Alpha Blondy;735099 wrote: Practically nothing! How do you know?

Somalia's 'children's famine' has been ignored The UN has officially declared that famine exists in Somalia. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images The problem when a child is dying from starvation is that they can't wait. They can't put their hunger on pause until the glare of the media decides to turn its spotlight on them and help spread the word that children are dying. Instead, they will slowly starve to death. This is exactly what is happening to nearly 2 million children in Somalia right now. Nearly half of these children are already on the critical list, inching further away from life as every hour slips by. By the time you read this, it may already be too late for some. In today's newspapers – from front to back – I was hoping to see the media use their power and influence to tell this story. I hoped to see headlines shouting that millions of women and children in Somalia, and across the entire Horn of Africa, are struggling for survival and need the British public to help. But I didn't. Instead, my eyes were blurred with articles of shaving foam and hacking scandals, as talk about the dire need for nutritional supplies for children who need their lives saved slipped into the footnotes. And now, the situation has reached crisis point. This morning the UN officially declared that famine exists in Somalia and that the lives of nearly half of the Somali population – 3.7 million people – are now in crisis. At Unicef, which is the UN's children's agency, they don't use the word famine lightly. They are guided by strict criteria that means it can only be declared when at least three of eight prerequisites are reached. These are acute malnutrition rates among children must exceed 30%; more than two people per 10,000 die daily; and food access falls far below 2,100 kilocalories of food every day. Guardian

Np-guys, please contribute. The statistics is staggering, every family in the South will lose a relative, the most vulnerable being the children. This is being called children's famine. The graveyard of the Somali children is testament.

Gheelle.T....No one disputes Arabs came to Somalia through trade and proselytism but to claim they father the half of the Somali population is ludicrous, to further claim two men fathered millions of Somalis is even more ridiculous. The Somalis have more common in the Oromo and Afar than they do with your average Bedouin or Arabized Berbers like Algerians or Moroccans. Obviously, an extensive scholarly work is needed to dispel this Arab myth but one can look at the culture and language of any ethnic group in order to ascertain their background. The Somali language and culture is more closely linked to the Oromo than to the Arabs. And about mythical Arab Sheikhs, if you pay attention to the most of the stories, those who tell these stories do not just claim to be Arabs but they try to establish direct relationship with the Prophet and his family, a matter of prestige and honor for many. Some Islamic sects were found by men claiming to be direct descendents of the Prophet (PBUH).

For Solers interested in helping with the droughts in the South, I would recommend you donate funds to Amoud Foundation, reputable organization with good track record and also works with Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation. The Foundation has the go-ahead from the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department Treasury. The State Department Legal Team will establish guidelines to any organization that wants to help in Somalia so that people are not accused of funding terrorist organization. Wa Salaam

You do the same!!!

OK

There's time and place for everything!

I'm in no mood to argue but if you care, help your people.

Hadal badan haan ma buuxiyeey ama dadka ama iska aamus.

An estimated 10 million people have been affected by the drought in east Africa The United Nations has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia as the region suffers the worst drought in more than half a century. The UN said the humanitarian situation in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle had deteriorated rapidly. It is the first time that the country has seen famine in 19 years. Meanwhile, the UN and US have said aid agencies need further safety guarantees from armed groups in Somalia to allow staff to reach those in need. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009, but has recently allowed limited access. Read

Naxar....I'm not sure who's being hateful. Alpha....When all else fails, play clannish card. If it makes feel any better, the story of the other Arab Sheikh that came and impregnate local Somali women is ridiculous as well. These so called Sheikhs coming to native lands is recurring stories all over the Muslim world that has little base in reality. Perhaps due in time, gene mapping and research into the origins of Somali will dispel these fairy stories.

Somali-Beyond me, how grown people believe these loony stories.

^How dare you?

Nothing else to say really, hope the woman heals, best of luck to her.

I think our energy will be spent saving the lives of those dying today in front of us! Just an advice.

^It wasn't really question, more like an assumption that needs to be reinforced.

