We will try to summarize the many happenings from the situation in Sudan/South Sudan. There has been a lot of flip flop in talk from the North about if they will continue to refine and export the South’s oil. The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, requested an issue of a warrant to arrest Sudan’s defense minister, Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. There have been pictures coming out of the Blue Nile area that show the destruction that the North has caused to civilians. To quote an article on the Sudan Tribune’s website, “John Bradshaw, the executive director of the Enough Project, an advocacy group, said that the imagery is “consistent with reports from on the ground that the SAF has intentionally destroyed civilian communities in clear violation of the laws of war.” It looks like things are rapidly leaning towards another war of some sort. Please keep praying.

If you would like a recap of the happenings in the last month or so, you can find a good one here.

And as always, for articles that might not make it to major news sources we suggest checking out sudantribune.com

Other than Aljazeera being a great news source for all things Middle East and Arab related, it gives a profound insight into the thought process and worldview of that people group.

Working in Sudan and almost anywhere in the world these days (as the whole world has become the melting pot American was once so well known for being) you come into contact with Arabs in daily life.

When I first started to learn about the Arab culture in college (in large part through Allison and Perspectives) I began to understand the differences in being Arab and being Islamic. The two are not the same. One is a people group the other is a religion. The ‘West’ often confuses these two. Much as I’m sure the Middle East confuses being American with being Christian, the two are obviously not the same. Though the majority of Arabs are followers of Islam and Aljazeera is, if I may borrow the term, by Arabs for Arabs, and they do transmit and came to prominence for delivering the radical Islam news, their news as a whole is well balanced and not religiously motivated.

So, all of that to say that Aljazeera is the best source for understanding the world news from the Arab worldview. They carry news from all over the world, written from the Arab viewpoint. I read an article on BBC.com (as it has better international coverage than CNN) and then go right to Aljazeera.net to see the same article. Often times you can see the different points of view. This is most prominent when the article is on something like the recent Israel/Gaza war. They are noticeably sympathetic to the Arab resistance as much as BBC is sympathetic to the Israeli side of things.

Soon Allison and I will be in the meat of our Arabic leasons. I look forward to learning to read Arabic so that I can read the Arabic web site for Aljazeera and not just the English translation version. I’m curious to know if the tone changes between the two or if the English translation is true to the original article in Arabic.

If you ever want to see what other parts of the world think of America and world news in general, head over to english.aljazeera.net to see what the Arab world is thinking.

History tends to repeat itself. On the continent of Africa, it tends to repeat itself in much shorter cycles. Only months ago Kenya had it’s Presidential elections. The vote tally was delayed, and when it was finally released, with much suspicion, the current President was sworn in only an hour later. Violence followed at and over 1500 people lost there lives and a deeper ethnic divide has split the country. With the current peace holding, and the new government still rebuilding, the future is not certain.

The repeat:
Zimbabwe has had the same leader since independence from Britain 28 years ago. They held their Presidential elections a little over a week ago. There was a strong opposition who had been neglected in the state-run media, restricted from traveling to rallies & events, all to restrict the ability of the other candidates from being able to build support.

By Zimbabwe law, the election results are to be announced within 5 days of the vote. That was Friday. There has yet to be an announcement of the results. Before Friday even came, the opposition filed a suit to have the results published. The hearing was to originally be today, Saturday, and has been delayed until tomorrow.

Pray for the people of Zimbabwe. For peace, for understanding, for true wisdom in decision making by everyone. Pray.

Nearly every country in East Africa has experienced internal strife in the last few years without resolve. Sudan, Chad, Somalia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda have experienced these horrors. Today marks a very important peace agreement in Uganda between the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and the national government. Read about the recent agreement HERE.

While you’re at it, check out the film Invisible Children. Shot by post college students when they could not get into Sudan because of the safety hazards that had gotten very out of control at the time, they went to Uganda and brought back a film highlighting the fighting that has left so many boys homeless, many of them forced into the rebel armies.

In Belgrade, Serbia, Serb protestors attacked embassies and burned the US flag and others’ flags.