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Re-Integrating Somaliland & Somalia In The Community Of Nations
The problems bedeviling Somalia, and therefore indirectly bedeviling Somaliland, can be summarized as those particular to 'failed states'. A 'failed state' is essentially a country in which state authority has collapsed and which has, therefore, imploded into a state of anarchy characterized by fewer or greater numbers of warring factions each of whom is trying to either maintain its grip over a given swathe of territory or impose its authority over the others. Yugoslavia is the European example of a 'failed state' while Africa has produced the largest number of such states including Liberia, Ivory Coast, DRC and, of course, the granddaddy of all 'failed states', Somalia – the subject of this paper. Before proposing how Somalia could be transformed from this 'failed' status to functioning status, it is perhaps useful to provide a brief context by addressing two distinct, but inter-related, issues. Firstly, the question of re-uniting Somaliland with Somalia – is the secession of Somaliland irrevocable and permanent or is there some modus operandi by which the pre-1991 Somali Democratic Republic can be re-established? Secondly, how can the state in Somalia be re-established and extended throughout the country, i.e. how can political consent in Somalia be re-established?
Union between Somaliland and Somalia
This is an extremely important issue, since the question of whether Somaliland will ever re-unite with Somalia (which is as inevitable for a non-Somali to ask as it is equally inevitable for the Somalilander to resent) nearly always frames any discussion of Somaliland and its future between Somalilanders and foreigners in a bizarre and Kafkaesque discourse whereby the two interlocutors approach the issue from such diametrically opposed perspectives which renders rational discussion well nigh impossible. The deep antipathy that Somalilanders have to the prospect of unity with the south stems from a visceral rejection of the Somali Republic which was created in 1960, in large part by their efforts, and the principle of Greater Somalia upon which it was built. Many analysts and commentators, including many Somalilanders, posit that Somalilanders' adamant unwillingness to countenance union with Somalia is based upon their collective experience of a calculated and carefully executed savagery employed by a state (using all the apparatus available to it) against an ethnically defined section of its own public.
Certainly, the vile record of the Siyad regime with respect to the wholesale murder of its own people (either from the air as when Siyad's fighter planes piloted by South African and Rhodesian mercenaries bombed Hargeisa; or from closer up as evidenced by the mass graves containing remains of men, women and children manacled or bound together and summarily executed with a bullet to the back of the head) now a matter of public record, even if the full story of its genocidal campaign against a specific group of its own citizens has yet to be told. However, these horrific acts by themselves do not account for the deep antipathy that the overwhelming majority of Somalilanders have for re-uniting with Somalia. The simple truth is that the irredentist dream of Greater Somalia had lost its luster in the eyes of the people of Somaliland by the time the Siyad regime seized power in October 1969. The loss of the 1977/78 war with Ethiopia and the resultant genocidal campaign of the Siyad regime to ethnically cleanse the Isaaq from their own lands in order to repopulate them with his own Darod kinsmen was but the final, if brutally grotesque, nail in the coffin of the dream of Greater Somalia.
It is important to remember that Somaliland willingly and voluntarily surrendered its sovereignty in 1960 without preconditions in the cause of Greater Somalia. In the two wars with Ethiopia over the Haud & Reserved Area (Ogaden) in 1964 & 1977/78, the north suffered disproportionately in terms of casualties (both military & civilian) as well as in terms of property and infrastructure damage. The south was never bombed by the Ethiopian air force, and the majority of the property and assets (primarily vehicles and livestock) destroyed during these enmities were northern-owned. In addition, during these wars, the public in the north was seized with a nationalistic fervor that overtook rational thought, young men volunteered to fight, older men donated whatever they could and women pawned their gold & jewellery for the war effort. In contrast, during both wars, life went on pretty much as normal in the south and there were not the scenes of mass nationalist fervor that were witnessed in Hargeisa, Burao, Borama and Berbera. It is fair to say that the popular passion for Greater Somalia was much hotter in the ex-Protectorate (i.e. Somaliland) than in the ex-Trust Territory (i.e. Somalia). This could be explained, at least partly, by the experience that the south had of some limited, self-government for ten years prior to independence, whereas the elixir of self rule was new to the north. However, it could equally be that northerners are more nationalistic, or more easily roused by nationalist sentiments, than southerners.
In the context of possible re-union of Somaliland and Somalia, it is also important to note that during the 31 years of union no infrastructure was constructed in the north, i.e. no roads, schools, hospitals, telecommunication facilities, with the exception of the Burao-Mogadishu road (which was built during Egal's premiership). No industrial projects were built in the north during this time, with the exception of the cement factory in Berbera, which had to be sited there since the raw materials for the factory were contiguous thereto. By comparison, all the development efforts were concentrated in the south, whether they comprised construction of roads, schools, hospitals etc., or industrial projects, e.g. the cotton mills, the sugar refinery in Jowhar, the oil refinery, the flour mill, the pasta factory all in Mogadishu etc. While this southern bias in government expenditure also prevailed during the civilian era, the quantum of such expenditures was modest by comparison with the Siyad era, when the bias became more marked and overt.
This history of marginalization was compounded by the genocidal policy of Siyad aimed at evicting the indigenous population of Somaliland in order to give the land to his maternal kinsmen as an apologia for his disastrous war with Ethiopia in 1977/78. Thus, the very people for whose liberation Somalilanders had sacrificed their independence in 1960, not to mention their property and their very lives in 1964 and 1977/78, became their colonial masters, indeed the instruments for their very eradication, some 28 years later. So much for irredentism and dreams of Greater Somalia! Every Somalilander will tell you that this is one road he or she will not venture down again and a dream born of a, perhaps naïve, nationalist idealism today lies buried in the mass graves of inter-Somali genocide.
With the death of the dream of Greater Somalia, died the raison d'etre of the union of Somaliland and Somalia. In the absence of the unifying, nationalist impulse for Greater Somalia, the other possible unifying forces of language, culture, ethnicity and religion have been trumped by the harrowing experience of oppression and genocide. Somalilanders do not envisage a future of enmity with their southern kinsmen, the 'open-door' policy of the country to the desperate refugees from the south who have fled, and continue to flee, north from the anarchy of Somalia is an eloquent testament to that. Neither do they countenance a future wherein there is little or no commercial and 'people-to-people' contact between the two Somali nations. Rather, they hope for a relationship characterized by fraternity, mutual respect & goodwill, free trade and good neighborliness. What is inconceivable to Somaliland and its people is to once again cede one iota of their sovereignty and right to self determination to anyone or any state other than Somaliland, no matter how it might be constituted.
Some commentators have talked about a loose federal structure uniting the north and south at some time in the future, while others have pointed to the United Arab Emirates (where real political power lies with each emirate and federal decisions are reached by unanimity) as a possible future model. Such extrapolations ignore a fundamental and basic element of self determination and statehood, namely political consent. The citizens of a state must consent to be citizens of that state and they must consent to the political structures of such state. Anything short of such consent amounts to coercion and negates the legitimacy of the state. The simple fact is that the people of Somaliland will not countenance any arrangement that does not recognize their independence and their right to self determination as a sovereign nation. They voted for this independence in 1992 when they ratified the 'independence' constitution by a margin of 97% in favor.
Thus, to return to the disjointed discourse between the foreigner and Somalilander referred to at the beginning of this topic, the international community must understand that the question of union (or any other bilateral arrangement) between Somaliland and Somalia, is moot as far as Somaliland is concerned until their independence and statehood are acknowledged and recognized. Efforts to push Somaliland into considering any such arrangements with the Somalia, in the absence of the said recognition of their statehood and sovereignty, have only resulted in strengthening their determination to maintain their independence. The UN, the EU, the AU and the Arab League, have all discovered this simple truth during the last eleven years of Somaliland's re-birth. The EU has now accepted that Somaliland will not be coerced into a union with Somaliland and that 'punishing' it for this refusal by denying aid and resettlement relief speaks more about the callous inhumanity of Brussels bureaucrats than it does about Somaliland's supposed 'obstinacy'. To their shame, the UN, AU and the Arab League blindly continue with that discredited, dead-end policy.
