Barkhad Abdi, who was born in Somalia, had his break out role in Captain Philips. A movie about Somalian Pirates. Barkhad Abdi plays one of the main pirates in that movie that is describing an incident that is part of this story.
Almost all of the actors in the Somalia scenes are actual Somalian refugees.
Dabka means fire in Somali.
Jay Bahadur is saying he always considered himself more of a Bernstein, than a Woodward, as Bernstein was ugly as hell and never went through college, and overcame his shortcomings. Bob Woodward went to Harvard Law School, and Carl Bernstein dropped out of university. Carl Bernstein was played by Dustin Hoffman in All the Presidents Men, a movie, of which Jay Bahadur has a poster of, hanging in his room.
Barkhad Abdi, who plays Abdi, is wearing a t-shirt of the Dutch national soccer team, with number 9, from famous striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.