Please report all abuses and those who persistently break and are against SOL's rules. For now they are banned, including the sockpuppet trolls. This is not a marfish which they can get their daily nauseating therapy.

Of course, gobollada Waqooyi get their share xataa haddee ku cunaayaan jaadkooda marqaanka qaarkood.

Hawa Abdi, trailblazing physician who built a haven for Somali families, dies at 73 The gunmen arrived soon after sunrise, surrounding Hawa Abdi’s hospital one day in 2010. Marching through the hallways of one of southern Somalia’s few medical centers, they shot anesthesia machines, tore up records, smashed windows and destroyed the country’s only glass incubators. In panic, mothers ripped IV tubes from their babies and rushed into the bush. The 750 militants, many of them teenagers, were members of Hizbul Islam, a radical Islamist group known for stoning offenders or chopping off hands. They had arrived with automatic rifles and a question for Dr. Abdi, a gynecologist known for turning her family’s farm on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, into a haven for Somalis fleeing famine, poverty and an ongoing civil war. “Why are you running this hospital?” they demanded, according to a New York Times report. “You are old. And you are a woman!” Dr. Abdi, then 62, was unfazed. She had been forced to marry an older man at age 12 and went on to become one of her country’s only female physicians, opening a one-room clinic in 1983 to help women giving birth in the East African countryside. Eight years later she began radically expanding her efforts, spurred by the onset of civil war, to treat anyone who visited her office, whether for malaria or malnutrition. Thousands soon arrived, and the clinic grew into a 400-bed hospital. The surrounding farm transformed into a makeshift city, Hawa Abdi Village, ultimately home to an estimated 90,000 displaced Somalis living in huts made from sticks and plastic sheets. Under Mama Hawa, as Dr. Abdi was known, they received free medical care, food and education at an 800-student school. When the militants put her under house arrest, hundreds of women living in the complex protested in a show of support. Somalis across the country condemned the attack. The insurgents retreated after a few days and, at Dr. Abdi’s insistence, wrote an apology note. “I told the gunmen, ‘I’m not leaving my hospital,’ ” she said in a 2011 interview with the Times. “I told them, ‘If I die, I will die with my people and my dignity.’ I yelled at them, ‘You are young and you are a man, but what have you done for your society?’ ” Dr. Abdi, who returned to work after replacing the militants’ black flag with a white sheet from her hospital, was 73 when she died Aug. 5 at home in Mogadishu. She had several strokes in recent years, said her daughter Deqo Mohamed, but the precise cause of death was not known. “She had a really deep faith and sense of hope that things could change in Somalia,” said journalist Sarah J. Robbins, who co-wrote Dr. Abdi’s 2013 memoir, “Keeping Hope Alive.” In a phone interview, Robbins recalled that while touring the United States to promote the book, Dr. Abdi urged young Somali Americans to help rebuild their ancestral home. “This was a beautiful place,” Dr. Abdi said, telling stories of Somali life after the country became independent in 1960. “This can be a beautiful place again.” Dr. Abdi was part physician, part human rights activist, with a law degree she earned on the side to protect herself from men who sought to take advantage of a woman running her own nonprofit organization without a husband, brother or son by her side. “My mom would not talk much. She would just say a couple words and do the work,” Mohamed said by phone from Mogadishu, where she and her younger sister now run the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation with support from aid organizations. “She often repeated a Russian saying: The beauty of a city is the statues or the streets. But the beauty of a human being is his work. If you want to be beautiful, do the work.” That work was recognized around the world as early as 1993, when President George H.W. Bush visited Mogadishu on New Year’s Day. Dr. Abdi was the first Somali he met; she guided him across her hospital grounds and through the camp of displaced families at a time when it was known as Lafoole, meaning “place of bones.” “It’s just very, very emotional for me to see it,” Bush told reporters after visiting the compound. “And I’ll tell you,” he added, “I’ve got great respect for what they are doing.” Dr. Abdi was later hailed as “equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo” by Glamour magazine, which named her and her daughters Women of the Year in 2010. Two years later, actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie delivered a testimonial on her behalf at the Women in the World summit in New York City. Dr. Abdi was unable to attend but sent a message to the audience. “I have given my people my heart and my soul,” she said. “Still I did not lose my hope. One day my people’s lives will change in a better way. I hope my children and the children who grow in camp, and are born in the hospital, will change the lives of Somali people.” Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe was born in Mogadishu in the spring of 1947. Without knowing her precise birthday, she adopted the May 28 birth date of her daughter Mohamed. Her father worked at the city port, in an era when Mogadishu was controlled by Britain and then Italy; her mother died of childbirth complications when she was 12. The episode introduced her to the shortcomings of the country’s health-care system and set her on a path to become a doctor. “I wanted to help future generations and children to avoid the pain I felt,” she later told an interviewer. It also led the family to give Dr. Abdi up for marriage, according to Mohamed. The marriage ended in divorce after the death of her infant daughter, which she attributed to a female genital cutting ritual that she had undergone as a child and that apparently compromised the birth. After the child died, she returned to school and received a scholarship to study gynecology in Kyiv, in what is now Ukraine, as a result of Somalia’s Cold War-era alliance with the Soviet Union. Dr. Abdi returned to Mogadishu in 1971, at a time when Somalia had about 60 doctors, according to her memoir. She worked at Digfer Hospital, where most of her colleagues were Italian and only one was female, before starting her own clinic at her family farm. Its location, on the road between Mogadishu and the town of Afgooye, made it a destination for families in need. By 2010, the corridor was home to more than 400,000 displaced people — more than anywhere else in the world, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees — and the camp had grown to about 90,000 people. Dr. Abdi initially sold a stockpile of gold to feed the women and children who flocked to her doorstep. “Then, as the famine worsened, she had to pay gravediggers in food to bury the more than ten thousand who died,” journalist Eliza Griswold wrote in her 2010 book “The Tenth Parallel.” In interviews with visiting reporters, Dr. Abdi often said she had not intended to support thousands of displaced families. But “necessity is the mother of invention,” she explained. To keep the peace, she instituted certain rules. Husbands who beat their wives were sent to a makeshift jail, a storeroom with barred windows. Newcomers who sought to maintain the clan identifications that had torn the country apart were not allowed to stay. “When they come, we were informing them, if you use the clan division, or you said I am that clan, you cannot stay here,” she told NPR in 2013. “You will be Somali. And you will see, we will welcome you.” Dr. Abdi married Aden Mohamed, a military technician, in 1973. They later separated, and he died in 2012. Survivors include her two daughters, Deqo and Amina Mohamed, both physicians; two sisters; and three grandchildren. A son, Ahmed, was killed in a 2005 car accident exactly 15 years before Dr. Abdi died, according to Deqo Mohamed. About three years ago, Dr. Abdi stopped working regularly at her hospital, which has since closed — temporarily, the family hopes — because of safety concerns. “We’re hoping when things clear out, we can regain her legacy,” Deqo Mohamed said. She added that fewer than 10,000 displaced Somalis remain in the camp, where the school has continued holding classes. Most of the camp’s residents have been women and children. “The men are dead, fighting, or have left Somalia to find work,” Dr. Abdi told Glamour, adding that the country’s women were more than capable of carrying on without them. “Women can build stability,” she said. “We can make peace.” Washington Post

