Young Man Wisdom

One of the great issues that occupied the imagination of health care workers, health policymakers, and as well as a politician is equal access to health. This means wherever you are, ideally, you should have the same access to at least the basic health care. What is basic healthcare? That is a discussion for another time. However, we should not mix accessibility with affordability as these are two different concepts. There are different metrics to measure access to health but today I want to discuss two metrics in particular.   The first one is the health facility density by state. It measures the number of health facilities per 100,000 population. It is a crude way to measure and compare the availability of care facilities in a certain geographical location. This includes all type of facilities private or publicly owned. Source: OCHA Sudan     As you can see from the graph, the Northern state has the most Basic health units and Hospitals compared to its population despit...

Today Sudan reached a milestone in this pandemic by confirming more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19. Khartoum state remains the epicentre of the virus but recently the number of cases in other states started to increase. It is not a surprise we reached this milestone, it was expected considering the continuous lack of effective social distancing and political instability. Despite the introduction of lock measures more than four weeks ago, the number of new cases continues to increase daily. And the logarithmic curve has not flattened yet. If this rate of daily new cases continues as it is, Sudan should brace itself for a big jump in cases are more likely more fatalities. The current pandemic demonstrated how fragile the health system is. The infrastructure for health surveillance, early detection, contact tracing and isolation almost not existing or it is not effective. By next week if the curve does not show any signs of slowing down Sudan should get ready for a crisis that Sudan has not...

While I was away, the last few months were quite busy for Sudan . A lot of things happened and still happing. Sudan is going over a very critical phase at present, and while some thought that the current government went through the separation of South Sudan with no major draw back locally I believe the worse is still to come. Sudan is still unstable, bankrupted, and in deep troubles with its neighbours. Nonetheless, I will focus on two events that to dominated the news about Sudan in the last few weeks.  The arrest and sentencing of Miriam Ibrahim to death for changing her believes was very sad and depressing. Sudan is a country well known for the diversity of its people from culture, skin colour, and religion. I grew up in a neighbourhood where there was two churches within a diameter of less than 1 kilometre. Hence the recent news about Miriam was a shock to me and to many other Sudanese. In my opinion I think Bashir is trying to get attention after feeling neglected by t...

I have recently had a heated discussion with a friend who was once one of those who are engaged with one of the traditional Sudanese parties. He accustomed to speak every now and then in the Faculty of Medicine main road in fashion similar to speakers corner in Hyde Park ! It is among the older traditions of the University of Khartoum. Even under the most suppressive regimes students of the university were successful in maintaining their freedom of speech for most of the time, of course it landed them in deep trouble and in some cases jail or even dismissal from college. From an outsider point of view you will admire their courage to take part , but if you took a close look at what actually been said you will be surprised! First, these students were representing their own party agenda rather than interest of the university students which I felt personally they could not be careless about. Second, most of the these events and the exchange were personal attacks rather anythi...

People keep asking me why I did it? I did it for one reason,  Knowledge. In Sudan we always ask the question of who we are and where did we come from?! So I did send my Saliva for DNA testing . The service provide you information in regard to your health and ancestry. The service is called 23andme.com , you can check the website if you are looking for more information or explanation of what am about to say, they have nice videos. You will notice from the graph the DNA analysis concluded I am half north african  and the rest, or most of it,  is Sub- Saharan African .  I have no doubt this represent most of North Sudanese with different percentages for each one. It basically showed that my Y chromosome did come from North aftrica, you get your Y chromosome from your father who in turn got it from my Grandfather and so on. My my Mitochondria, which the organism that provide energy to most cells int he body, was handed to me from from my mother, ...

English: Khartoum downtown view at night (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Ramadan in Sudan like all other arabic/islamic  countries is a month where everything slow down. Public services start late, you will lucky if you found anyone in office in the first place, and if you did most likely they will say to you they are in the mosque doing Quran reciting or praying and you have to come back some other day! SudanRevolt is no difference! once Ramadan announced the number of demonstrations against NCP declined sharply. There may have been one here and one there but nothing promising, some tried to promote night demonstrations but this did not work too.  Even the Nyala incident was not enough to mobilise the street in Khartoum during Ramadan. Is it Just Ramadan or is it the disconnect between Khartoum resident and rest of the country? a question for another day. The Umma party still trying to be on both sides at the same time, with and against the government, Turabi still ...

