New Running Circuit in Somali

WHERE IN SOMALIA THE RACES WILL TAKE PLACE?

Somali Race Director wrote:

To be fair to all the people on letsrun.com that think ppl from Somalia ONLY come here to "cheat the system":

I am establishing a running circuit in Somalia. The rules will require a valid ID. This should exclude all locals from competition. There won't be any cash prizes, but you and your children will now have the opportunity to actually win races.

As an added incentive: After 10 years living in the country you will be invited to become a Somali citizen. At this stage you will become eligible for prize money in the region of $5 per race.

I invite all interested athletes (that have not been able to win in the United States due to refugees that "invent" stories about civil war, starvation, and death in order to "cheat" the American system) to sign up below.

Good question. Preliminary races will take place in the north eastern region and self-declared republic of Somaliland. Finals and races with prize money will take place in Mogadishu. There is less chance of anyone having a valid identification in Mogadishu and therefore less chance that the local population can win. Please ignore reports about rival warlords fighting in Mogadishu. This is propaganda established by the evil immigrants that come to the United States to exploit our system by lying about their age.

Has it struck you that maybe some immigrant's parents lower their children's ages in order to place them in a lower grade and give them an easier adjustment? I think everyone accepts that no one is going to escape Somalia just to run against people 4 years younger than them, but that doesn't mean lots of immigrants don't lower their ages in order to adjust and, indirectly, dominate their younger opponents and set age records.

Should I sign you up for the circuit then?

Wonderful, well thought out reply. I see you have obliterated my point and you are perfectly correct. I bow to your superior logic...

I don't see how your "point" is relevant to my race cicuit.

Please elaborate.

Those people that disagree with you (clearly not me) would say something like.

- There is no AGE requirement for middle school. That is why it is possible to hold people back a year or two.

- "Age" would have been determined in collaboration with immigration officials (probably)OUTSIDE the United States prior to any attempt to register for school. At this juncture an immigrant family would have higher priorities even than what level of English their child could handle.

- "Age" would not be left entirely to the discretion of a family coming to the United States. For example, if a 2 year old child was registered as a 40 year old the INS is not going to accept that. The INS official will visually determine whether an age is reasonable where there is no identification.

- If they don't know how old they are who are you to tell them how old they are?

- There is no other alternative as it would not be fair to expect a 10 year old Somali child to compete against open athletes in the USA simply because he doesn't have a birth certificate.

Anyway... like I said... I am here to balance the tables by inviting you to compete in Somalia. Why would you try to paint me as your opposition?

-I don't know what age limits in middle school have to do with anything. There are age limits in high school and there are age limits to age group records.

-Age is not determined in a collaboration between officials and parents. The parent's just say how old their kid is. And I and CERTAIN that parents do lower their children's age to give them a better chance at adjusting well and suceeding in their new country (read: education, not sports).

-Can you tell the difference between an 11 year old and a 7 year old? "He's big for his age."

-I don't know what they should do, if anything to correct the problem. Hell, I don't even care that these kids are old, I was just pointing out that maybe they are old and their parents did not lower their age to win races, just adjust in america.

The point about not having age limits in middle school is that most schools will test an immigrant and examine past transripts to determine what grade he should be in. I know because I am an imigrant here. They would not tell a child that he has to be in the 7th grade when he cannot cope with that level of work. Age would be irrelevant. The bottom line is that we probably agree with each other. I just think that some people (not you) have an extremely warped sense of reality when they feel that a Somali family could possibly care less about winning a race here or there. My best friend was a Somali immigrant in a western European country. He won EVERYTHING and represented that country at the national U23's level. His dad never even went to watch a race. Why? Because they were more worried about him doing well in school. Of course, that is not an argument against you... it's directed at the people who feel these families would lie in order to win here. The reality is a 12 year old Somali probably would beat the 12 year old American. Why? Because those kids are damn tough and have a bigger heart than most of "us" could imagine.

"The reality is a 12 year old American probably would beat the 12 year old Somali at American Football. Why? Because those kids are damn tough and have a bigger heart than most of "them" could imagine."

Outside of that, I think we are in agreement. I don't know how anyone can say that the parents of the kid in Maine lowered his age so he could win some races. If they did do that, then why in the hell would they go to Maine? Not exactly a place with a huge spotlight.

At any rate, as long as they're wearing the red, white and blue, I hope they win medals....

I think that you misunderstood me with regards to "heart". It was not meant as an insult TO MYSELF or other western athletes. The fact is that these Somali children have experienced things that no child (nor adult) should ever have to endure. I taught a class in Somaliland and the stories that I heard were incredible and tragic. Of course, after World War 2 you could have heard similar stories in the UK or even the US (to a lesser degree), but children of the last 20-30 years in the west have not had to survive their childhood they have had to enjoy it. Again, I'm not saying a Somali child that witnessed the Civil war in Somalia is any "tougher" than a British child that witnessed the Battle of Britain. The difference is that those British children are now adults and the children of today have not had to overcome the same obstacles. I remember reading a quote a long time ago (no clue who it was from) where a Kenyan was asked about the pain he overcame during a race. He said to the interviewer something like: "Pain? when I was a child I was circumcized with a rock. That was pain. Today I felt no pain." The principle is the same.

Anyway, even if you still disagree with me about this.. I am glad that we do agree about everything else.