Originally posted by Malika: Okay,the place smelled terribly! Endend up ruining a pair of good shoes,still trying to get rid of stains on my clothes...I mean is that dust on those roads or something else,it stained my clothes.I kept expecting the tires on the car to bust,the pot-holes on the road are filled with stones! I loved the food though in the restaurants,ciil baa hiliib uu hayee, waan kaa soo deergee! The Somali beggers aa raxadaa igaa qaadee,Somali children and old ladies begging on the streets was hard to see. The nightlife of Eastleigh is something to write home about! am still shocked. I might be heading there in a month or so, what are the good night clubs?

These men were goobinimo personified. They are a testament to what somali's can accomplish at their best.

^ Oga'den martyrs and hero's, are we talking about the clan or region?

There is only one type of somali women that go to shiisha joints and they are usually two dollar ho's(adjusted for inflation), I can't really blame the arab men for their behavior.

Originally posted by somalipride: quote: recently, I ran into a friend of mine at a coffee shop. I always wondered what those guys sitting at the coffee shops were talking about.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

How disgustingly revolting, only someone of a perverse westernized mind would find this entertaining.

I like the flames as well, the canucks look good as well. First place san jose, looks like they are on their way for a first round exit.

I noticed most of the women here on sol have no problem admitting that their are a lot of single mothers in our community, but the men seem to be incapable of facing reality. I suppose it understandable, because it does not speak well of somali men. But it's the reality, and something needs to be done. Blessed In all societies a good family consists of a mother and a father, one cannot expect a single woman to have both responsibilities without some obvious consequences and in most cases kids who grow in single mother households are no well adjusted.

^ listen saxiib, you need to stop being uppity, the evidence is there, and it's not just my own observations. Just because there is no statistics, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Do you need statistics for everything? You're just mad that this single mother phenomena might paint somali people in a negative light, well instead of ignoring it, maybe it's time we found solutions and investigate the cause?

Originally posted by chubacka: Oh brother, the poor guy only wanted to have a general discussion in a discussion forum, why don't you jst sue him for his audacity? honestly you ppl need to calm down, stop thinking about "preserving" some elusive reputation an just discuss these topical issues without being so ridiculously petty. If you disagree with his observations then jst say so. Noone is talent spotting on SOL, I think thats one thing I can say for sure (obviously if they were I would have been contacted years ago ) No kidding. These guys dhiig kar baa qabta whenever someone doesn't agree with them.

Adama-Zayla Your either blind to the realities or choose to ignore them, somali's in the diaspora are largely the same and face the same problems. Im sure there are plenty of exceptions, but exceptions is not what im interested in. Somali diaspora in general are either working class or live on government assistance, therefore these kinds of problems are more likely to affect them, the same way it affects other poor ethnicities like black americans, latino's etc. It's more about class than race. As you even admitted that there a lot of women who have lost their husbands etc, isn't it likely that the children of these women will also become single mothers/parents? The environment somali's raise their children, breeds single parenthood and it's seen as the norm. Couple this with a general trend of young kids having kids(somali's are no exception to this) and it can definitely be described as a problem. Coming back to evidence. I suppose this woman's observations are wrong too: http://action.web.ca /home/somalicanadian s/views_women.shtml? x=84937&AA_EX_Sessio n=ef56c38038178c742b acbdddf2bb5388 Or kathleen malley book "international perspectives on family violence and abuse" . It seems your only interested in scholarly work that support your case, and all other peoples work or observation is not good enough. Or even this article on somali migration to lewiston. http://www.centralma ine.com/news/stories /020908somalis_.shtm l "Fulfilling that expectation is complicated because so many of the Somali families are single mothers and children, the fathers dead, missing, still in Africa or still in Atlanta"

^ What exactly will it take for you to be convinced? Somali's are the same other black communities when it comes to single mothers. One doesn't need hard evidence or statistics when plain observation is enough.

Originally posted by Adam-Zayla: Sir Q.A, first of all 'Phenomena' and 'epidemic' are terms that are used loosely around here(see Marx topics for example) hence their inclusion in my point. Secondly there is no 'rise' because the first communities of the diaspora allready consisted of a large section of Single parents(in this case predominantly women) because usually(unfortunatel y) the father died during the civil war, it's nothing comparable to 'other black communities' Frankly it's my word against yours, I see every day Somali fathers holding the hands of their sons & daughters and walking them to school, during Eid i see hundreds of Somali families with both a mother and a father should i now erect a topic and proclaim all is honky dory in the Somali community? of course not! There are issue's in the Somali community but nowhere near the scale of the communities you want to compare us to. ps sxb be less angry in your reply's, my points are not ad hominems. Im not talking about the older generation, im talking young single mothers in their 20's and early thirties who grew up here. The reality is there are more single mothers in the somali community in all the big western cities, wheter you accept it or not is laregly up to you. I don't understand this pointless denial of reality.