May 2007

Oh yes, please make sure you do. I’ve been doing lots of reading and I managed to dig up lots of Darfur related links. I’m going to publish a post before the event commenting about the topics that will be discussed.

Topics under the spotlight include what the responsibilities of the international community are, how the gap can be narrowed between Khartoum and the majority of U.N. members, and why Darfur has sparked more international attention than other forgotten African conflicts.

The list of panelists is defintely an interesting one:

Panelists:
* Paul Holmes, Reuters (moderator)
* Ann Curry, NBC News
* Jean-Marie Guehenno, Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping U.N
* Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudanese Ambassador to the U.N
* John Prendergast, International Crisis Group
* Mia Farrow, Actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
* Lauren Landis, Senior Representative, Sudan, U.S. Department of State

Told ya! I just wish this damn thing was freaking televized. I’m expecting a heated debate to go down especially since the Sudanese Ambassador to the U.N. is going to be present. I predict that he’ll get banged with many questions. It will be interesting to observe how he responds.

I’m tied up with many things at the moment but I’ll make time for this since I don’t want to miss it. Sudanese boys and girls in da house, blog your thoughts or drop a comment.

The first was here and now this is another one. He looks pissed off. (hat tip: Kizzie)

I just got back from a superb business seminar. The main speaker was a successful millionaire entrepreneur from Canada who talked about a lot of useful and interesting stuff. One primary thing that truly stuck with me was what he called “the power of the dream”. I could really relate to it.

The dream is everything. It’s all you’ve got when you get started new, fresh and inexperienced. That dream better be mighty and powerful. You better be able to feel it deep down inside your gut and you better be able to clearly visualize it. Either the obstacles and barriers will win you, or you’ll win them but to do so you need to have a powerful dream. The dream will keep you “alive”.
A lot of people set out to achieve their dreams, most fail. Or to be more precise, as time passes by and the dream slowly dies, most settle for being mediocre. I never will.

I enjoy the struggle. It shapes you up. It transforms you and it keeps pushing you to the limit. Only when you’re pushed to the limit, you do realize what you’re made of.

I’ve tried 3 times and failed but those failures were the good kind, the kind that you learn from only to get up once again and start walking a stronger, wiser person. I’ve made progress and I’ll continue my journey.

Why? Because I’m a Drima.

I thought the following quote from this article was hilarious:

“Don’t let assholes rent space in your head.”

I love it! So true. LOL.

I hope so:

May18, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — Formal political negotiations to resolve the deadly conflict engulfing Sudan’s Darfur region could begin soon, with many of the warring parties indicating they are ready to sit down and talk, the senior United Nations envoy to the crisis said today.

…“We have the beginning now of a credible political process,” he said during a press briefing following his most recent trip to the region with his African Union (AU) counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim. “We are now at the stage where we will practically prepare for the negotiations.”

And as I’ve always repeated on this blog:

One of the biggest obstacles is the number of rebel movements in Darfur, which have grown because the movements have splintered into factions since the beginning of the fighting in the remote and impoverished region. At least nine distinct groups are now fighting the Government.

Eliasson said the number of rebel groups would present a major logistical challenge to organizing formal negotiations, but he was still confident that the process was on track as many of the groups have pledged that they are ready to talk.

Fingers crossed. Meanwhile more Sudanese try to cross into Israel.

Money? Knowledge? Dick Cheney as your best friend? Marble balls? A Nuclear arsenal? What do you need most to become very powerful? This question had me thinking a lot and I believe I finally found the answer:

The ability to persuade and convince!

An interesting post.

The first 4 paragraphs of this post at GV had me shocked.

This is an extremely well illustrated guide to the wonderful party known as Darfur. It’s not just well illustrated but it’s also accurate and non-politicized. If you have time go through it. You’ll find it useful and you’ll surely learn something new. I’d suggest it to anyone wanting to know more about the Darfur conflict (besides the pages of darfur-awareness.org of course).

I’ve got more posts I want to publish but I’m already falling asleep as I type this. I only slept 4 hours last night. Me need to go to bed. I’m exhausted. Posting will continue tommorrow. Good night!

In the coming days, there will be a big event for Darfur in New York City involving Global Voices Online and the media. It will be a big chance for each one of you to get your voices to a bigger audience so try not to miss it. Voice your opinion and what you think should be done. It will be great if you can publish your posts by Sunday. I’ll link to you after that.

Lately I’ve been reading Opinion Journal more frequently and yesterday I stumbled upon this excellent piece. Not Your Mama, this is for you as promised :

There is a serious and widening disconnect between the timetables that commanders are using to guide their actions in Iraq and those being demanded by politicians in Washington.

