America

Remember this post I wrote a few days ago?

The majority of my blogging when I first started was aimed at explaining the complexities and correcting the inaccuracies, the most famous ones being the whole “Arabs Vs Africans” and “rebels: good, government: bad” narratives.

Well, JMac (someone who understands well what Darur is about) just wrote a review about a documentary on Darfur called The Devil Came on Horseback which she recently watched (and which I haven’t watched yet)

I’ll preface by saying that I appreciate all that Brian Steidle did while in Sudan and the fact that he was interested enough in what was going on there, to volunteer to work with the AU. But so many things in the film didn’t sit right with me.

… he introduces the 2 major rebel groups (there are now at least 10), and actually says something to the effect of “these groups are fighting for their rights under a repressive government, this is why they fight.” If you knew little about the situation in Darfur, you’d walk away from this film thinking those groups were somehow heroes in all this. RUBISH. Again, there is no “good” or “bad” guys here, toting guns around. They are all BAD GUYS.

Read the whole review here.

I wasn’t surprised at all about what the movie portrayed according to JMac’s account. It’s unfortunately the same simplistic narrative spiced up with the “if the US government sees these photos, they’ll send troops and end this right now” type of very heartening but dangerously naive thinking all too commonly associated with the Darfur cause in America.

US intervention could (and I strongly suspect will) stop the killing - but only momentarily. After that, the conflict will only get worse. Why? Two main reasons. Strong nationalistic sentiments and jihad (you can read more here).

Towards the end of the review JMac asked a very good question:

(I am still trying to learn how to be an effective advocate. Perhaps repeating simple phrases about a complex situation IS the best way to be effective?)

I’ve come across unique opinions saying the main reason the American people didn’t care about Congo as much as they care about Darfur now is because the marketing was bad. A simple “black and white” narrative is apparently much more effective to market than an accurate yet complex one.

Many consider it a dilemma. I don’t. Uninformed opinions have the potential to develop into an effective lobbying force demanding horrible solutions as we are currently witnessing.

The current dominant Darfur narrative needs some “tweaking”. Maintaining its emotional impact is easy. A picture speaks a thousand words.

Done. It’s not difficult.

On a related note, what I find funny and so ironic about the Darfur cause in America is that most of those calling for US intervention in Darfur are the same people calling for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq!

I had no idea what the hell it was until 2 days ago, which was the first time I heard about it. I was sitting inside the US Embassy waiting for my turn to be interviewed for my Visa and CNN was on. I watched the news but I was a little confused and clueless since I didn’t know the background of the story.

Why was there so much anger? Why were thousands of African Americans protesting? “Wonderful” Jesse Jackson is involved? Damn! Six Jena? Genie and Aladdin? What? I had no idea. And I wasn’t paying full attention to the TV anyway.

Today I came across a Facebook group called “Free The Jena Six” with over 100,000 members. I read the story posted there and then I read other versions of the story elsewhere.

Keeping or removing the brackets in the aforementioned title is apparently a big part of the debate. That’s what I’ve observed. I say the brackets should stay.

The racism without a doubt was extremely appalling and it’s quite shocking to learn it still exists in America to this sad extent. However the word “Free” in “Free The Jena Six” implies the six of them didn’t do anything wrong at all. They did. They responded to appalling racism with violence, and that was a very unfortunate response. As for the sentences, they’re crazy.

What do you think?

Metallica - Enter Sandman (Live)

System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B

And eventually, I might start getting called a Zionist agent for listening too much to Matisyahu.

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.

I present to you the Elephants!

And the Donkeys!

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

I’m not sure since it’s too early to tell but from how things are looking right now, I think it’s going to boil down to the 2 of them facing each other. Both of them are unique in the sense that they have the potential of appealing to voters from the opposing side. Furthermore they already have significant support from their voting bases.

Hillary is a unique Donkey due to her un-Donkey support of the Iraq war. Hence she has potential to capture some votes from the Right. Giuliani is a unique Elephant due to his un-Elephant stance on social issues like abortion. He’s pro-choice. Hence he has potential to capture some votes from the Left.

Personally, I’d like to see John McCain from the Elephant side. I like the guy but I don’t think he stands a chance to get elected anymore since he pissed off too many people in his voting base with regards to the illegal immigration issue. So yes, I’m guessing he’s pretty much “bye bye”.
Also, as much as I like Donkey Obama’s eloquent speeches, I think his inexperience is starting to show when he proposes dumb ideas such as withdrawing from Iraq and sending troops to Pakistan instead (hat tip: DB Shobrawy). Ya, sure thing, that would work. Still though, Obama has a good chance of beating Hillary.

I’m still busy and I can’t manage to fix the bug in the comments section yet. I guess I might just get a new theme and modify it. It’s time for a new look anyway. But before that, here are some linkies for today:

1- Sudan ordered to pay $8 million to Cole victims’ families - fair enough, but the US government might as well pay for Bill Clinton’s mistake of bombing al-Shifa which was supposedly producing dangerous “chemical weapons”.

