My mom brought home a magazine for me yesterday. Michael Jackson was on the cover, but the picture that I just posted doesn't have anything to do with him (I apologize for the picture quality, but my scanner only costs 50 dollars). Yes, there were articles about Michael Jackson, but there are a lot of others too, that was more interesting.

I've read in the article titled, "A state of terror" that there was two teenage boys and a teenage girl who were sentenced to be lashed a hundred times JUST because of having premarital sex, men who were accused of stealing cellphones had a foot or a hand hacked off with machetes, a 13 year old girl who was stoned to death in front of a thousand spectators. Al-shabab, the Islamist militia who controls much of the country, have also forced women to cover their faces, banned all music and forms of entertainment. Most Somalis don't support the militia, but are ruled by fear. Some still fight against it. Al-Shabab even controls the memory cards of mobile phones, just to make sure there's no pornographic films or films that are anti-Islamic. They even force people to pray. A journalist also said, Somalia under al-shabab is similar to that of Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule.

Somalis are dying from starvation and war, or suffocating under al-Shabab's interpretation of Islam. Somalia is a problem with no easy solutions.

Intimidating. :|