WARNING: Heavy Sarcasm Zone. USA Sucks. Jews Not Welcome. Religion Is Infallible. Reader Discretion Is Advised, and Again, Seriously, Heavy Sarcasm Zone.


From the monthly archives:

August 2007

Interview With Sadiq al-Mahdi, Leader of al-Umma Party

by Drima on August 15, 2007

Sadiq al-Mahid is the former Prime Minister of Sudan. I regard him as an appealing figure in Sudanese politics worthy of respect. Sudan Tribune conducted an excellent interview with him:

Mr. Al Mahdi is one of the few Sudanese political leaders who truly believes in a liberal democracy and ruling by consensus in a country that is traumatized by polarization and extreme positions. No doubt his political ideas and thoughts are well worth revisiting. The articulate, courteous veteran politician doesn’t mince his words when it comes to describing dictatorship and totalitarianism. Al Mahdi seems like a man burdened by the weight of history – his great grandfather miraculously succeeded in uniting the hopelessly divided Sudanese tribes of the 19th Century in ousting the Turkey-Egyptian rule in 1885, and now Sudan once again faces its greatest calamity (using his own word) since independence. Maybe at this historical juncture of our his words might bring some hope to our increasingly bleak-looking future.

The following are some excerpts from the interview:

How do you assess the current political situation in Sudan?

Al-Mahdi: The political situation in Sudan now is very sad, there are three peace agreements which were signed in 2005 and 2006 and they are not working properly. The idea was that the Sudan, through the Naivasha agreement, would make four main achievements: number one, comprehensive peace; number two, inclusive government; number three, to make unity attractive; and number four, to implement a program of democratization and democratic transformation. These aims are not being fulfilled – there is no comprehensive peace, there is no inclusive government, democratization is stalled and there is no democratic transformation to speak of to make unity attractive. In reality all the factors are pointing in the other direction.

Very sad? Make that extremely tragic and super depressing.

Many reports now describe this country as potentially a failing state – what, in your opinion, went wrong? Who do we have to blame if this country disintegrates?

Al-Mahdi: Of course, the main trouble that befell Sudan is that a coup led by a minority party tried to implement a partisan Islamist program in a country which is so full of diversity, a country that has got several religions and several cultures, different regional forces, different political orientations. To try to force a partisan Islamist program in this type of country was the main cause of polarization, both inside Sudan, and between Sudan and its neighbors and the international community. I think this set the ball rolling in the wrong direction.

The second main reason for Sudan’s present calamity is the fact that the National Congress Party tried to change the socio-political map of Darfur in a way which has created four new problems they were not there before. Firstly, politicization of ethnicity; secondly, the insurrection against the central government; thirdly, a major humanitarian tragedy in the IDP camps and their villages; and fourthly, the internationalization of the problem of Darfur. So Darfur now suffers from four new problems. The National Congress Party is responsible for creating these problems and now they are using sedatives, public relations exercises and superficial acts to try to solve problems that need a different approach. I think the coup of June 1989 and the ideology they tried to apply in Sudan, and the way the National Congress Party mis-administered Darfur is responsible for our current state of affairs.

If there’s one Sudanese politician I passionately despise then it’s none other than Hassan al-Turabi. It was he who envisioned the Islamization and Arabization of Sudan. Moreover he was the spiritual guide of the National Congress Party (previously known as the National Islamic Front) when it took over after the coup. People used to call al-Turabi the puppeteer and Omar al-Bashir the puppet.

Do you think the NCP is genuine on the issue of democratic transformation? To put it another way, do you think NCP is capable of transforming its current totalitarian tendency, and embrace true democracy?

Al-Mahdi: I think the NCP itself leans on the state institution and it will evaporate if the state collapses. It’s not a party, it is a group of people holding together because of certain posts and financial interests. They have no ideology and all their ideological sacred cows have been slaughtered. They can’t speak of any kind of achievement and oil production, for instance, is a case where they did not use any oil revenue for the benefit of the people, but only for oppression, not progression. Sudan, since the time of colonialism had enjoyed a kind of welfare state. We consistently supported education, health and provided essential consumer items. There was a welfare state in Sudan and they liquidated it and did not use the resources saved from this to promote development or popular programs, they used it for the intensification of administrative and security institutions and the Army as an institution of oppression. Therefore I think it is clear the NCP has failed.

