same love

September 2, 2024 4:05 AM

“The crisis in Sudan is catastrophic,” Macklemore said in an Instagram post on Monday. Some food security specialists estimate up to 2.5 million people could die of starvation and illness by October. [bbc]

Sudan, previously

posted by HearHere (9 comments total)

I don't understand why every individual and country isn't already boycotting both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They are both run by wealthy families with nearly unlimited power whose only goal is to get wealthier and more powerful by exploiting people, their own and everyone else's. It makes no sense to me how normalized they are in the world, how we can complain so much about certain dictators and authoritarian regimes but play nice with those particular ones. Wealthy Americans seem to love traveling to Dubai. It's just really weird.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:30 AM on September 2 [30 favorites]

They are both run by wealthy families with nearly unlimited power whose only goal is to get wealthier and more powerful by exploiting people, their own and everyone else's.

As well as exploiting the Earth itself. (Not oil, I'm talking about those stupid artificial-islands projects.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:41 AM on September 2 [6 favorites]

T E Lawrence better be in hell
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:06 AM on September 2 [1 favorite]

It’s been frustrating for the last year to try to follow events in Sudan in the Anglophone press. Hopefully Macklemore and his fellow celebrities can raise its profile. Though to give credit where it’s due, the Economist took time out from being weird racist dingdongs to do an in-depth feature on the war and famine in their latest issue.

Other than that, it’s best to follow reports from the wire services, which have local journalist in Sudan. Currently, on top of the war, floods have ravaged the country:

The U.N. estimates that, over all, more than 300,000 people are impacted by the flooding. It has brought cholera for the second year running with 1,351 cases reported as of Wednesday, likely an undercount as the army-aligned health ministry struggles to access the large portion of the country occupied by the RSF.

Abulgasim Musa, head of Sudan's Early Warning meteorological unit, said that the extreme rains that have unusually hit desert areas were likely caused by climate change. His unit had warned about them in May, he said.

In the land around Tokar, Mohamed Tahir joined scores of others on the roads.

An underfunded and overstretched aid effort has meant that only a few construction vehicles are dotted around the region helping carry people across the flood water and fixing routes so they can escape.

"Homes are collapsed. There's some who have been taken by the water and not been found," Tahir said.

"There are some who have died and they haven't been buried."

posted by Kattullus at 5:50 AM on September 2 [11 favorites]

I wonder how Egypt is staying sane. It has two independent yet related genocides proceeding on its southern and eastern borders.

In the early 2000s I stayed in Khartoum and area for about a month. There were strong links between Sudan and the Persian Gulf states. Many Sudanese had gone to work in Dubai and the other states. They had ambivalent attitudes towards the Gulf States back then.
posted by SnowRottie at 6:04 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

The allegation is that _____ is trying to gain an economic foothold in _____ and profit from _____’s resources.

_____ controls some of _____’s most lucrative _____ mines, located in the _____ region.

_____ and _____ are competing for influence in Africa and are backing opposing sides in _____.


Sadly, we've seen this template before, just fill in the blanks.
posted by gimonca at 6:24 AM on September 2 [3 favorites]

Thank you for posting this.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 7:03 AM on September 2 [2 favorites]

From the BBC article (emphasis added):

Prof Alex de Waal, an expert on Sudan based at Tufts University in Massachusetts, thinks a cultural and sporting boycott could be an effective way of targeting the regional powers accused of fuelling the war.

He says the UAE and Saudi Arabia are competing for influence in Africa and are backing opposing sides in Sudan. The Emirati and Saudi embassies in London have not responded to a BBC request for comment.

Prof de Waal is convinced that the Arab rivals are so economically powerful that no-one is likely to sanction them - and says that any such measures would be difficult to implement...

But he also suggests the UAE and Saudi Arabia care greatly about their reputation on the international stage.

“Cultural figures and sports figures saying ‘we're not going there’ counts for much, much more than a threat of trade sanctions or financial penalties.

posted by spamandkimchi at 9:22 AM on September 2 [10 favorites]

T E Lawrence better be in hell

You know that Lawrence was supporting the Hashemite rulers of the Hejaz, right? Not the Saudis. The Hashemite line still rules in Jordan (which has its own problems), but they were overthrown in the Arabian peninsula by Abdulaziz ibn Saud in 1926.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 7:29 AM on September 4 [1 favorite]