August 2007

This is excellent news! Finally there’s something truly positive happening on the ground.

Oh dear! Yes, it’s true, with the current persisting attitudes, peace is just around the corner.

The great and beloved Ahmadinejad has made the intention clear:

…President Ahmadinejad of Iran said that a power vacuum was imminent in Iraq and that Tehran was ready to fill it.

… “The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly,” Mr Ahmadinejad said. “Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap.”

I hope no such vacuum becomes imminent. An Iranian-dominated Iraq will be very, very bad.

Ah, believe me, 14 hours of non-stop, and I mean absolutely non-stop sleeping is super wonderful! I am grumpy no more. Thank you all for the birthday wishes. They mean a lot to me.

At the moment I’m finishing up my big pile of assignments. I’ll be back in business in a day or two. Stick around. Peace!

… wasn’t big at all.

Imagine forgetting about your own birthday! I kid you not. If my friends didn’t start text messaging me their consecutive wishes last night after 12.30am, I would have most probably still remained unaware until the end of the day.

Twenty one.

Since I’m at my super boring “in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the jungle” university campus, I did nothing except the usual on a slow but hectic Saturday like this one: study, finish up assignments, laundry, continue researching for my final year project, watch Blood In Blood Out and study some more.

If I were back in the city, it would have been FUN. All the gangs of friends are back there. We would have at least, at least, gone for some shisha (hookah) and hit the clubs after that.

Twenty freaking one.

I know many of you are going to want to smack me on my head with a frying pan for saying this, but maaaaaaaan, I feel so old.

Bleh, I think me needs a short nap. Too grumpy right now. Today is weird, similarly like this very day one year ago.

… for meddling in the country’s affairs. I’m guessing that means Darfur.

Great. Just what we need. Al-Qaeda in Khartoum.

Israel has finally decided the fate of Darfurian refugees.

Despite expelling nearly 50 Sudanese refugees in an overnight operation on Saturday, Israel has agreed to absorb 500 asylum-seekers from Darfur, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Sunday.

… Egyptian security said late Saturday that Israel sent back 48 Africans, most of them Sudanese, across the border with Egypt.

Israel has been faced with a very difficult dilemma and well-founded worries these past few months. While it’s difficult to be completely happy, I must say the approach being taken is balanced.

… Egyptian police said Darfurians were among the 48 - and would be expelled from Egypt to Sudan.

I hope once back in Sudan, they won’t get executed like these guys. Or worse, mercilessly beaten and killed by Egyptian security.

My position has always been to allow the refugees already within Israel to stay with priority being given to Darfurian refugee families. Unlike Darfurians, Southern Sudanese won’t be in real danger if deported. The SPLM will most probably protect them from punishment.

If there has been anything good about this whole episode, then it was the chance it gave everyone to witness the intense inter-Israeli debates on the issue. I know a few Sudanese, I emphasize few, who told me recently they found the whole spectacle revealing and fascinating. Seeing Jews arguing against other Jews and passionately defending the Darfurian refugees, contradicts the “Jews are evil” mindset most Muslim Sudanese are brainwashed into believing from a young age.

… Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, said about 400 have entered Israel in recent years. Baker said they would be allowed to live in Israel, and that the ban applied to new arrivals.

Schwartz objected to any such ban. “The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history,” he said.

Indeed, Jews are inherently evil.

I predict we’ll soon get to hear some grumbling from a Sudanese government official.

- It’s been playing in a loop, non-stop, since Friday night.

- Neither did I break up with anyone nor am I heartbroken.

- He has a blog too. The Taliban hate music.

- Delving into academics. Lighter posting ahead.

I grew up in a household that valued Islam and science (something which might seem paradoxical to a number of atheists). It wasn’t overly religious, and it wasn’t secular either. MTV and Bay Watch weren’t forbidden, yet they weren’t embraced. The focus was mainly on the spiritual aspects of Islam, for I was taught that without a solid spiritual foundation, the rest would be wobbly and misguided.

My parents pray five times a day, everyday, and while they encouraged me to do the same as a child, they never forced me to do so against my own will. I was free to make my own choices. Eventually I chose to follow my dad once in a while to the neighborhood mosque, a mosque that was blessed with a young charismatic Imam possessing a very beautiful voice. He had the ability to “sing” the Koran so beautifully, your mind got swept to a peaceful realm so far away, you never had to worry about a single thing. It was then that I slowly began to develop the habit of praying.

