Will Sudan Always be Africa's Largest Country?

As the Sudanese blogosphere continues to grow, we're increasingly witnessing more activity and hearing more diverse voices coming from it. Allow me to take you into its recent conversations.

Ayman Elkhidir, a Sudanese blogger residing in Dubai is on a holiday in Sudan at the moment. He blogs a post expressing his disdain towards the people's driving habits there:

People in Sudan drive like they were riding their camels and donkeys a hundred years ago. There are absolutely no traffic rules. Priority at intersections is decided by who has a stronger guts. Even traffic lights, when found, are badly designed that if you follow them, you’ll definitely crash. To make that clear, imagine that both opposite lights for those going forwards and those turning left are green at the same time. So if you’re turning left or making a U turn, you should be prepared for the cars coming from the opposite side coz their way is clear as well.

A new Sudanese blogger named SudanEase, talks about the recent floods in Sudan:

this August’s rain season in Sudan this year has turned out to be disasterous to the people of Sudan and the goverment who have droughted their own resources on several insignifcant issues such as the installment of a new currency. With limited resources and standing mostly alone to face this predicament the nation is failing to resist nature at its worst. The goverment helpless and under heavy criticism were forced to turn a blind eye. Up till now 67,731 houses were wrecked by the rains, of which 31,540 were damaged beyond repair.

Kizzie came up with a random thought about the possible separation of South Sudan:

In about 4 years, the Sudan will no longer be Africa's largest country.

Daana found it saddening:

I just read Kizzie's Random Thought, and it saddened me. Is that really where we are heading? Isn't there any hope at all?? Not even a glimpse? I don't think that we ever gave this country a chance to survive. From the time of British colonialism policies of separating the two parts of the country were strongly implemented, and ever since that time we have been distracted from working together to working against each other. Why didn't anybody try to give this country a chance to be?

After celebrating his one year blogging anniversary, Black Kush tells us of the news of Sami El-Hajj's possible release from the Guantanamo prison:

August 15, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Washington has asked Khartoum for guarantees that detained Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj will not leave Sudan before it releases him from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, his brother Asim al-Haj said on Wednesday.

Little.Miss.Dalu puts the spotlight on the construction of a large dam in Sudan known as the Meroe Dam and the loss it will cause to archaeological treasures from the days of the ancient Nubian Civilization:

The Meroe Dam already poses a humanitarian crisis. It will displace more than 50,000 people who live along this isolated region of the Nile, growing dates and herding sheep and goats. But the project is also creating a cultural heritage disaster largely ignored by the international media, UNESCO, and private preservation groups. Thousands–perhaps tens of thousands–of ancient sites are likely to vanish underwater as early as next year without even cursory examination.

She's not happy about it:

I pretty much am too frustrated/sad/helpless to make any intelligent commentary on this. :( As someone who is known to swear like a drunken sailor, I can't help but read the title of this article as “Damning the Sudan.”

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