Paying Tribute to Mother Teresa of Somalia, Late Dr. Hawa Abdi I know this earthly life is temporary, but I felt great sorrow when I heard the passing of Dr. Hawa Abdi who died at age 73 in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Dr. Hawa Abdi helped the helpless, the ill, and the internally displaced women and children, and the weak in war-torn Somalia for decades. She studied medicine in Ukraine and “In 1983, she opened a one-room clinic, on her family’s ancestral property, which over the years grew into a settlement which hosts tens of thousands of people, mainly women and children. The settlement in the Afgooye corridor, less than 15 miles from Mogadishu, includes a hospital, a school and a refugee camp.” When Hawa Abdi was 11, her mother died due to childbirth complications, and because of the medical reason her mother lost her life, and owing to the fact that childbirth-related death was common (and still is) in sub-Saharan Africa for lack of maternity care, Hawa Abdi decided to become a doctor, especially a female gynecologist. And when the civil war broke out in Somalia in early 1990s, as many Somalis were getting displaced by the war, mainly in and around the capital, Mogadishu, more and more people, especially women and children, moved and took refuge in and around the compound of Dr. Hawa Abdi. She worked tirelessly to save lives and became a lifeline for tens of thousands of Somalis. She was not only helping the needy civilians, but the wounded of the countless warring sides in and around Mogadishu and elsewhere ended up over the years in her clinic and hospital to be treated impartially. Hawa Abdi was a selfless figure who helped her fellow countrymen and countrywomen without discriminating them based on their clan, the main malice that has been destroying Somalia for decades, the biggest factor that plunged the country into an endless civil strife. At times, Hawa Abdi confronted the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al Shabab to save people in her camp, even when they threatened her. At certain times, some of the people in her camp fled for their lives, but she stayed in her camp no matter how dangerous it was to be fearless. That is how brave she was. Hawa Abdi not only took risks herself, but she supported her daughters to become doctors so that they can help the needy people in their homeland, Somalia. When you look at the alternative, which is for them to live a peaceful life elsewhere, they prefer to stay in their country and help their people. This can teach the Somali people that these beautiful souls sacrificed so much by saving their fellow Somali citizens. Hawa Abdi was a role model for millions of Somali girls and women. She braved great adversaries in life. She overcame countless challenges and showed all Somalis, even men, that one person can have a great positive impact on her country and people. She showed her African sisters and brothers, with resolve, mountains can be moved because we live in an inner-connected world where one person, one village, and one city can have a certain influence on the entire world. On the other hand, the world has become a global village, and I believe, compared to when Hawa Abdi started her venture decades ago, now we have more opportunities to do what Hawa Abdi did; the world is more connected than before, and information can be obtained faster and more efficiently. The power of the internet is amazing, and if one can have the access and ways to find and understand the right data, one can do wonderful things to change life for the better. The news of Hawa Abdi’s death shook the Somali social media world. Many Somali social media users, including me, shared their sadness on the death of this giant woman. Rest in peace! Xigasho

