Ovi magazine; Friday July 28th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday July 28th, 2023

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Sudan: The 100 plus Days of a Sad War by Rene Wadlow

On 15 1pril 2023, violent conflict between the General leading the Sudanese Armed Forces and the General leading the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in Khartoum, Sudan.  The deadly clashes have spread throughout the country.  As a human rights activist in Sudan has written ” Since the beginning of the armed conflict, people have been displaced and live in terrible conditions. The militias engage in  gender-based violence and sexual abuse.”  Women and girls are being abducted and raped by soldiers, those internally displaced and women refugees are preyed on the most.  Some three million people have been displaced and there is a refugee flow into neighboring Chad.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights reported on 13 July that it had obtained credible information of the Rapid Support Forces and its allied militias killing civilians and putting them in mass graves in the Darfur area where they have been particularly active.

Continue reading HERE!

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Apathy #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“While waiting for the sun after a midnight rain
my dampened dream conspired to put forward
a stream of colorless schemes immersed
in the running time of lost persuasions.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Ghostin’ #69 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday May 26th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday May 26th, 2023

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Sudan Instability Pushes Refugees to Chad by Rene Wadlow

Media attention has been largely focused on the armed conflict in the capital Khartoum between the rival generals Abdel Fattah al-Burham, Chief of the Army and Mohamed Hamdam Daglo, better known by his battle name “Hemetti”, Chief of the Rapid Support Forces.  There has been the evacuation of personnel from the diplomatic embassies and refugee flows toward Egypt and South Sudan.

The current armed conflict has also had an impact on the unstable area of Darfur, western Sudan. Officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that in the last couple of weeks some 60,000 persons from Darfur have crossed the frontier into Chad which lacks the resources and infrastructure to deal adequately with this refugee flow.

Darfur (meaning the home of the Fur) is an area about the size of France but with a scattered population of some six million people, divided between camel and cattle-raising groups and the settled subsistence agriculture of indigenous tribes of the area such as the Fur and the Masalites.  Darfur has been largely outside the development activities of Sudan’s governments.  It has a weak economy and a lack of social services.

Continue reading HERE!

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The Majesty Of Nature #poem & #painting by Nikos Laios

“Afternoon sunlight 
Streams though gaps 
In the blinds picking up 
Flecks of dust floating 
Slowly over the carpet.
The wind howls outside 
Roaring up the coast
And the roof timbers shake.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #61 by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Wednesday April 26th, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday April 26th, 2023

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The Sky Darkens in Sudan by Rene Wadlow

On 15 April 2023, a long-brewing conflict between two generals who had seized power in a coup in 2021 broke into armed battles especially in Khartoum, the capital. Use of tanks, jets and artillery has been reported.  The split between General Abdel Fattah al-Burham, chief of the army and General Mohamed Hamdam Daglo, better known by his battle name “Hemetti”, chief of the Rapid Support Forces is no great surprise as there is often place for only one person in a military junta.

In April 2018, civilian protests began, and in early 2019 they led to the end of nearly 30 years of the dictatorship of President Omar al-Bashir.  Al-Bashir was himself a general, but he also controlled the security services and much of the administration.  He had overseen economic contacts with foreign countries, especially China.  He was given credit for the relative economic development and the creation of a middle class, especially in the cities.  However, he was under indictment of the International Criminal Court on seven counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Provence of Darfur in western Sudan.  Thus, when Omar al-Bashir was forced out, there was a political gap that the civilian protesters were not able to fill.

Continue reading HERE!

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Derelict #poem & #painting by Nikos Laios

“Revolution,
Revulsion, decay,
Destruction and 
Debris scattered 
On ancient streets,
And the gaunt tired 
Faces of the fallen”

Continue reading HERE!

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Sceptic feathers #63 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Friday May 13th, 2022 – World Cocktail Day

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday May 13th, 2022 – World Cocktail Day

World Cocktail Day is held annually by Drinkaware, a United Kingdom-based charity that brings awareness to the effects of drinking and aims to reduce the harm that drinking can have on people and families. The website provides facts and information about drinking, alcohol poisoning, and alcohol abuse. The World Cocktail Day page that Drinkaware hosts have events all over the world that you can partake in, a blog you can follow about your favorite recipes, and how you can drink safely while also having fun.

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Renewed Violence in #Darfur: An Unstable #Sudan by Rene Wadlow

24 April 2022 saw renewed violence in the Darfur Provence of Sudan between Arab militias and the indigenous tribes of the area, the Masalit and the Fur.  The violence began in 2003 and has caused some 300,000 deaths and some three million displaced.  While most of the fighting was when General Omar al-Bashir was President, his overthrow by new military leadership has not fundamentally improved the situation.