Destruction of the State in Somalia
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Siyad Barre dictatorship, the international community has attempted to restore the state in Somalia in a variety of ways. The US-lead 'Operation Restore Hope' in 1991 turned into an attempt at nation-building which degenerated into a war between the US and the biggest warlord in the country. The experience proved disastrous for both protagonists with the US losing 18 soldiers of their crack Delta Force and beating a hasty retreat from Somalia, while Aideed's opponents were emboldened by the drubbing he took from the Americans to pose an effective challenge to him for the first time. While this was the most high profile episode in Somalia's sorry history over the last eleven years, particularly in the international media, it is actually symptomatic of the lack of understanding of the legacy of the Siyad dictatorship in Somali politics, that continues to lead to miscalculations on the part of the international community in its attempts to effectively address the problem of reconstituting the state in Somalia.
The post-independence political setup in the ex-Trust Territory was marked by the dominance of the Majerteyn clan of the Darod tribe. The Siyad era entrenched Darod dominance while replacing the Majerteyn this with the ascendancy of his own Marehan sub-clan, the Dulbahante of Somaliland and the Ogaden. In fact, the power of the Majerteyn waned considerably after 1975 when a group of Majerteyn officers tried to overthrow Siyad in a failed coup and he responded by ordering a punitive campaign against the Majerteyn that was characterized by his usual ferocity. The coup plotters escaped to Kenya and formed an anti-Siyad guerrilla force under Col. Abdillahi Yusuf (the present President of Federal Transitional Government concocted in Embagathi, Kenya). One of the ironies of modern Somali history is that the first clan to take up arms against Siyad Barre and create a guerrilla force to fight him (the Somali Salvation Front – the SSDF) were his own Darod kinsmen, the Majerteyn.
During the last several years of the war in Somaliland, when it was becoming increasingly apparent that the regime would not be able to withstand the SNM and that war in the north was being lost, Siyad unleashed his exclusively Marehan Presidential Guard and the also exclusively Marehan crack commando unit commanded by his son Maslah upon the Hawiyeh population of Mogadishu and its environs. His aim was to subdue and cow the Hawiyeh so that they would not be emboldened by the success of the SNM in the north and open another front against him in the south. Thus during 1989 and 1990 Mogadishu and the surrounding area was subjected to a regime of state-sponsored ethnic savagery that would make Milosevic's actions in Bosnia and Kosovo seem tame and docile by comparison. Summary executions, mass killings & rape, collective punishment and ethnic cleansing of entire districts were the order of the day. However, true to the dictum that brutal dictatorships sow the seeds of their own destruction, the campaign that was supposed to subdue and cow the Hawiyeh succeeded in radicalizing them and rousing them to arms.
The Hawiyeh who had remained peaceful up until that time, if resentful of the previous excesses of the Darod regime, decided that enough was enough. Mohammed Farah Aideed, who had tried to convince the SNM leadership to open a southern front in their war against Siyad and had been rebuffed with the terse rejoinder to find Hawiyeh fighters to liberate Hawiyeh land, suddenly found his kinsmen ready to fight. The general without an army at last had an army and Siyad's game was up. By the time his army returned from the north in disarray and defeat, Siyad found himself with an even more formidable enemy on his doorstep in the person of Aideed. Aideed's guerrilla army was being swelled by the day by embittered Hawiyeh soldiers who had returned from the defeat in the north only to find their clansmen and women tortured, raped and killed by the very regime they were fighting for. Aideed was a more formidable enemy for Siyad than the SNM, because (unlike the SNM) he did not want to 'merely' expel him from a territory, he wanted to publicly humiliate and execute him.
In January 1991 Siyad threw in the towel and escaped from Mogadishu in a tank with a large entourage comprising the Presidential Guard, family members and assorted kinsmen & women. Aideed, determined that Siyad should not escape, set off in hot pursuit and he radioed ahead to Col. Omar Jess, an Ogaden commander who controlled Kismayo and who was anti-Siyad and therefore a nominal ally to detain him and not let him pass Kismayo and proceed to Kenya. In the event, blood trumped politics and Jess let Siyad proceed on to Kenya and make good his escape from certain death at Aideed's hands. The Hawiyeh were at that time united under the umbrella of the United Somali Congress (USC) of which Aideed was Chairman. While Aideed was engaged in the pursuit of Siyad and in mopping up the remaining elements of his armed supporters, the USC held an emergency convention and elected Ali Mahdi Mohammed as President of Somalia. Ali Mahdi was a wealthy hotelier and businessman who was one of the main financial backers of the USC. He was a Hawiyeh, but from the Abgal sub-clan while Aideed was from the Habr Gedr sub-clan. Aideed returned to Mogadishu in a rage and declared the convention and its election of Ali Mahdi null & void. At this time, Aideed commanded the Hawiyeh militia which included all the Hawiyeh sub-clans, although most of the fighters were Habr Gedr.
The tense stand-off between the two men continued for some months, while the elders tried to mediate between them. A compromise was impossible since Mahdi insisted that he was the President duly elected by the USC convention and Aideed refused to recognise him as such claiming that the convention itself was ultra vires since, as Chairman, he neither called it nor was informed about it. The dispute became an inter-clan one in the absence of successful mediation and Ali Mahdi quietly began assembling an Abgal militia. Aideed responded by kicking Mahdi and his supporters out of Mogadishu and declaring himself President, thus there were two Hawiyeh, USC 'Presidents' of Somalia. In the meantime, with the strongest fighting force thus divided and turned in upon itself, many aspiring local militia commanders carved out their own territories which they controlled and over which they levied taxes on all traffic and commerce. Thus, was Somalia torn into a multitude of greater and smaller fiefdoms each controlled by a greater or lesser warlord who collected tithes from his sub-warlord lieutenants or paid same to his liege respectively, and this situation largely persists to this day. The fury of the Hawiyeh against their erstwhile Darod masters overlay this mosaic of feudal anarchy and the ferocity of the Hawiyeh vengeance against the Darod, matched in full the savagery which the Darod had visited upon them so recently. It was into this heady brew of intrigue, anarchy and inter-clan & inter-tribe vengeance that the US-lead forces of Operation Restore Hope ventured in blissful ignorance.
The Darod (particularly the Marehan), realising that they would have a very bad time of it against a united Hawiyeh assault and seeing in the Abgal-Habr Gedr rift an opportunity, adopted a strategy of 'divide and survive'. Thus, they sided with the Abgal who were much less well armed than the Habr Gedr, while in Ali Mahdi they found a man they could deal with, compared with Aideed's implacable hatred of the Siyad regime and anyone associated with. The other Hawiyah clans divided up among the two camps as geography and political expediency dictated. Thus, was the pattern of warlord domination established characterised by constantly shifting alliances as the tide of battle among the warring factions ebbed and flowed. This pattern persists to this day. At this point, it is necessary to turn the focus away from the Somali protagonists briefly to outline a hugely important ingredient to this explosive mix which has not been brought out into the open thus far except. This is the role that the UN, wittingly or unwittingly, played in the immiseration of Somalia.
The Role of the UN – UNOSOM – The Warlords' Paymaster
Discussion of the effects UNOSOM's actions in Somalia must be prefaced with a simple statement of fact which provides a useful reference point for the subsequent discussion. In 1990, according to World Bank figures, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Somalia amounted to UD$ 920 million (US$ 600 million in 1980), while UNOSOM I spent a total of US$ 1,500 million. This comparison provides a stark illustration of the huge financial inflow into Somalia which was occasioned by UNOSOM's entry into the country. A large proportion of this inflow of funds went directly into the coffers of the very warlords that UNOSOM was charged with neutralising in order to re-establish a viable government. It was a source of great frustration to ordinary Somalis that UNOSOM funds were financing the weapons purchases and murderous actions of the warlords that UNOSOM was supposed to be removing from the political scene. Indeed, if the effects of this surreal situation were not so disastrous, it would be a source of great satire.
