MoonLight1;831071 wrote: When i saw the title I thought it was a new ROAD map being constructed all the way to Addis. To Addis? I thought a new road over the Indian Ocean to India. Lol, truly any construction project in the Somali Realm needs to applauded, it will benefit the economy and future generations.

Kingofkings, look up the word ''Apostrophe'' and then reread the sentence you quoted. The 'African country' is a reference to Somalia, the usage of the apostrophe is to mark the POSS i.e Somalia's Puntland state.

You hit rock-bottom Alpha. God bless the old lady, and bless Malika for defending her from the madman.

btw Siad Barre is the father of Somalia's last central president Mohammed Siad Barre. EDIT: I see Gheele.T already mentioned the above.

Xaaji Xunjuf;830180 wrote: Chimera true but the turks were heavily involved during the 16 century and beyond in zeilah and around the region and its also true seylac and the Muslim ifat states existed way before the Turks were involved.During the wars though with the Abyssinians many of the Ottoman generals and soldiers visited seylac and fought alongside their fellow Muslims so i will not be surprised if the Turks are buried there. Historic Somali soldiers are burried from India to Yemen to the Horn to Tanzania, but that doesn't mean we can claim all the heritage that exists there. Zeila is a 2000 year old city, to just brush that aside and adopt the mantra 'Turkiga ba dhisay' is historically incorrect. The Turks were and are great allies of the Somali people, but our relationship was more military based rather than medieval urban investments. Remember there are atleast twenty other cities dating from the Ifat and Adal period who all looked up to Zeila and Harar, and many artifacts from various kingdoms like the Chinese have been found, so we had the wealth and skills to build our own heritage.

Where is the airport? I only see a plane and a field of sand.

Kom op Xaaji, wees eerlijk met jezelf. Zeila is an ancient city, even in the 12th century it was one of the foremost cities in Africa, and eventually it became the capital of two strong kingdoms, way before the rise of the Ottomans. Secondly the Ottomans did not have a direct presence in Zeila or any part of Somalia, they only received a tribute, while the city was ruled by a Somali governor after the collapse of Adal. Therefore this talk of 'Turks burried in Somali saint tombs' is ridiculous. You don't need to call it Ottoman heritage to get funding from Turkey, because they are restoring Somali heritage in Mogadishu as we speak.

Where is your self-respect? You're calling heritage dating back to the Ifat and Adal Kingdoms, Ottoman heritage? Shaking my head, what's next; Arba Rucun and Old Mogadishu are Italian heritage?

I live in the wrong decade, in-fact, the wrong century. The 20th c. was the bomb!

What happened, you didn't like my version lol: http://www.somaliaonline.com/community/showthread.php/64783-Say-cheese!!! Took me 20 minutes to reconstruct the picture because it was full of white spots, here is the original by Dirir Abdi Ibrahim:

The Sikh community is one of the kindest communities in the UK, especially to Somalis. You will always see a row of Sikh shops and a row of Somali shops in any town center, and the communities work well together despite their differences. If the Somali girl is innocent, then no amount of community pressure will result in her expulsion, however if she is guilty, then why should I come to her defence? Just because she is Somali doesn't mean you have to protect her at the expense of a girl 'whose religion and culture was trampled upon'. I find it hard to believe that a Sikh girl - who are the most timid and shy female groups I have ever seen - would randomly jump a Somali girl. We both know many of these teenage Somali girls - like the boys - are very loud, obnoxious and have adopted this silly gangsta culture, they don't even resemble their older sisters and mothers at all in fashion or mentality. We as a community can in no way condone or protect those acting in a racist or xenophobic manner. Those perpetrating such acts should be given the highest form of punishment as a message to all others. I think i've had enough of these individuals who commit something, and then hide behind the Somali community or Islam for protection, when they rejected both in the first place. Let them own up to their mistake.

I think it depends on the type of martii that knocked on the door, I used to like the male martii, because they were very paternal and kind, but the female martii are very passive-aggressive and devious. They would compliment me and teasingly ask my mom if I was single(for their daughters), but then when I said a few words in Af-jiini they declared war on me. Why aren't you speaking Somali? Why is your hair so curly? Why do you wear these clothes? Why do you breath air? Now I think about it I used to HATE female martii because from our livingroom you could see the hall-way to the front door as well as the kitchen so I was stuck in my room at certain times without food and without a way to escape the house.

