Obey and Follow

We live in a country that follows the “obey and follow” system of government, made even worse by the insistence of utilization of religion to justify this.  We are not alone in this; there are other countries that follow the same example, which does not qualify this as a suitable system of governance.

 

“There is no democracy. You're given systems to follow” – said to me by a friend.  The website http://www.dictionary,com defines democracy as “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.”  This definition seemingly negates my friends’ statement, as much truth there is in his statement; it draws on a slightly pessimistic outlook on governance.  After all, we are humans, which logically means that we are incapable of creating anything perfect.  So democracy as a concept is the best we will ever do, and we will never agree on the actual details of the democratic system we each prefer (big or small government, socialism or libertarianism, etc.).  That does not mean we should stop trying, regardless of the obvious faults of the systems at hand.

 

The wealthy elite do have an abnormal level of say in who become our elected leaders, and this trend shall unfortunately continue till Armageddon (if you believe in it); that is the nature of humanity.  This will continue as long as greed exists, which always will, and is the underlying driving motivation of capitalism.  The brilliant thing about the free capitalist systems that exist is the freedom they offer each individual; it offers one and all the chance to live as they want.  That freedom comes at a price though, that being the endless circle of want and desires we feed on a daily basis.  It keeps us always wanting and thriving for more, always hungry, ambitious, oblivious to the rat race we run.

 

This brings me back to the system of governance we have in Sudan; obey and follow.  People who dare to seek power by force, and continue to rule by force can easily be classified as psychopaths and narcissistic.  Gadhafi probably does think he is the greatest thing to come out of Libya, but that only hides the fact that actually the power brokers in such establishments are always the ones we never hear about; the ones quietly pulling the strings.  Unfortunately we will never get to know these people, for they or people of the same ilk pull the strings in the seemingly free countries.  Yes; even the so-called Leader of the Free World is not actually in charge of his/her (let’s not anger the feminists anymore) decisions.  I can go further into this (Bilderberg group and all that) but that’s not the purpose of this piece.

Still, democracy is the best concept we have, and we therefore strive for because of the freedom it promises us.  I am not asking for much when I insist that it is my right not to be imprisoned, tortured, sodomized, raped, electrocuted (and whatever other horrors they do) because I decided to speak my mind.  Democracy is supposed to offer me that right, at least when implemented fully as per the human rights agreements the world has agreed upon (yes; miscarriages of justice happen), and allow me to fulfil my other needs (refer to Maslow, etc.).  

"AND SO IS HIS COMMAND. BE AND IT BECOMES. SURE IT IS A DIFFERENT WORLD NOW OUR MOTHER IS AWAKE. GOD BLESS EGYPT. GOD BLESS THE EGYPTIANS AND US ALL. ONLY NOW CAN I REST IN PEACE."

The late Prof. Osman S. A. Ismail Al-Bili, sent this message on February 13th 2011, and he passed away on March 14th here in Doha, Qatar.

Fine Art

The appreciation of Art is something I have always taken for granted, not fully realizing that it is actually a pleasure that many do not experience.  I grew up in a house that has always had a vast amount of original paintings, encompassing different styles, done to what I believe to be a high level of ability.  How you may ask.

Well, my mother is an artist, whose humility regarding her ability has led me to view other artist with a twinge of under-appreciation of the quality of their work,  But, now, I have grown to realize the momentousness of the ability that my mother possesses.

We, in my household, have been blessed by growing up in a home emblazoned with the most amazing pieces of original art work; of which some samples are shown here: http://amnahassan.blogspot.com/2008/03/welcome.html

My Sadness!

On the morning of Monday March 14th, at approx 10 am (Doha time), my father walked to his bed with the help of a physiotherapist after finishing an exercise session.  He had surgery last Tuesday for a slipped disc.  He sat on the bed, put his legs up and laid down; and when his head touched the pillow his heart stopped.  In the blink of an eye, he was gone.......

كن بشيراُ

من أنت؟

من معتقد نفسك ان تكون؟

أمعتقد نفسك نبياً أم رسولاً؟

أمسلمٌ أنت؟

كيف ترضى أن يفعل هذا بإسمك؟

ألا تدرى ما يحدث لأبناء بلدك؟

أناسٌ يعملون عندك وبإسمك يغتصبون حرماتنا وانت ترضى؟

فماذا فعلت؟

 لا شئ، كيف وأنك تدعى الإيمان والإسلام؟

ألا تخاف يوم الحساب؟

فماذا فعلت لهذا اليوم؟

أتعتقد بأنه لا يمكن لغيرك فعل ماهو أحسن أو أفضل؟

أتعتفد نفسك خيرة أمتك؟

فإن كان فأليس هذا كفراً؟

فما هذا الغرور؟

من أنت؟

ألا تدرى من هو عمر؟

كيف تفعل هذا وإسمك عمر؟

كيف ترضى بإغتصاب حرماتنا يا عمر؟

من أنت؟

كن بشيراُ على قومك

إذهب

إذهب

إذهب

فلقد سئمنا منك

Down with Sudan

We as Sudanese can all agree in hoping for a free Sudan, a Sudan where all are equal, are all free to express ourselves, and live out our dreams.  Yet we continue to repeat the same actions that are leading to the doom of our beloved nation.  It seems that we either do not learn or refuse to learn; we live in denial of the facts which are obvious to the rest of the world but not us.  We think so highly of ourselves; as we have great potential, but have become deluded in our belief that things will just happen because we are who we are.

We blindly follow our so called leaders, although they have clearly shown an unrivalled ability to fail once, twice, thrice and so on.  Where it comes to failure; it seems that the leaders of our so-called political movements have written the book (if not many books).  When will we learn?  When will we wake up from this nightmare?  When will the denial end? 

Since the promise of independence in 1956, our enlightened political elite have left no stone unturned in their pursuit of failure.  Making one mistake after another, in a manner unrivalled and seemingly never ending, since it continues till this day.  Yet, we blindly follow them.  And, as such the blame may not lie with them, but with us, the Sudanese people.  It is us who are at fault; we are the ones who accepted their behavior and continue to accept their behavior.   We are the ones who are holding up the signs saying “Down with Sudan!”

To that I say, and without disrespecting any of these individuals; enough with Bashir, enough with Sadiq, enough with Turabi, enough with alsayed Mohammed, enough with all of you.  Please, step aside.  Behave like elderly intellectuals for a change, put your country ahead of your selfish desires, for you cannot claim to represent the masses because you all are tyrants and despots.  Your party machines are undemocratic and autocratic.  A true democracy can never exist when the political parties it encompasses are dynastic.

Yet, the fault does not totally lie with these people; the blame lay fairly at the feet of the Sudanese.  Look at Tunis, Egypt, Yemen, Libya; look at Ghana.  They have learned, they have studied, they have moved forward; but we still linger in our delinquent illusions of grandeur.