August 2006

It’s exactly 12.05am right now and it’s officially the 31st of August. I can already hear celebrations all over my university campus. Malaysia today proudly celebrates its 49th Independence Day i.e. Merdeka. Even though I’m not out there singing the Malaysian national anthem, Negara Ku, I’m still here in my room celebrating with all Malaysians in spirit.

On the 1st of January this year, Sudan celebrated its 50th independence anniversary. There’s a huge difference though. What have we Sudanese achieved in those 50 years compared to Malaysia? Nothing much! It saddens me to say it but that’s the truth. What Malaysia has been able to achieve only in its past 22 years under the great leadership of the honorable Tun Mahathir is far from remarkable. The country is steadily moving towards its vision of becoming a developed nation by the year 2020.

I congratulate Malaysia for its achievements and I ask those cynical Malaysians to cheer up. They should appreciate what they have. The reason they don’t is because they haven’t seen any of the other depressing things happening elsewhere. Malaysians, unlike us Sudanese, have a government that has the interests of its citizens in mind. That’s the kind of leadership we need in Sudan. I hope that will happen during my lifetime.

Happy Merdeka Malaysia!

Remember my previous post entitled “Presenting You with a Lesson on Jihad In Islam“? I hope you do because I have an announcement to make. I’m a Mujahid and I’m on a mission of holy Jihad. Here, check this out on Big Pharaoh’s blog. I’m loving every single word of it and I endorse it 100%. It represents me and my political ideologies to the fullest. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it. Jihad all the way baby! Allahu Akbar!

Bush has offered to meet with Sudanese dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Is Bush trying to offer “carrots”?

A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Frazer carried a letter from Bush to Bashir, which generally discussed Bush’s concern about Darfur. She told Bashir that cooperation on Darfur could bring many benefits for Khartoum, though the official declined to specifically confirm them.

Could “many benefits” be referring to lifting sanctions? I doubt it and even if that is the case I don’t think any “carrots” will work at this stage. Bashir has already made himself a target for the Sudanese Islamist groups. If he accepts UN troops, jihad will officially be declared against him and his gang. This is getting more complex by the day and meanwhile innocent people in Darfur still continue to die.

Hat tip- Shamarat

It’s funny really. The Sudanese government has no problem allowing demonstrations against Israel or UN troops. However when the people protest against it they beat them up.

Riot police fired teargas and beat a journalist in central Khartoum on Wednesday as opposition parties and supporters gathered to demonstrate against a recent rise in petrol and sugar prices, witnesses said.

A Reuters witness saw riot police snatch a TV camera from an Al Jazeera journalist filming the crowd. The police chased him, beating him with sticks while firing teargas at those around.

Riot police carrying batons and shields sped in trucks through the streets of central Khartoum dispersing any crowd attempting to demonstrate.

Yaaay to Sudanese freedom of speech.

I Like “Clitoris” hit 45 comments. Yaay! My first post with 35+ comments. I need to think of other topics hotter than anal sex and femle genital mutilation now. Hmmm… What about 69 and threesomes? I’m sure the discussion will end up forming 2 opposing teams ie. Atheists VS Believers in God. Thank you Darwin, if you never came into being, all the readers would have most probably agreed that anal sex ain’t right. Anyways, let’s cut the sex talk for a while and get back to political rants shall we?

The only reason I called this blog “The Sudanese Thinker” is because my brain is always thinking about something, anything. You don’t need to be Einstein to call yourself a thinker. Afterall Chimpanzees think too.

I’ve been thinking about Darfur, the conspiracies and the ongoing debate on accepting UN troops. The thinking, various comments, posts on other blogs and rethinking have paid off. I’ve made a transition into a new mental state regarding the situation and I have a more refined opinion now.

The opposition to UN troops started mainly because of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) aka Bashir and his gang of corrupt butchers. Eventually various youth organizations caught the flu and joined in the “sneezing”. Following that, various tribal leaders from Darfur voiced their opposition. A considerable portion of the Sudanese public became opposers too. All of this happened thanks to the propaganda machine of the NCP. It is common knowledge in Sudan that America and even Israel backed up the SPLM during the 20 year north-south bloody civil war. This common knowledge provides the fertile ground on which healthy conspiracy theories can thrive. Bin Laden’s & Zawahiri’s calls for Jihad are a final “cherry on top”.

