February 2008

I don’t think people get the extent of how much I love, love, LOVE, LOVE the one and only TED. I’m a super huge fan and I dream of the day that I attend one of their conferences after I achieve something of noticeable proportions.

This post, written by co-founder of Harvard-based Global Voices Online, Ethan Zuckerman who is attending it, is seriously great blog coverage of what went on during the session “How True is Your Worldview“. Comedian Robin Williams, co-founder of Google Sergei Brin and her majesty, Queen Noor of Jordan were all there.

Yaay to blogs and new media.

The title of this post is a subject I’ve been researching quite heavily for my upcoming book. This kind of analysis might seem simple at first but it’s actually quite tricky. So far, I’ve managed to find some great insights after hours of reading and researching, and I’ve come up with a number of ideas, but your perspectives may contain things I might have missed so please don’t hesitate to share them.

The involved complexity lies in this: to varying extents, our minds themselves are the products of the very ideological systems we seek to analyze and evolve.

So, how does one carry out this analysis as accurately as possible? Personally, I see at as an epistemological problem, one involving social contexts.

What do you think?

How dare they!

UPDATE:

The discussion has turned into one about Islamic reform, since it looks like Turkey is in the process of publishing a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam.

This is great news!

February 25, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Religious leaders and specialists gathered in a two day workshop last week to finalize a training curriculum to build the capacity of religious leaders in responding to HIV/AIDS in Sudan.

Over 50 key religious leaders from both the Christian and Muslim faiths joined together to fully endorse the first training curriculum. This module focuses on enabling religious figures to promote spiritual values of care and compassion for People Living with HIV/AIDS.

Sweet. Thumbs up for these people. Apparently, we’re number one in the Arab world in terms of HIV/AIDS infections and number three in terms of drug addiction. So yeah, this is pretty lovely. And I love the fact that it’s bringing together both Christians and Muslims to fight for a common cause.

Related:

• Fighting HIV/AIDS in ‘post-Islamist’ Sudan

Oh dear!

February 24, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir ordered today that no Danish diplomat be received in the country as well as expelling Danish humanitarian organizations and boycotting Danish goods.

This is so utterly silly.

Okay so let’s see. First, a Danish newspaper prints a bunch of cartoons depicting the Prophet (which is nothing new). Next thing we know, Islamists mobilize anger and all hell breaks lose, to the point of making you wonder whether these guys actually worship God or his Prophet. Fast forward more than a year later, and some Muslim nuts get caught in Denmark plotting to kill the cartoonist, to which the response is a symbolic middle finger in the form of a cartoon republication.

1) The Danish media is independent, I repeat, independent (something we can hardly understand given the, oh, so very wonderful fact that we’re super democratic). The government can’t do jack about it, unless it wants to seriously piss off Danish citizens of course.

2) Danish humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan, who by the way are helping people there, can’t control what newspapers in Denmark publish. Yeah, so instead of thanking them for what they do, let’s kick them out. Evil Zionist Scandinavians!

3) Did I mention that Danish media is independent?

Gosh, whatever.

Sudan’s president has in the past used the issue of the cartoons as an excuse to reject Scandinavian peacekeepers in Darfur.

Oh my, like I am sooo surprised, oh, like totally!

Can someone please hand me a dead smelly fish I can smack my face with?

Her smile was widely infectious and her henna beautifully drawn. Graduating from Berkeley was a happy occasion and so was joining Google. Her wedding though, it was starkly different and something immensely better.

She laughed nervously, revealing her white glowing teeth, and joked around with him as she lovingly held his hand and simultaneously struggled to show off the intricate designs on hers to adoring friends.

Time passed by amazingly fast and here I was, gazing at the start of her new life through the vast spans of Facebook. A few messages traveled their purposeful journeys back and forth, and a day later she left a message on my Wall agreeing with me.

Time.

For M and I the years, the tireless revolutions of the earth, this thing we call life, raced by with lightening speed but for N…

… it ended. She was only 20.

As the shisha’s smoke emancipated itself from my lungs, my cell phone beeped. Aimster’s text message was unfortunately real and I had to read it a few times to comprehend what took place. Numerous phone calls later, and the painful facts bubbled to the surface.

N too, had been emancipated… away from the melodies, away from us, into the unknown, away from Time, leaving behind tears and faded smiles, and here I was, gazing at the start of her new life through the vast spans of Facebook.

I feel chocked by its look now. Her profile is emptiness - a digital seemingly void fingerprint imprinted into cyberspace, its undyingness something controlled by the behemoth it exists within and its only vibrancy, the ongoing messages being left on her Wall by friends, south and north, near and far, wherever they are, all with one thing in common.

Time.

Congratulations dear M and Rest In Peace dear N…

… the mighty strokes of the clock’s hands continue ticking - gleefully, relentlessly and in perfect rhythm.

The news:

BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Palestinians were forming a human chain the length of the Gaza Strip on Monday in protest at a crushing Israeli blockade, with Israeli forces on alert for any rush on the border.

Under a light rain, thousands of schoolchildren were joined by adults along Salaheddin Road, the main highway traversing the centre of the impoverished coastal strip, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

… “This is a peaceful and civilised act to let the people express their rejection of the siege and of collective punishment,” Khudari told journalists. “We are raising a cry to the world for it to act.”

Cool, it’s all good, except for one thing. Keep the kids at home… you know, just in case shit happens.

He was just a student:

Students Mutawakil Mohamed Osman (engineering), Ali Mohamed Ali (education), Omer Osman (economics) were brutalized. The Medani security officers tortured, in particular, student Ali Mohamed Ali who witnessed the tortures of several colleagues, including the immediate death of student Mutasim Hamid AbulGasim (computer science) as a result of brutal tortures by police and security officers.

The authorities’ assault on the students occurred at the College of Education during scheduled discussions by the Students Democratic Front as a part of students’ campus activities.

I have never blogged or told stories about what university students in Sudan had to endure during the horrifically heinous 90’s. This doesn’t even begin to tell it.

Maybe I will eventually, but only if I’m tranquil enough to write something coherent. Meanwhile, dear Sudanese readers, you may share some of yours in the comments.

Someone please tell me this isn’t real.

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” - Albert Einstein.

Thanks to the sensationalism of the mainstream media, Sudan has become synonymous with genocide. Oh and not to forget, evil teddy bears. But there’s more to us than just that - a lot more.

In fact, Andrew Heavens knows what I’m talking about.

Here’s the first. Meroe pyramids, about three hours drive out of Khartoum. You can stay in a beautiful but pricey Italian camp with breakfast and dinner thrown in. In the mornings and evenings, you can walk out across the desert, hike up sand dunes, kick at the strange metallic desert stones, explore the pyramids and try and read the 18th century graffiti mixed in with the ancient, ancient hieroglyphics.

Related:

• Skiing on the Nile
• More Nubian Pyramids
• Wonderful Pictures from South Sudan
• Lovely Scenic Pictures of Darfur

Andrew Heavens has written a superb piece on Arab and African gay bloggers. It mentions fellow Sudanese blogger Ali who is gay and tells the story of my post’s aftermath.

I believe that the coming out of Arab and African gays online is a good thing. It’s a wake up call to all the naive ones out there who think such people don’t exist amongst them. Plus, it’s extremely interesting reading their thoughts. Say hello to the real world.

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“Oh no, China isn’t doing anything. It’s playing no role whatsoever.”

Right.