South Sudan: Unseen Imperial Hands
South Sudan: Challenges of Fighting Meg-Corruption
Scary report on Southern and Northern Sudan
Some unseen photos of bollywood actors...
An Entrepreneur, a faceless and unseen Ogre, an incredibly reluctant authority and non existent justice
Of course, the northern Sudanese regime is lousy and has committed great crimes and massacres against the people of south Sudan and genocide in catercorner Darfur.
But Sudan was not always what it is today. The regime currently running the north is authoritarian and has Islamic fundamentalists pretensions. But in the 1960s Sudan has the largest communist party in any Arabic speaking nation. And the nation has an illustrious contemporary history of lucid intellectuals, artists and poets. But America's meddling during the Cold War undercut the left and led to the rise of religious fanatics like it did in much of the Middle East.
So Sudan's need not be the fanatical image of a genocidal regime and a demagogic president. Most of the people in the nation are decent people, like people everywhere, and the regime has moderated in recent years.
As for south Sudan. The people of the south are holding a referendum for independence. The very idea of a south Sudan is a British imperialist chimerical notion invented in an act against Muslims as the New York Times noted this morning:
"The British colonizers planted a political minefield in the 1920s when they drew a line across the bottom third of Sudan and declared that northern and southern Sudanese should remain separate. Part of the reason was to check the spread of Islam."
Also easier, as the Belgians learned in Rwanda, to conquer a land if you divide its people and play up sectarianism in order, as the colonial cliche goes, "divide and conquer".
Sudan should be a united state, but people are free to opt out peacefully if they want (including Americans). I wish the people of the south great peace and prosperity along with those in the north. But let's recognize the cynical American support for such an initiative:
A lot can be said. Yes, the Arab North (with Soviet and later US support) has dealt with the South with a combination of neglect, racism, and cruelty. But Israeli dirty hands have been present in the Southern rebellion from the start (there is no secessionist or partitionist movement in the Arab world in which Israel has not been heavily involved: either in support of the government (like in Oman) or in opposition to government (like in Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon, etc). But the referendum is a sham. This is one of the most illiterate areas in the world. The US creates an artificial mark for voter turnout level as a criterion, and then the US spends lavishly on a PR campaign in favor of the secession. I mean, this is all cooked up by the US, no matter how much I condemn successive Sudanese government, especially the US puppet, the famous kook, Ja`far Numayri. Also, there is something very fishy about the behavior of the tyrant, Omar Bashir. He suddenly accepts the referendum and his ambassador even said that if the South wants to establish relations with Israel, it is their business. Bashir has received (political and/or financial) payment from the US for his silence. For a corrupt ruler like himself, all is possible. And can he be more annoying than when he dances with the cane? Oh, would Obama and Carter have been in favor of a referendum of the people of the South IN THE US prior to Civil War? Just asking, really.
American's claims are rarely pure and innocent.