…Inevitably, since suicide attacks will still be occurring in Iraq in September, many commentators and politicians will write off the surge as a failure. Many are already doing so, even though the Baghdad Security Plan is barely three months old and the fourth extra U.S. brigade has only recently arrived.

…An article in USA Today reported on a Pentagon-funded study which confirms what military historians already know–an average insurgency can run for a decade, but most fail in the end. Translation: If we’re going to be successful in Iraq, we’re going to have to make a long-term commitment.

…Most Americans seem resigned to that fate. In fact many think that the civil war has already begun, and we can’t or shouldn’t do anything about it. We hear all the time that “we have no business getting into the middle of someone else’s civil war”–often from the very same people who in the 1990s were (rightly) urging that we get involved in the civil wars of the former Yugoslavia or who today (rightly) urge us to get involved in the civil war in Sudan.

I don’t know about that “(rightly)” part refering to Sudan but anyways…

…If U.S. troops were to pull out anytime in the foreseeable future, the probable result would not be (as so many advocates of withdrawal claim) that Iraqis would “get their act together” and take care of their problems themselves. The far more likely consequence would be an all-out civil war. Not only would this be a humanitarian tragedy for which the U.S. would bear indirect responsibility, but it would also be a catastrophe for American interests in the region. If we are seen as the losers in Iraq, al Qaeda would be seen as the winner.

That ought to be “lovely”. The problem is that the majority of the American people aren’t listening to the Elephants anymore and they don’t care about what they have to say. It’s unfortunate that the Elephants screwed up many times in the last few years. Meanwhile Donkeys will keep proposing their symbolic bills, BAM they’ll get rejected and as we approach 2008, the possibility of a Donkey president will get higher and higher.

Art that evokes is art that matters.

Me likes. What does it evoke in you? Conflicting feelings and thoughts? Can you reconcile them? I can’t… and I can’t be bothered to. I just like it.

(hat tip: Lawrence of Arabia @ eteraz)

The following are some cool posts I read recently:

Obama speaks out on “acting white”.

Desi Nationalism, Hanafi Purists & the Ouster of an American-Muslim Pioneer.

Lookism. (this one is so damn good. I loved it. Field-negro is a new favorite)

On Fate & Faith 

Enjoy! Busy with work, album and entrepreneurial stuff. While it’s physically very tiring, it’s also fun. So much to say and write, so little time. More later as soon as I’m a bit more free.

The following excerpt is related to my previous post “Sudan: Arab or African“:

The second element of the crisis of identity in Northern Sudan is concerning “ambiguity” about identity. Northerners came face to face with this symptom especially in Europe and America where people are classified into ethnic and social categories. In 1990, a group of Northern Sudanese in Birmingham in Britain convened a meeting to discuss how to fill in the Local Council’s Form, and especially the question about the social category. They felt that they did not fit in any of the categories that include, among others, “White, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Black African, and Others”. It was clear to them to tick on “Others”, but what was not clear was whether to specify as “Sudanese, Sudanese Arab, or just Arab”. There was a heated discussion before they finally settled on “Sudanese Arab”. When the question why not to tick on the category of Black African was raised, the immediate response was that, “but we are not blacks”. When another question raised the point why not just say Sudanese, the answer was that: “Sudanese include Northerners and Southerners, and, therefore, does not give an accurate description of us”. Ambiguity about identity was also observed in the feeling of dismay Northerners usually experience when they discover, for the first time, that they are considered blacks in Europe and America. It is also observed in their attitude towards the black communities there. To be called black was a shocking experience to the average Northern individual. Southerners usually joke by saying to their Northern friends “thank God here we are all blacks” and its variant “here we are all abid“. Northerners attitude towards the black population in these countries is similar to their attitude towards the Southerners. They usually refer to them by the word “abid“, and one of my interviewees, once, referred to the Afro Caribbeans as Southerners “janubiyyin“.

The first part I highlighted in bold is just one of the things that indicate the huge challenges we face as Sudanese. The second is true and hilarious. During my holiday in America, I bumped into a Southern Sudanese in a shopping mall somewhere in Aurora, Chicago. We conversed and joked for a while. Then he said the exact same thing.

After 9/11, I believe things changed for most Northern Sudanese though. Many in America where happy to be identified as African and not Arab. They wanted nothing to do with being Arab. All of a sudden it became a burden. My brother didn’t care much. For him, nothing changed. He had always regarded himself as first Muslim, second African and third Arab, the same way I do. But hey, this is me and my bro. Bring a sizeable group of us Northern Sudanese (about 10 or 20), drop the question, “are you Arab or African” and be prepared to run after that. It might get ugly… the identity crisis continues.