Safferz

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Everything posted by Safferz

  1. xabad;935891 wrote: But those industries are inefficient and being propped up by the government. the chinese are currently privatizing their big public companies and banks. get up to date safferz. I'm quite up to date, and I work with researchers studying this stuff too (a colleague studies China in Africa specifically). There's a government hand behind Chinese banks and industry.
  2. Alpha Blondy;935886 wrote: another question.....do you not think this language has also killed many indigenous languages. some describe its devastating cultural genocide as being very similar to that of English and Spanish? The people who talk about "Swahili dominance" are usually islamophobes from the interior who want to rewrite east African history and continue their marginalization of those who identify as Swahili. Language use (and spread) *everywhere* has always been historically linked to governance and trade/commerce, people and communities adopt and abandon languages when they feel it can provide more for them in terms of access to power or wealth.
  3. DoctorKenney;935874 wrote: After Mao died, China adopted neo-liberal policies....and then they grew extremely fast. Now China is the 2nd richest country in the world. These aren't theories, these are FACTS Conclusion: You know nothing. The government of China nationalized industry and has complete and direct control over their economy, which is the type of governance you seem to take issue with above. And who knows nothing here?
  4. DoctorKenney;935866 wrote: Again, I said by African standards , Botswana is very rich. What part of that don't you understand? And BTW, I don't support the World Bank or the IMF. They're nothing more than leeches who are making Africa poorer. Look at how Somalia has FAILED due to Siad Barre's socialism. We Somalis don't like being told what to do. We're an entrepreneurial people, and to have the President tell us how to conduct business will always fail. Always You want to repeat that failed policy? There is no such thing as "by African standards," there are indicators for development that enable comparisons to be made across states and continents. It's true that Botswana is faring much better than its neighbours, but that isn't saying a whole lot. And I've said nothing about "repeating failed policies" (and I'm not so narrow as to define socialism in terms of Barre's "socialism"), so put the strawman to rest. The discussion here is about neoliberalism and its human costs, particularly to us as Africans.
  5. DoctorKenney;935850 wrote: None of it was neoliberal policies. Africa has stagnated in the last 50 years. Compare Botswana to Zimbabwe. Which country is richer and more prosperous? Botswana had more open markets and a freer economy, and they are VERY rich by African standards. lol okay, you're in some sort of parallel universe if you don't consider World Bank and IMF policies neoliberal restructuring, which has had an absolutely devastating effect on the entire continent. Bringing up one country that is an arguable exception to that doesn't change what it's meant for the vast majority of African states. I work with researchers who study Botswana and the picture there isn't as rosy as you seem to think. What's universal healthcare when there is only one cancer ward in the entire country and people are sent home to die?
  6. DoctorKenney;935844 wrote: South Korea advanced because of neoliberal policies. Now, South Korea (which was starving in the 1960s) is one of the richest nations in the globe. And remind us how well Africa did when neoliberal structural adjustment policies were introduced in the 70s and 80s? Right.
  7. It's always amusing to see an African support neoliberalism.
  8. Apophis;935792 wrote: From cultural misogynist perspective Fixed that for you.
  9. Alpha Blondy;935785 wrote: thanks for clarifying. why do you think Swahili is the lingua franca of eastern African country? i was told its very similar to Esperanza. Good question -- it precedes colonialism, Swahili was the language of trade and commerce in east Africa, with the Swahili on the coast and embedded in the Indian Ocean trade networks and trade going as far interior as Congo. Swahili also became important to anticolonial nationalist movements, like Nyerere's TANU.
  10. Alpha Blondy;935777 wrote: when they're scantily dressed. our women have more value that, inaar.....! Right, because women are commodities and a reflection of your honour as a Somali man.
  11. Alpha Blondy;935774 wrote: the enemy of friend is my enemy miiyaa sheekadadu, inaar? I dislike capitalism and neoliberalism and the way it chooses capital at the expense of humanity. The above associations indicate that clearly.
  12. Alpha Blondy;935767 wrote: interesting....does this saaxil mean the same as sahal (e.g sahal region being hot and desert-like). It means coastal (as does Sahel, the "coast" of the Sahara desert). The Swahili coast and civilization stretches from southern Somalia to Mozambique.
  13. Not only apartheid, Pinochet, Botha, Savimbi, Pol Pot, Tudjman, Mobutu, and the list goes on. For Thatcher, any enemy of socialism was a friend. Good riddance.
  14. Alpha Blondy;935742 wrote: ask yourself before foolishly pledging support for this nonsense..........if his gross misrepresentation, sexist and pornographic portrayal of our women, who are indeed the laf-dhabarka of our society, is worthy of your support? also....... do you want your kids and other people's kids reading this highly perverse and disturbing graphic literature? i'll wait for your response. thanks. lol since when are you concerned with sexism facing Somali women, Alpha?
