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Sudan Quotes

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Sudan Quotes

“George Bush made a mistake when he referred to the Saddam Hussein regime as 'evil.' Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism. What the president should have done, in the unlikely event that he wanted the support of America's peace-mongers, was to describe a confrontation with Saddam as the 'lesser evil.' This is a term the Left can appreciate. Indeed, 'lesser evil' is part of the essential tactical rhetoric of today's Left, and has been deployed to excuse or overlook the sins of liberal Democrats, from President Clinton's bombing of Sudan to Madeleine Albright's veto of an international rescue for Rwanda when she was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Among those longing for nuance, moral relativism—the willingness to use the term evil, when combined with a willingness to make accommodations with it—is the smart thing: so much more sophisticated than 'cowboy' language.”

EvilUnited StatesMoralityIraqLiberalismAnti WarUnited NationsIraq WarRwandaLeftismSudanAbsolutismPeace MovementMoral RelativismBill ClintonGeorge W BushSaddam HusseinRwandan GenocideDemocratic Party United StatesMoral AbsolutismBa Ath PartyMadeleine AlbrightOpposition To The Iraq WarPresidency Of Bill ClintonAl Shifa Pharmaceutical FactoryPresidency Of George W Bush
Book:Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left
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“This morning there s first a predictable story about Darfur; an expert on African affairs notes that seven thousand African Union troops patrolling a region the size of France have been ineffectual in preventing continued janjaweed terror. Funding for the troops is about to run out, and it seems that no one, including the United States, is ready to put forth more money or come up with new ideas to stop the killing and displacement. This is not surprising to those of us who lived through twenty years of oppression by the hands of Khartoum and its militias.”

WarSudanDarfurPage 417
Book:What is the What
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“At the Unity High School in the heart of Khartoum, a place pulsing with ease and luxury, I graduated with a Cambridge certificate. Though far from stupid, studying was simply not my passion at the time. I harboured no desire to become a doctor, a lawyer, or a chemist; my only wants were a home, a man who does not lie, a room in the shade of a tree, and a child to carry my name. However, upon drawing closer to examine everything at close range, I realised that I do not belong here. I have no place in a world that perfects the art of smiling to one's face, only to strike with stabs in the back the moment one turns away.”

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Author:Mohamed Al-Mustafa Musa
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“The rigid rifle drill of the British infantryman had been their most potent weapon since the wars against Napoleon. Now it was the turn of the Dervishes to feel the impact of those heavy lead Martini Henry bullets. By now any European army would have staggered and might even have stopped. The Dervishes never paused, but ran forward screaming their war cries and trying to get within killing distance of the steady lines of men before them.”

ActionFictionResearchBritishEgyptTruthsWarsSudanAction FilledEnglish Military
Book:No Road to Khartoum
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“And there’s one other matter I must raise. The epidemic of domestic sexual violence that lacerates the soul of South Africa is mirrored in the pattern of grotesque raping in areas of outright conflict from Darfur to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in areas of contested electoral turbulence from Kenya to Zimbabwe. Inevitably, a certain percentage of the rapes transmits the AIDS virus. We don’t know how high that percentage is. We know only that women are subjected to the most dreadful double jeopardy. The point must also be made that there’s no such thing as the enjoyment of good health for women who live in constant fear of rape. Countless strong women survive the sexual assaults that occur in the millions every year, but every rape leaves a scar; no one ever fully heals. This business of discrimination against and oppression of women is the world’s most poisonous curse. Nowhere is it felt with greater catastrophic force than in the AIDS pandemic. This audience knows the statistics full well: you’ve chronicled them, you’ve measured them, the epidemiologists amongst you have disaggregated them. What has to happen, with one unified voice, is that the scientific community tells the political community that it must understand one incontrovertible fact of health: bringing an end to sexual violence is a vital component in bringing an end to AIDS. The brave groups of women who dare to speak up on the ground, in country after country, should not have to wage this fight in despairing and lonely isolation. They should hear the voices of scientific thunder. You understand the connections between violence against women and vulnerability to the virus. No one can challenge your understanding. Use it, I beg you, use it.”

ViolenceHealthAidsDiscriminationOppressionIsolationSexismSouth AfricaMisogynyAfricaUnited NationsDomestic ViolenceSexual AbuseRapeHivViolence Against WomenKenyaSexual AssaultRape CultureZimbabweSudanDarfurMarital RapeDemocratic Republic Of The Congo
Author:Stephen Lewis
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“Friends call me Brie. You may call me Ms. Stewart.” “Stewart? Not Prime?” She shrugged. “I legally changed my last name to my mother’s maiden name.” “Like Prime Petroleum changed to Prime Energy a dozen years ago? Obvious and unconvincing greenwashing.” “I wasn’t greenwashing, I simply no longer wished to be associated with Prime Energy, and the decision to change my last name sent a clear message to Jeffrey Senior.”

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Book:Catalyst
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“Ten years ago, I attended a community meeting for an oil pipeline proposal PE was ramming through the environmental impact process in eastern Washington. I sat in the front row as you defended PE’s plan to destroy an important Traditional Cultural Property to build a pipeline that would bisect the state from the Canadian border to the Columbia River. You had no respect for the sovereignty of tribes over the land. Your plan lacked even basic environmental protection for air and water, but you defended it because you didn’t give a fuck about air Indians breathe or water Indians drink.”