Nimco Yaasin & Ikraan Caraale:

2025 Vision Road-network - The entire current network of 22000 km of roads should be completely paved, and dual-carriage highways should be established to deal with the increase of motorists, which will number around 8 million by that time. Enrollment rate - 100% - Compulsory education for all children, special attention to our daughters. Electrification rate - 100%. The whole country must have a steady supply of electricity, no country can economically grow without reliable source of energy, we can do this through dams, solar power, wind-energy, etc. Port infrastructure - It is vital that Somalia attracts billions in investment and transforms the existing deepsea-ports into the largest in East Africa. Affirmative action for women & minorities - This program should be maintained for atleast 20 years to make sure there is a healthy balance in politics, military, education, healthcare, entertainment and other sectors in Somalia. Female President - In 2020, a female only election should be initiated to usher in the country's first female president. Oil-Industry - Somalia by that time should be the largest exporter of crude in Africa, 2 million barrels of Oil at a minimum. Mining Industry - Somalia should have the largest mining projects for its Uranium, Gold and other valuable resources. Fishing Industry - This economic sector has to be well-developed with trawlers and cooling-ships that will enable Somalia to have an annual profit of at least $3 billion USD. Agriculture-Industry - The country has to be completely self-sufficient, and its crops should be once again the largest employers in East Africa. Tourism Industry - At least 5 million tourists should be attracted to Somalia annually through world-wide branding, and advertisment campaigns worth $1 billion. The sector should generate at least five times that amount each year. Tree-planting - 1 billion new trees planted across the country, and the most affected areas. Technology sector - It should be regulated, but the government touch has to be invisible. The current companies such as Dahabshiil, Hormuud, etc, have to be billion dollar companies by then. Aviation sector - Somali Airlines should be one of the most successful national carriers in Africa, only doing international flights. The domestic network should be covered by the other airlines. Rail-network - A 500km rail-network connecting the major agricultural and grazing regions with the major ports. to be continued.

Somali brothers can't praise a random sister with a hijab, as they would immediately think we want to marry them, and a thousand other thoughts would race through their minds, I've seen this for myself. At least on the internet, there is a barrier, and a guy like me based in London can have an audience on SOL with sisters from China to Minnesota, why can't I show my appreciation? Walahi there are different conditions set for Somali guys, pretty much. How do you even know I never posted a successful relative of mine on this forum? You don't, because we don't know one another. You need to understand the concept of published articles, and events, both are legitimate sources to use when showcasing a specific point. However if I had taken the images from a random social-network profile, then your point would be valid, but I didn't, hence it's not. Eclipsing the competition, only bribes could save them.

NGONGE, if you referring to social progress, are you aware that a 100 schools have been reopened/are set to reopen in the Somali Capital, and two large regions of Somalia are pushing for high literacy rates by 2015? The largest hospitals in East Africa are being constructed in the capital, and many more across the country? This is concrete progress, not media spin! The wishes of Abu-Salman are not ambitious, they are what should be achieved within less than five years of universal peace in Somalia. The people there don't really need a government to raise their standards of living, they only need that government to provide security so they can plow their own fields, march their live-stock, quadruple their own profits, modernise their cities and infrastructure, etc. We have a single language, this sets us apart from other countries in Africa that struggle with a multitude of different languages, which is one of the reasons why it was so easy for us to turn the majority of the Somali population literate in prewar times. There is no real wealth inequality in Somali society, outside of the small minorities, and Somalia is no longer a 1-city-state, but a dozen urban hubs have sprung up, so progress that can be developed further has been made here as well. The construction of railways is most definitely more sustainable and environmentally friendly than air-traffic, or other forms of transport.

I will find you, Aaliyah.....

Didn't we do this dance already? Are you in one of the posted pictures or are you afraid I will find your picture someday and like a creepy, creepy guy praise you? Is this your pre-emptive strike? I didn't upload the images, they are from published articles, not personal profiles. There is no point talking about the beauty of Violet flowers without pictorial evidence, there is no point talking about the awesomeness of Ferraris without pictorial evidence, catch my drift?

I read the books and the novelettes, and the similarities with present-day Somalia, are just patterns of instability, decentralization, fiefdoms, powerstruggles, ambitious individuals, etc. It doesn't matter if you read A Song of Ice and Fire, or the Warring States period of Ancient China or Feudal Japan, you will find the same human patterns. The moment there is complete peace across Somalia, the similarities will lessen until they are non-existent.

