Nonpirates, Pirates and... Oh, what is this?

Big Picture has another post of Somalia photos, this time showing activities in Mogadishu. There are some really amazing - and some very heartbreaking - shots in there, including a particularly remarkable portrait of a Somali policeman (#16). Roughly half the images are of young men and younger men holding guns, and only some of them are government soldiers. Where are all these guns coming from? I honestly don't know. Anyone feel free to jump in on that one (and please cite your source if you do, if you can).

A commenter on a previous post asked why some Somalis are becoming pirates. I'd suppose there's no one answer. According to this article, many are fishermen who are losing job opportunities due to illegal fishing and toxic waste dumping. Other than that, it's a way to make big money, quick, during a time when life everywhere is dangerous and employment opportunities are wanting. Just another illegal business.

I checked out said commenter's site (she has many blogspots, actually, but only one seems to be a blog; the rest are something like product placements), and there's a Malaysian site called "Ya Aba 'Abdillah," with the address hezbollah-asia.blogpsot, which is, uh... interesting... and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm a bit concerned, honestly. There's a content warning when you click on it, which gave me pause, but I went ahead and there are a lot of videos that I have not watched, some Malay posts and some English posts. Google can't translate Malay for me, and I can't find a decent translation site, so I don't really know what's going on in those posts, though overall it appears to be a Shi'a site, judging from the references to Imam Hussein and Fatima Zahra.

It's things like this that bring home the fact that anything you put on the internet is thereafter spat out to the world, and there's no telling who may stumble upon you, or whom you may stumble upon.

It's things like this that also make you wonder whether or not the government is watching you...

Militant Boy Scouts of America

Well, this is the most disturbing thing I’ve read in a long time. Apparently some branches of the Boy Scouts of America are turning their co-ed Explorers program into a paramilitary training program:

Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More

That picture makes my stomach turn. Literally.

The article opens with a description of kids – boys and girls as young as 14-years-old – acting out a Border Patrol scenario involving guns, poisonous gas, gas masks, tripwire, and simulated death. It’s one of many training events used to teach the children “skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence.” In the event described above, the kids were pretending to storm a marijuana field. One of the “skills” being taught here is that putting a man on his face and putting a knee in his back will guarantee that he’ll shut up.

Did you notice the part up there about guns? Yeah. Pellet guns. 16-year-old Cathy likes guns: “I like shooting them. I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

I am afraid if Cathy.

According to Imperial County sheriff’s deputy A. J. Lowenthal, this is all supposedly “about being a true-blooded American guy and girl… [fitting] right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

You’ve got to be kidding me. They aren’t teaching these kids good citizenry, they’re teaching them how to fight violence with violence. Brave, honorable, true-blooded Americans? Teenagers are supposed to be concerned with grades, body image, peer pressure, and ripening sexuality. Not learning how to shoot people.

The Explorers program has support from the Border Patrol, the Homeland Security Department, and the FBI, who see participants in the program as future employees. According to senior Border Patrol agent April McKee, “Our end goal is to create more agents.”

Fabulous. America is so desperate for soldiers and agents that the Boy Scouts are encouraged to start training kids as young as 13 (although the youngest they’re supposed to be is 14, but there’s wiggle room there) how to board hijacked buses, storm marijuana fields, and recognize terrorists by their traditional Arab clothing. I guess it’s never too early to learn Xenophobic jingoism.

And I’m going to assume that these youngsters are still mandated to be God-fearing heterosexuals to earn the privilege of taking part in this circus.

The comments on this article are encouraging. Several former Scouts are speaking out against the program and most if not all (I’m not about to read all 400+ comments to find out) show a degree of disgust comparable to my own. Hopefully this means that any push to make these sorts of activities Boy Scout standard won’t go over without protest.


P.S. In the described Border Patrol scenario, the gunman – the bad guy – is depicted as “a disgruntled Iraq war veteran.” Way to honor our veterans, guys. Have them cast as shell-shocked homicidal lunatics in your little war fantasy for kids.

::EDIT::
Gracious, there are even more disturbing photos than the one posted above. Here's the series. It's disgusting that they're training children how to do these things.

Bin Laden is *sooo* last decade...

Even Somalia doesn't want the bastard.

Seems Osama bin Laden has an opinion about Somalia's new President (take a number, dude). In response to his video address calling for President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed to be toppled, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, one of Somalia's hardline Islamist leaders, says:

"Somalia knows [its] future and who can involve, but it is not something for Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda either,"

and Information Minister Farahan Ali Mohamoud says:

"We know that bin Laden has his own problems in the mountainous area of Tora Bora where he is hiding, so he has no place making such statements at a time when Somalia is keen to emerge from 21 years violence."

Ow. Look who's not cool anymore.

The faces of modern piracy

Big kudos to the Big Picture at boston.com.

I imagine this true for at least a few...

Wudu.

HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence

Though it is still a stigma.

Here's a brief diary entry by an HIV-positive orphan from Lesotho who acquired the virus from her mother, who died when she was young. She now lives with her grandmother and two older brothers.

In this diary she writes about how her brothers make fun of her and how she's isolated herself from the many friends she used to have because she's worried they'd judge her if they knew she has the virus. As heartbreaking as that is, the diary is actually quite positive in that she is determined to take her medication, no matter the stigma attached to it (or the 2-4 hour journey to the clinic), because she knows it makes her better. She's also making new friends at the clinic where she gets her medication.

Here's the kicker:

I am also happy knowing that my whole story will be told to the world, because HIV is not a secret any more.

It's important to talk about it because I have accepted it, and I am used to it.

When I grow up, I want to be a nurse and help people get well, like I have been helped to get well. [my emphasis]

When she grows up. It makes me smile to see such ambition.

And the U.S. will freak out on the count of three: 1... 2...

“Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous satellite into orbit... With God’s help and the desire for justice and peace, the official presence of the Islamic Republic was registered in space.”
--- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran

Its name is Omid, which means hope.

Dammit!

Stop! Just... stoppit already!

Al Shabaab Declare War on New President
Islamist militants who spearheaded a bloody insurgency in Somalia have declared war on the Horn of Africa country's new president, even as a global council of Islamic scholars issued a document supporting him, Radio Garowe reports.

Sheikh Hassan Yakub, spokesman for the Al Shabaab rulers in the port of Kismayo, 500km south of the capital Mogadishu, said the war will continue until Islamic law is restored across Somalia...

"Sheikh Sharif declared jihad in 2006 and now he chose America over Islam," Sheikh Yakub said.

Dudes (loose translation of shabaab شباب, there), he's barely even in office. Put your complexes on hold for a moment and give this man - a fellow Muslim, and your former leader - a chance.

A global council of Islamic scholars, chaired by Sheikh Yusuf Al Qardawi, has called on Al Shabaab and the Eritrea-based Islamist hardliners led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys to support President Sheikh Sharif's new government.

"The Islamist groups are expected to work with Sheikh Sharif and to help restore security in Somalia," read a document issued by the Islamic clerics. [my emphasis]

Yeah, like they said.