholarships for up to ten Africans annually. As well as time spent in the UK each participant in the Fellowship Programme undertake industrial secondments organised by the Standard Bank Centre for Agri-business Leadership and Mentorship Development at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. The following is an opinion piece shared with HABA by David Cheruiyot (aged 30), one of the current African Fellows. He hails originally from Kericho County (Kenya), but has been working in Garissa District, Garissa County with the agriculture sector ministry in Kenya. How do you feel that you have benefitted from the Fellowship programme? The Royal Agriculture College’s African Fellowship Scholarship came at just the right time with my interest in natural resource management, food security and climate change, especially in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The International Rural Development (IRD) course covers a wide range of rural development concepts from around the world and therefore develops students’ necessary professional understanding, skills and attitudes required to deliver sustainable development in the rural sector. With the necessary knowledge and skills to take back to Kenya, the rural community, fellow colleagues and government in general will benefit from my expertise. What are the greatest challenges facing agriculture in East Africa? 1) High cost of agricultural inputs The cost of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and seeds in negating agricultural productivity especially among small scale farmers are a real challenge. With the world’s population projected to reach 9 billion by the middle of the century, smallholder farming is perceived to be the one that will feed the world’s population. Most of the smallholders farmers cannot afford these agricultural inputs, thus feeding the world’s population in the future is not assured. 2) High population growth which will exert more pressure on land resources With the predicted population increase there will be more pressure on land to expand agricultural production. This will cause uneconomical sub-division of land and therefore is likely to reduce productivity. 3) Over-dependence on rain-fed agriculture Most small scale farmers are not tapping into the potential of irrigation farming, instead they depend on rain-fed farming. Under rain-fed farming, productivity is uncertain due to the issues of climate change. Governments also are not putting enough funds into developing irrigation agriculture. 4) Limited access to credit Small scale farmers’ access to credit is limited. This is due to the fact that credit security placed on crops and livestock is volatile. 5) Limited access to agricultural technologies There is an inadequate research-extension-farmer linkage to facilitate demand-driven research and the use of improved technologies is limited among small scale farmers. There is an inadequate extension staffing level at the grass roots and this hinders dissemination of appropriate information and technologies to farmers. 6) Markets There exists wastage within the supply chain especially at the transportation of produce to the markets. Poor roads in the rural areas affects marketing of produce, also lack of uniformity in produce production causes market prices to fall, as does lack of diversification in crop production to suit different markets at different times of the season. Note: The six challenges listed above are ranked randomly and not in the order of their greatest impact. How do you plan to use the skills and experience that you have gained from taking part in the programme? The knowledge and skills gained are enormous, but the most challenging part is their implementation. I believe that getting it right from the outset of the programme is the most crucial thing to determine the success of that programme. A bottom-up approach should be adopted amongst stakeholders, especially the government. In demand-driven extension, farmers should come up with their development needs, ranked and forwarded to the relevant ministry department. The department should then implement some of the activities within their mandate. Other activities should be given to stakeholders in order to meet their mandate too; then it is possible to create a working synergy. This approach ensures that there is no duplication in activities among stakeholders. This is what I intend to advocate more when I return to Kenya. For further information about this important programme visit: www.rac.ac.uk/africa http://ha-ba.com/africas-agriculture-needs-effective-leadership/ ----

slumdog millionaire kii laabad miyaa?

there are so many sad things in this world, in here, in my little thread we shall be immune to them, for a few moments in the day I will find things to make me smile. I shall show them to the world and hope they smile too.....................................LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Oba, this is your home. come thro anytime brov. LOOOOOOOOOOL i'm going to sleep. 2nd day of leave. yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Al.

Coofle;917896 wrote: @Alpha .. Martiqaad rasmi ah baad leedahay,,I will contact you about the location, its around 5 minutes away from your home, even less! don't ask me how I know. i know who you are too walahi. i'll see you around Coofle. send me a PM first and i'll come through. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

nuune;917910 wrote: Whatever happened to your promise that you will write in Af Soomaali, ha noqon traitor, sxb by the end of 2013, i will be able to...Macaalin Nuune.

Apophis;917916 wrote: Gah! That was hard to read. Praise yourself much? NO. i've made an example of myself in the hope that others may follow suit.

