February 2008

I’ve seen too many Elephants engaging in smear and personal attacks against Obama. Others keep banging his policies. This article, by an Elephant however is different. It criticizes what Obama stands for but doesn’t miss a very important part of the big picture, one that puts a big smile on my face and cheers me up. Nice!

Regardless of how you feel about Obama’s ideas, the man has already achieved the seemingly impossible, and for that he has my admiration.

On a related note, I’m quite irritated by the focus on his “blackness”. He’s as black as he is white, but somehow he’s touted constantly as the “black” candidate. Not nice!

I’ve been wanting to share the following for a while. I’m not sure how to say this so I’ll just keep it short and simple.

I’m writing a book. I can’t talk much about it right now but it’s about blogging, my story as a blogger, and freedom of expression in the Muslim world. It’s a project I’m very excited about and one you can expect sometime late next year. I look forward to the day it gets published. Just letting you know, so watch out folks! Here comes the next New York Times best-selling author.

Also, after almost two years of blogging anonymously, the fear of writing openly has largely disappeared. A hidden identity, I’ve realized, is simply a comforting strategy (at least in most cases it is). There are no guarantees. Moreover, blogging to me is not an end in itself anymore but merely a means to an end. Sooner or later, it’s bound to happen, I will come out and when I do, my reasons will be made evident. For now, I am Drima.

… the suffering of countless people usually continues unnoticed and uncared for.

We need Israelis to step into Darfur, because when they do the Arab media will blast the spotlight on the nastiness taking place there… and they’ll blame it on the Jews.

We need a few Zionists to walk around the slums at the outskirts of Khartoum because when they do, people will finally discover and realize the amount of misery that exists there… and then in a fraction of a second, they’ll somehow blame it on the Jews.

At the Altar of Palestine, we sacrifice our issues. Mona Eltahawy isn’t alone in what she thinks because indeed, there can be no denying the obvious.

For decades, successive dictators in the Arab world have sacrificed their respective national concerns on the altar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, telling us it must be resolved before any kind of progress can be made, whether it’s stopping terrorism, embracing democracy or ending poverty. Unsurprisingly, despite peace with Israel for the past 29 years, Egypt still suffers from all those problems.

As long as Palestinians suffer under the evil Zionists, there cannot be any progress in our nations. As long as Jews are alive, our problems will not go away. We must rid ourselves of this cancer. Must we not?

Arab media, particularly the state-owned kind, are equally discouraged from focusing on national issues — such as the desperate state of our slums — and instead devote most newsprint and airtime to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or Iraq. The latter never got much attention when Saddam Hussein was filling mass graves with Shi’ites and Kurds, but catapulted to the top of the news bulletins when the Arab world’s other bete noire — the United States — invaded Iraq in 2003.

Ah, how could I forget those Americans — the Big Satan? Once we’re done with the Little Satan, we’ll turn our sights to the Big one — the land of alcohol, porn, Las Vegas and the root of all evil.

Let’s shelter our oppressed Palestinian brothers. Let’s put them first before any of those living a few feet away from us. They deserve more help. The problems in our own backyards don’t matter, and for many they don’t even exist, but those that are miles and miles away from us do — through our television screens, the radios’ shouts and screams, opinions of the Arab streets, and our schools’ books and distorted dreams.

Oh Lord, destroy the sons of pigs and apes. They are our wonderful leaders’ deadly Weapons of Mass Distraction.

Sorry non-Arabic speakers, it’s too bad you won’t get this because it’s a seriously hilarious diss to our wonderful “leaders”. The Egyptian Adel Imam is too funny. May he live long and prosper.

“Oh Lord, kill all the people so that when those leaders wake up in the morning next day, they’ll have no one to rule”. - A rough translation of one line that killed me with laughter.

To the others who understand Arabic, enjoy!

This one was certainly an amusing “wtf moment”. I’ve been having many of those recently.

Who knew there’s actually one in America alive and well, and promoting socialism? Not me. They should at least change the name to Social Democrats or something. Or better still, wake up. It’s 2008.

If anything, the practice of capitalism in America needs to be tweaked because seriously, when there are war vets, and old women and men who are homeless in the wealthiest nation on earth, something is pretty screwed up. But socialism? Please. That’s not a good solution.

Yaay to communists.

Amazing pictures you should see. I want one!

Let’s hope he actually manages to achieve something (besides screwing up relations more)…

Deng Alor said that he will discuss during the visit a number of issues with US officials, including the relations between Khartoum and Washington and ways to normalize them, Darfur issue and the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).

