Friday, January 30, 2009

Tribalism Vs. Statism

Last night I went to a police station to file a report against some "Al Nizam Al3am" recruites who arrested me for "buying alcohol" (A Nizam Ala'am=Puplic Order, which is a police department responsible for "fighting moral crimes", like alcohol, drugs, sex, etc, and they are SOB's I tell you), well, me and a friend did buy a bottle of alcohol, but my friend who was holding it jumbed off the Raksha (click to see what a Raksha is) and he ran like he never ran before lol, I was "roughed" around and threatened by a piece of bango/marijuana if I don't make my friend come back with the bottle, in the end they let me go.. anyways, that's not the issue. the issue is I wanted to avenge for wasting my time so bad I decided to go to the Police Station myself and find these suckers, I memorized the car's plate numbers and took another Raksha.

at the station I was asked for my name, age, address, and "my tribe". the policeman who was asking me these questions was a western sudanese. I told him I can't answer this question cuz it's not relevant to my case. but he insisted it because it's "procedures". I couldn't understand how asking me about my tribe is procedure!
but as I tried to describe the dudes who arrested me i couldn't help but to reffer to one of them as "wad 3arab" (=son of an arab). i felt bad for using this stupid description so I added the pharase "you know, as THEY say, he was a wad 3arab/arab".
and I thought about "THEY" for a minute, THEY is obviously the ones who find benefit in such discrimination, the benefit is mostly political of course, but most of the times it is mere Pride. THEY find comfort in being proud of who THEY are, or in fact, what THEIR tribe is. the same western policeman told me "this will never change", and "sudan will remain racist forever". i don't think this is racism, this is more like an attempt to fulfil one's pride in one's self. i don't think this can be "changed" or removed, but it can be directed in a better way, instead of classifying sudanese people on the basis of their tribe, why not do so on the basis of their city, state, or home town, if sudanese people learned to be proud in who they really are, Sudanese, and replaced the need for tribalism as a method for pride fulfilment, we would have a much better Sudan.

I want the next presidenid to try and make everyone proud of where he was born, make one proud of the land not the people/tribes who once dwelled this land. every sudanese state/region has its own unique culture, use this as way to fulfil people's pride with. why should all states have to teach the same subjects in schools, let every state teach its own history for example, so the children grow with pride in their land no matter what the tribes they came from are. but when you teach everyone about "great" muslim and "arab" men, our peoblem will never be solved.

i have to go now, oh, don't mind the topic's title, it's meaningless lol
peace
and yeah, our weekend was not completely ruined after all, we went out again and bought another bottle from a place right next to the Police Station :D

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Shadia Mansour

the palestinian singer and rapper Shadia Mansour is a real talented artist, one minute she's singing like Fayrooz, the next she's spitting rap like no other arab rapper. she's simply amazing. it's been only three days since I listened to her with Mahmoud Jrere (from DAM) on this amazing song "Badi Salam" (I want peace).




cheak her tracks on her Myspace: www.myspace.com/shadiamusic

All is War





Fun-da-mental -- All Is War album which caused a media frenzy is now in video form.The video shows the three bombmakers, an anarchist bomb maker who shows how with a small amount of money he can craete chaos. An intellectual, academic and educated renegade who for a certain amount of money is willing to deal his secrets to the highest bidder.The most interesting is the last one who is sponsered by the majority of the general public from their taxes and works on our behalf through the Govts or States to make the most horrific bombs(in killing ability).The track questions the morality of an acceptable and legal bomber and one that is working for other purposes.In this day of "War On Terror" all common sense and justice seems to be a monoply to those who are the most wealthy and most hypocritical, those that cause most mischeif and feel that they have the sole and moral right to muder people.. Madness all of it...video & tracks downlaods from www.fun-da-mental.co.uk