......Alpha frustrated by the constant bickering, indifference and specific interest based hiil qabil of the SOL delegates. raises voices several times but no avail..........'':D Waranle_Warrior;917844 wrote: It is my hope that all the attendees of this SOL Shirweyne will take the seats and attend the Shir as themselves and not representing anyone else but the big BUT, we have had enough of fake traditional elders, politicians and other mercenaries claiming to represent people in Somali shirar when the truth is otherwise. WW Spokesperson of SOL's voiceless community and silent majority. thank you WW for your prompt intervention. thank you. i would like to conclude my speech in this second day of the conference. in this speech i would like to concentrate on the future of SOL. as Somalis, we often dismiss an idea without considering its merits. ideas are a unique thing. ideas can completely change previously held perceptions, misconceptions borne out of ignorance and indeed provide solutions to everyday situations. now, i'm not entirely sure, if dismissing ideas is an innate trait exclusive to Somalis or just Apo's cynical brutality SOL is teething to the hilt with excellent bright people who've been starved of ideas because of the constant flooding of SOL with yet another useless thread. Wyre, whose knack of posting yet another new thread with a simply youtube clip and absolutely no comment, often exceeds the bearability of Alpha's patience and quality assurance thresholds. it boggles the mind how he's still able to get responds the way he does. Wyre, is not alone in being part of the high number of SOLers who've made a reputation for such posts. yet, far worse than Wyre et al's occasional criminal abuse of the potential offered by SOL, are those who constantly post silly one-line posts of no consequence. these usually consists of a simple....''LOL'' . now, i'm not saying these individuals should be punished for their irrelevance but they ought to present themselves in a more orderly fashion. that is not to say they should be gagged for expressing their views but that. they should make an attempt, in contributing some usefulness to the site. as someone whose currently a member of various forums, Alpha has been able to demonstrate a cross-pollination effect, across the board, by adapting to the type of clientele prevalent in these forums. also as someone whose a graduate and alumus of the somalinet.com troller school of thought, i'm able to understand my former colleagues, better than most. how else would Alpha be able to get Oba to post a thread dedication to Alpha. that place is legendary but may be a sign of things to come here, if we're NOT able to contain the immense destructive potential of those who aim to replicate similar dynamics here, and there are many here. who hold such views... on the other side of the spectrum, are those whose perceived sense of untouchability, earned by the length of years present on these boards....... makes Alpha question how the ADMIN and his crony MOD thugs, are able to tolerate their blatantly abuse of the GOLDEN Rules. and yet due to this inconsistencies, new SOLers are banished with a swift ban, without a fair hearing, due process and discretion. this blatantly nepotism is further evidenced by the behind closed doors PMs exchanged between an oldie and the establishment...in this particular case, we shall forever mourn our friend and excellent SOLer Somalina. as more of these oldies are confronted by the harsh realities of life, there appears to be a discrepancy, in that, their indeterminable hiatus is NEVER replenished with new recruits that would otherwise provide an equilibrium of sorts, in maintaining SOL's long term sustainability. as the communications landscape gets denser, more complex, and more participatory, the networked population is gaining greater access to information, more opportunities to engage in public speech, and an enhanced ability to undertake collective action. as the political arena rapidly changes for Somalis, these increased freedoms can influence public interest decisions. this begs the obvious question for Somalis of: how does the ubiquity of social media including SOL affect Somali interests, and how should somali policy makers respond to the thousand of online enthusiast with an opinion? what makes SOL an idea place to post is, that, it requires no infrastructure investment and since most Somalis, these days, have access to laptops, computers and other mediums, they are constantly in need of the tools that respond to their demands. furthermore, real-time communication has enabled SOL to disseminate vital information to thousands and more importantly beyond its membership base. but the buck doesn't have to stop there. information is power and this power can harnessed, so effectively, for the betterment of our people. in this shirweyne, the first of kind, i hope we're able to reach out to each other with the establishment of an advisory body of SOLers, many of whom, are no doubt, key influential people, community leaders, academics, activists and key decisions makers in different fields across the board. Alpha has been able to meet such wonderful SOLers in the last 3 years and one thing that's echoed through and through our meetings was how passionate, dedicated and so alike him they were. Alpha has indicated several times, that he was, very impressed in meeting JB, IBZ, AT,NG, NORF, Carafat, Abu_S and many others but he has NOT reveled the numbers of those who know him.....but confesses to NOT knowing . charity starts from home and in using SOL, Alpha believes that it provides an effective method in building value through its social relations. indeed, Alpha's a firm believer in forging new connections that he could potentially collaborate with in creating ideas, developing their processes, delivering their execution and all via PMs.... Alpha has been merely a signal, in his interaction for further collaboration, with these SOLers and not exactly the noise he remits on SOL. the self-promoting, self-aggrandising and self-important SOL enthusiast usually goes out of the window and in place come an individual, who has been able to capitalise on the profound influence of such SOLers, to his benefit. Alpha further consolidated his meaningful, valuable and beneficial time with such individuals in setting the ground for further productive collaboration, community based activism and communication, albeit in, seeing these ideas come to fruition. this kind of direct connection and openness between such like-minded individuals, is what has been lacking for so long in our history. just as SOL was built on the underlying principles of openness, accessibility, connecting and sharing information, these same principles explain why such programmes like QUEST-MIDA and other organically Somali collaborative projects failed. these same principles are pivotal in overcoming the challenges that blight our collective wills. in using SOL, we've been able to overcome having to rely on the advise of so-called experts and specialists. in concluding, Alpha would like to remind you to be purposeful in whatever you do, to think about the why of every action you take, of every information you share, of every interaction or relationship you forge on this excellent site. we rarely think about the “why” of something, only the “what” and the “how.” we're all generally more fulfilled when we live purposeful lives, of working together and achieving results that benefit our people. so stop and think about this, and you will become immediately more interesting to others and stand out as someone who matters. if you want to stand out, you have to also be curious about other people as Alpha has been with many SOLers irrespective of their difficult tribes, politics, backgrounds and leanings. Thank you, Thank you very much. Alpha Blondy, SOL Delegate and Founder and Chairman of the SOL Advisory Body

Adam Zeyla, did you make the occasional appearance to quote some of my posts. LOOL. i'm not sure if i'll be around for your next apparence...specially with what i'm cooking to feed the delegates. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. look, with all due respect, i was sincere in my request to Juxa. there is nothing wrong with this.

Chimera;917859 wrote: ^LOL, calm and collected. Alpha, never change who you are, you bloody saqajaan, that was hilarious, Frank Gardener kulaha LOL. My guide is well referenced and drawn from a myriad of books and old journals. Now go lurk for my next post you can assault: Adams Zeyla, your presence has been missed and your absence noted......

Apophis;917827 wrote: What happened to the shirweyne? I was very much looking forward to it; even bought a new blue tie, signifying my conservative stance. I hope it wasn't cancelled because of me. Lawd! , how you'd love to think that was true. i've been researching and sending PMs to key delegates.