Successive Security Council Missions to Somalia during UNOSOM's existence bemoaned its passive and appeasing attitude to the warlords, yet the Council continued to renew its mandate and allocate funds for its activities. The complete mismanagement of the operation is exemplified by the incredible theft of some US$ 4 million in cash from its offices in Mogadishu. At this time, in view of the perilous security situation in Mogadishu, the foreign staff of the UNOSOM office in Mogadishu were housed in Nairobi in neighbouring Kenya and flown in each morning and out again each evening. It was during this period of 'air commuting' the staff each day in and out of Mogadishu, that a safe containing the said US$ 4 million was left overnight in the Mogadishu office which was broken into and the safe taken. This explanation beggars the imagination, since the greenest neophyte could foretell the result of such crass stupidity or negligence. An independent report on the incident prepared by a retired Scotland Yard police officer on the instructions of the Secretary General has never been published or made public. Among the Somali people, the above story provided by UNOSOM of how the funds came to be stolen and who stole them is widely disbelieved in favour of alternative theories that there was complicity, if not active instigation, of the theft by UNOSOM staffers.
What is incontestable however, is that a relatively huge amount of hard currency entered the Somali economy in a relatively short time as a direct result of UNOSOM's operations. What is equally incontestable is that the vast bulk of this hard currency went into the coffers of the very warlords that UNOSOM was charged with removing from the political scene. The end result of this unintended subvention by the international community to the warlords was to expand their power and further entrench their hold over the people and the country. Whereas before the arrival of UNOSOM the warlords had merely looted aid and emergency convoys in order to sell the looted foodstuffs on the market, they now had access to a renewable supply of hard currency. Warlording became a hard currency- generating business instead of a path to power which required armed robbery in order to raise funds. An example of how the warlords subverted UNOSOM to their own ends (which was related to the writer by an Aideed militiaman who was personally involved in the episode) will illustrate this.
UNOSOM contracted with a supplier for the purchase of some four wheel drive vehicles for delivery to Mogadishu. The vehicles were purchased in Dubai and shipped to Mogadishu port where they were promptly appropriated (stolen) by Aideed's gunmen. The same vehicles were repainted and leased to UNOSOM with drivers/security guard at a rate of US$150/day for the vehicle plus US$ 50/day for the driver & security guard. Thus, UNOSOM paid the supplier the purchase cost of the vehicles (and the supplier most certainly paid a portion of his profit to a warlord as the cost of doing business) and then paid Aideed for lease of their own vehicles which Aideed had acquired at no cost. While foreign aid operations (and particularly UN aid operations) in many Third World countries are viewed as good opportunities for rich pickings by many foreign and local businesses, the UNOSOM mission was characterised by a free wheeling attitude to expenditures that was unheralded. While the sums spent by UNOSOM constitute only a tiny fraction of overall UN expenditure on peacekeeping and famine relief at that time, they nevertheless amounted to veritable fortunes in the Somali context and their appropriation became the newest battleground of the major warlords. It is fair to say that the lasting political impact of UNOSOM on the politics of Somalia was to expand and entrench the power of the warlords. Thus did the good intent of Operation Restore Hope result in bringing the wretched people of Somalia more completely under the heels of the very self-seeking, parasites they were to have been delivered from.
Establishing the Basis for a New State in Somalia
Re-establishment of the state in Somalia must perforce start from the premise that the old rationale underpinning the creation of the Republic is gone forever. Somaliland has taken back its sovereignty, Djibouti is a sovereign state and will not contemplate surrendering its statehood in favour of any notion of Greater Somalia, and the inhabitants of the Haud & Reserved Areas and the NFD are not exactly lining up to partake of Greater Somalia either. Thus, the people of Somalia have to find a new modus operandi (or "heer") for establishing a state and governing themselves. This can only be accomplished through inter-clan and inter-tribe discussions and consultations in the same manner as the inhabitants of Somaliland. The inhabitants of Somalia need to have their own equivalent of the Borama conference that established the Somaliland government, and agree on the type and form of government to be established as well as how it is to be shared between themselves. Bearing in mind that a great deal of inter-clan & intra-clan/tribe bloodshed has taken place over the past 10 years of anarchy, it is going to be an extremely difficult negotiating process to convene such a conference and then steer it to a successful conclusion. A fundamental requirement for the successful convening and conclusion of such a meeting, is the total exclusion of all the warlords. The attendees should be limited to the elders of all the clans and it should be left up to each clan to determine who will represent it, subject to the 'no warlords' caveat.
The warlords have effectively subverted the traditional political structures by marginalising the elders and the clan & tribal councils by imposing their will through force. However, it would be relatively simple to remove them as actors from the political scene once they have been excluded from the conference, as explained below. The former President of Somaliland had indicated that Somaliland would be willing to convene such a conference for the clan elders/representatives of the people of Somalia in Hargeisa, or some other location in Somaliland, if the international community will agree to support such a proposal and fund it. This will, of course, require some form of recognition for Somaliland and its government which need not be full nationhood status, but could take some de facto form that would enable the international community and multilateral & bilateral bodies to deal with the Somaliland government. Such interim recognition, and the assistance that would flow from it, would send a very powerful signal to the people of Somalia that the world will only aid & support those who support themselves first by agreeing to live together in peace. It is important to bear in mind that the ordinary people of Somalia are sick and tired of war and anarchy and desperately yearn for a way out of the nightmare in which they are caught.
There is every indication that the ordinary people of Somalia and their representatives and clan elders would heartily welcome such an initiative and support such a conference in Somaliland. After agreeing upon the type & form of government, and the representation of each grouping within it, the conference would select a Head of Government to form an interim government that would be charged with stabilising the country, disarming the militias and creating a functioning state. The international community would recognise this government, ensure its security after its move to Mogadishu and provide financial support for disarming the militias. Somaliland and other African countries (possibly Ethiopia, South Africa and others) would provide troops to ensure the government's security, train the new police force & national army and provide internal security, much as the US and its allies are now doing in Afghanistan. The international community, particularly the US and the EU, would provide logistical and financial support for the African peace keeping force.
With such a credible military deterrent, the power of the warlords will rapidly dissipate and the government, with the active help of the elders of each clan/tribe, will be able to secure the defection of their militias. In this endeavour adequate funds to finance the re-deployment of these militias into the new national army, police force or back into civilian life will be fundamental to its success. Indeed, it is my prediction that if such a government was created as outlined above with the clear support of and pledge of funds from the international community, most, if not all, of the warlords would quickly pledge their allegiance to it and the few hold-outs would be isolated, thus facilitating their dethronement.
In the context of the current international environment, where the fight against terrorism is the pre-eminent foreign policy objective of the major powers, the existence of countries without a functioning state but with many competing warlords jostling for power, such as Somalia, pose a clear danger. Such countries are tempting targets for international terrorists to infiltrate and use as safe havens and bases from which to mount their operations. The need of the international community to prevent Somalia becoming such a safe haven, the deliverance of the long suffering people of Somalia from the anarchy of the warlords' hegemony, the need of Somalia's neighbours for secure borders and an end to the never-ending ebb & flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees across their borders and the need for the international community to recognise the achievements, legitimate rights and aspirations of the people of Somaliland all militate in favour of a radical, new effort to reconstitute the state in Somalia. We believe that the proposal outlined above presents a realistic process through which this can be achieved. Ten years of efforts by the UN, the AU and the governments of Djibouti & Egypt which were based upon appeasing the warlords (or creating a new one in the form of the Transitional National Government – the TNG of Arta) have succeeded only in inflating their egos and making them more recalcitrant. A new approach is needed and we believe that we have presented one rooted in Somali political culture that has the best chance of success.