What do Somali men have to do with this story?

Somalis and their mythical ancestors-fairy tales,

You are welcomed chubacka

It's girls that are filling the room. Alive

Young Somalis seeking dialogue Assimilation, stereotypes are forum topics Shadiyo Hussain of Portland, Maine (left) and Amal Ahmed of Charlestown spoke at the conference yesterday of their experiences growing up in New England. (Wendy Maeda/ Globe Staff) By Ben Wolford Globe Correspondent / July 17, 2011 While media attention on Somalia seldom strays from terrorism, piracy, and a 20-year-old civil war, those problems are among the least pressing for young Somali-Americans, according to participants in a weekend conference in Boston. The issues most relevant to them, they said, don’t make headlines: the strain between Americanized youths and their Somali parents, the barriers of access to American society, and the stereotypes that plague them as black Muslims. “The goal is to get the Somali youth galvanized and get them to take a hold of their futures,’’ said Abdinasser Egal, 32, of Cambridge, who helped bring the Somalia Diaspora Youth Conference to the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury this weekend. “We’re trying to identify the next group of leaders that come out of Somalia because it’s obvious the older ones have failed,’’ he said, referring to the 1991 civil war that continues to ravage the country. The conference is being broadcast over the Internet today. It includes topics ranging from learning from the past to breakdowns in intergenerational communications. Shadiyo Hussain, 18, of Portland, Maine, said such discussions are rare and welcome. “Where I’m from, Maine, we don’t have an organization or a community where we have interaction between the old generation and the new generation,’’ she said. Hussain said she wants to start a chapter of the Somali Diaspora Youth in Maine to spark a dialogue. The sponsor of the gathering, Somalia Diaspora Youth, is a loose association of community activists based in Virginia, Ohio, and Ottawa, the Canadian capital. They seek to maintain ties among Somalis living abroad, scattered as refugees. About 6,000 Somalis live in the Boston area, Egal estimated. “We have a joke that wherever you go, you won’t need a hotel,’’ said Egal, whose sister moved to Canada while he fled to America. The far-flung population, fearful of losing traditions, has tried to raise children as Somalis, but young Somali-Americans yesterday said keeping a solely African identity is not so simple. “The older generation likes to stay together, but my generation likes to assimilate,’’ said Huda Yusuf, 31, a chemist at Boston Scientific Corp. who lives in Shrewsbury. Having arrived in Canada at age 11, knowing almost no English and having more or less formed her Somali identity, Yusuf said she straddles both generations, insisting that “you have to be respectful of both.’’ Amal Ahmed, 18, is firmly in the new generation. She never used to wear a hijab, the traditional Muslim women’s head scarf, because in high school in South Boston, wearing it was too great a risk, she said. Now, as a second-year education and medicine student at Northeastern University, she wears it proudly. “The older I get, the more interested I get in the Somali community,’’ said Ahmed, who has lived in Charlestown since her family fled Somalia 15 years ago. “I think it’s important to be educated about your community back home, because that’s home.’’ But loyalty to tradition has a price when you live in the United States - particularly where the Department of Homeland Security is involved, Ahmed and others said. “I was at the airport in Minneapolis yesterday, and even though I passed through the metal detector, they pulled me aside to check my scarf,’’ she said. “I got into an argument with her: ‘If you don’t trust your metal detector, why do you put it there?’ ’’ Stereotypes in the United States are fanned, they said, by news about Al Shabab, a Somali terrorist group, and worries about recruitment efforts within this country. And last year, when Governor Deval Patrick pledged to Boston’s Muslim community his support in combating prejudice, then state-treasurer Timothy Cahill accused him of “playing politics with terrorism.’’ But terrorism is a nonissue, said Somalis yesterday in Roxbury. “We’re part of this community now,’’ Egal said. “We want it to do better, too. We gain nothing by seeing something bad happen. Our kids are born here now.’’ Ben Wolford can be reached at bwolford@globe.com. © Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

Thanks Blessed.

which brother? Are you talking about www.baramabaro.us ?