RomanceDangerSlaveryOilIntenseThrillerSuspenseSudanGreen Beret
Book:Catalyst
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“There is a huge trapdoor waiting to open under anyone who is critical of so-called 'popular culture' or (to redefine this subject) anyone who is uneasy about the systematic, massified cretinization of the major media. If you denounce the excess coverage, you are yourself adding to the excess. If you show even a slight knowledge of the topic, you betray an interest in something that you wish to denounce as unimportant or irrelevant. Some writers try to have this both ways, by making their columns both 'relevant' and 'contemporary' while still manifesting their self-evident superiority. Thus—I paraphrase only slightly—'Even as we all obsess about Paris Hilton, the people of Darfur continue to die.' A pundit like (say) Bob Herbert would be utterly lost if he could not pull off such an apparently pleasing and brilliant 'irony.”

MediaCelebrityPopular CultureMass MediaSudanDarfurCelebrity CultureParis HiltonBob HerbertWar In Darfur
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“Might it be the discovery of a distant civilization and our common cosmic origins that finally drives home the message of the bond among all humans. Whether we're born in San Francisco or Sudan or close to the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, we are the products of a billion-year lineage of wandering stardust. We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.”

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Author:Jill Tarter
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“Season of Migration to the North, by Tayeb Salih, is an eloquent and restrained portrait of one man's exile. It is a rare narrative in that it charts a life divided between England and Sudan. Without a doubt it is one of the finest Arabic novels of the 20th century, and Denys Johnson-Davies' translationdoes the original justice.”

MenJusticeNovelDoubtCenturySeasonsEnglandOriginalsNarrativeOne ManDividedFinestPortraits20th CenturyExileJohnsonEloquentMigrationSudan
Author:Hisham Matar
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“Killing a bunch of people in Sudan and Yemen and Pakistan, it's like, "Who cares - we don't know them." But the current discussion is framed as "When can the President kill an American citizen?" Now in my mind, killing a non-American citizen without due process is just as criminal as killing an American citizen without due process - but whatever gets us to the table to discuss this thing, we're going to take it.”

PeopleKnowsMindCareProcessPresidentCitizensTablesKillingCurrentsDuesCriminalsBunchDiscussionWho CaresPakistanAmerican CitizensFramedSudanDue ProcessYemen
Author:Teju Cole
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“It's best to think of these as two things - they're related, but there's different dynamics going on with each of them. A key difference is Abyei is contested territory. We still do not know whether Abyei is going to belong to the new country of South Sudan or effectively the new country of Sudan, the northern part. That was supposed to be decided by a referendum in January; that referendum never happened, so it was being dealt with through political negotiations.”

ThinkingKnowsStillsTwoDifferentCountryPoliticalDifferencesHappenedKeysDecidedSouthSupposed To BeRelatedTwo ThingsTerritoryNegotiationJanuaryDynamicsReferendumsSudan
Author:Rebecca Hamilton
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“There's a huge misconception that it's all about the oil, and the truth is there's actually not much oil left in Abyei. The misperception arose because when the peace agreement was signed in 2005, Abyei accounted for a quarter of Sudan's oil production. Since then, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague defined major oil fields to lie outside Abyei. They're in the north now, not even up for grabs, and they account for one percent of the oil in Sudan. The idea that it's "oil-rich Abyei" is out of date.”

IdeasLyingLeftRichFieldsHugeTruth IsMajorsPercentAccountsCourtProductionsOilDefinedPermanentAgreementQuartersMisconceptionSudanMisperceptionArbitrationOil ProductionOil Field
Author:Rebecca Hamilton
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“What's really interesting, though, is that some people in the Messirya are starting to see Darfuri rebels - so non-Arab, [from the] Justice and Equality Movement - have moved over into Southern Kordofan, which is supposed to be a Messirya stronghold, and started recruiting Messirya to go and fight against the Khartoum government in Darfur. Just another example of how everything in Sudan is interlinked.”

PeopleGovernmentFightingJusticeInterestingExampleMovementMovedStartingSupposed To BeSouthernRebelReally InterestingEquality And JusticeSudanStrongholdsDarfur
Author:Rebecca Hamilton
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“I think people felt like they did everything they had been told they should do to fix the problem, and it still wasn't fixed. Then you have these other parts of Sudan, [which] in actual fact have been left on the back burner for way too long, so there was this scramble, probably a year ago now, to focus on the fact that this peace agreement was basically falling apart.”

PeopleThinkingWayShouldYearsLongHas BeensStillsFactsProblemFallLeftFeltFocusYears AgoFixedAgreementFalling ApartSudanBack Burner
Author:Rebecca Hamilton
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“I try not to cover Sudan from afar. I feel really uncomfortable writing about Sudan when I'm not there. It always looks different. When you're outside Sudan it's easy to lose sight of how much of what happens is driven by local politics. And when you're in America in particular, there's this sense that what D.C. has to say is the only thing that counts. Unsurprisingly people in Sudan don't feel the same way.”

PeopleWayFeelsWritingTryingLooksDifferentHappensAmericaEasyLosesParticularSightDrivenLocalsUncomfortableAfarSudan
Author:Rebecca Hamilton
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