Wajiga labaad ee dhismaha Wadada Muqdisho iyo Afgooye oo bilowday Waxaa dib u bilowday wajiga labaad ee dhismaha Wadada isku xirta Muqdisho iyo Afgooye, kaasoo muddo bilo ah hakad ku jiray, tan iyo markii bishii December 2019 weerar is qarxin ah lagula eegtay Ex Koontarool Afgooye Injineero u dhashay dalka Turkiga oo dhisayay wadadaas. Laami dhigista Wadada ayaa bilowday, waxaana la arkayay shaqaale u dhashay Soomaali iyo Turkish oo si taxadar leh uga qeyb qaadanaya howsha, waxaana sidoo kale howshaas qeyb ka ahaa Gawaarida loogu tala galay dhismaha waddooyinka ee Laamiga saaraya. Dib u dhiska Wadadan ayaa marxalado kala duwan soo maray, iyadoo caqabada ugu weyn ay aheyd arrimaha Amniga oo tiro dhowr jeer qaraxyo lala eegtay Shaqaalaha dhisayay Wadadaas. Shirkad laga leeyahay dalka Turkiga ayaa dhisaya wadadaas, iyadoo ay maalgelineyso Dowladda Qatar, waxaana haddii la dhameystiro dhismaha Wadadan uu noqonayaa mashruucii u horreeyay lagu guuleysto oo ah dhismaha wadada isku xira Muqdisho iyo Labada Shabeelle. Dowladda Qatar ayaa horay u balan-qaaday inay dhiseyso Waddada isku xira Muqdisho iyo Afgooye- Muqdisho iyo Balcad, waxaana haddii uu soo gabagaboobo wadada Afgooye la filayaa inay bilaabato Wadada Balcad. Jidka isku xira Muqdisho iyo Afgooye ayaa ahaa mid burbursanaa oo dadka isticmaala ay dhib badan ku qabeen, sidoo kale wadadan ayaa muhiim u ah isu socodka ganacsiga khudaarta laga keeno Gobolka Shabeellaha Hoose iyo badeecadaha ka soo dega Dekeda Muqdisho ee u gudba Gobolada Koofureed. Xigasho

Meeshaan shaah iyo qaxwo badan waaku cabay sanadkii hore, weyna ka qurxoontahay sida sawirka muujinaayo.

