somalia stuff

[sway2sway]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/world/africa/25somalia.html?pagewanted=2&hp

This is an interesting article about the transitional govt and the slippery slope in somalia. It's about how, not only are peace efforts thwarted by clan rivalry and warlords, but also just by those that exist because of the chaos. Many of these 'entrepreneurs' arose out of the anarchy and their 'business plans' depend upon the chaos.

check this....ouch
" In some areas, displaced people are forced to pay a “shade tax� to local residents for resting under their trees."
though I suppose that is least of a lot of peoples' worries

also from said article:
In the past month, the resistance has intensified and more than 1,000 people have been killed or wounded as the country has sunk into its deepest crisis since the famine days of the early 1990s.

Most of the victims are civilians, like Amina Abdullahi, who recently fled Mogadishu with two small children holding her hands and a baby tied to her back.

[sway2sway]

"Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia under cover of the Christmas holiday was a blatant aggression that is likely to widen the arc of conflict across the dangerously turbulent Horn of Africa. It also marks the opening of a new front in Washington’s war against Islamic militants and reformers.

Claims by Ethiopia that Somalia, a nation without any real military forces, threatened its border were as fanciful as assertions by Washington and Addis Ababa that the so-called "transitional government" they had installed in the town of Baidoa represented anything more than its own well-paid members.

The US-backed and financed Ethiopian offensive was clearly designed to crush the first stable government strife-torn Somalia has had in 15 years of civil war and anarchy. The new Islamic regime, known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), recently managed to bring law and order to much of southern and central Somalia. In the north, a secessionist group has proclaimed something called independent "Puntland."

The Union of Islamic Courts ended Somalia’s long civil war by crushing local warlords who were being armed and financed by the CIA. The US claims the Islamic Courts is a second Taliban-style movement containing "terrorists" involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa who will turn Somalia into a hotbed of anti-American subversion. The UIC denies these allegations.

More important, under the Bush/Cheney Administration, any movement that has the audacity to call itself "Islamic" immediately becomes a target of American hostility. The embarrassing total defeat of US-backed Somali warlords by the Islamic Courts militia led directly to Washington’s decision to press Ethiopia to invade Somalia.

Ethiopia has one of Africa’s more powerful, well-trained armed forces with over 1,300 tanks and a modern air force that are now increasingly equipped and aided by the United States." -eric margolis

the above was from this articlehttp://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis61.html

and check this article: somalian PM hopes to tempt oil majors back with oil law
http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/publish/Features_34/Somalian_PM_Hopes_to_Tempt_Oil_Majors_Back_with_Oi l_Law.shtml

hmmmm, the plot thickens.
What do you get when you cross Bush and oil?
A boil, hahahaha, that's a pus filled pocket of infection, deep seated, and awfully hard to get rid of.
(yeah I just made that up...crafty)

[sway2sway]

the land of somalia,
hotter than a dragon's tamalia.
if you say the word genitalia,
like this: geniTALLia,
then it too rhymes with somalia.
good golly miss mollyia
this poem sucks like a leechalia.

[the duke]

hmm...i like the boil analogy, exactly how I see it.

It's amazing that anyone who's islamic is anti american...what would happen say, if I said I was islamic, I am in fact a US citizen, does that mean they'd revoke my citizenship and passport?

The US govt. sucks...this year's an election year here (nice rhyme huh?) and it looks like the labour party (non John Howard) is going to win...I think (hope to hell) that people are finally tired of the bullshit we put up with...

We have lots of refugees coming here from the horn, many sudanese, ethiopians and a lot of somalians...their blood is spilling over here though through their experiences at home...gang fights etc etc. It's so sad...

[sway2sway]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7088560.stm

so in somalia about 150,000 are estimated to have left mogadishu in the last few weeks (100, 000 when that article was written)- to escape fighting between ethiopian solidiers and islam militants.

what are the ethiopian soldiers doing there?
"Ethiopian troops are in Somalia supporting Somalia's weak, interim government against the insurgents"

yeah right. from one of those previous articles:

[The US-backed and financed Ethiopian offensive was clearly designed to crush the first stable government strife-torn Somalia has had in 15 years of civil war and anarchy."
The Union of Islamic Courts ended Somalia’s long civil war by crushing local warlords who were being armed and financed by the CIA.
More important, under the Bush/Cheney Administration, any movement that has the audacity to call itself "Islamic" immediately becomes a target of American hostility. The embarrassing total defeat of US-backed Somali warlords by the Islamic Courts militia led directly to Washington’s decision to press Ethiopia to invade Somalia.]

Bush and Cheney are so sneaky, not to mention murderers.
here's one more link, it's kinda long, but insightful, aptly called More Blood for Oil
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Africa/MoreBloodOil_Somalia.html
check this quote, so true of the big fat hypocrites
"It is clear, once again, that in all of this, the character of any regime is secondary to the regime's compliance with the interests of the Bush administration and their economic/strategic priorities. "