N.O.R.F;820952 wrote: Myself and Ngonge saw Alpha the day before he was to visit Burco. He was edgy and kept looking over his shoulder before mentioning he was due to visit the city the following day He decided to write the above before leaving his comfort zone. Dhaqan celiskii la sheegi jiray weeye. Alpha, we had a bunch of guys from DFID and UNDP with us last night. They stated quite the opposite. They had a quick and reliable internet connection for a start, they were not worried about their cars being messed with and they had access to water anytime of the day Now, ignore politics and give us your real take badowyahow Ps the wadaads here have done a good job on the qaad front lol@ seeking validation from DFID and UNDP. of course, when i saw you and NG in hargeisa i was distressed but not about travelling to burao. i was nervous because meeting NG in person was a little awkward. NG is an online legend. this is a man i have the utmost respect in the virtual sense of the word. our meeting should have been much grander than what occurred. you remember the meticulous planning that went into our first meet-up in NOV 2010.

*Blessed;821052 wrote: @Alhpha. inaadeer....why the angry face? we're doing alright compared to reer burco. i was very impressive with the large swath of land(deegaan) which comes under our control, including parts of burco.

confused!

I have been in the homeland now for almost two years helping grass roots, organic development, development dictated by us and not them. My trip to burao was dedicated to exploring the deepest recesses of my wonderful, colourful and exotic country, to explore and interact a place which has captured my imagination as not only the apparent Birthplace of my country (usually this little ditty is uttered mainly by my Job Seekers Allowance and income support dependent ‘friends' back home in Tottenham, not authentic remittance dependent Somalilanders) but also the stronghold of our economy: livestock. I set off from Hargeisa, with the sound of the glorious call to prayer surrounding us, with some experienced local guides- which my travel companion Saeed insisted on as a pre-requisite for his voyage to burao. I instantly dismissed him as a white sell out, some kind of white big game hunter- a description of him I thought quite apt seeing as he was sporting a large Stetson and cowboy boots. However something unnerved me. The mood and expression of the local guides was sombre, the prevailing atmosphere tense, strange I thought as we were going to the birthplace of our homeland and not some monkey inhabited central African village. The convoy left (three land cruisers with armed staff) from Hargeisa and all was well. We made good time and soon made Berbera. After a quick bite to eat and a quick survey of the on-going construction development (for all forummers who are disconnected from Somaliland Berbera is going to become a major transport hub for landlocked east African countries) we set off for burao. This is where the problems started. on the way to Burao The road became more and more uneven with more and more checkpoints. The soldiers, who were relaxed, sitting and unarmed between Hargeisa and Berbera were edgy, were standing and fully armed. We were searched once just outside sheikh and questioned aggressively. The soldiers could not believe we were going to burao for pleasure and thought we had some other sinister agenda- such as terrorism, child abduction, murder, rape etc…. More checkpoints We journeyed on to burao and just when I was going to ask ‘how long to buroa’ did our guide announce ‘welcome to burao’. I instantly noticed the vast expanses of rubbish, tarpaulin laden buuls and more rubbish. Onward we travelled towards the centre of this town. Although I would like to write about what places we went to I feel the importance of this thread should be centred around the utter nonsense of this conflict prone space . I make no apologies for using vulgarism and ask any online forum member have they been to buroa this year? let alone month? I thought so! burao is the place where dreams are destroyed. Khat is sold in only a few places, with fujis not even found. Due to the lack of khat, work and food people sit in the dust, en masse, staring into the distance with a vacant, semi-retarded look on their faces. The residents seem to be dark skinned (e.g. Congo type dark skinned) and all have dark teeth. Dirt and grime is highly visible on the clothes of this town and I didn’t see any children. One of our guides mumbled something about child sacrifice but was quickly silenced by his companions. Everywhere we went people stopped and stared and it took us a while to locate any shops (burao’s residents haven’t any money so a shop isn’t a viable opportunity to make any money) to buy much needed water – funnily enough most of Somaliland's mineral water companies hail from there, or is this another lie propagated by the Kulmiye Kleptocracy. I entered and was quickly accosted by a Daqan Celis from my home town of London. As it turns out this boy has been living in burao for 7 years and has lost all vestiges of civilised behaviour. He spoke perfect Somali but peppered his discourse with profanity, spitting and picking his nose and eating it (something I noticed burao people and their English offspring doing this in London). His shop- - more accurately a tin shack made from Coast powdered milk tins and bought with his mum’s bogus Disability Living Allowance funds- was hardly stocking and what little stock he had was dumped in mounds on the floor. To serve customers, this kid would grab and hold a handful of any item. The charges for these type of transactions were made per hand, and any hand to hand spills were deducted from the fixed price. This resulted in long arguments; the longest of which the kid said lasted for three days. This wasn’t a problem because local residents had nothing useful to do anyway. This guy, who I quickly named Robinson Crusoe, quickly became aggressive due to my assertion that Spurs were currently occupying a Champions League spot. Ali's (Robinson Crusoe) shop I decided to leave. I quickly pasted a group of young males, who were praying- I instantly noticed they did three sujuuds. My guide (who was armed) pointed out that this town’s residents have evolved a strange and home-grown version of Islam due to the latent ignorance, superstition and isolation present in burao. WATER is a precious commodity in burao and is not used for frivolous activities such as washing clothes and taking showers. Water is instead provided for livestock. My guide explained to me that babies died due to thirst but never livestock as livestock are seen to be the only source of burao’s economy. The phenomenon of the Somali diaspora present in other parts of Somaliland is totally absent in burao, with the exception of N.O.R.F and Ibtisam, who it was rumoured was kidnapped from Hargeisa and currently under house arrest. Everywhere I went people seemed to think that I was an American Negro. They were surprised by my fluent Somali, they asked me questions about the outside world (i.e. this means Hargeisa), about Silaanyo who they heard was the President of the Republic, if people ate rice like themselves in other places in Somaliland and did Usain Bolt actually run 9.58 in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This last question unnerved me as the crowd starting to chant Usain, Usain over and over again. Someone produced a picture of Maurice Green and the crowd went wild. I didn’t have the nerve to state that this wasn’t Usian Bolt. I decided to stop speaking to the local residents when a crowd started to form to asking for food and medical supplies. I decided to give out my business card, in the hope of maintaining fruitful relationships with the locals, but this only spurred on my desire to leave when they MISTOOK the cards for cotton buds. feral children This town’s lack of cars, even mini-buses, was unnerving and my guide explained to me that this was because the locals distrusted anything that can be used to transport any goods or humans, which doesn’t bleed. It was then that the most shocking revelation was unearthed to me. My guide explained to me that the young local men, due to the absence of what some in the ‘WEST’ deem liberal women, engaged in illicit visits to houses of disrepute, but preferred the company of livestock rather than women. How could this be I thought, the guide explained to me that they protecting the honour of their local women with whom they would consummate the marriage after five or more years. This, I was informed was a local Xeer law, which aid agencies, through the help of 'locally engaged locals' are working hard to abolish. By now the guides were getting worried as dusk was approaching, they didn’t want to set up camp as now one was sure what came after dark in this godforsaken place. This place, apparently, the birthplace of Somaliland, this second city (with its wide open spaces and strange customs) is unlike any place I have been to in Somaliland. Dark was rapidly approaching as we left the city, in the background I could see groups of naked men with painted faces engaging in strange dances holding a child.