Dotard is back to what he knows best - open racism As he struggles in the polls, Trump reaches for the racist playbook again “Mr President,” a reporter asked on Thursday. “After three and a half years, do you regret, at all, all the lying you’ve done to the American people?” A disbelieving Trump asked: “All the what?” The question was repeated and the US president refused to answer. His political career began with a big lie: birtherism, the baseless fantasy that Barack Obama was born outside the US and therefore ineligible for the White House. It may now be nearing its end with another false and racist conspiracy theory, which he encouraged at the same Thursday briefing. This one questions Kamala Harris’s eligibility to be vice president. Harris was this week named as Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s running mate for the 2020 election – the first woman of colour on a major party ticket. She was born in Oakland, California, and is eligible for both the vice presidency and presidency under the US constitution. John Eastman, a conservative lawyer, wrote an op-ed in Newsweek arguing that the constitution does not grant birthright citizenship and challenging Harris’s eligibility based on her parents’ immigration status. When Trump was asked about it at Thursday’s White House press briefing, he gave a characteristically vague answer that could sow doubt in the minds of supporters inclined to believe the worst: “So, I just heard that. I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements. And, by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer.” He added: “I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.” The 14th amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Christopher Kelley, a political science professor at Miami University in Ohio, told the Associated Press: “No, there’s no question about it. It’s been recognized since the people drafted it back in the 39th Congress that (the 14th) amendment would cover people not just born to American citizens but born on American soil.” Trump’s feigned ignorance is true to form for someone with a track record of racist and anti-immigrant stances. In 1973, he and his father were sued by the justice department for racial discrimination because prospective Black tenants were blocked from renting in their buildings. Trump was a high-profile champion of the so-called “birther movement” that questioned whether Obama, the first African American president, was born in the US and eligible to serve. Obama, born in Hawaii, produced his birth certificate to prove it, and eventually even Trump said he accepted the truth. Harris’s father was born in Jamaica and mother born in India. Under the constitution, anyone born in the US automatically acquires citizenship, irrespective of their parents’ immigration status. Trump’s shameless fanning of the conspiracy flames came in the context of a predictably ferocious onslaught of racist and sexist attacks on Harris by the president his supporters in rightwing media. “Sort of a madwoman, I call her, because she was so angry and such hatred with Justice Kavanaugh,” Trump told the Fox Business network. Republican Senator John Kennedy told the same network: “I would describe her as Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez but smarter without the bartending experience.” Deroy Murdock, a Fox News contributor, said: “She seems to come across as a bit abrasive, as the president mentioned. I don’t know if she can warm things up and be a little more charming.” Fox News host Tucker Carlson pronounced Harris’s first name wrongly several times on Tuesday night, When a guest corrected him, Carlson snapped “So what?” and then twice mispronounced her name again. On Twitter, Trump’s son Eric favourited a tweet that referred to Harris as a “whorendous pick”; the tweet was later deleted. The blitz suggested an election campaign moving into a new and dangerous phase. With Trump and his Republican allies trailing in the polls and struggling to define Harris, there is no limit how low they will go. Stuart Stevens, a longtime Republican strategist and critic of the president, has just published a book about the party’s descent into Trumpism. Its title? It Was All a Lie. The Guardian