The Arta Conference, the TNG and the Failed Machinations of Djibouti
Soon after Ismail Omar Guelle assumed the Presidency of Djibouti, President Egal of Somaliland went to see him and proposed a plan to him for resolving the crisis in Somalia. The proposal was essentially the one outlined above and Egal suggested to Guelle that as the President of the only Somali territory that enjoyed international recognition, his sponsorship of the plan was likely to secure the support of the major powers. If the plan succeeded, then Guelle would have the satisfaction of knowing that he had contributed a landmark achievement in the history of the Somali people which would be to his credit. For his part, Egal pledged that he and Somaliland would assist Guelle in any way they could to achieve this objective. After all, with an effective government in Mogadishu which was recognised by the international community, Somaliland could begin a dialogue with it to regularise its secession and so secure recognition for itself. Thus, assisting Guelle in re-establishing a government in Somalia was in Somaliland's own interest, and Egal pledged to use his good offices as an elder statesman in Somali politics in support of the initiative among the elders and political figures in Somalia.
Guelle accepted Egal's plan and promised to commence work right away. A few months later, Guelle outlined his plan in a keynote speech to the UN General Assembly that was very well received by the international community, particularly the US, EU and the Arab League, who all pledged their support. The plan Guelle presented to the General Assembly was Egal's blueprint (as outlined above), even down to the exclusion and marginalisation of the warlords. Imagine then Egal's shock a few weeks later to receive an invitation from Guelle for his government to attend the Arta Conference as one of the warring factions in Somalia! When Somaliland replied that it was not a faction, but a separate state, Guelle responded that the territorial integrity of the Republic was sacrosanct and that the Arta Conference was going to establish a transitional government for Somalia, including Somaliland which was considered a breakaway region. It quickly became apparent that Guelle had twisted Egal's plan for the establishment of a genuine government in Somalia to meet his own requirement of creating a puppet regime that would be imposed upon the country through coercion, blackmail and, if necessary force.
The participants of the Arta Conference were hand picked by the Djibouti government to ensure that they would endorse whatever government was placed before them, and did not comprise the elders and other genuine representatives of the people of Somalia. Indeed, it is a fact that many participants were paid by the Djibouti government to attend and vote for Abdul Qasim Salat and the TNG, while others were kept in Arta under the 'supervision' of the Djibouti security services until the 'election' of the TNG was completed. The initial euphoria that greeted the TNG's arrival in Mogadishu quickly dissipated as it became clear to the public that it did not have the will, the vision or the popular support to be an effective government. From inception, the TNG was a vehicle for Ittihad – a shadowy organisation that claimed to be a pan-Somali Islamic movement bent on the establishment of an Islamic Republic throughout the country. Ittihad cadres were given several portfolios in the TNG and many of their people were inducted into the 'legislative assembly' created in Arta. It is important to point out that the organisation not only funded the TNG, but was one of the principal sponsors and funders of the Arta conference itself. The movement had secured control of some areas of Somalia and instituted the Sharia legal code in these areas which resulted in a dramatic reduction in crime and lawlessness, which was heartily welcomed by the long suffering population of these areas
However, the movement aroused suspicions among some Somalis since its antecedents were unclear, to say the least and it was well financed, yet claimed that it had no foreign sponsors despite having no credible local source for its funds. Ittihad was present in Somaliland, but it was not a significant political, social or religious force there. The Egal government was suspicious of them and worked to actively limit its growth by aggressively countering their propaganda – indeed Egal personally attacked them and their brand of Islam in several of his speeches. Ittihad was one of the organisations listed by the US government as terrorist in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The initial reaction of the TNG to Ittihad's inclusion in the list of terrorist organisations was to deny it fervently and express their continued confidence in them. Later, the TNG distanced itself from Ittihad and arrested seven Arab refugees (six Iraqi and one Palestinian) living in Mogadishu as terrorist suspects to demonstrate its commitment to fight international terrorism. While it is impossible to state with any certainty whether these men were Al Qaida operatives or not, it seems unlikely given that they had been living openly in Mogadishu, that they had been registered with the UNHCR for 2/3 years and had combined their resources to open a take-away outlet serving Arabic fast food. In any event, this rather laughable action of initially trumpeting Ittihad's innocence bona fides, only to execute an about-face as evidence of its links to Al Qaida was presented, and the subsequent round up of the hapless Arabs only served to further diminish the TNG's already tattered credibility.
The bankruptcy of the TNG and the machinations through which it came into being has now been exposed for all to see. Despite the sustained efforts of the Djibouti government at the AU, the Arab League and the UN, its illegitimate offspring has failed to win the support of the international community. Perhaps the most unedifying spectacle the TNG exposed to the world was the public spat between its Prime Minister and Foreign Minister over the dispensation of the US$ 13 or 17 million donated by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, while the President mutely looked on. These funds were obtained by the then Foreign Minister (who enjoyed close personal ties with the two ruling families), and the Prime Minister was upset that he had neither been made privy to its 'allocation' nor was provided with a portion for his office from the said funds. There have been numerous defections from the TNG's ranks as the funds provided by friendly governments have dried up, while the hoped for aid from the international community has not been forthcoming. In short, the funding gap left by the collapse of Ittihad has never been filled and prospects for the TNG's future look increasingly bleak.
As mentioned in the Introduction, the Somali people are passing through a particularly grim period of their history at this time and occupy a place on the lists of the most wretched people on earth, whatever the yardsticks may be that are used to measure wretchedness. They are responsible for their plight in that the calamities that brought them to this sorry state came to pass while they were a self-governing, independent state and were largely inflicted upon them by themselves. It is all too easy to blame some external factor or factors, such as colonialism or the geo-political rivalry between East and West, for the plight of Somaliland and Somalia, but the hard reality is that, whatever the impact of these external factors (and they did have an impact), the principal responsibility for the catastrophe visited on the people of the Republic lies with Somalis themselves.
Despite this, the international community cannot turn its back upon the Somali people for many reasons, not least of which is shared humanity and occupation of the same earth. Firstly, the exemplary success of Somaliland in achieving stability, democracy and the rule of law against almost insurmountable odds with virtually no assistance from the outside world must be applauded and supported. The people of that country have literally pulled themselves up by their own frayed bootstraps and if this feat of collective bravery and vision does not deserve the support of the world, then what does? Secondly, the ordinary people of Somalia are actually hostages to their own kinsmen who have turned from liberators into vampiric monsters who survive on their degradation and misery. The fate of the two peoples is inextricably bound together and the international community should support the efforts of both peoples to regain their membership in the polity of nations. The readiness of Somaliland to sponsor and facilitate the re-establishment of a viable government in Somalia that enjoys the genuine support of its citizens is not only worthy of support, but indeed mandatory if the world truly wishes to help. It is our fervent hope as Somalis that this be so.
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David Olkarny
David was born December 17, 1987 in Uccle.
On the benches of the school, one ear he listened to the teacher and with one hand he adorned the white sheets of drawings of imaginary characters.
At 10, the love of travel led him to want to become a designer ... Then at age 13, is in the restoration imagined that express creativity. This is the Australian continent where David went to 18-year-old revealed his true passion: cinema. An art that allowed him to move his emotions on a canvas, to understand the space and color and staging his original vision of the world. Degree in cinematography in Inraci in June 2011, David practiced photography for two years intensively and sometimes obsessive.
He particularly likes outdoor portraits. In the studio, the stage is too static for him. Outside, everything is possible and everything is random: the capricious weather, an unexpected figure in the background, the magic of a place discovered by chance.
The adventure film transposed in the photo.