If Sudan was a target for exploitation, Darfur would receive much more attention in the Western media. It doesn’t get enough. Moreover, the ruling NCP themselves announced many times before that they’re eager to improve Sudan’s relations with the United States. Hence, it doesn’t make sense that the White House will go through all the trouble of planning a conspiracy. The White House has got enough problems and wars at hand. I’m against the UN troops coming in because as I said it will mean war and more suffering. However if the ruling NCP agrees to them, then the risk of war will considerably be reduced. In case the NCP does agree, I would be more welcoming of the UN troops but I will still have my worries. Afterall, UN troops didn’t achieve much in Rwanda and Congo so I wonder what they’ll be able to achieve in Darfur. Al-Qaeda and the Sudanese Islamists are another issue too. Will Al-Qaeda act upon its threats? Will the UN troops be able to respond to them? Will the Sudanese Islamists declare war upon Bashir and his gang? I don’t know. All I know is that if the “others” want the ruling NCP to accept UN troops Darfur, carrots or assurances should probably be provided.

Anyways, the Broadway show continues. This is all such a waste of time. The Security Council debates Darfur and Sudan boycotts. How lovely? They’ll talk, they’ll drink coffee and finally they’ll eat some cheese cake. At the end Sudan will give a no no.

If people want to talk about Darfur from a humanitarian perspective, then UN troops will make things worse and Darfur will become a warzone. However if people want to talk about Darfur from a political perspective, then a bloody revolution is the only way to settle the problem. Both are bad scenarios and that’s why I support strengthening the AU troops. Nobody is opposed to them and if strengthened they can provide the protection needed in Darfur. I don’t understand why it’s so hard for others to understand that.

There’s a recent development though and I don’t know if it’s good or bad. Remember when the Sudanese government said it has its own plan of sending 10,000 of its troops to Darfur? Well apparently, the plan is unfolding. Large military build ups are already being reported. Hmmm. I don’t think the innocent Darfurian civilians are going to appreciate the fact that the same people who were responsible for their misery are now the ones going to be responsible for protecting them. We’ll see what happens.

This is related to my previous post on FGM.

Nawal Nour, MD, a Sudanese-American, is the director of the African Women’s Health Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The only clinic of its kind in the United States, it addresses the medical and emotional needs of female immigrants who have undergone genital circumcision in their homelands. In 2003, Nour was named a MacArthur Fellow for advancing initiatives in international women’s health.

As part of the Lowell Humanities Series, Nour discusses founding the clinic in 1999 and her experiences with patients she has treated. She also provides background on the historical and cultural context of the practice of female genital circumcision.

Hat tip - Hipster & Shamarat

Read more about Nawal Nour here.

I tell you people, it’s women like her who make me proud to be a Sudanese. Go Nawal! Do your thing and keep representing! By the way doesn’t she look a bit like Angelina Jolie in this picture? Inter racial marriages sure do produce some amazing results.

I like “clitoris” and I shall assume that all men like “clitoris” too (well okay, not all men). The question that I want to ask to women though is, do you like your clitoris?!

In Sudan and the Muslim world, there are still barbaric practices taking place. New born girls are still subjected to mutilation of their precious reproductive organs. Their clitorises are either cut off or burnt with a red hot metal object. In extreme cases the vagina even gets sewn leaving only a very small hole so that when the girl grows up, she experiences great pain during sex.

All of this savage cruelty is done to girls just so that their temptations get reduced. That way no girl will feel the need to engage in sin. Hence, she wouldn’t bring any dishonor or shame to her family.

I’m telling you people, if there’s anyone who takes this whole “honor” thing to a whole new and extreme level, then it’s probably us Muslims.

I know of girls who go to such extreme measures just to satisfy themselves without risking pregnancy or breaking of the hymen (which most sew back by the way). What do most of those paranoid girls do? They take “it” up the anus. Sorry for the mental image but I just had to discuss this.

