They occupied us and stole our resources. That’s how they became rich. European colonialism is the reason why Westerners are wealthy. That’s why we’re still struggling. Excuses excuses excuses… Bla bla bla… *Yawn*… It’s been many years since colonialism. Correct me if I’m wrong but has Finland colonized any countries? Denmark anyone? (Drima praying: please don’t mention the cartoons and overlook my main point). What about Sweden or Norway? Ah, let’s forget Europeans for a second. Japan was freaking nuked, 50 years later, they’re the world’s second biggest economy. You know what, forget what I said. Instead let’s see what al-Qaradhawi himself has said:

How come the Zionist gang has managed to be superior to us, despite being so few? It has become superior through knowledge, through technology, and through strength. It has become superior to us through work. We had the desert before our eyes but we didn’t do anything with it. When they took over, they turned it into a green oasis. How can a nation that does not work progress? How can it grow?

We’re the victims only because we choose to be. Some people I know never want to look in the mirror.

Hmmmm:

Feb 27, 2007 (AMSTERDAM) — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor named the first two suspects accused of committing war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region on Tuesday, a former state interior minister and a militia commander.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges to issue summons against Ahmed Haroun, state minister of interior during the height of the conflict, and militia commander Ali Mohamed Ali Abdelrahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.

You know what? I can’t even be bothered! The Hague named 2 suspects accused of committing war crimes in Sudan. Bleh, so what?! I’m with Black Kush. Why? Two words. Paper tiger. Sorry ICC, I hope I’m wrong but that’s how I feel.

Someone by the name of CommonSense commented the following on Hipster’s blog:

Sudanese people always delving into the identity issue. On top of defending themselves from racism….they are trying to find out who they are…whilst at the same time being racist to each other..that to me looks like a national issue not just one person.

It sums up one of our major problems pretty well. Sad but true!

Oh, it’s so GOOD! By the way, I’m loving his banner. Hmmmm… I’m jealous!

Interesting:

A while back I noticed the most bizarre thing while watching an American movie on an Arabic channel (I think it may have been MBC or Dubai One)… the words “lesbian” and “Jew” were not translated in the Arabic subtitles! And today, while watching the Sopranos the word c**t was not censored!! The broadcasting channel was Dubai One and it was around 4pm Dubai time so it was before the watershed hours… come to think of it… do watershed hours even exist on Arabic channels??

The censorship standard seems to be censor whatever may not be culturally acceptable… but if it’s not culturally acceptable why show it in the first place? I mean if you want to censor something because it’s deemed to be culturally inappropriate then simply don’t show it at all instead of showing it and doing a partial censor. Plus, as much as we like to deny their existence, homosexuals do exist in the Arab world and have been around for forever, and they have not occurred as a result of Western brainwashing attempts as conspiracy theorists would like to believe. This means that censoring “lesbian” in Arabic subtitles won’t stop nor reduce the occurrence of homosexuality in the Arab world (and it wasn’t even a complete censorship since you heard it in English!). Now we come to the word Jew… yup, things aren’t great with Israel but since when did Jew become a word worthy of censorship?? Isn’t censorship applied to things we deem inappropriate… so how is a faith inappropriate? If we start censoring “Jew” in subtitles should we apply it on a wider scale and start removing it from holy scripture???… No, I didn’t think that would be sensible either, so why censor it at all?! Was the censor hoping that by doing so he would have liberated Palestine??!

Read it all. Go girl!

Last night was supposed to be a night with heavy blogging activity. Thanks to my damn ISP, that didn’t happen. Now my internet is back but I’m not so free. I’ve got some online tasks to attend to and lots of emails to send. Blogging on The Sudanese Thinker shall resume soon. Meanwhile check this post out.

Some of these guys need some serious psychological counseling! Disgusting! Especially that Jad guy.

As the UK prepares to withdraw some of its troops from Iraq, it also prepares to send Prince Harry there. Here’s more:

British royalty has a long history of service in the armed forces. Queen Elizabeth II was a uniformed driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II, along with her sister, Princess Margaret. Harry’s father, Charles, the Prince of Wales, earned his wings with the Royal Air Force in 1971, and his grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh served on the battleship Valiant during wartime in 1941.

The most recent royal to see action was Prince Andrew, Harry’s uncle, who flew a Sea King helicopter as a decoy target accompanying British ships during the 1982 Falklands War.

Cool! I didn’t know this. Ehm ehm, hello Bush, are you there? Members of Congress anyone? Bush’s kids, are you lurking around? Maybe you should start reading this blog. Oh ya and Tony, just a friendly piece of advise, make sure Harry gets back safely, ’cause if he doesn’t, you’re going to get a lovely spanking, ya heard! LOL.

In case you forgot what happened, then here it is again:

Cortez said this week that former private Steven D. Green raped the girl in front of him; shot her father, mother and sister; and then shot her in the head. He also testified that the soldiers attempted to burn the girl’s body; burned their own clothes; and threw the murder weapon, an AK-47, into a canal in an attempt to dispose of the evidence.

This is the “yaaaaaay!” part:

A U.S. soldier was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year.

And this is the WTFish??!!!”:

Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement.