Photos: Share your best photos that show fireworks in a creative and original way!
Limit: 2 entries per participant
Participation: You must own all legal rights to submitted photos
Photo Format: Color, Black And White, RAW and Medium formats are accepted
Copyright: You maintain the rights to all of your submissions
Judging: The contest submissions will be judged based on the subject matter, light, color and overall composition
Vote: From August 18th until August 31st, 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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Chocolate Mint Brownies take a dense and fudge-like brownie and tops it with
a layer of mint flavored cream and a thin layer of dark chocolate. The
combination of different textures and flavors is quite appealing. I first
made these brownies when I wanted something 'green' for St. Patrick's Day.
Now I make Chocolate Mint Brownies all year round, especially during the
Christmas season, as who can resist the pairing of mint and chocolate.
As I said above, this is a dense and fudge-like brownie. It is
the same brownie recipe that I used for the Cream Cheese Brownies. I
really like how easy this batter comes together. It is hand mixed and only one
bowl is needed to complete the task. Once the brownies are baked and cooled, they are spread first with a
creamy mint flavored frosting and then a shiny chocolate glaze. The mint
layer is a simple butter frosting and the mint flavor comes by
adding either pure peppermint extract or Creme de Menthe. I added a little
green food coloring (entirely optional of course) so that everyone knows
immediately that they are mint flavored. The final layer
of these brownies is a lovely chocolate glaze that is simply melted
semisweet chocolate and butter. I like to cut these brownies into small
squares as they are quite rich and if you have leftovers they can be
Brownies have been popular since the 1920's yet we do not know for sure who invented them. Jean
Anderson, in her book "The American Century Cookbook", gives us a few
theories. One theory is that a woman named Brownie invented them. Another is
that a housewife from Bangor Maine invented them by accident after her chocolate cake collapsed and instead of
throwing the cake away she decided to cut the flat cake into squares. Both stories seem plausible and there are
probably many others, so I guess we have to be content just with the fact
that at least someone in America invented them.
Brownies, Cream Cheese
Brownies, Chocolate
Turtle Brownies
Raspberry Brownies
Peppermint Bark
Peppermint Patties
Chocolate Mint Brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160
degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Have
ready a
9 x 9 inch (23 x
cm) square baking pan that has been lined with aluminum foil across the
bottom and up two opposite sides of the pan. Set aside.
Brownies: In a stainless
steel (heatproof) bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the
butter and chocolate. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla
extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well (with a wooden spoon) after
each addition. Stir in the flour and salt and beat, with a wooden spoon, until
the batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the pan (about
one minute). Pour the brownie batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake in the
preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until the brownies start to pull away
from the sides of the pan and the edges of the brownies are just beginning to
brown. A toothpick inserted in the center of the brownies will come out almost
clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to completely cool.
Mint Layer: In the
bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat all the ingredients
until smooth. Add a few drops of green food coloring if you want the frosting
green. If the frosting is too thick, add a little extra cream. (The frosting
should be just thin enough to spread.) Spread the frosting evenly over the
cooled brownie layer. Place in the refrigerator for about 5-10 minutes or until
Chocolate Glaze:
In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and
butter. Spread over the mint filling and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or
until the chocolate glaze starts to dull.
To Serve: Remove
the brownies from the pan by lifting with the ends of the foil and transfer to a
cutting board. With a sharp knife, cut into 30 squares. It is a good idea to
wipe your knife between cuts with a damp cloth. These brownies can be stored in
the refrigerator for several days or else frozen.
Makes about 30 1-inch
(2.5 cm) squares.
Brownie Layer:
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter,
cut into pieces
4 ounces
(114 grams) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups
(250 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon
pure vanilla extract
2 large
1/2 cup
(65 grams) all purpose flour
teaspoon salt
tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (115
grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 - 1 1/2
tablespoons heavy cream
teaspoon pure peppermint extract or 1-2 tablespoons creme de menthe
green food
coloring (optional)
Chocolate Glaze:
3 ounces (90 grams)
semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter
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Villa Paletti
List Price: $29.99
Your Price: $23.99
(20% savings!)
(Worth 2,399 Funagain Points!)
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from 11 customer reviews
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Product Description
The blockbuster European hit is now available from Wiggles 3D! Players compete to build a wooden tower without knocking it over. Always a crowd pleaser that anyone can play, Villa Paletti is the perfect building block for any party!
Product Awards
Best Manual Dexterity Game, 2003
4th place, 2002
Game of the Year, 2002
Product Information
Bill Payne
Wiggles 3D
Victor Boden
Year: 2008
Players: 2 - 4
Time: 20 - 30 minutes
Ages: 6 and up
Est. time to learn: 5-10 minutes
Weight: 1,035 grams
Language Requirements: Manufacturer's rules are printed in English. This is an international edition or domestic edition of an imported item. Game components are language-independent.
- instructions
- 20 wooden dowel pieces
- 5 wooden platform pieces
- 1 color coded die
- 1 construction hook
Product Reviews
Average Rating: 4.3 in 11 reviews
I must say that this is one rare game where it really doesnt matter who wins!
Its so much fun and tension with every turn, as everyone is watching someone else do the impossible twice over - 1st: remove a pillar and not topple the building. 2nd: place the pillar on a higher floor and not topple the building.
Easy to learn, plays different every time, and best of all, marvel in awe at your/your opponents' gravity defying stunts!
This is not only a game but a fun toy. I don't care who will win at last. The most exciting moment is that someone losing the balance and making the collaption. The loser is the one we memorize and we tend to forget who the winner is. This is my favorite dexeterity game, and much better than Jenga. It is interesting to see every player standing up in a circle around the board looking for the best point to pull and put a wood pieace, even using a hook. Makes you laugh.
If you have kids and look for a game for a whole family including adults, try it. If you like a little party and search for one played with drinking, buy it. This is the game of the year 2002 in German, superior to Puerto Rico which is customers' favorite at Funagain. Only defect is that the game is for 2-4 people. So, if your family has more than 4 member, better think of it before you decide.
Yeah, it is further the funnier game - you take risks and make yourself hero, or just ruin it ;-) My 4.5 son does it surprisingly well, even though 8+ is stated. So, there is, actually, less limits for children to join. These guys at Zoch do know about joy of good game very well - it is second of their games that surprises with maturity of concept. And looking at their catalog, it is easy to turn into permanent fan (fun? :-) of theirs.
This game gets bashed by a lot of hardcore gamers but it is a game that you can pull out and start playing at a moments notice and people will instantly get into playing. It will draw a crowd and everyone will have an idea of the best way to get the tower higher. You'd think everyone is an engineer.
When the end comes crashing down it is always a jolt to your system even if you were expecting it. The beauty is it can be restarted in less than 20 seconds and the fun begins anew.
I brought a copy to my local gamestore and it has become the hit of the store for the past several months. Every time I go there the game is instantly taken and play begins and it doesn't stop until I pry it from the peoples fingers when I have to leave.
It's not the deepest most thought provoking game out there but it is a great game and above all else ... it's fun.
Anyone who plays this game will find themselves completely absorbed in their attempt to combine skill and strategy to outwit their opponents. It is very easy to lose oneself entirely to this unique game. We found ourselves either laughing with glee at our skill or on the edge of our seats as we watched our opponents defy the laws of gravity. This is a game that you can easily play again and again with people of all ages. Well done!
I absolutely loved this game. Usually, its complexities sneak up on the player during the game like a fog. Occasionally, the complexities hit the player like a golf ball as the balance switches. Fog or golf ball, each player will have their own style. All players will find it hard to stop playing this wonderful pure game.
Villa Paletti is tons of fun. It's a very addictive game that combines fun, art, strategy, and nerves of steel. The first time you play it you think that was fun, but I just learned something. So you play it again, and when that game is done, you now say, I know how to play it now. The game has lots of strategy you don't realize the first few times you play it. I agree with the players from other game sites that it is a better Jenga! It's also great for players as young as two. They won't play the game but the will love to build.
