Karl P. Platt on fri 14 sep 01
Admittedly this is only incidentally related to clay, but our colleague
Reid Harvey has spent serious amounts of time in those part of the world
which are in the vortex of the current confusion we are facing. He's
been working for many years to help improve the lives of the people
living in impoverished places through the application of better
technologies in their clayware facilities. I was hoping that Reid might
be able to lend some insight as to the complexion of the citizens of the
Sudan, and so on. I'm asking for this in the interest of developing a
broader understanding of the individuals involved.
Reid Harvey on sat 15 sep 01
Karl, Everybody,
At times the politics of Sudan did not seem incidental to my work with
ceramists there. Certainly I can share my experiences with aspiring
ceramists in Sudan, since I do feel I learned a bit about how and what
the people there think. As you said I believe in working with people in
developing countries to improve their technologies, and thereby their
living conditions. But also In Sudan there is the imperative of finding
the environmentally sustainable options.
For example, I worked at the University of Khartoum in '95, their
Building and Road Research Institute, helping with the design of a
vertical shaft brick kiln, to fire carbonized agricultural waste,
alternative to burning wood. In arid Sudan they have had a serious
problem burning what seems to be every last stick of wood in the desert,
in order that they can fire what turns out to be low quality red brick,
so an alternative technology seemed vital. There's more on this in an
article I wrote for the magazine Ceramics Technical, in one of the '97
issues.
As to the mindset of the Sudanese, contributing to our current crisis,
it's interesting. Northern Sudanese are very gracious and welcoming to
the foreigner, and outwardly peace loving. So it's difficult to
reconcile this appearance to their very bigoted views towards their
southern Sudanese Christians, tribal groups the northerners are trying
to wipe out. It was also hard for me to reconcile this considering how
it is that for the most part the northerners appear racially identical
or similar to their southern neighbors, as black as any people in the
countries much further south, and with the same characteristic facial
features etc. Yet with the appearance of black Africans most northern
Sudanese consider themselves to be 100% Arab, or you could say 'more
Arab than the Arab.'
Interestingly it's a 5% minority of northerners who seem to have foisted
the radical Islamic views on their northern majority. One of the big
shots, and head of the radical party is a guy named Hassan Turaby, who
is widely viewed by radical Muslims the world over as one of their
intellectual leaders. In recent years every year or two they have had a
big conference of the radicals in Khartoum, to train and plan, and the
locations of the centers for this are widely known. But I would imagine
such centers can be packed up and moved at a moment's notice.
The war against southerners is a jihad, holy war, every night the
martyrs eulogized on national TV. Plenty of northerners are dead set
against what the radicals are doing, but the more vocal of these
opponents disappear, never to be seen again. Where I worked at Khartoum
University the discontent was sufficiently widespread and vocal that the
students line the road outside with the pictures of northern students
who went south to fight and die for the southerners. Rarely have I seen
the courage of these northern Sudanese students, themselves Muslim, who
would go south to die for the Christians. I believe they are the pure
Muslims.
After all it seems that the prophet Mohammed married a Christian woman
and had many friends who were of other religious persuasion. In my view
what we are witnessing is not a problem with Muslims but with cultural
Muslim malcontents.
Now living in Bangladesh we are also praying for the victims of the WTC
and Pentagon, as well as the return of reason. Bangladeshi Muslims have
been horrified by the events.
Reid
Karl Platt said:
Subject: Reid -- Have you any insights?
Admittedly this is only incidentally related to clay, but our colleague
Reid Harvey has spent serious amounts of time in those part of the world
which are in the vortex of the current confusion we are facing. He's
been working for many years to help improve the lives of the people
living in impoverished places through the application of better
technologies in their clayware facilities. I was hoping that Reid might
be able to lend some insight as to the complexion of the citizens of the
Sudan, and so on. I'm asking for this in the interest of developing a
broader understanding of the individuals involved.
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