The Amazing Adventures of Bashar & Bashir!

According to a recent report from Human Rights Watch, President of the Sudan, Omar El Bashir, and his top advisors “should be investigated for crimes against humanity in Darfur and placed on a U.N. sanctions list.”

In this regard, I would like to make two points: Continue reading “The Amazing Adventures of Bashar & Bashir!” →

The Necessity of Leadership!

What is it that moves a people to action? What is that inspires them? That rejuvenates them? That gives them hope? That motivates them? That gets them off their asses and into the streets, regardless of the dangers they are about to face?

It can’t be desperation, for how can desperation ever inspire hope? Albeit you can despair of something/someone and decide to simply latch your hopes on something/someone else. Continue reading “The Necessity of Leadership!” →

Heretical Democracy!

I was recently asked, both as “an activist and a thinker,” how I would choose to define certain basic terms such as democracy and civil society. Well, below is my attempt at defining democracy, comments and corrections are appreciated:

Democracy is a system of governance that is meant to facilitate continuous interplay and negotiations, both direct and indirect, between various interest groups, regardless of how they are defined, be it on the basis of ethnicity, religion, tribe, gender, profession, sexual orientation and/or age, within the framework of a specific entity, state and/or a region, with the aim of achieving: 1) a greater respect for the basic human rights and freedoms of all, 2) a periodic, peaceful and transparent transfer of power, 3) rule of law, and 4) public accountability. Continue reading “Heretical Democracy!” →

A Heretical Eschatology!

As the clock ticks away and we slowly but surely approach the date of December 15, on which Detlev Mehlis is scheduled to give his final report, final for him as the chief investigator, or final in the sense of the investigation itself, or both, ideological and sentimental interpretations of what it is likely to happen, of what it is actually involved, and of what could the potential outcome of it will likely be, will predominate, nullifying any attempt at making sense of anything really, at this stage.

Continue reading “A Heretical Eschatology!” →