Although it says for ages 8+, kids as young as 2 and 3 love to build it and watch it come tumbling down! Fun for the whole family! It's great that it's a 'back to basics' game requiring no batteries or electronics. Nor is it a product placement for a movie or tv show! It brings people together to what at first appears to be a simple building game which actually requires skill, patience, finesse, and a sense of fun when it all comes down.
Although this game is somewhat entertaining and fun, it is definately not worthy of the Game of the Year Award. I even won the times that I played it (4 players), so it isn't a matter of a loser's sour grapes. The game leaves a LOT of room for people to really mess up other players when a player gets to place a new level. Just place it over top of as many other player's pieces, and as few of yours and you have a big advantage. That can eliminate even the most skilled players.
This is a really interesting concept. My wife and I love to play games. The game is really mis advertised as a two person game. You can play with two people but the points don't really matter. Not enough there just for two. So I rate it 2 because of this disappointment. WE love Lost Cities and Battle Line. Two great two person games. I would love some suggestions..
This game starts out safely enough, with the first floor atop pillars in everyone's color. Each turn, players remove a pillar from beneath any floor and place it on the highest level. When everyone agrees that no further safe removal is possible, the next floor is placed. Placing pillars is worth one to three points. Scoring starts from the second level upward--and so does eccentric and precarious construction up to the final, tiny fifth floor (where pillars may be stacked on each other). The player whose pillar first reaches the highest floor becomes the leader, and remains so until another player supersedes him with a better score on that level. The leader wins if a competitor topples the structure, or if all agree that further safe plays are impossible. The previous leader wins if the current leader topples the Villa. Germany's 2002 Game of the Year defies all building regulations; it will have you on edge, but still laughing with your opponents.


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On our second night in Palawan, we attended the awarding ceremony for the games that transpired earlier that day and spent the rest of the night for rockaoke. I paired this cute bikini bow top with a high waist pair of shorts but changed later on that evening because I almost froze my butt off. Haha! It's a bold move to wear your swimwear to places other than the beach so it's best to wear them with pieces that will balance off the entire look. ;) I still have a lot of upcoming beach trips and I'll make sure to bring this bikini top with me again. Hope you'll like this! x
Red bikini top from Style Staple, shorts from Pinkaholic Fashion Shoppe
Bangles from Forever 21
Check out my other outfit post wearing these shorts HERE :)


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Duty-Free Magnate Pledges $125 Million to Medical Center
The man who made a fortune in the duty-free business, then began secretly to give it all away, has promised $125 million in matching gifts to the University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
The money comes from Charles F. Feeney's foundation Atlantic Philanthropies, and will help fund a center for children, women and cancer patients, the New York Times reports.
Any gift of this size is noteworthy — particularly alongside news that the net worth of U.S. households fell by $11 trillion in 2008. But what's really interesting about Feeney is his backstory.
Through much of the 1990s, everybody assumed Feeney was a billionaire. He wasn't: In 1984, he had put his entire 38.75% interest in a large chain of duty-free shops into two foundations. Over the next 13 years, the foundations gave away $600 million anonymously — with the recipients often receiving cashier's checks, to conceal the foundations' identities.
Feeney first talked publicly about his philanthropy in 1997, when a lawsuit over the sale of the chain, known as DFS Group, would have made the donations public anyway. As of that time, his personal net worth was about $5 million. Besides giving money to a range of hospitals and other charities, Feeney also was a large supporter in the 1990s of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army. Here's an old NYT article with more of the backstory.
In 2002, the WSJ reported, Feeney began pushing his foundation to give away its entire endowment — then valued at about $4 billion — over the next 15 years or so.


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Prop Guard / Propeller Accidents
Boat Propeller guards / prop guards, propeller guard technical reports, research, and patents, propeller strike accidents, injuries and the resulting legal cases, propeller guard manufacturers, manatee propeller issues, and the use of sensors to detect people near the propeller (Virtual Propeller Guards) are covered here. The Propeller Guard Information Center provides easy access to information on those and many other aspects of propeller safety to boat and marine drive manufacturers, regulators, the U.S. Coast Guard, engineers, inventors, boaters, and others as part of our effort to reduce the frequency and severity of recreational boat propeller accidents.
Information on a fundraising effort by the older brothers of a young boy killed by a boat propeller in the UK is provided below. The brothers are raising funds to contribute to the RNLI which came to his rescue. Click on the image to visit their fundraising page. They are nearing their goal. The tragedy surrounding propeller accidents does not recognize geographical boundaries. Please help them if you can.
Possible Coverup Efforts by Yamaha
In a March 28, 2012 press release, Yamaha said "a propeller guard is essential to reduce the risk of injury" in regards to their new propeller guard for Yamaha UK flood rescue outboard motors. They went on to make several positive comments about their propeller guard. In mid October we started posting some of their comments. In late October or early November, Yamaha removed all references to their new propeller guard seemingly in an effort to hide their positive comments about prop guards. We re-posted the press releases and brochures Yamaha erased and dared the boating trade press to cover this story.
Thank you for your interest in propeller safety and welcome to the Propeller Guard Information Center.
Our visitors from other nations sometimes use these terms: prop guard, helices, propellor, propelor, shield, protector.


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Manila, Philippines
26 years old
Creative Score
Has not participated yet
Hi, I want to explore more on this particular line of industry that I choose. I like to create more inspiring and different things happened in my mind. I want to share it to everyone. But I am a novice and like to learn more. I hope you can help me learn different techniques to improve our skills. Many Thanks everyone. :)


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Alex Smith is the 49ers' unquestioned starting quarterback. But as the team ended minicamp Thursday, coach Jim Harbaugh indicated that the backup position remains wide open.
Last season's No. 2, Colin Kaepernick, newcomer Josh Johnson and Scott Tolzien all looked good during the three days of workouts, Harbaugh said, and should have a spirited competition next month when training camp begins.
"All three of those guys are going to play a long time in this league, in our opinion," Harbaugh said. "But the competition for No. 2 and No. 3 will be there when we get to training camp. That will unfold with the practices and the preseason games. That will be very exciting."
But Harbaugh once again made it clear who is running the 49er offense.
"Alex definitely separated himself even more from where he was, which already was a lot coming out of last season," the coach said. "He's the solid starter. I don't think anybody questions that. But nothing is set in stone behind him."
While Harbaugh added that Tolzien and Johnson "had really fine offseasons," he singled out Kaepernick for praise Thursday.
"Colin had a near perfect day today," he said.
"The mindset I have is that your team isn't going to be stacked forever," said Smith, 32, a three-time Pro Bowl selection who is entering his 12th NFL season. "You have certain windows. With the guys we have and with free agency, we're not going to be able to keep this team together forever. I'm stressing that we're not building, so let's go get it this year. Let's not wait."
The 49ers, who reached the NFC Championship game in January, will be a trendy pick as a Super Bowl contender this season. But Harbaugh is sticking to his story that the team is only concerned about the Sept. 9 season opener at Green Bay.
"I don't know anything about the prognostications," Harbaugh said. "I'll tell you this: Our schedule has got our attention. By the same token, I don't think there's a lot of teams happy to see us on their schedule, either."
"Both of those guys worked extremely hard," Harbaugh said. "They were outstanding teammates, and guys loved being around them. They both get A plus-plus for the way they've worked this offseason."
Justin Smith agreed that Moss has fit in well with the 49ers' low-key locker room.
"We really don't have any of the gigantic egos," Smith said. "Some of the best players in there are the most down-to-earth guys and solid guys. Randy had all these questions. What's he like? Well he's been one of the coolest guys and hardest-working guys I've ever met."
