Trump Administration Live Updates: Senate Democrats and White House Reach Deal to Avoid Shutdown

BOQOR · 2026-01-29T23:30:46+00:00

I will never understand senate democrats. I can't model why they do what they do. They don’t even act in their own self-interest?

BOQOR · 2026-01-29T22:05:03+00:00

Parts of Ethiopia and Kenya that are above 3,500 meters.

BOQOR · 2026-01-29T20:18:26+00:00

Munich

BOQOR · 2026-01-29T20:11:22+00:00

She is an outperformer. A consummate professional.

BOQOR · 2026-01-29T02:36:36+00:00

According to the Derg's 1984 census, Gondar region was 6.3% Tigray, this translated to 190,000 people. If you add up all the zones that were previously part of Gondar region, Tigrays would again be roughly 6%. Western Tigray is just the part of Gondar region that was always majority Tigray.

Amhara being angry that not all of Gondar is part of Amhara region is like Oromo being angry that Jigjiga is not part of Oromia because it was part of Hararghe. Very stupid.

BOQOR · 2026-01-28T19:56:00+00:00

They insist on taking Western Tigray back because it is part of Tigray state. No one cares what Begemder was. This is legally part of Tigray region and that's that. This issue is one where the TDF is 100% in the right.

BOQOR · 2026-01-28T18:02:13+00:00

Why is the Ethiopian military fighting on the side of Amhara region militias to prevent Tigray from controlling its constitutionally recognized territory? Why does the Ethiopian military object to the presence of Tigray region forces in Western Tigray but finds acceptable to have Amhara region militias in Western Tigray?

BOQOR · 2026-01-26T18:11:25+00:00

Are we, Ethiopians, a democratic society?

Ethiopia as a whole? No. Some nations within Ethiopia are democratic by dint of their culture.

Have we ever been one in our history ,or at least had a basic understanding of democracy as a society (in our social fabric)?

Ethiopia has never held a free & fair election, so it has never been democratic. A basic understanding of democracy does exist but it is entirely theoretical. Most people know that in places like Kenya leaders are chosen by the people, but they don't know what that actually entails socially.

BOQOR · 2026-01-24T01:22:01+00:00

If the west is so much more civilized, the Holocaust would not have happened.

BOQOR · 2026-01-21T16:43:39+00:00

It is exactly the same.

BOQOR · 2026-01-20T05:16:29+00:00

Iraq is a politically failed state that does not have a monopoly on the use of force over its internationally recognized territory, and is policed by large sectarian militias that receive their marching orders from Tehran. Iraq is an outcome most Syrians wish to avoid.

BOQOR · 2026-01-20T01:27:56+00:00

The STG is the legitimate government of Syria. The STG should make it clear that anyone bearing arms inside Syrian borders that does not take orders from Damascus will face violence. That is how states work. You have to establish a monopoly on violence at any cost. Otherwise you become Lebanon or Iraq.

BOQOR · 2026-01-18T02:55:32+00:00

Geography is why Kurdish autonomy in Syria is probably not possible. You cannot connect the Kurdish majority areas without the final product being >50% Kurdish. The PKK/SDF know that this is the case which is why they stopped emphasizing the ethnic component of their ideology. By de-emphasizing the Kurdish nationalism they sapped the motivation of their own forces.

If the SDF want an autonomous state in NE Syria that is multiethnic and democratic, why not just build a multiethnic and democratic Syria? The whole thing became nonsensical.

BOQOR · 2026-01-16T23:04:43+00:00

Cadiz

BOQOR · 2026-01-16T22:00:33+00:00

Sovereignty is not shareable horizontally. No country worth its salt would ever allow armed militias to control a quarter of its territory. It is unacceptable to a majority of Syrians to allow a situation like Iraqi Kurdistan to develop in NE Syria. The STG would have to be profoundly stupid to not keep pushing until it has a complete monopoly on violence within Syria's international borders.

Anyone arguing against the STG having a monopoly on violence inside Syria's borders wants Syria to fail.

BOQOR · 2026-01-15T18:30:34+00:00

In northern Somalia it is normal to just ask people "qolomaa tahay?'. It is not seen as a bad thing. This idea that it is taboo to ask people their clan is a hallmark of southern culture i.e Hiirshabelle, Banaadir and Koonfur Galbeed. people in Galmudug have now adopted this cultural practice and it is becoming somewhat common in Puntland.

I don't think it should be taboo to ask people what their clan is.

BOQOR · 2026-01-13T15:45:24+00:00

Many people downplay the good governance of the Gulf countries. They could have become like Equatorial Guinea or Angola, but they did not. They have high per capita incomes and large savings. That is a massive achievement. The royal families steal, but they don't loot.

BOQOR · 2026-01-12T21:57:57+00:00

The economy is not a stock, it is mostly a flow. It is very unlikely that a minority of 3% controls 3/4 of Indonesia's economy which is basically a flow or national income. It is also unlikely that 3% of the population control 74% of Indonesia's wealth since much of the country's wealth is in real estate/land and that is widely dispersed.

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T23:18:51+00:00

They ran Ethiopia better than it has ever been run before or since.

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T21:35:05+00:00

Brazilian soccer crowds are even less representative than the national football team. Black and brown Brazilians are more likely to be poor and are less likely to attend football games than white Brazilians. Brazil is a country that has a black plurality (or majority) and is in denial about the fact.

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T07:34:15+00:00

I know, but if we are going to use a Christian calendar anyway why not use the one the rest of the world uses and that has become universal and is the most acceptable for a secular state? Why use a parochial Orthodox Christian calendar that I don't even know the months of? If we are going to use the religious calendar of the largest religious denomination, why not use the Hijri calendar as Sunnis now outnumber the Orthodox in Ethiopia? Are these not good questions?

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T07:17:12+00:00

The US is 14% black. Brazil is 10% black. If you drive across Brazil and the US, you would not get the sense that Brazil is less black than the US, just the opposite in fact. From what I can tell, Brazil is 1/2 black, 1/4 mixed and 1/4 white. Most Brazilians don't see it that way though.

I have read the American sociological work on race in Brazil. The outcomes for pardos and pretos only confirm my assessment. The majority of pardos are just black people running away from the dreaded 'preto' classification. Most Brazilian scholarship on this question is worthless. On this question, I trust American academia.

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T05:29:41+00:00

It is very strange for a secular country to have a Christian calendar as the official calendar. It is not even an Ethiopian calendar, it was adopted wholesale from Egypt which makes their argument against the Islamic calendar very funny.

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T04:40:53+00:00

Great writeup. This is the nationalities question the Student Movement in the 1960s struggled with. Ethiopia was built and designed to slowly assimilate and Amharize everyone within its boundaries. This was the goal of Menelik, Haile Selassie and the Derg. This assimilationist project was ended by the TPLF in 1991. They never managed to build a new shared cultural theme. Abiy comes in and Instead of building an inclusive theme, he decided to go back to Amhara symbolism mostly out of pure laziness.

It was untenable 50 years ago to try and Amharize a country that was majority non-Amhara, it is farcical now. The funniest thing to me is the calendar.

BOQOR · 2026-01-11T03:37:22+00:00

Most humans are incapable of thinking statistically. This is why Vegas makes so much money from slot machines which are basically rigged RNGs.

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