As I predicted, NCP is in big trouble! The loss of oil revenue and the need to keep security forces happy Bashir had no choice but to increase taxes and stop subsiding basic commodities. Bashir’s options are limited, if he stays in Sudan he will prosecuted or even handed over to ICC , the only place where he can run to which out of the reach of ICC is either KSA or Iran but both countries will be risking relations with the new Sudan. Take my word, he will fight to the end, the question what will the men around him do? The current demonstration is gaining momentum and traction. Students start it but now more sectors of the Sudanese community are involved and the numbers of participants is increasing day after day. It is just a matter of time for the Bashir’s government to collapse. Sudan is late in its “Spring” compared to other Arab nations such Tunisia or Egypt but in fact Sudan is a head of the curve. This will be the THIRD time people of Sudan revolts against a dictator,...

An excellent documentary done by Aljazeera English which done couple of months after the referendum. It give you a quick glimpse into current issues facing south Sudan as new emerging nation, as many commentators in the documentary discovered the greatest enemy of the state is the people of south Sudan themselves. Blaming the north would not be helpful and is equivalent to hiding your head in the sand. North Sudan is become the Israel of the South. Having said that I have no doubt Khartoum and NCP do whatever they can to undermined the government in the south, I do not know why as any sensible reasonable commentator will tell that a stable prosperous south Sudan is in the best interest of the north but may be not in the interest of the NCP.  Bashir and his cronies need war, need to scare northern Arabs from people in the margins, northern Arabs are becoming the Sunnies of Iraq. When there is peace people of the nor...

This is a good documentary about Sudan before the separation of the south from the north. it was aired by  Al-Jazeera English  almost more than a year ago. it just showed how politicians messed up Sudan for the coming generations. I would say it is relevant to current situation as we as Sudanese are repeating the same mistakes but now in  Darfur , Kurdofan , and Blue Nile . Al Sadiq is right about one thing, the north has to apologies for associating salivary with the degree of blackness. Related articles Security talks between Sudan & S.Sudan break up with no deal UN official criticizes videotaped remarks by S. Kordofan governor Sudan' ruling party denies early elections Darfur's border patrol force in dispute with central government

LiveJournal Tags: Sudan , Arab League , Justice , Egypt , Tunis , Morocco , Islamist To be honest I so surprised by the stand of the Arab league evolving in such way towards the situation in Syria! The last time such actions were taken against an Arab nation was when Egypt reached a peace deal with Israel. There are many contradictions within the current situation. Many of members of the Arab league themselves do not hold high regards toward human rights in the first place while trying to hide their own abuses. I guess Syria is unlucky it is just really bad timing. Because of its alliance with Iran all gulf nations were against Assad. Egypt, Tunis, and Libya can not support him anymore. Even Sudan voted against Assad. Sudan vote really confused me. Is Bashir not worried that he might be in the same shoes of Assad sooner or later? Oh wait, Bashir already did the same in Darfur and south Kordofan. Instead the Arab league got behind him. But time has  changed, if revolutions co...

LiveJournal Tags: Sudan , NCP , Turabi , Bashir , KSA , Sufism , Salafi , Salafism most people are paying attention to the birth of the world newest state, South Sudan . While Southern know exactly who they are but we in the north still trying figuring this out! In recent years specially after the famous divide of the Islamic Front between Bashir and Turabi , The NCP sought support in radical Islamic group to confront the spiritual leader Mr. Turabi. The problem will be the rest of the Sudanese people in the north. Do they support such Salafism ? I do not think so. Sudan for long time was dominated buy Sufism which is a very peaceful in nature, more inclusive rather than exclusive. Salafism was brought mainly buy Sudanese expat who worked and lived in KSA and the gulf. The Niqab is a stranger to Sudanese custom and tradition. The NCP is in very critical situation. loss of hard currency income will lead to spending cuts and tax increases to maintain its Military spending. The n...

it is quite sad the situation of children in my country Sudan! i found this airplaine toy which state clearly "UN air force". UN involvement has become a part of childhood in Sudan. when I was a kid, these toys usually would hold lables such as "US airforce" or other kids shows name on it (after all all the toys come from the west). I hope things would not get worse