The slaughtered ideological cow Sadiq al-Mahdi is referring to is Hassan al-Turabi. Omar al-Bashir kicked him out of government and put him on house arrest after suspecting he was up to a dirty game to completely seize power. It’s one of the very few actions carried out by Omar al-Bashir which I fully support.

Read the whole interview if you have time. It’s pretty damn good and I agree with everything he says.

On a related note, I wish countries like Egypt will learn from our lesson. Egyptians are surely going to live the Muslim Brotherhood.

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Yaaay Netanyahu Wins Likud Race!

by Drima on August 15, 2007

Yaaay! He won! Phew! Hey come on, I’m not a Zionist agent. I’m just looking at the bright side. At least Netanyahu’s challenger, crazy Moshe Feiglin got defeated:

Netanyahu faced a relatively strong challenge from Moshe Feiglin, a radical West Bank settler, whose performance in Tuesday’s primary could help shore up the extreme right wing of the party and hurt Netanyahu’s efforts to rehabilitate Likud after it was battered in national elections last year.

…Feiglin’s platform calls for barring Arabs from Israel’s parliament, encouraging non-Jews to emigrate and pulling Israel out of the United Nations. He is viewed as extreme even by many Israeli settlers.

Yaaay! :)

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08 US Elections: Who Will Make America a Better Place For You & Your Children?

by Drima on August 13, 2007

I present to you the Elephants!

http://images.libertyoutlet.com/samples/s-peace.jpg

And the Donkeys!

http://z.about.com/d/classicalmusic/1/0/m/brokebackmountain.jpg

And finally a list of all the presidential candidates with some background information on each one of them. :)

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Cool Photo!

by Drima on August 12, 2007

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Wonderful Hamas Crashes Wedding Party

by Drima on August 11, 2007

Yes, a wedding, a damn wedding. I just watched it on Al-Jazeera a while ago. Such wonderful thuggish behavior (not behaviour). And speaking of Al-Jazeera, I think the coverage might actually be slowly changing. The aired segment was quite anti-Hamas. Usually Hamas is depicted as a pure and “holy” resistance movement.

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Jan Pronk: UN Gave in to Khartoum on Darfur Resolution

by Drima on August 11, 2007

Gee, ya think?

August 9, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — U.N. negotiators gave in to Khartoum over a joint Darfur force, weakening it and essentially enshrining a 2006 peace deal rejected by many rebels and civilians in western Sudan, a former top U.N. envoy said.

Jan Pronk said the Sudanese government had been very successful at watering down a U.N. resolution to deploy 26,000 U.N. and African Union troops and police to Darfur, adding without strong leadership, the force would be paralysed.

While conceding that the resolution to dispatch troops was not good, Pronk said “anything is better at the moment (than) not doing anything and just talking“.

This is precisely how I feel about it. It’s simply the lesser of 2 evils.

Pronk said the removal, at Sudan’s request, of any mention of disarming the Janjaweed militia, mobilised by the government and accused of atrocities in Darfur, was disturbing.

Tell me about it.

Pronk said using Chapter VII to implement the Darfur peace deal signed by only one rebel negotiating factions last year changes the United Nations’ role in the region.

“That means that the U.N. … will have to take a position against those who do not accept the (deal) as it is. The U.N. will no longer be a neutral force.”

He said it left little room to manoeuvre for a renewed political process, which hopes to bring all factions to the negotiating table. Non-signatory rebels want to scrap last year’s deal and start from scratch.

“The Security Council resolution is more or less giving credibility to the position of the government that the (deal) cannot be changed,” he said.

Now that’s an excellent observation I failed to make. Wonderful, more reason to celebrate. Sigh! But hey, in the big picture, something is better than nothing and like I said, this deal is the lesser of 2 evils.

Oh and did I mention Jan Pronk and I exchanged emails previously? Ah, I love the privileges blogging provides. I like the guy (no, not because we exchanged emails). He’s a straight-talking diplomat. Too bad he got kicked out of Sudan.