Darfur is the western edge of Sudan.  Its longist foreign frontier is with Chad, but communication with Libya is easy for camel herders and gunrunners.  To the south lies the Central African Republic – a state with a very unstable government, which feels the fallout from the Darfur conflict.  Darfur served as a buffer area between the French colony of Chad and the English-held Sudan until 1916 when French-English rivalry was overshadowed by the common enemy, Germany, in World War I.  Darfur, which had been loosely part of the Ottoman Empire, was integrated into Sudan with no consultation either with the people of Darfur or with those in Sudan.

Continue reading HERE!

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Open Eyes Laid Back #poem by Michael Lee Johnson

“Open eyes, black-eyed peas,
laid back busy lives,
consuming our hours,
handheld devices
grocery store
“which can Jolly Green Giant peas”

Continue reading HERE!

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Panic in Kooyong: The Threat to the Australian Liberal Party by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

He has been seen, not always accurately, as the more moderate in an otherwise conservative Liberal Party, which has governed Australia since 2013 in an at times troubled alliance with the Nationals. He has served as party deputy to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and proudly promotes his role as the country’s treasurer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Josh Frydenberg is nervous. There is also reason to suggest that he might even be panicking. The electorate he represents – that of Kooyong – is not quite so warm towards the sitting member as it has been in the past. The sitting MP has resorted to his home party base for comfort. “Incredible sea of Liberal blue at our Kooyong Campaign Launch, with more than 1,000 people present,” he tweeted on May 1. “So much energy in the room.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Screws & Chips #031 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Thursday October 28th, 2021

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Thursday October 28th, 2021

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Sudan: Dangerous Regression by Rene Wadlow

As of Monday morning, 25 October 2021, the Prime Minister of Sudan, Abdalla Handok and certain civilian members of the Transitional Sovereignty Council (as the government was called) have been put under arrest, and the military have retaken control.  General Abdel-Fattah al-Burham who heads the military faction has said that a “technocratic administration” will be put into place until July 2023 when elections will be held. Currently, there are protests by civilians on the streets of the major cities, but the impact of these protests in uncertain.  The situation can evolve in unpredictable ways.

In April 2019, persistent street protests led to the end of the government of General Omar Al-Bachir who had been in power since 1989.  He had faced a long-running civil war with the south of Sudan, as well as armed conflict, largely tribal based, in Darfur.  The economy of the country was in bad shape.  Part of the anti Al-Bachir movement had economic motivations.  However, there was also a wish for a less authoritarian government, and  the term “democracy” was often used.

A military government first replaced Al-Bachir.  However, during the protests that led to his departure and arrest, professional groups and trade unions became increasingly active.  They demanded a share in the government of the country.  Thus a fairly unique administration was set up comprised of an evenly divided civilian and military component.  It is most of the civilian component that is now under arrest.

Continue reading HERE!

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“Desert Wind” #poem & #painting by Nikos Laios

“A hot desert wind
Blew orange sand
Up in swirling eddies
Dancing across the desert
Under a stark clear blue sky.”

Continue reading HERE!

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Ephemera 21#24 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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UN mission to study African wars

The UN Security Council is on a mission to Africa to look at the continent's wars and see how they might be ended.

The mission is due to have its first discussions with Somalia's government and its opponents, then go to Sudan and several other countries at war.

It has decided it is too dangerous to hold its Somali talks on Somali soil - they will be held in Djibouti instead. The Security Council is also hoping to broker the first official direct talks between the Somalis.

To study what? Obviously Ban Ki-moon is there to totally fail. When there is a war like the one in Sudan, when there are places like Darfur there is nothing to study but a lot to act!

Sudan cuts Chad ties

Sudan says it has cut off diplomatic relations with Chad, blaming it for helping rebels from Darfur to launch an attack on Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir made the announcement on state television. Sudan has accused Chad of helping the Jem rebels to attack the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, which the rebels said they had taken control of. Although the government says the rebels have been defeated, this is the closest they have come to Khartoum.

Remember that Darfur is in Sudan, remember what’s going on in this poor African country, think how many more …innocent!!!

Is tolerance in the end going to drawn in blood?

Spitting hatred, thousands of hardliner Islamists called for British teacher Gillian Gibbons to be shot yesterday. They streamed out of mosques in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, shouting: "Kill her, kill her, kill her by firing squad." One man brandished a giant sword; others carried axes, clubs, ceremonial swords and knives.

Is this the reality then on the Muslim tolerance? Is this the reason we make every effect to understand and excuse? How far this is going to go and if these are the fanatics then what the others do?

Are the Muslim states and the mainstream Muslim clerics trapped from the fanatics or they are part of all that because the western states managed always to stop any kind of haters and their messages but it seems that in Muslim countries these people can take the streets carrying weapons and swords and threaten a lynch. Is tolerance in the end going to drawn in blood?