Carafaat;820591 wrote: Call her Shuun. isn't that what xamaris call pubic hairs horta, inaadeer.

hey nuune, thanks for the dedication thread. its official! i can confirm there is an actual wedding this time and its not a hoax. shame i feel like the boy who carried wolf too many times that most would doubt this wonderful occasion and deny me the sharaf i'm due. if y'all can attend that would be greatly appreciated and for those SOL ladies (esp mention to lovelorn chubacka, 5 and nairah), stop sending me private message with marriage proposals because i'm not interested. it feels funny saying this but i'm finally happy and i cant contain my excitement and nuune i'll keep you in mind when i tie the knot on the 5th of may saxib! cheers, al.

Carafaat;820493 wrote: Alpha, how about naming her Mandheera after the big prison. i dont want to name it after a city in saxil region. that's not creative. thanks tho.

wyre;820490 wrote: Waryee, bahasha shafkeeda fiiri what's wrong with you :D, haddii shafka lix naasood ey ku leedahay waa naag, haddeysan kuleheenna waa nin I had My bisad with the name of Min, she was a human like, marki quraac in la ii keenaayo ey maqasho wey iisoo ordi jirtay :D it seems like i'll have to get the maid to verify this. does it always have lix naasood even at such a young age? i hope to build a rapport with this cat and i think giving it a good name will be very important.

Macallinka;820486 wrote: Nin miyaa mise waa naag horta ? Haday naagtahay name it = Maandeeq Haday nintahay name it = Xiireey i've no idea. is there a way to tell? its small and I've constructed together a makeshift kennel type thing for it. it likes milk and tuna so far and doesn't like anything else. i like mandeeq. nice name

Hi, i recently adopted a small cat after its mother was killed for having too many kittens. I'm not into furry creatures lol, in fact i hate them and find them repulsive but i think it would give me an enormous sense of personal fulfillment to give sanctuary to this baby cat. i need to name it but cannot think of one. any suggestions?