Wasiir Beyle: Soomaaliya 20-ka sanno ee soo socota waa in ay noqoto meel Afrika laga quudiyo Kulan looga hadlayay kaalinta Dhallinyarada iyo Haweenka ee horumarinta dhaqaalaha dalka ayaa lagu qabtay magaalada Muqdisho, kaasoo ay soo qaban qaabisay Wasaaradda Maaliyadda Xukuumadda Soomaaliya. Kulankan ayaa aad loogu fallanqeeyay horumarinta dhaqaalaha iyo dib u habeynta maaliyadda, gaar ahaan horumarka laga gaaray dib habeynta Maaliyadda dalka oo ay hourmuud u tahay Wasaarradda Maaliyadda. Munaasabadda ayaa waxaa ka qeybgalay madaxda Wasaaradda Maaliyadda iyo maamulka guud iyo qeybaha kale duwan ee bulshada gaar Dhallinyarada iyo Haweenka. Agaasimaha Guud ee Wasaaradda Maaliyadda Saleebaan Sheekh Cumar ayaa sheegay in dhallinyaradda iyo haweenku ay door muhiim ah ku leeyihiin ka qabqaadashada dib u dhiska dalka iyo horumarka dhaqaalaha. Waxaa munaasabadda ka qeybgalay Wasiirka Wasaaradda Maaliyadda Dr. Cabdiraxmaan Ducaale Beyle, Wasiir ku xigeenka Wasaaradda Maaliyadda Prof. Cabdullahi Sheikh Cali Qalocow, Agaasimaha Guud ee Wasaaradda Saleebaan Sheekh Cumar, Guddoomiye ku xigeenka arrimaha bulshada Maamulka Gobolka Banaadir Basma Caamir Shakeeti, Guddoomiyaha Uruurka Haweenka Qaranka Batuulo Sheekh Axmed Gabale iyo qeybaha kale duwan ee bulshada. Kulanka ayaa diiradda lagu saaray haweenka iyo dhalinyarada iyo sida ay qeyb muuqata uga qaadan karaa kobcinta dhaqaalaha dalka gaar ahaana bixinta canshuuraha.Wasiirka Maaliyadda xukuumaadda Federaalka Soomaaliya Dr. Cabdiraxmaan Ducaale Beyleh ayaa sheegay in ay muhiim tahay bixinta canshuuraha si loo horumariyo dhaqaalaha dalka. Wasiirka ayaa sheegay in doorka dhallinyarada iyo haweenka uu muhiim u yahay horumarinta dhaqaalaha iyo dib u dhiska dalka. Wasiirka Maaliyadda ayaa xusay in dadaalka deyn cafinta Soomaaliya ay ku yimid horumarka iyo dib habaynta hannaanka Maaliyadda dalka laga gaaray. “Waxaan u mahadcelinyaa canshuur bixayaasha Soomaaliyeed, waxaa ii muuqata in dalkani uu rajo badan leeyahay, waxaan ka fikareyna in Soomaaliya ay 20-ka sano ee soo socota ay Soomaaliya noqoto meel Afrika laga quudiyo, ogaada haddaan casnhuurta la bixin dalkan meel ma gaarayo”. Ayuu yiri Wasiirka Maaliyadda. Gudoomiyaha dhalinyarada Gobalka Banadir ayaa muujiyey sida ay uga go’an tahay in ay wasaaradda Maaliyadda garab istaagaan. Guddoomiyha Haweenka Qaranka Batuulo Sh.Axmed Gaballe ayaa wasaaradda maaliyadda ku bogaadisay sida ay awoodda u siineyso haweenka iyadoo balan qaaday inay garab taagan yihiin haweenka. Dhamaan masuuliyintii ka hadashay goobta oo ay kujireen kuwa ka socday dhalinyarada, haweenka iyo hey’adda Culimada ayaa uga mahadcelisay wasiirka maaliyada sida uu ahmiyadda u siiyeyin dhalinyarada iyo haweenku door firfircoon ku yeeshaan hormarinta dhaqaalaha. Munaasabaddan ayaa qeyb ka aheyd Barnaamijyada Wasaaradda Maaliyadda ee la falgalida dadweynaha iyo qeybaha kale duwan ee bulshada si kor loogu qaado dhaqaalaha iyo wacyigellinta canshuuraha taas oo uu gacan ka geysanayo Bangiga Horumarinta Afrika.

Wasiirka Wasaaradda Caafimaadka- DFS H.E Dr. Fawsiya Abiikar Nuur ayaa Aalada Fogaan aragga ee Internetka kaga qeybgashay kulanka Xog-Isweydaarsiga COVID19 ee WHO -HQ. Wasiir Fawsiya ayaa xaalada COVID19 ee soomaliya uga xog warantay Wasiirada, Madaxda Caafimaadka iyo Madaxa ugu sareeyso Hay’adda WHO Dr.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Wasiir Fawziya ayaa intii uu shirku socday ka warbixasay Guulaha la gaaray COVID19 iyo caqabadaha jira iyo waliba dadaalada ay dowlada ugu jirto la tacaalida xanuunka saf marka ah ee COVID19.

Reer Khaliij, the betrayal, treachery group of the Muslim World. Iyadoo Muslim ahayn ayee saas u damqaneysaa, kuwii Muslimiinta horjoogooda isku sheegaayena Yahuudii iyo galaadii kale u niikinaayo. Waa adduunyo gaddoonka waxa ka mid ah. If it wasn't Maxamed Salmaan C/casiis Alsacuud, waxaan ma dhaceen. Eeygaan ayaa qaribay dalalkii Muslimka.