  LiveJournal Tags: Sudan , South Sudan , NCP , Sharia law , Bashir , SPLM , Khartoum , referendum.   My worst fears are materialising! The above sentence belong to president Bashir in a speech broadcast on the national TV on Sunday (related links) Bashir believes that  after the separation of south Sudan the issues of cultural and ethnical diversity become irrelevant. The official language of the country is going to be Arabic and state religion is, and only, Islam. similar statements were made by second man and hard liner Dr. Nafi. These kind of statements just show what are the real objectives of the NCP from the beginning, NCP was not aiming for peace and unity of Sudan as a state but rather the implementation of its ideological agendas in the first place and everything else come second to that even if this lead to the fragmentation of the country. The conflict in Darfur has nothing to do with religion  (both sides are Muslims)but has everything...

Technorati Tags: abyei , africa , civil war , darfur , independence , khartoum , ncp , splm , south sudan , southern sudan , sudan A recent article regarding Sudan referendum by Rami Khouri showed how little knowledge the Arab elite knows about Sudan. I have to be honest and declare that  i have not read the whole article. This is remarkable because it may be the only explicit and credible case of Arab people exercising the opportunity to define their country’s shape and its ideological orientation. It is after this part when I stopped reading, it was clear to me that the author has no clue about Sudan. First of all, the people who are going to decide if they want to remain within Sudan or have their own country are not Arab! the majority of them are of African ethnicity which played a big role in the north-south civil war and the war in Darfur now. I agree with him in regard to the idea that none of the Arab states chosen their boarders, it was made by France and ...

one of the important issue need to be sorted before the independence of the south ( which is just a mater of time) is the fate of southern in the north mainly in Khartoum . during the civil war many southern were forced by the war to move to the north. they live in displaced camps scattered around the capital. the last censes estimate their population to be around 500,000 but many observers regard this figure as underestimation and they estimate their population to reach around 2 to millions at least. Sadly, in the last few days couple of statements came from NCP members including members in government, painted a dark picture for the fate of southern in the north. for example they would become foreigner instantly if the southern voted for independence. Recent roamers from khartoum is that southern in the north are apply for nationality and sudanese passport while in the same time there is instructions in the ministry of home affairs to delay the process if not to prevent it. ...

  The question is not whether south Sudan is going for independence or not, the question is what is going to happen after the month of January next year! everyone seems to be expecting the worse! the UN is already preparing for crisis when the south chooses independence. The international crisis group has predicted that the boarder between the two nation is going to be a cause of tension specially when it come to people movement between the two sides. I will focus on what i would expect to happen in the north mainly. There are very strange phenomena that is happening in the north, first the NCP suddenly woke up to the possibility of independent south Sudan! and it is trying to insure southern vote for unity in the coming four months, let us not forget the party had almost whole five years to do so and only now it start to take action against northern who raise their demand for the separation of south Sudan(alintibaha news paper). the second thing worth mention is some out o...

  I know everyone now is concerned with referendum and likely separation of south Sudan but let us go back to the election period and have a look on this video. Recently there has been this movement called “Girifna” which in Arabic means “we are fed up”, I know it sounds strange that one world translate into three worlds in English. Since the aftermath of the election the movement seems to be getting weaker and lost momentum! i guess it was inspired by arising hope of change and the possibility  that there will be a new face for Sudan politics, but the hope was shattered by the announcement of Bashir victory.  Did anyone hear anything since that time about Girifna? you can find them at http://www.girifna.com/ Sudanese Elections: Music & the Vote with NasJota and Girifna from Michal Shapiro on Vimeo . Girifna Related articles by Zemanta Activists, Journalists Increasingly Threatened in Sudan (humanrights.change.org) Sudan suspends BBC A...

First of all let me apologise from absence the last couple of weeks. In fact I will be away for couple of weeks to come due to personal reasons. What made write this blog today what is this image I found in one of the online newspapers. I just do not know what to say?   The above picture has two sides, on your right hand is a picture of kids which I think they are from Darfur (or this what they want to believe). on your left side is the peace understanding agreement celebration in Doha . What the Arabic sentence say is” Omer our father brought peace”…………… I am speechless! I know this newspaper is part of the ruling party propaganda for the election but this is really beyond anything i expected from these people. Bashir brought peace to Darfur! come on, he is the one who started it in the first place! who ever came up with this ads he is defiantly stupid or he/she thinks Sudanese people are stupid. But may be we are stupid? Related articles by Zemanta ...