NGONGE, the term 'young' can denote 'inexperienced', 'lack of wisdom', 'childish'. That was the feeling I got from your use of the term in reference to me. In debates, people use examples of other countries all the time, in the form of anologies and analysing similar patterns. There is no need for you to dismiss my examples simply because you fail to look past the current situation of Somalia, which the countries I mentioned before were all going through at one point in time. In-fact there are more starving people in India and Nigeria today than Somalia, yet that didn't stop the former two from initiating some of the projects Nuune has posted in his vision 2025, in Somalia which has a population 100/15 times smaller than either two countries could easily be uplifted within a decade. You also dismissed the 'entire feel-good record of things' happening in Somalia, because they don't represent my dreams of railways and flourishing cities, yet in a different paragraph of that same reply talk about 'first steps to reach those goals'. Don't you see the contradiction in your argument? How can you dismiss the 'feel good-record' i.e serious progress on the ground and then talk about 'first steps'? How can you downplay the return of two dozen educated Somalis in the government because it doesn't represent a '1000 educated Somalis', but then want to discuss 'first steps?' The first steps are already being taken brother, and they are not exaggerations, even the western media outlets are now reporting majoritely positive about Somalia, where before it was 99% pure negativity. Please don't confuse my various topics such as the '500 Tokyos in one Somalia' or 'We must re-invent ourselves' as mere day-dreams, they are theoretical excercises to stimulate debate. I create them to illuminate the potential of Somalia, and press home the fact that the conflict is absurd and absolutely wasteful considering the potential of Somalis/Somalia. These topics represent alternative realities, that could have been ours if we didn't not adhere to pathetic clans, or nepotism. This is me clearly dealing with reality and challenging it.