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Suleiman Jamous: “I deplore all violence”

by Drima on August 11, 2007

Suleiman Jamous plans to leave the UN military hospital he was confined to for more than a year, risking possible arrest. That’s him in the picture.

(JPEG)

“On Monday, I shall leave the UN Military Hospital here for the first time in more than a year. I shall walk to UNMIS headquarters here in Kadugli, and request the UN to transport me to Kenya where I can receive medical treatment, after which I shall return immediately to the challenges of humanitarian assistance and peace.”

… “I have never carried a gun and never will. In my position as humanitarian coordinator I never engaged in any act of violence. As all who know me can attest, I deplore all violence.”

On Tuesday a Foreign Ministry official said that Sudan will allow Suleiman Jamous to be moved without risk of arrest if the international community guarantees he will not rejoin armed rebels in Darfur.

It looks like we’ve possibly just discovered a second Sudanese Ghandi. The first was Ustaz  Taha.

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Society & the Status Quo

by Drima on August 11, 2007

Too many people go through life unquestionably conforming to society’s status quo.

You go to school, you get your A’s, you graduate, you go to a good university, you study some more, you get your A’s, you graduate, you get a good job, you work hard, you get promoted, you work harder, you save some cash, you retire and you tell your kids to do the same damn thing.

You go to your local mosque on Friday, you listen to the super wise genius Imam yelling repeatedly about how evil Jews are and how America must be destroyed, you go home, you flip on the TV, you watch the news, you witness US-backed evil Israeli Jews in action, you tell yourself “it must be true, Jews are evil”, you go to sleep, you go to work next day, you have a conversation with your colleagues about how evil Jews are, you come back home and you continue the same wonderful conversation with your kids.

Conform and you’ll inevitably drown. Conform and you’ll be mediocre. Conform and you’ll parrot the same old boring views repeatedly.

Break away and you’ll slowly but surely find our own voice. It might not be popular. It might even enrage a lot of people. But at least it’s a voice you can call your own.

I know I made some sweeping generalizations in this post but I hope you got the point. If you didn’t, allow me to simplify it.

F*** the status quo.

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Intel Ad: Racist?

by Drima on August 9, 2007

Hmmm…

intelad.jpg

One way of looking at it is as a compliment. We’re the fastest people on the planet. Yaaay! But seriously, six sprinters? All black? That’s just asking for it.

What do you think?

Intel withdraw the ad and posted an apology on their blog, (yes even companies have blogs which are increasingly being used for PR and marketing purposes).

(hat-tip: AfricanLoft)

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Egypt Asked to Investigate Brutal Killings of Sudanese Trying to Cross into Israel

by Drima on August 9, 2007

Good:

(Washington, DC, August 8, 2007) – Egyptian authorities should immediately investigate, with a view to prosecution, allegations that Egyptian border guards killed three Sudanese nationals trying to cross the Egypt-Israeli border, Human Rights Watch said today in a letter to the Egyptian Minister of Interior. Israeli border guards report witnessing Egyptian border guards beating and shooting the migrants.

“The reported brutality of these killings is all the more shocking as it comes at a time when Egypt and Israel are discussing the issue of asylum seekers crossing into Israel,” said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director for Human Rights Watch.

The filthy animals responsible for those sick brutal killings should be hung. Same goes for the ones responsible for this too.

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An Open Letter to the Sudanese Blogosphere

by Drima on August 9, 2007

Dear fellow Sudanese bloggers,

I started my journey as a Sudanese blogger in April 2006. And believe me when I say that it began as a very lonely one. In fact, these were my very first words:

I dug around here and there until I was disappointed to realize there are no Sudanese bloggers out there blogging Sudan’s news (or at least any I heard of). So I took the initiative of starting out this blog to bring you the latest news on the country. This is very important for me to do especially since the Darfur situation is getting very intense.

Fast forward to August 2007, almost a year and half later and look around. I am no longer alone. You have finally made it. We have finally made it. A Sudanese blogosphere has been born.

It was such a pleasure witnessing its birth. It’s even a greater pleasure witnessing its steady growth. Yes, we arrived quite late to the scene. Yes, there aren’t many of us yet. Yes, there are even fewer of us who actively blog, but we are here now, and as more of us join, our collective voice will become louder.

