It is not the worse one by Mohammed Elizouly Adam

Writers, artists and activists must not only promote democracy, justice, peace and human rights but they must be free from all kinds of primary affiliations in a country like Sudan that has a long history of racism, religious conflict and oppression. We mostly see our future through their paintings, writings and actions, especially in our fuzzy and confusing situation.

It looks odd when everything seems normal such as change, war, peace, love co-existence and willingness of making a difference, then there must be something tremendously wrong. That means hope is no longer something effective or possible, so long as change takes place in a normal pattern, or people get to normalize very essential things in life like hunger, war, child abuse, refugees, including death, then the situation is profoundly dangerous.

It seems a long way to a freedom in which the basic human rights still matter and the question of what should be done widely arises in every debate concerning the Sudan situation! Do we not understand what should be done yet? Or we are afraid of the consequences when we take the privileges of those who unjustly inherited it.
This question does not have to be answered any more because the answer is very obvious: the lives of millions of people are threatened by the present escalation of fighting in Darfur, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains regions. Poverty has overwhelmed the whole country, millions of lives have been threatened by hunger and war for decades and the same questions are being asked over and over again! The Sudan conflict has a great impact on the development in the areas where there is peace and on conflict resolutions across the world
for how long are we going to be at the mercy of others?
This must end and it will be so long as there are millions of people no longer have something to lose or to fear of and death became a mercy to young people change is going to happen.
However, surprisingly there are good and respectful people who have no doubt about their hope for change. They have written about the recent demonstration in Khartoum in September 2013 and described it as the worst Eid Adha the Sudanese people ever experienced! I do not get it. What about the ongoing killing of the people of Darfur, Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains, who have been crying for peace and freedom for almost a century? To me it seems an irrational way of thinking, especially when it comes from those who believe in democracy, freedom and human right philosophy. If to them 250 people who were killed in the recent demonstration was the worst thing that ever happened to the Sudanese people then surely the hope for change in Sudan is really a matter to be questioned. Because there could be this number of deaths among the inhabitants of villages in Blue Nile, Nuba mountains and Darfure in only one night. It has been many years for these people since they enjoyed the taste of Eid Aladha. Some of them were born and got kids and the kids got kids and they have never had a normal life! Leave aside South Sudan that determined its fate and still not yet safe from the tactic of the well-experienced government of war by proxy.

Let us learn from South Africa’s experience that the dominating minority did their best to protect themselves by violating the majority’s rights and thus drove the state into insanity. In doing so they built the most oppressive injustice system that humanity has ever experienced and hopefully will never happen again. It took years to be deconstructed, until they got a prophet (Madiba) who came and proved that their injustice system was as stupid as their imaginations. In the case of Sudan -with almost the same system but subtly different – the dominating minority do not trust the majority, in fact they do not trust even themselves any more. Therefore they are imposing their fears on the whole nation so that all people are to be uncertain about everything.
What I am afraid of is that those who are the real change makers will not have a role to play after the change of this current regime. That means we will have to wait for quite a long time to start a new fresh movement of change. Nobody knows how long it is going to take.
The question is why we make it impossible for each other to make a change that everybody looks for and dies for.
Change must not be so ambiguous that nobody knows what to do. Yes, change is always something frightening but should not be to those who have nothing to fear for any more, particularly in the case of such “nations” as Sudan. Some people still believe that Alzbir Basha is a hero no matter what he did because there still is a road named after him in the capital city of Khartoum, while he is considered to be the greatest X slave trader in Africa. He used to own hundreds of thousands of slaves. Surprisingly now in the education curriculum of Sudan he is considered to be one of the historical heroes and nothing is mentioned about his business, for God’s sake, how shameful it is, we are in 21st century!
However, we have struggled in many ways to live in harmony and peaceful co-existence, except the hard way and that is change through peaceful means that worked effectively in many places with profound outputs(?) Why do we not try this while many of us know that this is the only way to unity and peace?
Those who are called “ordinary people” have a vital role to play in terms of change and it is a crucial role. Surprisingly, those who think they belong to the elite and are well-educated mistakenly ignore the fact that people instinctually know what is right and what is wrong.
I believe change is inevitable and it is going to take place one way or another. We are tired of seeing it take place in a wrong way, therefore let us hope and work for the right change that is based on principle (democracy, freedom, peace, justice and the pursuit of happiness) rather than the primary affiliations that have proved its inability of effectiveness in terms of making a difference.
31/12/2013
Mohammed Elizouly Adam
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Blog-gizoulidotcom.wordpress.com