1) A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!🇺🇲 🇩🇪 In 1944, Fritz Vincken was a 12 year-old German boy who lived with his mother Elisabeth in a small cottage in the Ardennes Forest.

Thread: History of Mogadishu and it’s conquest by Imaam Al Yaqubi

One of the First Imaams of the Hiraab Imamate was Mohamed Ibn Imaam Ahmed ibn Imam Ahmed Ibn Imaam Mohamoud Ibn Imaam Cumar Halol Al Yacquubi (Abgaal) during the year 1097 hijri.

After the collapse of the Ajuuran Abgaal nomads from the interior had started moving to take over the strategic port town of Mogadishu which was then under the muzzafar dynasty. By the 1600s Abgaal warriors had captured the city and set up their base in shingaani.

Mogadishu at the time was a large and well known port town. The Abgaal clan taking over control allowed them to obtain political power and world wide recognition.

Under Imaam Yaqubi’s time in power it’s reported that French merchants had arrived at the port in 1701
and stayed for 11 days. They had attempted to take the city but were successfully repulsed.

THREAD: Meditations on marriage metaphors in Ruth

The book of Ruth is, of course, a story about a beautiful marriage. But even before the courtship and the wedding and the important genealogy at the end, we find interesting language that is strikingly reminiscent of Genesis 2:24

That important verse reads:

'Therefore a man shall leave [יַֽעֲזָב] his father and his mother and hold fast [וְדָבַ֣ק] to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.'

The verb עזב can be quite strong in force. For example, Joseph leaves behind [וַיַּעֲזֹ֤ב] his garment as he flees from Pharaoh's wife's sexual advances. Countless times, Israel is depicted abandoning the LORD, for example in Judg 2:12 [וַיַּעַזְב֞וּ], and going after other gods.

Likewise, the verb דבק is rather striking. Lot is mortified of disaster overtaking him [תִּדְבָּקַ֥נִי] as he flees from Sodom. Israel is commanded in Deut 10:20 to cling fast [תִדְבָּ֔ק] to the LORD and serve him and swear by his name.

Together they illustrate how radical God designed marriage to be. Marriage is a real severing of family relations in order to form a new, permanent bond with another human being.

Something very similar to this takes places in Ruth's life.

So. I loved #TheDig. Despite being set in the 30's it evoked a lot of my early fieldwork experience in the 80's and some of the things archaeologists were gushing about are still pay of the experience today. And it also evoked the fantasy that I became an archaeologist to chase>

If you just want to enjoy it, and bask in the glow of archaeologists being happy for once, stop reading here >

Because, being aware of that fantasy, I'm also aware of corrosive elements, things that structure how archaeology works, both practically & in the collective imagination which work against that other fantasy, that my work can 'make a difference' contribute to progressive change>

The primary driver of the story is class & it's connection to skill & to land. EP has the right to the land, the choice to dig, the ownership of the artefacts because she is the landowner. We are meant to cheer along when the coroner decides in her favour>

BB is a man of the land, he literally knows the soil of Suffolk by feel. His skill & sense are central to the story. And they are credited with the discovery, which is the most important part of the process, not the analysis, care or interpretation>

Here I share what I witnessed about the uproar concerning the remarks of Rajinikanth on Periyar.The new film 'Darbar' by Rajinikanth washed out in Hindi, but that does not mean that on Twitter or national politics he can not trend. The new uproar is over his remarks at the .

50th anniversary celebration of Thuglaq, a Tamil political newspaper, about Periyar E. V. Ramaswamy.Referring to how Thuglak wrote about the intellectual patriarch of Tamil Nadu political parties such as DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam), Rajinikanth, who floated his own political party, when he organised a rally in Salem in 1971 where Hindu holy deities were allegedly displayed in a lewd way.This is how the actor mentioned the incident at the Thuglak event when he was speaking:
"In 1971, in Salem,

Periyar organised a rally featuring the undressed images of Lord Sriramachandramoorthy and Sita with a sandal garland. No other source wrote something about the protest, but Cho printed it on the front page of the paper and denounced it vehemently.Because of the publicity, the

ruling DMK government at the time got a bad reputation. DMK confiscated these copies of Thuglaq because they did not want others to hear about the protest."Many Dravidian groups staged protests and filed complaints with the police against Rajinikanth saying he "insulted Periyar."

1) A generation of students were ruined by communist propaganda in the 1960s and 1970s. They went on to become naxals, and communist ideologues. Most of their lives were ruined, and with little support system in place, most of their families were also ruined completely.

2) Now, a few naxals/ideologues did manage to go abroad, secure nice, cushy positions for themselves, and become anti-India/anti-Hindu bigots from their overseas sinecures. But these were the exception, not the norm. Most naxals faced police ruthlessness and were ruined.

3) Is this a career to recommend to kids? That they can be the lucky 1 in a thousand who will catch the eye of some politically powerful figure in the west, who can/will sponsor their entry into the western system? Western humanities graduates are themselves without jobs now!

4) It is like claiming that someone should drop out of college and become Bill Gates! Sure, there have been Bill Gateses who became multi-billionaires after dropping out of college. But most college drop outs went on to become ruined, or are working low paying jobs today!

5) For those dreaming that they will find a western sponsor who will facilitate their entry into the western system, wake up, please! There isn't a lot of hope for you getting lucky, when western humanities graduates themselves have few skills and fewer jobs.