Cuddly Sudanese Teddy Bears

Sudan is something of a fuck-up, frankly, and now they have arrested one of our citizens for naming a teddy bear after the great fucking prophet, Mohammed (can we agree how this name is spelt in English? I know that Arabic doesn't have any vowels, as such, but seriously...); the pupil who named the bear has even, rather courageously given the barbarity of the country in which he is unfortunate enough to live, spoken as to why he suggested that name.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested on Sunday in Khartoum, and could face charges of insulting Islam's Prophet after her class named the toy.

But one boy said: "The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy. I said Muhammad. I named it after my name."

But the entire regime is about as unpleasant and rotten as one could imagine: John Trenchard reminds us of some salient points.

Let us remember that Sudan has an authoritarian government in which all effective political power is in the hands of President Omar al-Bashir. Bashir and his goons have controlled the government since he led the military coup on 30 June 1989.

During this time it has been the home of one Osama bin Laden, it has territorial disputes with Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Egypt. It has attempted to invade Chad and supports Morocco in its war against the Polisario Front.

But its continuing war in Darfur and Southern Sudan, noted for it brutality especially the actions of the Janjaweed,that have caused the most international concern. It imposes strict Sharia Law and has a terrible human rights record. It is also listed on the US watch list of nations that support terrorism.

So, you would have thought that the Sudanese government might be one that we did not actually want to support in any way, least of all with our tax money, right? Wrong.

So what does wee Dougie do? Well apart from his State visit to Sudan, pledging a further £6 million to support “peace” in Darfur and helping out with the Muslim Live 8 it seems that the ‘Sudanese people’ have been recieving quite a bit of cash from Gordon and Co, not as though they have noticed:

Common Humanitarian Fund Contributions—£35.0m
Contribution to ICRC and NGOs—£30.0m
Support to the humanitarian response in Chad—£6.0m
Multi-Donor Trust Fund Contributions—£17.0m
Basic Services Fund (South Sudan)—£4.0m
Capacity Building in Southern Sudan—£2.3m
Governance Support through UNDP—£5.7m
Promoting Safety, Security and Access to Justice—£4.9m
DDR/SSR—£0.12m
Support to the Darfur Peace Agreement—£1.4m
Fighting Malaria—£1.5m
Support to UNICEF on Water and Child Rights—£0.8m
Support to local recovery processes—£1.0m

Total DFID—£109.72m
Africa Conflict Prevention Pool—£3.6m

Total—£113.32m

(Source:DFID)

And where does all the loot come from I here you ask and why are we spending more on "Governance Support" than on water?

Good questions: why not head on over to Trenchard's place and find out?