A mobile journal of multimedia reportages & resources
[Montréal, Québec, Canada -10°C] Sudan is at a crossroads. Again. January 9, 2010 marked the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). The CPA ended 21 years of civil war. Local drumist, Ajing Deng beats [...]
[Montréal, Québec, Canada -4°C] It’s refreshing to see a major international media network devoting and entire show about the present situation in Sudan four months before the country holds its first multi-party general elections in 24 years. Al Jazeera’s Inside Story asks if Sudan’s elections can take place on time without a reform to the [...]
[Montréal, Québec, Canada 13°C] It has been just over three weeks since I returned to Montréal from ten weeks in East Africa, most of which were spent in Southern Sudan. I’ve been back long enough to discard the lag that fogs the spirit after flying between continents. Sufficient time has passed to deplete the novelty [...]
[Abyei Town, Abyei Transitional Area, Sudan 40°C] Abousfian Abdelrazik is a man from Montréal whose been living in ‘temporary safe haven’ in the Canadian Embassy in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, since late April 2008. He has been in Sudan since March 2003, when he went to visit his mother. According to a timeline of his [...]
[MONTRÉAL] I’ve always been a fan of video games, sometimes spending hours scouring through medieval landscapes blasting the crap out grotesque monsters or evil sorcerers. But I’ve recently come across a few video games that have a purpose to them other than pure entertainment. Rather than divert a player’s attention from the real world, these ‘serious’ video games attempt to bring a sense of reality to the screen.
One such gaming developer is Copenhagen-based Serious Games Interactive, which was founded in 2006 “to revolutionise the use of computer games for purposes beyond entertainment.” They initiated a series of video games called Global Conflicts that challenges 13- to 19-year-olds to be critical and reflective citizens (source: Serious Games Interactive)in a globalized world. They offer two versions of the game: one based in Palestine and the newer one in Latin America.
[MONTRÉAL] This morning I consulted the website of the McGill Centre for Tropical Diseases, which operates in Montréal within the McGill University Faculty of Medicine, to learn more about what preventative measures they recommend for travel to Sudan. I still haven’t made an appointment for getting the vaccinations but from what I’ve read on their website, and in the international travel and health information of the World Health Organization, I will probably have to get vaccinations for Yellow Fever, Hepatitis A + B, Typhoid, Meningitis, Rabies, Diptheria, Tetanus, maybe Cholera. The documentation also encourages Malaria pills but not chloroquine because the malaria in Sudan is immune to chloroquine.
[MONTRÉAL] Before going somewhere for the first time, it’s always nice to get a preliminary view of the place, if only to feed the excitement with anticipation. Maps have always been, for me, synonymous with adventure; a preliminary step toward discovery of a future destination. Maps always help me orient myself quickly to a place [...]
[MONTRÉAL] A half-empty pint of double-fermented rye beer sits on the shaky table beside Ruszard Kapuscinki’s book, The Shadow of the Sun, which is described in the New York Times as “a marvel of humane, sorrowful and lucid observation” of Africa. It is a great read by a Polish journalist who was intimately familiar with [...]
As you may have noticed by reading the About page that my first international assignement is in South Sudan where I will initiate my new direction in video reporting and documentary film. I’ve been asked over and over again, “Why Sudan?!” My immediate response — and the one which flows generously from my lips is, “Why not!” But I actually have dozens of reasons for chosing Sudan: First off, It’s the country with the largest geographic area in Africa and it’s in crisis!
[MONTRÉAL] I sit in my living room reading David Eggers’ What is the What, a fictionalized biography about Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys from Sudan’s 21-year civil war. The war ended tenuously in 2005 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Sudanese army in the north and the south’s Sudan People’s Liberation Army. It is 22h00 on a summer wednesday and the Montréal night is bombarded with firework blasts out of view from my comfortable living room sofa.
Pete Muller in Sudan Sudan Watch AlertNet - Sudan Making Sense of Sudan Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting AllAfrica - Sudan Irin News Resolve Uganda