But Harbaugh won't be there. He's leaving Friday for a week in Peru, accompanying a group from his St. Raymond church in Menlo Park to build homes.
Contact Mark Emmons at 408-920-5745.


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(4 ratings)
October 1956
The American U2 aircraft was operating well above 70,000 feet.
At this altitude its pilot felt completely secure. Absolutely confident that no missile or aircraft could possibly intercept him here, in what was almost the edge of space. Well below him the fevered British military preparations that were the subject of his spying mission continued unabated. In what was pointing increasingly to an intervention in Egypt. More specifically the Suez Canal.
The American pilot smiled thinking The Limeys have no idea I'm up here and even if they did there's not a thing they can do about it. Then the smile came well and truly off his face as two English Electric Lightning fighter/interceptors, screamers of cold war warriors, sailed serenely into view.
The pilot had been briefed on this aircraft but had thought it was still at test flight stage. Even if the Lightnings were operational nobody had bothered to mention that they could achieve such high altitude. Perhaps nobody knew.
One of the Lightning pilots indicated the U2 should leave the area but the U2 pilot was reluctant to do so. They can't stay long at this altitude he thought to himself hoping to outlast them. He then decided to take his U2 to even higher altitudes where he was sure the Lightnings could not follow. Before he got very far the U2 pilot was disabused of this course of action when a short range air to air missiles streaked uncomfortably close to the nose of his aircraft. The Lightnings were following him upwards.
"For chrissakes," yelled the unfortunate pilot � a remark he repeated a few moments later when a second air to air missile came even closer and exploded at what was only just safe range. All hesitancy was gone as the high flying spy plane high tailed it out of the immediate air space as fast as a plane built for altitude rather than speed could go.
The two Mach 2 capable English Electric Lightning fighters followed the U2 for a while, like lions following a Vildebeast, before eventually descending to a lower altitude. Leaving the U2 pilot wondering in the end just how high these formidable aircraft could actually go.
* * *
The Oval Office
The White House
Washington DC
October 1956
Eisenhower was utterly furious about the U2 incident as indeed was much of America when it became public knowledge. Unfortunately, at the particular moment he most desired it, "Ike" didn't have anything British that he could immediately vent his spleen on. Except for some English china ware in the Oval Office. The British Prime Minister, Cecile Tittington, in charge since Churchill's death in late 1944, wasn't taking calls from anyone with an American accent. Neither was Deputy Prime Minister Harris. Moreover the British Ambassador to the US had been temporarily recalled to London. Calling in the acting Ambassador and giving him a thorough dressing down somehow didn't seem enough.
Not that Ike and Tittington talked much at all these days with the heavily strained relationship between their two countries.


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Name That Ingredient
by Tracy Jensen
There is SO much buzz about food labels lately. Everywhere you turn — on Facebook, on a news site — a variety of words I had never heard as a child are being tossed around: GMOs, gluten-free, artificial sweeteners, and the definition of "milk." It is, to say the least, a little overwhelming.
Even first lady Michelle Obama recalled in a recent interview her own experiences as a working mom, and the frustration of trying to decipher labels while you are dashing through the store in between work and picking up the kids, trying to make the best choices in a hurry. That is my life every week, which is why we probably eat nearly the same stuff every week – I've already deciphered those items!
I came across this video on the FIT site recently that is geared for teens, but I found it very helpful in trying to figure out what a product is all about in a hurry — I mean, at least fast enough to get me to the carpool line on time.
What do you think about food labels? How do you make sense of them?
Posted by: Tracy Jensen at


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I know Pinterest is dominated by the female demographic, but I still like to compare it to Muhammad Ali circa 1964.
It is shocking the world… of Warcraft… of social media and ecommerce.
I have recently profiled the increasingly popular social platform that calls itself a virtual pinboard. In fact, it was just last month. So while my writing diversity may take a hit, I am still totes excited about the chance to examine the many ways companies can effectively utilize a website for people who love, "Cupcakes, Boots, and shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal." For realzies.
Call me out my writing diversity if you must, but I'm loving Pinterest's rarely-seen climb to the top of the digital world. Furthermore, some impressive statistics have been compiled recently by Monetate (whom created a snazzy infographic from their findings), comscore and Compete that showcases just how powerful Pinterest is becoming for businesses and retailers. Here are some noteworthy findings from the reports:
While search is still king when it comes to traffic referrals, brands and retailers are looking more and more to social networking websites to help boost website traffic. And with Pinterest driving almost as much traffic as Google and Twitter, I feel that it is important to observe and report on all of the different ways your business can engage on this captivating social media platform.
So with all that said, here are a few cool ways your business can use Pinterest to improve your digital presence and overall product offering:
Is 2012 the year that you want to add/update a product or service offering? If so, Pinterest can be an effective online focus group to learn more about your target audience. By tracking what consumers are pinning, who they are following, and what they are saying about certain images across the site, your business can effectively predict trends and opinions within your industry's community.
See: Nordstroms
Pinterest's co-founder said it best, "For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest." It is frowned upon for marketers to simply blast out photos of your products, it's important to think outside of the box when using the platform. Try to post images that capture the essence of your business. If you own a hotel, post pictures of cool attractions nearby or even pieces from local artists. If you own a restaurant, post pictures of cool appliances that you use in your kitchen or dining room furniture that goes well with the décor of your establishment.
See: Whole Foods
Aside from your products, Pinterest also can be a great forum to showcase your company culture. I love it when I see companies post pictures of all the different surroundings and events around their office. These types of images help to humanize the business.
See: The Today Show
Similar to showcasing your company culture, Pinterest can be used as a great place to promote yourself to other businesses by nicely organizing your company's information and services.
See: FaceTime Strategy! Yep, that's right; I created a Pinterest page for my agency to practice what we preach. As you can see, we have boards showcasing our management team, clients, service offerings, and logos. These types of organized displays allow Pinterest users to get a clear and organized look at the make-up of your business, making Pinterest a strong B2B community.


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I've had a great summer, I've been playing a lot and not too busy with quilting it has been nice.
I also made the decision and ordered a new quilting machine! I'm so excited to have something so awesome to work with. I can't really imagine yet how much faster and better it is going to be for me!
I ordered an APQS Lucey- she has a 26" throat and I'm thrilled to have the space!
I have re-covered my sewing chair and now it matches my room perfectly. This is what it looked like before, it is a really sturdy chair but I need it to match!
Our big project this spring/summer has been the yard, we got the yard all put in and my husband built this shed with a playhouse on top. It was fun to help him and watch him build it. We got this big 14 foot slide from lifetime to come off the balcony. The roof is shingled now and a door is put on the shed part and we need to get the siding done before too long!
Ive done quite a bit of fun quilting this summer even though it has been slow, here is one from Katie. She wanted pebbles with some swirls on this cute quilt. I wouldn't have picked but I'm glad she did it turned out so cute and she does great quilts that are pieced well and puts fleece blankets on the back so they are extra soft!


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Wilson: Holy Cross girls looking for a challenge
WOLCOTT -- Half of the season is over, and the average margin of victory is 29.1 points. Only two games have been decided by fewer than 20 points; the lowest margin is a 13-point win over Kennedy.
It is no secret what the biggest challenge is for Holy Cross these days: to find a challenge. If you needed any further proof than the 10-0 record and the story the numbers tell, all you needed was to be in Wolcott's John Morris Gymnasium on Tuesday night.
Holy Cross 70, Wolcott 30.
In years past, that result might not have surprised you enough to make you drive off of the road, drop your coffee or trip over the cat. But things are a little different this year.
Wolcott (9-2) is in the midst of a superb season, leading the Naugatuck Valley League Brass Division while losing only once going into the game. This wasn't the top against the bottom; this was two division leaders clashing. There was a hint of mystery to this one.
