The need for speed This article contrasts two very different timeframes in the 'social life' of the plant stimulant miraa--known elsewhere as khat--in Kenya and beyond. One, the heritage and cultural associations around the age of the trees themselves and the other, the impact of the perishability of the product even as demand for it grows on continents halfway around the world, thus the "need for speed". (
Previously) (
Previously)
posted by infini
on Jun 9, 2012 -
6 comments
Take a holiday in Somaliland: journey to the state that isn’t. "
Positioned on the upper haunch of the Somali dog-leg the Republic of Somaliland looks initially unpromising. It is mainly dry and rocky, there are few paved roads, and the population is small and generally dispersed. ... Whilst the economy may be on the up, Somaliland still feels extremely isolated. An employee of a big international NGO who I met in the lobby of my hotel, The Mansoor, looked at me with astonishment when I said I’d come to Hargeisa for fun. 'The biggest danger here,' he said 'is dying of boredom.'"
posted by mykescipark
on May 28, 2012 -
10 comments
The CIA's Secret Sites in Somalia. Jeremy Scahill at
The Nation reports on a CIA facility at Mogadishu's international airport used for a "counterterrorism training program for Somali intelligence agents and operatives," as well as a secret prison "buried in the basement of Somalia's National Security Agency" where "some of the prisoners have been snatched off the streets of Kenya and rendered by plane to Mogadishu."
[more inside]
posted by lullaby
on Jul 14, 2011 -
39 comments
Iftin , a Somali form of
funk, was popular from the early 1970s until the time of the civil war there in 1991. It's just one of many examples of little-known (outside of Africa) African popular music found preserved at
Likembe. Found while falling down the world music blog rabbit hole
here, after stumbling on a rock
here.
[more inside]
posted by Burhanistan
on Jan 2, 2011 -
8 comments
Are today’s ‘Barbary Pirates’ (i.e., Somalis engaging in high seas piracy) able accurately to be so-labeled? Not according to The New York Times East Africa bureau chief, Jeffrey Gettleman, and for several good reasons,
presented in the current NYRB.
[more inside]
posted by JL Sadstone
on Oct 8, 2010 -
6 comments
In 2010,
Obama will have a miserable year,
NATO may lose in Afghanistan,
the UK gets a regime change,
China needs to chill,
India's factories will overtake its farms,
Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum,
the stimulus will need an exit strategy,
the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2",
African football will
unite Korea,
conflict over natural resources will grow,
Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled,
the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable),
technology will grow ever more ubiquitous,
we'll all charge our phones via USB,
MBAs will be uncool,
the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and
Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so
the Tens begin.
The Economist: The World in 2010.
[more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Nov 14, 2009 -
60 comments
"Somalia is in the grip of famine and chaos but officials there are
inspecting bras".
"..[T]he extremist ideology assumes that humans are a group of wild beasts that are completely incapable of controlling their instincts". In an editorial in The Independent, Alaa Al-Aswany discusses fundamentalist gender bias.
posted by gallois
on Oct 29, 2009 -
51 comments
Two Current correspondents are the first American journalists to venture into Mogadishu, Somalia after the infamous 1993 incident when two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters were shot down by Somali militia. They film one of city street gun markets to show how easy it is to
buy an AK-47, a machine gun or even RPG launcher. Their full-length video report
Mogadishu Madness reveals the country under the self-proclaimed government of the Islamic Court Union, which was later overthrown with the help of the United Sates.
posted by Surfin' Bird
on Jun 26, 2008 -
33 comments
Ethiopia Hits Somali Targets, Declaring War (
The New York Times). the Ethiopian government has declared war on Somalia's ruling Islamic Courts Union. The Islamic Courts Union, which had gained control over much of Somalia, had been engaged in a civil war against the Ethiopian backed Transitional Federal Government. Back in October of 2006 the
BBC reported that the Islamic Courts Union had declared a 'holy war' against Ethiopia due to their support of the Transitional Federal Government. What many may not be aware of is that Ethiopia is a recipient of
American economic and military aid. More links from
The New York Times on the lead up of events:
12/22,
12/23,
12/24.
posted by j-urb
on Dec 25, 2006 -
42 comments
Black Hawk Down Revisited : (newsfilter) giving cladstine support to the warlords, The American Operation is in breach of the United Nations’ arms embargo on Somalia and therefore in breach of international law. The islamists are
claiming victory in Mogadishu. Meanwhile the Somali "leader"
sacks Ministers. While the people .... well what do they matter
anyway. There's always
more from Somali News.
posted by adamvasco
on Jun 5, 2006 -
14 comments
For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.
Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid for a Foolish War Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at the Hebrew University, is author of "Transformation of War" (Free Press, 1991). He is the only non-American author on the U.S. Army's required reading list for officers.
An interview with Martin Van Creveld. See also
Nowhere To Run
posted by y2karl
on Nov 29, 2005 -
73 comments
"Why did you bring a white man here?" one of them demands from Duguf, my interpreter. While I continue to videotape, Duguf taps me on the shoulder and nods toward the truck. We make haste just as fingers begin to point and voices grow louder and angrier. Kevin Sites, previously discussed
here,
here, and
here, submits his first report for Yahoo.
posted by billysumday
on Sep 26, 2005 -
3 comments
Coming to America! Rejected by several countries, this relatively small tribe that has been living in slavery and in violent refugee camps is coming to the US.
NY Times reg. req.
posted by Plunge
on Mar 10, 2003 -
43 comments
Somalis cheer at bootleg "Blackhawk down" screening Somali citizens paid the equivalent of US $.10 to see a bootleg copy of the movie in a playground in downtown Mogadishu on Monday. The audience cheered at scenes where American troops were killed and American choppers were shot down. Somalia may be the next target in the 'War on Terrorism'.
"As you can see, Somalis are brave fighters," one man said. "If the Americans come back to fight us, we shall defeat them again."
posted by SpecialK
on Jan 22, 2002 -
51 comments
There is growing evidence that
Somalia may be the next target in the "war on terrorism". Let's hope that the military doesn't repeat the same mistakes it made in
the last intervention in Somalia chronicled in the book Black Hawk Down. All of this is great news for the upcoming movie based on said book. And you can't buy marketing like that.
Or can you?
posted by euphorb
on Dec 21, 2001 -
15 comments
