ME and Ophelia

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GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS?
Villagers in Sudan describe poisoning

On August 17, 2004, the Washington Times published a report by Levon Sevunts. Here is an excerpt:

SHEGEK KARO, Sudan — Inhabitants of this picturesque village in the Darfur region of western Sudan said the Sudanese air force sprayed them with a strange powder in an attack in May that killed two villagers and dozens of cattle.

Another bomb, dropped by a jet fighter on the same day, produced a poisonous smoke that injured about 50 villagers on the other side of the village, the villagers said.

A Sudanese air force Antonov plane dropped several rectangular plastic sacks containing a white, flourlike powder on a wadi — a dry riverbed — in the lower part of the village, they said.

"This is the first time I'm hearing about this," a spokeswoman for Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed said. She promised the embassy would look into the matter.

[Thanks to Rajan's great Sudan Genocide Roundup - and for highlighting my post on British MP John Bercow's eyewitness account]
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MSF DOCTOR IN DARFUR
Has many rivers to cross

Blogging doctor Nick at Blogborygmi who has a buddy, Dr Jonathan Spector working with MSF in Darfur, will be interested in this post.

On August 16, the Guardian published a strangely upbeat report apparently authored by Dr Dean Harris, an aid worker, with Médecins Sans Frontières in Garsila, Darfur.

The report shows an MSF photo of Dr Harris treating a sick baby, so it could be genuine. Maybe it needed to sound upbeat so as not to break rules on reporting out of Sudan. Seems there is a news black out when it comes to hard news out of Darfur. Even so, the report gives the impression that everything is happy, clappy fun and smiley faces and challenging fun and games over there - a few patients here and there who have ailments not connected with genocide or ethnic cleansing or starvation.

Beware of any information coming out of Khartoum: they are barefaced shamless liars - and that is putting it mildly. They will do and say anything to save their own skins. Surely their days must be numbered? If not, in time to come, when the West's back is turned, it will start genocide and ethnic cleansing all over again: when oil is discovered in new locations, requiring more infrastructure and oil pipelines to be laid. The victims of Darfur ought to be compensated for all their grief.

[Thanks to "The View From Above" - a neat blog featuring posts on the Sudan. The author kindly picked up on my recent post about British MP John Bercow's eyewitness account on Darfur. Sorry, can't find the blogger's name or why the blog contains "7000feet" - maybe it's authored from the top of a mountain. Whatever, a warm hello and thank you for the links whoever you are, wherever you are]
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DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS IN SUDAN
Dr Rowan Gillies, President of MSF

Update Aug 19: Here's another one for Nick: Fresh Air Audio interview with Dr Rowan Gillies, President of MSF. Sorry I can't get the audio file to open on my Mac. I'll check the Apple software updates and try again later. Excerpt:

"Dr. Rowan Gillies is the International President of Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders). He is a medical doctor and surgeon from Sydney, Australia. Dr. Gillies began working with Doctors Without Borders in 1998 as a field doctor in Afghanistan. Since then he has worked with the organisation in Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Liberia. He recently returned from Sudan."
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PULP'S COMMON PEOPLE
Memories of Rocky Horror Show's Opening Night and...

Loved the tune, lyrics and arrangement of Pulp's song "Common People" that Nick linked to in his Wax Ecstatic post.

No wonder Nick had a quasi religious experience listening to it at 4am - it's still spinning around in my head and brought back memories of the mesmerising theatrics of Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Show. Let's Do The Time Warp, and other songs from the show, seemed way ahead of their time when I attended the first night launch - at a small venue, somewhere in London, I can't recall the name of because it was thirty something years ago. But I clearly recall, a decade later, working on a deal to book them at the Silver Slipper (no longer exists) and other venues in Las Vegas - and how the Vegas Entertainment Directors of the day felt the show was too "far out" for Vegas audiences...

Can understand why the Common People song caused a quasi-religious experience for Nick at 4am - Rocky Horror had that effect on us at 8pm ;)
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TIME FOR SOME CATBLOGGING
Here's a laugh

Thanks to H at Quadrophrenia for sending me a neat new squirrel playing the sax - and for this link below, - out of the blue.... Heh. :-))

You'll need the sound switched on for this one:

http://www.media.ebaumsworld.com/cat.swf