… The military judge hearing the case, Col. Stephen R. Henley, issued a sentence of life in prison without parole, the maximum for the charges. Under military law, the defendant is given the lesser sentence unless he violates terms of the plea agreement, which requires Cortez to testify against others charged in the case.

That is simply NUTS!! (30 seconds later) Okay, now that I’m calm and thinking clearer about it, I’m starting to realize that this might be quite reasonable if his testimony gets the others who participated in the crime locked up too. No wait… Grrrr!!!

I’m having conflicting emotions on this one. I’m thinking, excuse me, feeling that 10 years is pathetically way too short for this sicko. Bleh, whatever… Meanwhile, Mr. Psychologist had this to say:

Psychologist Charles Figley testified that Cortez and the other soldiers likely suffered stress brought on by fatigue and trauma.

“It eats you up,” Figley said. “It’s a horrible thing. This is not unique. We’ve seen this in other wars.”

…Prosecutors said the stress was no excuse for the actions of Cortez and the other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell.

Thank you, prosecutors. Solution? Monitor the psychological state of soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere periodically so that horrific crimes like this don’t have to happen again.

Oh yes, it is.

In a mild surprise to outside experts, the nuclear agency reported that Iran was now operating or about to switch on roughly 1,000 centrifuges, the high-speed devices that enrich uranium, at its nuclear facility at Natanz.

…Coming on the heels of the Bush administration’s accusations that Iran’s Quds Force is sending deadly bombs and other weapons into Iraq, the report heightens what has become a growing confrontation.

Since the last energy agency assessment of Iran’s progress, President Bush has ordered a second aircraft carrier group into waters in striking distance of Iran, an unsubtle reminder that, if diplomacy fails, Mr. Bush could order a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. But senior administration officials have insisted in recent days that the show of military force is intended only to remind Iran of Washington’s options, and they have dismissed the idea that Mr. Bush is considering an attack. (Drima: Ya right!)

…Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Thursday that even though the Iranians were not as far along as they would like to be, they were still far closer to learning how to make bomb-grade uranium than Israel was comfortable with. He dodged questions about at what point Israel might lean toward military action, a step American officials have said that they are trying to discourage.

 …The atomic agency in its report said Iran had already moved into the cavernous halls nearly 10 tons of unenriched uranium — enough, nuclear experts said, to make at least one atom bomb. In all, at its sprawling plant at Isfahan, Iran has produced some 200 tons of uranium now ready for enrichment at Natanz. If turned into weapons-grade uranium, that would be enough for more than a dozen nuclear weapons.

While, I am worried about the future of the region, I must say that Iranians have got some crazy guts. Moreover I must also admit that the level of scientific sophistication they’ve reached without much outside help is truly impressive. War or the fear of it has a strange way of motivating humans and propelling science forward in amazing ways. My prediction? They won’t stop enriching. The Iranians simply won’t. This will continue until:

a)      Some form of revolution happens and the government gets overthrown.

b)      They end up with the bomb (which might probably speed up this prediction and make it true). Not a pleasant scenario.

c)      The nuclear facilities get bombed (which will mean a truly lovely bigger war in the region and oil prices sky rocketing). Definitely not a pleasant scenario.

Meanwhile, the Mullahs are rubbing their hands and drooling. We’re heading down a very wonderful path. Indeed, we are!

Interesting. But what’s more interesting to me is this:

Puerto Rico’s 4 million people are U.S. citizens and can be drafted into the military but cannot vote for president and have no voting representation in Congress. They also do not pay federal taxes.

I can’t believe I never knew this.

Hmmmm:

Feb 20, 2007 (TRIPOLI) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir arrived in Libya for talks he said were aimed at engaging holdout rebel groups from Darfur, where four years of violence continues to rage unabated.

The talks are aimed at “launching negotiations with groups that did not sign the Abuja agreement,” Beshir was quoted as saying by the official SUNA news agency upon arrival in the Libyan capital.

He was expected to meet Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki and representatives from the many rebel groups operating in the war-torn western Sudanese region.

Is al-Bashir really being sincere with this latest effort or is he just acting as if he’s from planet “look at me, look at me, I’m a peace maker”? By default, I’m a hopefull and dreamy Drima but I must say that I don’t see the Darfur problem getting solved any time soon. Why? For many reasons, the latest being this one. It’s pathetic isn’t it? Bleh, let them continue drinking their coffee and eating their cheese cakes. Meanwhile, innocent ones in South Sudan and Darfur continue to die. Human nature has a truly lovely side to it.

Cool! I just found the link in my inbox. They even have their own campaign for Sami al-Hajj. Me support. Either release Sami or give him a fair trial. Anyways, it looks like a new Sudanese blogger has just joined. The growth continues :). One more thing, happy Chinese New Year. It’s the year of the pig. Yup, that’s right, the year of the pig! Oh no, I said the “P” word, I better run and hide. Good night!

Yes, eastern Chad. They’re to be stationed near the border with Darfur. Also according to an article in the Sudanese Arabic newspaper al-Rayaam, US and Chad reached an agreement that allows the US military to be stationed there and another one whereby Chad agreed not to hand over US troops for trial anywhere other than the US itself.