NGONGE, I respect you, but kindly don't patronise me for I'm 25, a grown man by any standards, and my testosterone levels are very much balanced. I'm aware of the realities at home, however this doesn't mean I should keep my visions of the future to myself, and instead indulge in the rubbish regional rivalry or cloaked clan-politics that takes up 90% of the bandwidth on this forum. It's amusing that in such topics a good samaritan such as yourself is found missing in terms of advice and a dose of Islamic guidance for our misguided brethren, indeed as a Muslim that likes to guide people, that should be your first job, with clear priority status over intervening in the visions of the future by young men. I certainly don't need anyone to tell me the limitations of the Somali people, for even with all the events that happened in the last twenty years, the potential is still there, be it manpower, infrastructure, private sector or international markets. Nuune's 2025 vision is absolutely within our reach, and capability. Today's reality is completely uncomparable to any previous year since 1991. The Islamic Courts Union did not have powerful friends such as Turkey, Qatar, the UAE and most of the OIC, who all want a stable Somalia. and are going through great lengths to make it happen. The reconstruction in Mogadishu, the engine of the Somali World, is of a whole different scale, only comparable to the urban projects during the Central government period. Indeed even in terms of military and law-enforcement, the Somali army and police are making the biggest progress since 1991, and within two years will be fully capable of standing on their own two feet. Military prowess is not the issue here, unity was, and just yesterday we heard about the development of a single command for all Somali soldiers. This combined with a united capital, is more than enough to kick-start a major comeback for the Somali State. Somaliland, and Puntland in the last twenty years never had access to the type of funds that is being made available to the Somali government and which is being pumped into the capital. Through those funds, Somalis will be enabled to revive their state nationwide, and expand further across the country, mainly the unstable South. The ICU, as promising as they were, did not have all the major powers of the world working with them, nor is the current government or the post-transition government under any threat of military destruction. There are more embassies in Somalia today than in any other year since 1991, there are more foreign companies, and entrepreneurs in Somalia today than in any other year since the 90s, the world has returned to Somalia, its finally out of its decades long isolation and pariah status. There has also been a major shift in discourse with regards to Somalia in international circles, and its acquiring a reputation as a land with vast untapped natural resources, the world is therefore adamant in stabilizing the country to get long-term access to these resources, we already saw it with the British, we know its one of the reasons why the Turks are assisting us, and steadily other major powers like China and India are coming forward with their interests to rebuild the Somali state and its institutions. You focus on the negative side of the last twenty years, yet you ignore that Somalis build across the country more universities than before the war. The country has more airlines than before the war. The country has more schools today than before the war. The country has more companies, entrepreneurs, shops and businesses than before the war. The country has a vibrant private-sector, something it didn't have before the war. The country is more connected through technology than before the war. The country is exporting 10 times more products than it did before the war. The country has an immense pool of educated Somalis in the diaspora, which it didn't have before the war, and who can easily be given an incentive to return and fill the civil-servant positions you mentioned above, indeed did you forget that the majority of the previous and current technocrat cabinets were enlisted from that same diaspora? You don't need decades to rebuild your country if your blessed with natural resources. Take for example Angola, it suffered 25 years of war, and in 2002 was worser off than 99% of the countries in Africa, yet within 10 years they have build the most impressive skyscrapers and hotels in Luanda, and all across the country they established highways, roads and railways, all within 10 years of peace. Somalia could make the same comeback as Angola, or Bosnia, or Lebanon, or any other country that suffered decades of war but then had a rennaissance. The Somalis have history as a friend and a guide in terms of what they are capable off, so please let me remind you: Somalia - A country that was hailed as one of the greatest democratic countries in Africa in the 1960s, and President Aden Abdulle was the first head of state to step down peacefully in an African election year. - A country that made the greatest advance in literacy history, outshining the much hailed Cuban literacy campaign. - A country that maintained a military complex considered in the top five militaries of Africa, a continent of 50+ countries. It send troops to Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and trained the South Africans and the Eritreans during their independence struggles. - A country that was one of the few self-sufficient countries in Africa, and the breadbasket of the Middle East, and even exported food to Europe. A single Somali crop like 'bananas' was the biggest employer of people in East Africa. - A country that was the first muslim country to grant equal rights to women through the 1975 Family Law, and the participation of women in the work-force was higher in Somalia than the percentages of Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco put together. - A country that in peace was building more deepsea ports than any country in East Africa. - A country that was building more highways and roads than its larger neighbour Ethiopia. Even today Somalia's paved road-network remains larger than the road-networks of Uganda and DR Congo put together whose combined territory size is five times larger than Somalia. - A country who's aviation sector maintained Africa's largest runway at the Berbera Airport, whose record was only broken by the 4500m runway expansion at Mogadishu Airport. - A country who's 1000 year old city of Mogadishu was one of the cleanest and safest cities in Africa, and a major political and cultural capital hosting fashion shows, sport-events, major political conventions and annually presided over two of the four largest African Film Festivals, and had the region's largest Museum. - A country that was the only country in Africa with whom the Soviet Union signed a friendship-treaty, and the first African country to be visited by a Soviet Head of State. - A country that in 1974 became the first non-Arab country to join a traditionally exclusive organisation like the Arab League. - A country that maintained the largest commercial Merchant fleet in the Muslim world; larger than seafaring nations like Turkey, Pakistan and Morocco. - A country who's national carrier 'Somali Airlines' was the only national airlines in Africa to have in its work-force exclusively 'African pilots and technicians' (all professional Somalis) and had one of the largest networks flying to the Middle-East, Europe and other parts of Africa. - A country that was in the process of constructing Africa's second largest Dam (after the Aswan dam) in the form of the Bardera dam project. - A country that constructed the largest Fish production factory in East Africa, the biggest meat processing factory. The SNAI sugar factory was the largest in the region, and Somaltex manufactured more textiles than any country in Africa, with so much produced that one could stretch it from Mogadishu to New York according to an 1980s journalist. - A country who's largest university is reponsible for educating globally renown scientists, judges and professors: Somali National University It therefore baffles me that you would deny us our right to have a vision of a better future, when we have all this information of the past available to us. You pretend like the Somali people are incapable of peace and have been in perpetual conflict since B.C times and ignore the VAST MAJORITY of their long rich history where they lead prosperous and peaceful commercial lives with ties across the world. No NGONGE, a man that is incapable of dreaming, has an empty soul.

Cushitic is just a word made up by some anthropologist. The real power lies in unity amongst the Somali people. the most industrious, the most entrepreneurial, the most strategically positioned ethnic group in the Horn. They only need a superstructure that secures their interest, the Somali Republic was that superstructure. Stick with reviving that Carafaat, you would be surprised at how 'alien' these so-called Cushitic groups are when you meet them.

Lower right corner, bast@rd gave me a scare after a long investigation lol.

The Somali passport is equipped with a biometric system now, the old counterfeit ones are obsolete, so I suggest you do it legitimately.