Floccinaucinihilipilification
noun
an act or instance of judging something to be worthless or trivial
The Politics side.
So we've heard some stories from our Sudanese friends. Everyone has
a different story, and nobody actually knows what's going on in any
situation larger than their own. Example: last December, there were
refugees protesting for their rights at the UNHCR. The police or
somebody descended upon the protest with fire hoses, etc and some
people were killed. This happened for sure. It gets sketchy after
that because some people say that 30 people were killed and their
bodies were taken. Some people say there were 200 people killed and
the bodies are missing. Some people say that a lot of people were
captured and deported to Sudan. Some people say that no one was
deported.
So why did the refugees think they had to protest for their rights?
Here's what they told us about themselves.
Let's say that you lived in south Sudan and escaped to Cairo.
Your story might include some of these componants.
You're a black-skinned Sudanese African with a large extended family.
You live in a village surrounded by forests, mountains, and mango
trees. There are neighboring villages which speak different
languages, so everyone is multi-lingual. There are many different
religions. Sudan is beautiful. You love your home and are proud to
be Sudanese. Suddenly, your village is raided by the government or
by the rebels. You hide in foxholes for a few weeks. Your village is
burned. Everything in your village is confiscated. Your village is
suddenly inhabited by strange arabs from a different country. You
escape with or without your family to another village, to the Congo,
to Juba or Khartoum. The government pursues you because you insist on
developing a curriculum to teach the children of your village their
own native tribal language. The government accuses you of working
with a church or with a western organization. The government captures
you for trying to teach a language other than Arabic. You are
tortured to convince you to become a Muslim - to convince you to teach
only arabic - to convince you that your non-arabic heritage is
worthless and unworthy of being Sudanese. You might find it difficult
that anyone who goes to college in Sudan has to serve in the
government's military. Your brothers might go to school and enroll in
the military. You might receive news that half of your family has
been killed in village raids, or sold into slavery.
You decide to leave Sudan.
You go to foreign embassies for entrance visas, but are careful,
knowing that being in the wrong embassy at the wrong time will get you
arrested. You are denied entrance because the other countries fear
that you will join their militias, or you are accepted but cannot get
an exit visa from Sudan because Sudan fears that you will join other
countries militias. Egypt is the only option. All you can get is a
visa for a 30-day visit to Egypt. You take it, travelling to Aswan,
then up the Nile to Cairo. In Cairo, you have nothing, no family, and
no one is waiting for you. You ask around until you find the elusive
UNHCR. Your attempts to fill out the correct forms in the 30 day
window you have are thwarted by Cairo's always-changing policies, but
fortunately one of those policy changes has been to give yellow cards
of protection to refugees. Your yellow card is protection against
being arrested in Egypt and deported to Sudan.
The UNHCR tells you to come back for a form after 40 days. Then it
is at least 2 months until your interview for refugee status, which is
postponed for various reasons. You are issued a yellow card (for
protection) because the Egyptian gov't used to arrest refugees. They
will tell you to go to your embassy, but you know that people who do
this sometimes disappear. Next: more fees, forms, postponing, "We
didn't get your form", and "go and come back after 10 days." You have
to renew the yellow card every 6 months. From scratch which takes a
minimum of 2 months, 3 days, and 5 - 7 visits. After that, they
reschedule the interview, then you have to go back and watch your
status: your name on a list on the wall.
You go to your interview and tell your story why you fled life in
Sudan. After more waiting, you finally receive your blue card. The
blue card is your key to resettlement. Or, perhaps the Egyptian
listening to your story didn't feel like giving you a blue card. Then
you are rejected, and have only your yellow card.
In order to be resettled, you must have a contact in the other
country who can provide for you and help you move in. Maybe you have
family in the States, but cannot afford the high price of calling
them. Finally, you check in with the other country's embassy. After
a year, they decide to admit you. You get your medical exam over with
and check in with and the UNHCR tells you to wait for a phone call
about your resettlement ticket. You wait for a week. A month. A
year. It's been 6 years, and you still haven't heard any news
whatsoever about your resettlement.