2- Sudan’s president declares 2007 as year for peace in Darfur - yeah, sure thing. We might actually get celebrate, I repeat might… in December 2007 being the earliest.

3- Celebrating Sudan, With Songs of Peace and Protest (Sudanese Concert in New York) - Rara Avis, who is a Sudanese girl living in NY, blogged about it after attending it. For cool pictures of the event you can click here and scroll down.

4- Anti-Zionism Vs Anti-Semitism - an excellent comment.

5- Israel’s mob wars: Hit men, drugs and recycling - looks like Israel is also having its own mini version of “Hamas Vs Fatah” issues to deal with.

6- Land For Sale…to Jews - Israel’s racist land policies.

7- I hate Israel - if you reverse the terminology (for example “Muslims” instead of “Jews”), what this loony nut is saying would be no different than many of the comments you see on LGF or JihadWatch. How ironic.

8- Apostate - She’s a Pakistani ex-Muslim. I just discovered her blog a few days ago. Even though I disagree with her points of view, I enjoy reading it. She’s a gifted writer. Moreover the fact that she blogs openly with a revealed identity is simply fascinating and interesting. The same can be said about Umar Lee, a white American Muslim convert.

Don’t you just love the blogosphere?

There won’t be a complete withdrawal.

Apparently he did:

July 19, 2007 (NASHVILLE, Tennessee) — US President George W. Bush said Thursday that he had considered, and discarded, the idea of sending US troops unilaterally to Sudan’s Darfur province to halt what he calls “genocide” there

“I made the decision not to send US troops unilaterally into Darfur,” he said. “I made the decision in consultations with allies, as well as consultations with members of Congress and activists.”

Excellent choice dude. Good. Please don’t send them. More children, both Darfurian and American will be orphaned if you do.

Long time readers of this blog will remember how shocked I was when I watched Maury for the first time ever last year when I was in America. Seriously, it was one major culture shock. I simply couldn’t grasp the concept of the show. Not only that but my mouth was so wide-open, you could have put a lorry inside it.

This however, is something I found super amusing and totally funny! Pak Attack is hilarious! But Maury? Please!

Thank goodness I still haven’t watched Jerry Springer. I heard he’s way worse.

(hat tip: Ali Eteraz)

Interesting…

(Mubarak al-Fadil)

KHARTOUM, July 15 (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities have arrested 17 people including opposition leader Mubarak al-Fadil and retired military officers, accusing them of trying to overthrow the government, state security leaders said on Sunday.

Fadil and Abdel Jalil al-Basha, both of the Umma breakaway party, were arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning. Fadil’s party denied the accusations.

“Their plan was to overthrow the government, but it was very weak,” Mohamed Abdallah Atta, deputy head of Sudan’s state security organ, told reporters. “They were ready to fight for seven days,” he added.

He said the group had wanted to execute their plan on July 15 but, lacking arms and soldiers, they had decided to delay and meet again on July 20. Lacking support, they planned instead to cause chaos in the capital.

Atta said the group planned to bring 1,000 conscripts from South Kordofan state in central Sudan, but only 30 had arrived in the capital.

He said Fadil was the group coordinator and was now in Kobar prison, but others were still being questioned by state security. Those charged would be taken to court, he added.

Atta said contacts had been made with undisclosed foreign countries, but said no neighbouring Arab country was involved.

And then…

July 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government accused the US for the first time of involvement in a sabotage plot foiled yesterday.

US Embassy in Khartoum responds…

July 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM, Sudan) — The American embassy in Khartoum denied Monday allegations by Sudanese officials that the U.S. was involved in an alleged plot to destabilize the government.

“We categorically deny any connection with this alleged conspiracy,” the U.S. embassy said in a statement.

Hehehehe… I’m finding this finger pointing really amusing. But seriously though, I’m quite skeptical about this so called attempted coup. I’m even way more skeptical America had anything to do with it. After all the NCP is cooperating with the CIA extensively. Why mess that up? It’s all just distractions from important issues I say.

I asked a few people about their reactions and read some by other Sudanese. Iraq’s experience is what most fear (that includes me). A few year’s ago before the invasion, I remember people would usually be happy to hear or contemplate this kind of stuff. Now? “Nope, too risky, we don’t want Khartoum turning into another Baghdad” they say.

New Yorkers, if you’re interested you could go check it out on the 21st of July. Click here for more info.

I like the balanced narrative he provides:

Andrew Natsios told a news conference in Khartoum following a visit to Darfur that both sides were to blame for the conflict that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

… A May 2006 Darfur peace deal was signed by only one rebel faction. Since then rebels have split into a dozen groups. “Some of them are descending into warlordism and criminality and this is not a good trend in Darfur, which is all the more reason why we need to accelerate the political process for a peace agreement,” Natsios said.

“Some rebel leaders are cynically obstructing the peace process and the United States government is very disturbed by this. It needs to end now,” he continued.

I’ve said 2 things many times before and I’ll say them again:

1- Both sides need to be pressured, both.

2- This is not a “good Vs evil” kind of story. It’s “bad Vs worse”.