This nasty tribalism and extremism must stop. Forced morality is not true morality. It’s simply nothing but oppression in my opinion.

UPDATE: Anal sex is a pretty big deal to many people but not to others it seems. Interesting! In Islam anal sex is forbidden just like tattoos are. I never understood why to tell you the truth. I just think taking “it” up the anus does seem a little inappropriate. Don’t you think so? I mean come on, that’s where your stinky poop comes out from. On the other hand though, your stinky urine does come out from the front. This has got me thinking.

The anus: Is it a one way or 2 ways highway?

This is interesting.

Khartoum’s many Islamic groups have delivered a clear message.

“And if they [UN Troops] come we will fight them until they leave.”

Sudan’s Islamists say they are not entirely in agreement with Al Qaeda’s methods but Ahmed said they would happily take help from anyone to prevent U.N. troops deploying.

Islamist leaders said even Bashir would have cause to fear them if he gave in to international pressure on a Darfur force.

“Bashir cannot give in now, his people would not respect him, even his wife would not respect him if he did,” said Malik.

Maybe I should support the UN troops now huh? The Islamists might just seriously turn against Bashir and his gang. Great news I guess =)

All jokes aside though, it seems like there’s not going to be any peacefull and non-bloody way out of this. I see trouble coming and I smell instability cooking. I’m worried.

(Hat tip: Sudan Watch)

When I turned 18 two years ago, I was on campus busy with my database project. After that I stayed up until 5am doing my laundry. I wasn’t happy but I wasn’t sad either. I didn’t care much.

Today I turned 20 and I’m actually sad. It isn’t because of how I would be spending my birthday. It’s something else. At 12.15am I hung up the phone after talking to a friend who wanted to be the first to wish me a possible 100 candles and that’s when it dawned upon me. I wasn’t happy and my heart was crying in the middle of a smile. I’m 20. I’m a teenager no more. It was such a strange and distractive momentary paranoia. Soon after, my wishful thinking turned towards ignorance. I wished I was ignorant. After all, ignorance is bliss and my Kindergarten days were certainly bliss. We sang happy songs and learned alphabets and numbers. Sesame Street and chocolate milk were a must. Everything was so full of joy wrapped up in bubbly innocence. There was no Lebanon, no Darfur, no Hurricane Katrina, no tsunami, no nothing. It was just Sesame Street, chocolate milk and happy songs.

I want Kindergarten back but I can’t. The train doesn’t seem to be getting any slower and it’s not like there’s any U-turn. Moreover the tracks are heading towards the unknown and the views on both sides all seem so jaded. Kindergarten was beautiful. Kindergarten is beautiful. It’s still there. I see it and it sees me. I smile at it and it smiles back at me. Kindergarten is beautiful and I so badly want it. I so badly want to reach out to it. We all so miserably want to reach out to it but before then, before we’re able to, we’ve got to reach deep within. Once we’ve done that, we wouldn’t feel the need to reach out anymore because we would have already done so. Kindergarten is indeed beautiful.

My mom’s background is in psychology. She always tells me that the greatest enemy youths can succumb to, is too much free time. Here I’m posting a very thought provoking comment made by Finnpundit in a previous post of mine.

Islam doesn’t much discuss the problem of entertainment, and leisure, does it? When societies get affluent enough, there will be a surplus of free time. The notion of “struggle” becomes an anachronism. I don’t see why jihad needs to be thought of as a given. How about a life of living it easy? It’s possible, you know. And if everything needs to be seen as a struggle, then doesn’t that imply something about the person holding that view?

When I think of all the wealth in Saudi Arabia, with free medical care and cradle-to-grave social security, and masses of young people with nothing to do, - as immigrants do all the hard work - I can see all that free time creating conditions for some twisted forms of entertainment.

In a world where leisure is prevalent, the jihadist will probably see jihad as a form of entertainment.

Yup, today is the 22nd, we’re still breathing and Iran hasn’t blasted any country. I guess we can chill now right?

Anyways, I’ll be gone for 2 or 3 days. Assignments, quizes and tests to focus on. Peace!