Three minutes into the game, Holy Cross had pressed and stressed its way to a 14-0 lead. Mystery over. There's Holy Cross and everybody else. As Wolcott coach Rick Laferriere noted afterward, it may take something supernatural to stop a Crusader charge to an NVL title this season.
While Holy Cross coach Frank Lombardo wasn't even thinking two months down the road, he did allude to the challenge of the season so far and its effect on the Crusaders.
"This is our 10th game. The first two or three games were competitive, but we haven't had one in a while," said Lombardo. "It's hard for the top eight or nine (players) and especially for the seniors, who are playing only about 17 minutes a game. So the girls are anxious. I told them that (Wolcott) was the second team in the league, so they were going to play at least two and a half quarters."
The Crusaders, ranked No. 5 in the state, could have easily lost their focus in this one, running up a 35-6 lead at one point and cruising to a 41-12 halftime lead. But while the outcome was never a factor, there were a few other things going on.
There is Seymour on the schedule Friday and then a huge "how good are we" test against the state's No. 6 team, Mercy, on Monday night.
So the Crusaders worked on their game. They pounded the ball inside with Briana Bradford tossing in 19 points and Danielle Dorsett adding 15 points. They used time to run some plays.
With just under five seconds left in the first half, Lombardo called timeout so his team could run a play with the clock winding down. Toward the end of the game, the Crusaders ran a weave on the top of the key looking for routes to the basket.
All the while, they were making a point.
"There's been a lot of talk about this game, and we wanted to prove that we are the best team in the league," said Angelica Ariola.
"Our goal is to prepare for the big games," added Dorsett. "We came out strong and kept our intensity. We made a statement."
A real scare was also put to rest with the play of Ariola, who had 11 points. The talented point guard was injured in practice last week and missed a game; the fear was a dislocated shoulder. An examination, though, revealed Ariola had just aggravated a previous injury from the summer, and she improved tremendously on Monday.
Wolcott was not about to lose sleep over this one. The youthful Eagles came out nervous and were in over their heads. But they kept their heads and know it is time to move on.
"I told them to play hard, finish and we'll forget about this one and get ready for Sacred Heart on Friday," said Laferriere. "(Holy Cross) is the cream of the crop, very good and very balanced. I'm proud of our team. They never quit."
Both teams move on now, Wolcott to recover from this challenge, Holy Cross to find a challenge. You can bet there will be one in the near future. They will welcome it.
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Friday, August 26, 2011
Mixing it up to improve your results
this is how my 5 year old son Tim is mixing it up these days)
So when I first started out on this journey I chose walking as my form of exercise. I would start out with small walks at the mall, as the weather got nicer I took my walks outside and often had my husband or my friend with me. Now this combined with the healthier eating was giving me some good results on the scale but I still had a way to go and knew I had to kick it up a notch.
Being up late one night I saw an informerical for one of those beach body series Turbo Jam.
I really liked the instructor and decided to order the series. When my dvd's arrived I started doing those on the days I didnt walk and even somedays I would walk a little in the morning and maybe put one of these in at night.
As I added this new form of exercise to my walking routine I saw that the scale started to move more. I also started toning up areas on my body that I was not seeing improvement in through walking alone like my arms which I always tried to cover because they looked bigger and out of shape.
It was then that the light bulb sort of went on for me that when I was just walking I was neglecting other parts of my body. So even though I was losing poundage I wasnt seeing the results I wanted in overall appearance.
As my body got used to walking and the TurboJam dvd's I knew that I had to start incorporating other things in to continue to challenge my body. From a cardio perspective I actually started to run some at first on my own although it was more like a walk/run combo and then as I got a little faster I started going for runs with my sister.From a strength perspective I started looking at other dvd's I could incorporate and tried some of the Biggest Loser series and some from Jari Love.I found by training different parts of my body during the week, it allowed the parts I worked the day prior to recooperate and it also helped me to improve my overall fitness level.
To this day I still am trying different things to always keep my body guessing. I am focused on running currently because I have a couple longer races coming up over the next two months, but on the days that I don't run I have started to incorporate other forms of cardio when I'm at the gym such as biking and rowing.
From a strength perspective I do some freeweights at the gym, but because I like I make my morning workout more cardio focused and am sometimes pressed for time I tend to do my strength at home.
For those with an ondemand option on cable I have found a lot of good 20-30 minute workouts that really make you work and dont require a ton of equipment just a set of handweights. A few I currently have in my rotation are:
The Butt Bible: http://www.exercisetv.tv/store/p-3013-the-butt-bible-dvd-with-pauline-nordin.aspx
This series incorporates both lower strength as well as upper body options too.
and there are a couple done by this trainer Marco Reed that are pretty good too. I especially like his 10 minute ab routine and his rock hard arm 20 minute session.
As my body adjusts to these I will still be investigating other ways to mix it up. So as you start or continue on your fitness journey keep in mind that by trying new things, this may just help you to stick with it, as you won't get bored, you will see better results , and will be working at increasing your overall fitness level.
So readers what have you been doing to mix things up?
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Secondary Sources: Jobs Gap, European Downsizing, Foreign Energy and Leveraged Buyouts
A roundup of economic news from around the Web.
–Jobs Gap: Gary Burtless asks how long it will take to get the U.S. back to 2007 levels of employment, adjusting for population growth. "Although output began to rebound in the second half of 2009 and the number of payroll jobs began to grow a few months later, the U.S. did not begin making substantial progress in reducing its jobs deficit until the beginning of 2011. Since that time, progress has been painfully slow. Employment reported in the BLS household survey has grown an average of 160,000 per month. Adult employment must grow about 80,000 a month in order keep the jobs deficit from increasing. Thus, since early 2011 we have been whittling back the jobs deficit by about 80,000 per month. Given the current size of the jobs shortfall and the recent pace of employment growth, the nation will need another 7½ to 8 years to restore full employment."
–Downsizing in Europe: Hendrik P. van Dalen and Kène Henkens examine European companies' apparent preference for reducing staff via buy-outs and early retirement offers rather than layoffs or wage cuts. "The fact that fairness matters in labour market decisions may turn out to be of some importance because issues of generational fairness are becoming more and more prominent in the public debates in countries facing soaring youth unemployment rates. In the view of the general public interest, the obvious solution would be to send older workers into early retirement (or at least to reduce their working hours) in order to pave the way for younger workers to forge their own careers. This type of generational fairness resonates with an electorate suffering the consequences of high and rising unemployment (see OECD 2006). However, this idea of reshuffling intergenerational labour denies the harsh fact that these types of policies do not work at the macroeconomic level."
–Foreign Energy: With global oil prices spiking on Middle East tensions, the Energy Information Administration looks at U.S. reliance on another foreign energy source: uranium. "Owners and operators of commercial nuclear power reactors buy uranium in the form of uranium concentrate, uranium hexafluoride, and/or enriched uranium. If uranium is purchased after the enrichment process, the only step remaining is the fabrication into nuclear fuel. Historically, U.S. owners and operators have purchased most of their uranium from foreign countries. In 2012, 84% of foreign-supplied uranium came from Canada, Russia, Australia, Kazakhstan, and Namibia. The rest came from Uzbekistan, Niger, South Africa, Brazil, China, Malawi, and Ukraine."
–Leveraged Buyouts: Hamid Mehran and Stavros Peristiani look at what motivates public companies to go private. "Starting in the 1990s, the corporate sector experienced more proactive monitoring by institutional investors. Managerial compensation was increasingly tied to performance as a significant portion of a chief executive officer's pay was awarded in stock. All these improvements in corporate governance should have lessened the need for buyout discipline. Thus, the resurgence of LBOs in the 2000s suggests that these transactions might also be motivated by several other factors—for example, the desire to avoid regulatory costs and shareholder scrutiny, or the use of debt financing to lower tax obligations."
Compiled by Ben Casselman