November 2007

Here’s the latest round up of the Sudanese blogosphere.

I cannot believe I missed this five months old New York Times article. Remember the open letter I wrote to the Save Darfur Coalition criticizing their strategies (while praising their efforts to raise awareness)? (They haven’t replied by the way). Or how about this and this? Well, let’s have a look at the article:

Even as advocacy groups attained the seeming triumph of President Bush’s new sanctions against Sudan, the organization that helped bring the conflict in Darfur to the world’s attention is in upheaval, firing its executive director, reorganizing its board and rethinking its strategies.

… Sam Worthington, the president and chief executive of InterAction, a coalition of aid groups, complained to Mr. Rubenstein by e-mail that Save Darfur’s advertising was confusing the public and damaging the relief effort.

“I am deeply concerned by the inability of Save Darfur to be informed by the realities on the ground and to understand the consequences of your proposed actions,” Mr. Worthington wrote.

He noted that contrary to assertions in its initial ads, Save Darfur did not represent any of the organizations working in Darfur, and he accused it of “misstating facts.” He said its endorsement of plans that included a no-flight zone and the use of multilateral forces “could easily result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals.”

Another aid group, Action Against Hunger, said in a statement last week that a forced intervention by United Nations troops without the approval of the Sudanese government “could have disastrous consequences that risk triggering a further escalation of violence while jeopardizing the provision of vital humanitarian assistance to millions of people.”

Sweeeeeeeet!

Told ya!

Yup, it’s true. I’ve written about the hijab here and here. Even our beloved Danish friend, the one and only Halalhippie has. Now it might actually become a reality in the Danish parliament.

And you know what’s funny? It isn’t in the Turkish one. Ironic isn’t it?

Via Rob Crilly:

Several of my journalist pals made the trip up to Sirte, Libya, for the Darfur peace talks. They reckoned there were about 120 journalists or so. And three rebels.

Discovered via Iraq.DailyVoices.com:

Long live Iraq’s true freedom fighters!!

UPDATE:

I wrote this six months ago in a post that pissed off some people:

If, I repeat if, order and security is back and if Iraqis start seeing peace, prosperity and justice in the coming years, then I believe Bush will go down in history as a liberator. If that doesn’t happen, then he will forever be remembered as an evil warmonger and will go down in history as one of the worst presidents in modern times.

Now read what the BBC has to say. Yes, the BBC! Me is happy and cautiously hopeful.

I’m a huge, huge fan of TED talks. They’re inspiring, extremely informative and deeply thought provoking. I finally had time to watch this excellent speech by Andrew Mwenda. I’m happy that ideas like his are finally beginning to make an impact. If you’re wondering why, then check what I’ve said before:

My ultimate dream is to help people become entrepreneurs but before I do that, I myself need to become a successful entrepreneur. I don’t believe in charity as much as I believe in entrepreneurship. Like the Chinese say “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.”

I heartily agree with Mwenda’s ideas and opinions on the World Bank and IMF. Moreover, I too I’m a believer in self-initiative and a staunch opponent of the victimhood mentality many of us are entrenched in. Watch his speech:

My exams are very near and approaching, so posting might be light for the next two to three weeks.

• The pros and cons of Sudanese oil wealth.
• Rebels still attacking oil-related targets.
• Chinese investment in Sudan now exceeding 6 billion dollars.
• The SPLM and NCP are in talks to end the political crisis.
• Northern troops will pull out of Southern oil fields before the end of the year.

Many Sudanese are anxiously following the recent events. Most of those I’ve heard and spoken to have one thing in common, a milder version of this.

PS: please don’t forget to vote.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this:

My message to southerners whom are living in khartoum right now. Be careful if you become sick make sure not to be treated by arab Doctors they will inject you with HIV, I warned you about this two years ago, but many of you didn’t listen, at last two years many of southerns have been injected with HIV in Khartoum Hospitals, I got this message from Dr I trust. As southern women if you get pregnant travel to south for delivery to avoid three deadly things,
1- Not to be circumcise during the delivery
2- Not to be inject you and your child with HIV during delivery
3- To avoid not to be pregnant again, that will be your last child, the new arab’s policy is southerns lives in Khartoum don’t have to have more then one child and that policy will be worst after separation.I warn you.

Sigh! I think I’m beginning to understand how Jews feel.

This cracked me up so badly!

… it occurred to me that Democrats really don’t need to do anything. All liberals need to do is sit back and watch while the whole Republican government resigns after it’s discovered that they’re all actually gay.

That makes at least three this year. Mark Foley, Larry Craig and Richard Curtis. Am I missing someone?

Am I the only one finding this hilarious?

I’ve said the following in this article I wrote before two weeks and which was published a few days ago:

The situation is becoming more complex. Darfur, Nubia, up in the far north and the derailed implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Al-Bashir’s NCP and the Southern SPLM must not be regarded as three separate issues requiring different solutions. The root problems are essentially the same in all cases – lack of wealth and power sharing.