Warmurtiyeed laga soo saaray shirkii Wasaaradaha Maaliyadda oo is beddel lagu soo bandhigay Wasaaradda Maaliyadda ee Xukuumadda Federaalka Soomaaliya, Wasaaradaha Maaliyadda ee Dowlad-gobolleedyada dalka iyo gobolka Banaadir oo labo maalin uu shir uga socday Muqdisho ayaa la soo gabagabeeyay, iyadoo laga soo saaray warmurtiyeed. Shirkan oo bile ah ayaa markan lagu soo bandhigay is beddelo cusub, oo ay ugu horreeyo nidaamka canshuuraha oo wax laga beddelayo, hab-qabsiga dhaqaalaha oo wax laga beddelayo iyo canshuur dheerad ah oo la saarayo Qaadka.

DF Soomaaliya oo markale ciidamo badan geysay gobolka Gedo Wararka naga soo gaaraya Gedo ayaa sheegaya in saacadihii la soo dhaafay dowladda Soomaaliya ay ciidamo badan geysay gobolkaasi. Ciidamadan oo diyaarad looga qaaday magaalada Muqdisho ayaa waxaa laga dajiyey degmada Doolow ee gobolka Gedo. Sidoo kale askartan ayaa ku biireysa ciidamo isugu jira boolis iyo militeri oo horay u joogay magaaladaasi, degmooyin kale oo ka tirsan gobolka Gedo. Wararka ayaa sidoo kale intaasi ku daraya in dhaq-dhaqaaqyo xoogan haatan laga dareemayo Doolow iyo deegaanada hoos yimaada, kuwaas oo ay wadaann ciidamadaan ciidanka Gorgor, kuwa Haramcad iyo milatariga Soomaaliya ee ku sugan halkaasi. Dhinaca kale taliyaha xasilinta gobolka Gedo, Bakaal Kooke oo la hadlay warbaahinta ayaa sheegay in u jeedka dhaq-dhaqaaqyadaasi uu yahay, sidii Al-Shabaab looga saari lahaa deegaanadaas oo ay ku xoogan yihiin dagaalyahanadooda. Arrimahan ayaa ku soo aadaya, iyada horey beesha caalamka ay uga digtay ciidamada ay dowladda ku daad-gurineyso gobolka Gedo oo ay horey ugula dagaalameen ciidamada Jubbaland, walow ay dhowaan Dhuusamareeb heshiis ku gaareen Madaxweynaha Soomaaliya iyo Axmed Madoobe. Si kastaba ha’ahaatee dhaq-dhaqaaqyada dowladda ee Gedo ayaa waxaa ka dhashay xiisado hor leh iyo dagaal dhex-maray ciidamada Jubbaland iyo kuwa dowladda.

Ilhaan's daughter is going to somewhere on someday as well:

Islaanta Oromada sidee Afsoomaaliga ugu duceysay Ilhaan ayaa ka helay. Daqiiqada markee tahay 4:43 ayee soo muuqaneysaa.