Meanwhile, you work three jobs and sleep 2-4 hours per night while
raising your family to make ends meet. You live in an unfinished
apartment building in a poor part of the city. You try to send your
children to a Sudanese school because you are afraid of the
persecution they might receive in an Egyptian school. Despite all of
this, you thank God for His provision and for the country of Egypt.
You hope to be resettled in another country, but what you really long
for is peace so that you and your family can return home to rebuild
Sudan.
Here are some quotes from men who talked with us:
("" = quote, italics = paraphrase)
"You must put on Arab culture. If not, you are wrong and must be eliminated."
"Why should I accept to be an Arab or Muslim by force? If I don't
accept to become a Muslim, I am killed. If I don't accept to be an
Arab, I am against Islam. To become a Muslim is not enough, you must
also become an Arab"
Brainwashing: tribes that lose their original native language. They
consider themselves to be arabs even though they are black.
(Response to a question about how the government used "brainwashed
black" militias)
"If people learn their own language, they will be more aware of their
rights."
"The people in charge of the Media are the same people committing the problem"
"They used the most deadly weapons against the human soul in South Sudan"
"Many Sudanese are denied because their credibility is in the hands
of Arabs and Westerners."
"It is the fact and truth that this happened to me and to my family
and to my tribe and to my country."
The world has only found out about genocide in Sudan recently. The
refugees say that this has gone on since the 50s - ever since the
British left control of Sudan in the hands of the northern arab
minority. In the East, South, and West, black africans are 80% of the
population. One man from Darfur who was arrested and tortured for
developing books for children in his tribe's native language said that
because 98% of people in Darfur are Muslim, and because Islam is
taught rather forcefully in many arab schools, parents did not want to
send their children to British schools because they thought that
Christianity would be forced upon them. This, and other things,
contributed to Darfur being relatively disconnected from the rest of
Sudan. The government could do whatever they wanted to. Rebellions
against the government in Darfur failed because even in Sudan, no one
knew about them and no one gave support. In the west and the South
(which you needed a passport to go to from the north), diseases
followed fighting. Thousands upon thousands of people died and not
one doctor came. Nobody trusts the media because the media is
controlled by the government and the government is killing the people.
The government has declared the black, non-arab Sudanese as
worthless, unfit to live in Sudan, unfit to be Sudanese. The people
have been kept silent for decades. As a powerful and privileged
society, we have the power to grant or withhold validation and
recognition of others. We must recognize our fellow human beings and
seek out their stories and their voices. Anything less, and they
might disappear again. We must consciously choose to hear - it's the
only way they'll have a voice.
as long as we're talking about war,
I asked one of our Egyptian friends what he thought about the war
in Iraq. He thinks that the US should get the government set up and
get out of there ASAP. He wasn't sure for a while, but he now thinks
that the US never should have gotten involved in the first place.
This guy went to school in the US for a while. He wants to go back to
take more classes, but due to an embassy mistake on his application he
has been denied entrance into the US, which hurts his chances of
getting into other countries. Several have denied him because of it.
It's hard to understand for me because I'm used to being able to go
wherever I want, whenever I want. Our Egyptian friend loves America,
but has problems with the government - not unlike many American
citizens I know.
At the same time, one of the teachers at my school told us that Bush
is a good guy. The teacher credits Bush with influencing the peace
treaty in Sudan and sees US involvement in other countries as freeing
those countries from their oppressive governments. This makes sense,
since the teachers themselves are coming from an oppressive
government. He told me to 'give Bush another chance' and to vote for
him for four more years. I said that in America, presidents are only
allowed to be voted in twice. He said well then, vote Republican.
I find these different opinions, their sources, and their interests
intriguing.
One more thing:
Jeremy tells me that when he and some others were at the home of a
Sudanese family for dinner, they were all eating together in the home
when one Sudanese woman looked at the mix of black and white and said
something like,
"You know, I've always heard everyone say that we were all created
equal, but I never actually believed it until now."
use your words, but don't let them replace actions.
Tracy
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man,
that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower
than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."
-Psalm 8:3-5
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