Good luck ya zool. And meanwhile…

February 4, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has postponed the signing of legal framework of Darfur hybrid peacekeeping operation saying a date would be determined later.

Here we go again, doing what we do best.

Yes, believe it!

This race is getting so much more interesting with every passing minute. A new website called Republicans for Obama has popped up. And no, it’s not fake. It’s real and was even featured on Time!

On a related note Susan Eisenhower, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s grand daughter has a super interesting article in the Washington Post. She’s a self-proclaimed Elephant - a lifelong one - who’s backing Obama! Amazing!

I am watching the Obama phenomenon with great fascination. Sure, he’s vague when it comes to foreign policy but his appeal is so strong and his speeches so inspirational and uplifting that they’ve attracted the seemingly impossible. (His speeches are written by a 26 year old in case you didn’t know). The great discontent felt by some Elephant voters towards their party also made the shift easier.

Meanwhile, many conservatives are sad that Rudy quit the race and are now busy dissing McCain. (what’s so wrong with McCain that makes him deserve all this bashing?)

Also over at Digg, some are saying that Elephants who support Obama are not true Elephants. Barbara Gordon, at Republicans for Obama, responded to the accusations on the website’s blog and explained her reasons for supporting Obama. It’s one hell of a super unique perspective I must say! Her stance is summed up in these two sentences:

We didn’t leave the party behind. The party left us.

At the end of the day, it’s about what issues voters are concerned with most. We could very well be witnessing history in the making!

Yes, that Taraji Mustafa. The picture indicates one thing. She’s politically active and is managing to gain the attention of some powerful people. Good for her!

Dear readers,

today is a good and happy day. I believe those of you who have been coming here for a while now already know how excited I get every time a new Sudanese blog pops up. My open letter to the Sudanese blogosphere indicated that evidently.

It looks like the Sudanese blogosphere is starting to build real momentum. Blogs written in English are quite active now and are the people-powered new media showing the genuine, diverse and raw face of Sudan to the world. It’s great but we could do a lot better and get more to join.

On the other hand, blogs within Sudanese aimed mainly at a Sudanese audience and written in Arabic have mushroomed at another corner of this vast online space. They’re just as important as those written in English (maybe even more important) and they’re explicitly leveraging the power of the internet to practice their right to free expression.

Communities are forming, voices are gathering and constructive discussion is happening.

Allow me to introduce to you SudaneseBloggers.com, the official community of Sudanese bloggers (well, at least those who write in Arabic).

The quality of posts is pretty good. People are venting a great deal and saying what’s on their mind.

Amna, a human rights activist has a brave post in English about how she was sexually harassed by a journalist while working at a pro-government newspaper. One blog in Arabic called Un-Masking Islam is vehemently anti-Islamist and has no love whatsoever for Turabi’s failed policies which brought nothing but misery to the Sudanese people. Imad on the other hand chose the slogan of the Muslim brotherhood “Islam is the solution” for his blog. Even Ali, Black-Gay-Arab is onboard. The community is dynamic and diverse.

One blog can hardly make a difference, but many combined can be a real force for some good change. This is a real milestone for the Sudanese blogosphere and we should all be very glad about it. May we continue growing.

Indeed, today is a good and happy day.

Sorry guys, my internet connection got screwed again over the weekend. For now I leave you with this interesting article. The emphasis is mine:

US politics often look absurd from a European perspective, since the entire bipartisan system maps onto the conservative half of European politics. A case in point is that the US “Left” is called “the liberals”, while the Liberal Party in Sweden is part of the Right wing. How could it be otherwise? Liberalism is about free-market capitalism, small government, low taxes, all Right-wing ideals. Yes, both US parties advocate lowNormal taxes are 30% to a Swede. taxes. And that’s rock bottom, before adding the effect of progressive taxation. That’s how we can afford universal health care. Hint, hint.

So, believe me, US politics don’t have a Left. Looking at the presidential candidates, I am frankly appalled. None of them would be a viable politician in Sweden. They all support the death penalty, none advocates strict gun control and all make frequent mention of their religious beliefs in public. These are extremist stances. Not even the tiny Christian Democrat party mentions God publicly in Sweden, for fear of alienating the pragmatic rationalist majority.

From a European perspective, US politics are an ongoing battle between the extreme Right and the middle Right. The Republican presidential candidates are really, really scary people in my view. So all of us in the world at large who live under the shadow of US political hegemony are holding our breaths, hoping that Clinton or Obama will make it into office. They’re pretty bad, but the alternative would be unspeakably dreadful.

And there you have it, America through the eyes of a Scandinavian!