Now read this by Peter Schumann who worked for the UN in Sudan:

One of the last activities I was involved with was facilitating to strengthen the political relationship between the SPLM and the ‘Darfur Rebels’–we had two very important meetings in Juba, pre and post Abuja. Surprisingly (?) the UN–AU Mediation was not amused about the growing linkage between these two political groupings, it seemed that they saw this initiative more as a threat to their approach to form a common platform in Darfur, ignoring to a large extent the role of the SPLM.

Peter confirms what we already knew, namely that behind the scenes, the SPLM and Darfur’s rebels are talking together and strategizing.

The timing of the SPLM’s withdrawal from the Government of National “Unity” is telling. In case you didn’t notice, it was close to the scheduled Darfur peace talks in Libya (which not surprisingly were a failure, given the fact that key rebel figures didn’t attend. I suspect the SPLM might have had something to do with it).

Anyways, Peter’s outlook on the future of Sudan is far from pleasant:

The next couple of months will in all likelihood see a deterioration of the security situation in Southern Sudan and in Darfur. The CPA will continue be dishonoured in particular and all provisions related to the key Naivasha principles, in particular the right for self determination, with an escalation of military conflict focusing on the oil fields in Sector III. The deployment of UNAMID will focus on the military-security dimension and will result in the well know tussles with Khartoum over import of equipment and granting of visas and travel permits. All this will keep the UN and AU bureaucracies very preoccupied–do not underestimate the challenges to build a large scale integrated Mission under hostile conditions! Khartoum has mastered the art to divide and rule the UN bureaucracy, with the AU on board it will be even easier to divert attention from a political programme in support of forces in Sudan who want change, lasting and honest change to a system of governance which does not thrive on marginalization and instability but which guarantees the survival and well being of all Sudanese.

And what does Alex De Waal have to say?

I cannot agree more that the focus must now be on the CPA and a single solution for the whole of Sudan. The opportunity for a separate Darfur agreement was missed last year and I believe it is unlikely that it will recur soon.

Increasingly issues facing Darfur and South Sudan are inseparable and so are those of other parts of Sudan. They’re not the disease. They’re all merely symptoms of it. The disease is something else.

Use your imagination!

The voting has begun! Vote for me! Spread the word. Ask your friends to vote. If I end up in the top six I’ll be satisfied.

What the…

Haaretz reporter Ben Lynfield says:

48 African refugees missing since deported by IDF

Concern is growing about the well-being of the 48 African refugees, most of them Sudanese, who have been unaccounted for since they were detained by Egyptian security forces more than two months ago after being deported by the IDF to Sinai.

WHAT? Did he just say “concern is growing”? And he’s actually reporting this in an Israeli newspaper? As if the Jews care. No, not just any Jews. No, not those ones that made out with Ahmadinejad during his “Jews Suck” conference. No, not them. Me talking about Israeli Jews. HELLO! Jews are inherently evil remember?

Them? Good?

Nooooooooooooooooo! Impossible!

… Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said repeatedly that he has assurances from Mubarak that deportees would not be mistreated or sent back to Sudan, where they could face life imprisonment or the death penalty for having been in Israel.

Screw them both! No mistreatment in Egypt?

Raaaaaaaaaaaaaight!

… An Egyptian legal source said Friday that a Sudanese couple among the detained refugees had been released from detention by Egyptian authorities after the husband was tortured during an interrogation centering on why he had gone to Israel.

“They poured boiling water on his body and took the man and blindfolded his eyes and said ‘if you don’t tell us the real reason you went there we will shoot you’.”said the legal source.

Ooooooooo, surprise of the century!

… We know that they have been detained for no good reason. There should be no punishment for an attempt to find a safer place or a place where they would enjoy their rights.” She said

Is she CRAZY? Hell yeah, there must be a punishment. We must judge those refugee buggers from the comforts of our air-conditioned rooms. It’s our duty. This is Israel we’re talking about. It’s not a freaking joke.

Understood?

…

Sigh! Lord have mercy!

I recently had the chance to meet Irshad Manji at a conference in Washington DC.

The first time I discovered Irshad Manji was in a not-so-pleasant article which painted her as a sell-out and an opportunist . Apparently many Muslims think she’s the Devil in disguise. Needless to say, those were the kind of articles I continued coming across about her. Then one day I decided to have a look at her website just to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Standing happily in pictures together with Salman Rushdie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali isn’t exactly going to win you many Muslim friends. My mind was made-up and I chose to dislike her. This lasted for a while but my impression of her eventually changed.

American Muslim blogger, Ali Eteraz has written quite extensively about Irshad Manji. The following are just some of the posts he authored:

• Manji’s Failure As Muslim Martin Luther
• Irshad’s Islamic Shout Out
• Secular Summit: Manji Didn’t Sign Secular Declaration
• Another Review Of Manji’s Faith Without Fear
• Irshad Manji Shutting Down Refusenik Website

His coverage of her took a change from negative to positive. That caught my attention and so I began re-examining her closely. [click to continue...]