Now at 20, with ever-increasing stress-causing factors, prayer just keeps getting better. Why do I do it? Simple. It’s a form of meditation (when performed right).

It’s not just a set of “up and down” movements. It’s certainly not out of greed for heaven, and it’s surely not out of fear of hell’s eternal inferno. Those are both common views, which in my opinion, are unfortunately over-emphasized and hammered into our heads from a very young age sometimes. They should be minimal reasons for praying.

I pray because it’s calming, because it’s soothing and because it’s relaxing. It feels best when I’m not in a hurry. It feels absolutely best when performed as if it’s the last prayer I’ll ever have the chance to perform.

Some pop Xanax to relax themselves. Some listen to Bob Marley and smoke marijuana while ignoring all the associated health risks. Others practice a little Yoga. If Islam was a burden, I would have given it up a long time ago, and hence I prefer to pray five times a day.

Boy am I glad I discovered this guy. I swear what he says is so sweet, it makes me want to weep. What a super sane dude. We need more like him and Dhiyaa Al-Musawi.

I can really relate to him and what he says. Just check out this and especially this. I couldn’t find anything substantial I disagreed with him on whether it’s Israel, the United States, Iraq, Afghanistan and more importantly Islam.

It looks like Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari and I are pretty much on the same page.

God bless him.

You may watch all his video clips here. They are very worthy of your time.

I thought I had seen it all but it turns out I’m so dead wrong. I still can’t get over the culture shock I had when I watched Maury for the first time but THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTFish? Lord have mercy on her mother! I am speechless.

Recently a competition called Miss Arab World 2007 was held in Cairo without a bikini in sight. You can read more about it here. A Sudanese participated in the competition but Miss Bahrain won. I spent a long time looking for the Sudanese participant’s picture and I finally found it! Apparently her name is Sumaiah Mohamed and here she is.

Not bad, but I’ve seen hotter.

I was excited when I found the picture in SudanForum but as I scrolled down, the excitement evaporated.

I’m telling you, we Sudanese are wonderful. I think even when it comes to cotton candy, we Northerners and Southerners will still find a reason to argue and bring out the never-ending Arab/African debate. Just have a look at how badly the thread deteriorated. Here are some random quotes.

SoulBrother:
I give her a B- I seen more hotter Sudanese girl and personally ,,, I don’t Dig skinny girls any how ,, Good luck to her

RenHeit:
Anybody got her number, I would like to congratulate her for participating and tell her what a wonderful job her mom and dad did

GoldFace:
مسابقات الجمال حرااااااااااام (Drima translating: Beauty contests are haraaaam i.e. sinful)

Unconscious Lady:
Goldface If They wore a Bikini or anything of that sort . We could say it is Haram. But they didn’t ok.

TTG:
Where this took place and who were the voters?
If the voters were arabs or muslims, then, you don’t expect them to vote for a nigger, they will never do that.

note:
Except for the word MUSLIMS (which you are always trying to stuff it anywhere), You are right, i agree with you arabs will never vote for Sudanese.

RAM~MI~RAN:
Why didn’t they called it Miss terrorists world?, cuz that is the only thing they are good at…

Ana-omdurman:
a winner of a beauty contest is not just about a beautiful face and beautiful legs (according to its founders) but it is a competition compromises of knowledge & intellegence as well. True in North sudan there are alot more beautiful girls than this but they may not have the intellegence capacity to pass the questions.

papimorenito:
i think it said miss Sudan on her sach not miss north sudan. wasn’t it this knid of atitute that started both the the noth-south war and north-west wra? this exclusive nature of the northern arabs.

we don’t need a CPA nor DPA, we need change of atitute and mentality. or els both CPA and DPA are useless

papimorenito:
on a good day i can excuse identifying as an arab on linguistic grounds, but say you identify youself as an arab on political grounds, now tell me that ain’t propaganda.

Ana-omdurman:
It is miss north sudan that competes in the arab world,that is why I used north sudan as example. It is miss Dinka that usually competes in East africa & Uganda and america

papimorenito
although this may be true, it is the kind of atitute i’m talking about, why do we segragate ourselves, when miss dinka goes to represent sudan in African contest as you claimed, there is nothing that stipulates that a northern can not represent sudan in an African beauty contest as the competition is open to african countries, so why do you assume that a dinka can not go and represent sudan in an arab beauty contest, because she is not muslim or because she is not arab

Read it all from beginning to end here if you want to.  Sigh! More reason to celebrate our identity crisis! But for the sake of being more optimistic, I must say there were some sane people there.