There’s great potential for us to grow rapidly but we need to do more. Help by encouraging those you know to join. Many Sudanese spend so much time participating in online discussion forums like SudaneseOnline, SudanForum and Shamarat. Some of them have so many important and sane things to say. Promote blogging to them. Tell them that unlike forums, blogging has a more open format that allows everyone, even non-Sudanese to easily participate. On top of that, nobody can moderate what they would like to say. It’s simply a better option.

On a related note, every once in a while I discover new isolated Sudanese blogs. Some of them are out there all alone and totally unaware we even exist. Let’s find them, communicate with them, pull them in and make them part of the conversation.

Have hope, blog your hearts out, embrace technology and value the freedom of speech the internet provides. Last but not least, thank you all for making a small dream of mine a reality.

This is just the beginning.

Sincerely,

Drima

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Progress On the Darfur Talks

by Drima on August 9, 2007

Instead of writing a whole post about the latest updates, you can just check out Black Kush’s posts on the issue, here and here.

Unlike many rebel commanders, Suleiman Jamous isn’t hungry for power. He genuinely cares and fights for his people but sadly he’s not present in the talks thanks to the fact that he’s imprisoned. My guess is by doing that the Khartoum government is trying to strengthen its negotiating position and keep the rebels fractured. Suleiman Jamous has been repeatedly cited as someone who can unite them.

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The Bitter Sweet Sudan: Darfur & the Economic Boom

by Drima on August 9, 2007

Thanks to BRE, I just came across this excellent article reporting Sudan’s bitter sweet reality. Read every word of it and be informed.

In Daana’s own words, we are “a nation in waiting”. Our future hinges greatly on various related factors, mainly Darfur, the lifting of US sanctions and the highly possible Southern Sudanese wish for separation.

- Darfur’s chance of witnessing peace is closer than it was before right now. The lives of millions and the future of a nation is at stake.

- Besides balancing the beneficial, yet very risky Chinese “invasion”, the lifting of US sanctions and the inflow of American investments will fuel Sudan’s economy way further. We will diversify our sources of investment and create valuable competition.

- The Southern Sudanese wish for separation could ignite the civil war again. Moreover the loss of the powerful SPLM from the landscape of Sudanese politics will empower Omar al-Bashir’s NCP further and the march towards a democratic Sudan in the near future might turn out to be just a dream.

I don’t see the lifting of US sanctions happening before the Darfur issue is settled. Lifting sanctions from a nation ruled by a regime the US accuses of genocide is simply a no. It would be a very stupid political move for any American President or high US government official to suggest or do that given the current situation but things can change dramatically if and when Darfur sees peace. That will require cooperation from the Sudanese government. We’ve already seen how Ghadafi’s wise decisions helped bring out Libya from isolation.

As the article indicates, I’m not the only one who’s very keen on seeing relations between America and Sudan improve. The lifting of sanctions will be hugely beneficial to both Sudan and America but firstly, Omar al-Bashir will need some serious PR to clean up his very dirty image. Moreover America needs to keep its promises. We’ve already been betrayed after cooperating on terrorism related issues. American sanctions weren’t lifted as promised. They should have been but then Darfur happened. So much hinges on Darfur right now, so much.

Meanwhile, we are indeed a nation in waiting and this is our bitter sweet reality.

Related posts:

- Khartoum is Where the Party is At

- Sudan’s Booming Economy: VOA Report

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South Sudan Awards Gold & Uranium Mining Contracts

by Drima on August 8, 2007

Good for the Southerners:

August 4, 2007 (JUBA) — South Sudan has awarded two companies exploration licenses for gold and uranium in areas thought to be rich in minerals, an official from the semi-autonomous region said.

Hopefully Darfur’s day to do the same will come soon. But before Uranium or gold, Darfur needs peace and water.

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Tom Tancredo: The Muslim World’s Best Friend

by Drima on August 8, 2007

Super genius fantastic monkey Tom Tancredo wants to bomb Mecca and Medina in retaliation for any potential future terrorist attack on America. Sure, go ahead, ignite hell and send oil prices skyrocketing. Me guessing Mr. Brilliant is trying to score a few pathetic political points. America’s best buddies, the Saudis must surely like him. Head over to Tancredo Watch and find out more wonderful facts.

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