Carafaat;820482 wrote: salaam Alykum. I am having a headache, but still am at work. thinking about going home. arafat, inaadeer, i went to burco yesterday and its terrible.

Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar;819566 wrote: Waala sugtay. Qof cuqdad ku raagtay waaye, xaasdinimada u haayo Reer Koonfureedkana mar hore inta ka caddeystay. What always bothers him is that calankaas baluugga oo sharaf leh adduunka la lulaayo, united Soomaaliya oo sharaf lehna jirto. It kills his spirit to see that. And that has no known cure. Likes of him, however, jawaab ma istaahilo, maamusna uma laha. what nonsense! in your haste to label me with anti-somali sentiments. think you ought to present the truth as it is and to stop the character assassination.

secret sect miyaa?

Chimera;820329 wrote: lool@adams, is that how you actually look?

salams juxa. how are you this day today?

Libaax-Sankataabte;819113 wrote: I've seen bashers use the "stink" comment on various media outlets. Is there a real problem here? yes! there is, i'm afraid. somalis have this distinct smell that resembles something like a plastic bag that's been stored in a kitchen cupboard for up to 6 or 7 months, soaking up all the different smells. there are particular segments of the community who smell, ruunti... old women and small kids are right up there. once i was on the underground when i lived in the uk, a group of kids came on and as if by some magic, i recognised the smell and located a fat somali kid with creased school uniform. i was ashamed for him. in the somali peninsula there is a potent odour like smell. this bantu prick needs a smack in the face. there is are some legitimate concerns to his rantings and i can foresee a genocide similar to the rwandan genocide occurring in kenya very soon. we need to a bit more humble about all these successes, i suppose. lol.

It rained more than the previous two times today. mashallah. this time the electricity went out for close to an hour, which meant i couldn't update y'all in real time. I recently changed my time to GMT+3 local time.

nuune;818535 wrote: ^ lolz did they had any female company there, or they were two old lonely men hehe which table were you sitting, and was it your girlfriend who was with you, never thought you will be the kind of guy who befriends cadaan women, what happened to your culture oriented style, you were a model for many, but know, worst than eurotrash with cadaan girls, uff lol@nuune, they were sitting at the back next to the famous train and they were making loud noises. still, they were with a friend of mine who was a former somaliweyn but now making a last ditch attempt to at the 'development sector', the so-called 'mashruuc raadis'. i was with a group of important people i casuumay. i usually dont go to summertime but didnt think i'll see JB and what i assumed was NG.

is she even a muslim? real muslims dont kill other muslims or their babies! i'm not surprised laakin. there was an interesting programme recently on panorama, the bbc flagship current affairs programme, and it was about honour killings within the asian community. i wonder if such terrible things happen within the somali community. my old brother once told me that such events occurred in pre-war hargeisa. apparently, the xibiga area was a common place where young women, who had illicit relations outside of the sacred (whether marraige or not), dumped their new born babies. some still had the umbilical cord!

i have HTC Desire now, nuune. all i do is put it on the table and it screams i'm rich. it has a massive screen. have you seen it?

N.O.R.F;819389 wrote: Alpha, don't know how you guys have put up with all the nonsense of trying to get things done here. I'm reafd to go back. Afternoon all norf, i dont deal with the nonsense. i'm living in self-imposed exile. after work, i retire to my house and sit there. often back-bitting the locals and their nonsense.

nuune;819391 wrote: JB's iphone 4S, HM(hargeisa model) looooooooooooooool! thats jokes nuune! there are many bantu kids like that in hargeisa! lol!

Carafaat;819385 wrote: And you didn't even greet the old men. What a snob! i couldnt! i was busy and my guests would've been offended had i got up to say hi lol.

Narniah;819370 wrote: I don't think I saw any ''Somalilanders'' singing for turkey, so don't worry, your precious 'dignity' can remain intact. this is not the point. this is shameful behaviour and its almost like somalis and the somali territories are being emasculated to the will of turkish foreign policy. fair enough the turks have played a pivotal role in 'somalia' but be reminded what we endured has only made us stronger. this court-jester type behaviour and 'uncle tom' pleas and subservience is unacceptable and denigrating our collective somali psyche. when we suffer; we suffer with dignity and integrity with the hope that tomorrow maybe better! only somalis have the potential to change their destiny! NO outsider however benevolent and duty-bound will make a difference to US! by taking control of our collective destinies, will we be able to build for the future and ensure self-sufficiency!

this is utterly shameful. why are somalis singing for turks. we are people of integrity and honour. the turks have their own agendas and songs and other forms of cultural expressions dedicated to turkey distorts the power dynamic. we should seek to be on par with the turks and should not accept a subservient role. shame on south somalis and the tfg for encouraging this sort of behaviour. even in somaliland there is no sycophant behaviour to the british or any other benevolent donor!