  15. Successful indiegogo campaigns usually have a video pitch, so he should consider doing that as well. I'm sure people would be more inclined to donate if they could see the illustrator talking about this project and his previous work.
  16. Lovely. It's a shame our traditional instruments are being replaced by crappy synthesizer music and autotune.
  17. I saw the documentary Searching for Sugarman last night (best documentary at this year's Oscars), and I thought it was fantastic. Great story, and introduced me to a great musician.
  18. Chimera;935585 wrote: Funny! Loved 21 Jump Street, and I rarely enjoy comedies -- it just happened to be one of the movies available on a long flight so I gave it a shot. I'm sure the person next to me hated me because I was dying lol
  19. Wadani;935581 wrote: But since no one gives any information about themselves when appying for membership status how do SOL mods/admins conduct a fair selection process? It's probably something arbitrary like the sound of someones email address. I was rejected when I used my university email address, but not when I used gmail lol
  20. AfricaOwn;935318 wrote: Perhaps before they got gunned down they had a record? They had misdemeanors or other charges? hence them being "known to police" lmao I see reposting for the functionally illiterate and cognitively challenged to have another chance to read and process the information didn't work.
  21. AfricaOwn;935316 wrote: 3. The Police is using The term "known to police" as a description because they were individuals with criminal activity in the past according to the police, are you denying this? And how do people become "known to police" and thus described as such by the police if they end up dead? Let's try this one more time, for the functionally illiterate and cognitively challenged among us: "Every year, Toronto Police stop, question and document hundreds of thousands of people in encounters that typically don't involve an arrest or any charges. They stop people on foot, on bicycles, and in vehicles for reasons such as general investigation, related to a radio call, loitering, suspicious activity, or as the result of a traffic stop. They ask for your name, date of birth, phone number, address, height, and weight. If you're with some other people, they do the same for them and note that all of you were documented together. You're henceforth known as "associates." They also make a note of physical descriptions, including skin colour. There are four choices, white, black, brown and other. All of this is documented on a small white card called a Field Information Report, or a "contact card." Most of the people documented are law abiding citizens. Fewer than 1 in 5 of the more than 700,000 people who were carded between 2008 and 2011 had been arrested in the past decade. So what happens to all this data? The information is entered into a massive police database that has no purging requirements. It is searched by police following crimes for possible suspects, witnesses and associates. Police call it a valuable tool, and officers are encouraged to document citizens." ( Toronto Star )
  22. AfricaOwn;935312 wrote: ^^^ Sorry, no one is going to entertain your blah blah blah nonsense, stay on topic. ... except I've made perfect sense and articulated myself clearly and cogently in this thread, while you've not only continued to deny the evidence refuting the points you've tried to make here (if you want to even call them points), you've made yourself look like a moron in the process. The fact of the matter is that being "known to police" is a description for anyone who has been *documented* by police in primarily non-criminal encounters, and those who are documented by and therefore "known to police" are overwhelmingly black males.
  23. Just give up and leave the thread before you embarrass yourself further.
  24. AfricaOwn;935305 wrote: Ummm, I don't know how I am wrong....Goodnight Helped you out and transcribed part of the Toronto Star video explaining the process of how people come to be "known to police": "Every year, Toronto Police stop, question and document hundreds of thousands of people in encounters that typically don't involve an arrest or any charges. They stop people on foot, on bicycles, and in vehicles for reasons such as general investigation, related to a radio call, loitering, suspicious activity, or as the result of a traffic stop. They ask for your name, date of birth, phone number, address, height, and weight. If you're with some other people, they do the same for them and note that all of you were documented together. You're henceforth known as "associates." They also make a note of physical descriptions, including skin colour. There are four choices, white, black, brown and other. All of this is documented on a small white card called a Field Information Report, or a "contact card." Most of the people documented are law abiding citizens. Fewer than 1 in 5 of the more than 700,000 people who were carded between 2008 and 2011 had been arrested in the past decade. So what happens to all this data? The information is entered into a massive police database that has no purging requirements. It is searched by police following crimes for possible suspects, witnesses and associates. Police call it a valuable tool, and officers are encouraged to document citizens." (Toronto Star) And here's an interactive map that shows how young black men are 3.2 times more likely to be documented by Toronto Police than whites: http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/knowntopolice/2012/03/07/interactive_map_black_and_white_differences.html Bye!
  25. AfricaOwn;935301 wrote: How did I incorrectly define the term "known to police" ? Are you disagreeing the fact that I said its a person involved in criminal activity? Did you even read the Toronto Star report I posted twice now? I'm not "disagreeing" with you - a disagreement implies a difference of opinion - I am telling you that you're wrong and I provided the evidence for it. AfricaOwn;935301 wrote: And my question still remains, are the Somali victims who are labelled "known to police" (stay within the context of this thread) that I posted earlier wrongfully booked by the police? How else am I supposed to put it? I just walked you through your own logic to point out why that question is ridiculous and irrelevant in the context of your own posts and the discussion at hand.