How Istanbul won back its crown as heart of the Muslim world A ruined yalı, or Bosphorus mansion, is still standing on the shore of the largest island of the Istanbul archipelago. The roof is long gone and the once manicured gardens have colonised its insides, but in better days it was the magnificent homeof Leon Trotsky, who fled to Constantinople after his exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. Trotsky arrived during the turbulent birth of modern Turkey. While the new republic sought to rid itself of Armenians, Greeks and other “undesirable” populations, at the same time Istanbul was opening its arms to White Russians, disillusioned Bolsheviks and African American jazz musicians. Later in the 20th century, intellectuals and dissidents from Germany and the Balkans would add to the diversity of a city that has always stood at the world’s crossroads. A similar dynamic is playing out in Turkey today. On the one hand, domestic opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government is met with disproportionate force, and journalists, human rights activists and Kurdish politicians languish in prison on terrorism charges. Yet on the other, Istanbul has become a beacon of safety for persecuted people across the Muslim world. Here, Uighur refugees practise their faith freely; young Saudis and Iranians dance the night away; and Arab activists displaced by the Arab Spring still raise their voices against the regimes they fled at home. “Turkey is increasingly looking eastward, away from its Nato partners, to its old sphere of influence during the Ottoman Empire,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center. “Its cultural influence can be seen all over the Middle East today: there are new Arabic translations of Turkish poets, and novels about the city coming out in Arabic. Over the last two decades we’ve seen a strong cultural bridge form.” While the Arab world used to centre around the cultural output of Cairo in the 1950s and Beirut in the 1970s, today most look to Istanbul’s screen stars. When Ramadan begins on Thursday, people across the Middle East are looking forward to a month of reruns of beloved Turkish television shows – dramatic tales of sultans and harem girls and soapy modern love stories. The old political fervour of Cairo and Beirut has relocated to Istanbul, too. The city of 17 million people is now home to an estimated 2 million Arabs, who have opened coffee shops, book stores, theatre and media companies, and joined the staff of universities. Thanks to Turkey’s generous visa system and location as a transport hub, it is easier for families scattered across the world to meet in Istanbul than elsewhere. The Arab Media Association of Istanbul numbers 850 journalists, including Yemeni Nobelpeace prize winner Tawakkol Karman and Egyptian Ayman Nour, a former politician who fled after the 2013 coup that bought President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to power. Both now run opposition television stations. “Istanbul revitalised the Arab Spring in a way no other place could,” said Labib al-Nahhas, a senior member of the Syrian political opposition. “The city has provided Arabs and Muslims the opportunity to meet face to face and freely share their experiences, hopes and visions.” Welcoming Muslim exiles – in particular those with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood – is a high priority for Erdoğan’s government, which likes to showcase its particular flavour of political Islam. “Istanbul is certainly now the Muslim Brotherhood hub, but there are also so many other Arab political streams present in the city,” said Hage Ali. “In fact, the exposure to other types of thinking and the experience of a cosmopolitan city means people sometimes end up leaving the Brotherhood and becoming more liberal.” Istanbul’s beauty and the city’s palpable sense of history have long inspired writers across the Islamic world. For Yasmine Seale, a French-Syrian writer and translator, there is no better place: “Seeing the Bosphorus every day. Hearing Arabic. The persistence of small trades and slow crafts. The generosity and humanity of neighbourhood life. Anglosphere literary scenes seem self-absorbed at this remove,” she said. “It’s good to let the world in.” Yet adapting to Turkish life can pose challenges: foreigners often find the fiercely patriotic national identity inaccessible, and racism against Arabs is widespread. Many people in Istanbul’s diaspora population prefer to see themselves as exiles, rather than immigrants. Ahmed Hassan, a cinematographer who worked on The Square, an acclaimed documentary about Egypt’s 2011 revolution, moved to Istanbul from Cairo two years ago, but has found the racism and barriers to journalistic work hard to deal with. “I think of Istanbul like a beautiful watermelon,” he said. “It’s lovely and green, and on the inside a beautiful dark red. But when you bite, it has no taste. I’m still waiting to taste the sugar.” Turkey’s internal instability and financial woes, as well as the murders of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and Iranian dissident Masoud Molavi Vardanjani last year, are also reminders for diaspora populations that Istanbul is not always as safe as it seems. In a unique example of Istanbullu juxtaposition, across the water from the ruins of Trotsky’s mansion on Büyükada, Abdullah Öcalan, one of the founders of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), is serving life as the only prisoner on İmralı island. Seen as a terrorist by Turkey, the UK and other western nations, he is still championed by many as a revolutionary. “Istanbul’s cultural and political melting pot is a novel experiment, and while Turkish cultural influence is a good thing for the Turkish state, they only have so much control over it,” said Hage Ali. “We will have to wait and see the impact the ‘Istanbul effect’ will have on the region.” Xigasho

Sockpuppet, always wanting my little attention. Always following me around. I have none for the sewage dwellers and boosaneero vermin. None. Always cagta hoosteeda ku taagan.

What the heck is this? All these maryooleey vying for a single council seat. I am glad a fellow Soomaali won. Imagine if they all lost - and a non-Soomaali won - as a result of Soomaali votes being divided.

Zero positive result out of 184 people tested. Not bad at all. __________________ 10 Aug 2020: WARBIXINTA BAARITAANADII U DAMBEEYAY EE COVID-19 > Tirada la baaray ee ugu dambeysay: 184 qof > Laga Helay: 0 ---------------------------- > Tirada Guud Laga Helay: 3,227 > Bogsashada Guud: 1,728 > Dhimashada Guud: 93 Kala soco wixii faah-faahin dheeraad ah: Website: www.moh.gov.so Dashboard: www.moh.gov.so/en/covid19 Whatsapp: bit.ly/MoHSomalia

Soon Korneel Caarre might unretire from his mansion in Turkiga. Waa inuu Xamar iska xaadariyaa, Mudane Mahdi Maxamed Guuleed darajooyinka waa qeybinooyaa.