Sudan

I just read Sudan’s warring factions have agreed in principle to a seven-day ceasefire from Thursday (4 May 2023).

The Tories made one big mistake - backing Brexit, especially making Johnson PM purely on his talent for telling lies convincingly.

Since then I don’t believe Covid nor the Ukraine/Energy/Food crisis would have handled any better by Labour. Truss of course was a massive own goal. I’m not going to be voting Tory anytime soon but it makes no difference because they have massive 20000+ majority here.

Allsorts

Doesn’t anyone else find this endless Tory Bashing a bit pathetic. It’s constant negativity, always predicting the worse scenario before they know the facts, I can only assume they enjoy being miserable. Most people would rather live here than anywhere else, that’s why most try to get here, it seems pointless living in a country you hate unless you enjoy moaning.

Pathetic?
Negative?
Miserable?
Moaner?

Can't understand why you even bother communicating with people like that.

Primrose53

Serious question. How can the NHS employ people who do not have a British Passport?

There an awful lot of NHS and other employees that don’t have UK passports, most do have working visas and most welcome they are

Serious question. How can the NHS employ people who do not have a British Passport?

Allsorts

Doesn’t anyone else find this endless Tory Bashing a bit pathetic. It’s constant negativity, always predicting the worse scenario before they know the facts, I can only assume they enjoy being miserable. Most people would rather live here than anywhere else, that’s why most try to get here, it seems pointless living in a country you hate unless you enjoy moaning.

Very well said.👏👏👏

I love my country and I used to be proud of it. That’s why I’m appalled at what Conservative governments over the past decade have done to it. Many good, decent Conservative MP’s have either left the party or were pushed to do so. Even the (for the sake of balance) right wing representatives on the Sky News news report section seem to be struggling to say anything positive about the current government and it’s ministers.

Doesn’t anyone else find this endless Tory Bashing a bit pathetic. It’s constant negativity, always predicting the worse scenario before they know the facts, I can only assume they enjoy being miserable. Most people would rather live here than anywhere else, that’s why most try to get here, it seems pointless living in a country you hate unless you enjoy moaning.

An extra flight is being sent tomorrow, pickup Port Sudan.

Incidentally, my daughter's (about to be) father-in-law, who was born in Sudan, is an extremely successful businessman in the UK. Of his three children, one is a senior research chemist, one is a doctor and the third is a computer nerd, who earns millions for the UK in exports.

Soft touch? I think not!

Do either of you have any idea of the history of Sudan or the change in regime a couple of years ago?

Until recently, Sudan was a strict Islamist state with an appalling record on human rights for people who didn't agree with the dictatorship's interpretation of Islam. It's really no wonder that people wanted to flee.

Sudan was partitioned in 2011 with Sudan being Muslim and South Sudan Christian. Christians in Sudan are still discriminated against and vice versa. In 2019, President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown and Sudan became a theoretically secular state.

As with so many transitions, there have been power struggles, which is what the country is currently experiencing. Before that, it was relatively safe for people who would previously have been tortured or even murdered.

Feel like commenting now Poppyred?

kircubbin2000

Poppyred

Seems to be lot in a poor African country……

I read that some are refugees who originally fled the danger yet felt safe enough to return for the holiday. It does seem unusually high number seeing that Britain left Sudan years ago.Are we a soft touch?

Couldn’t possibly comment. 🙄

kircubbin2000

Poppyred

Seems to be lot in a poor African country……

I read that some are refugees who originally fled the danger yet felt safe enough to return for the holiday. It does seem unusually high number seeing that Britain left Sudan years ago.Are we a soft touch?

I really don't understand why you think 4000 is a high number. To be honest, I would have thought there would be more.

There are probably several hundred NGO employees for a start. I know there are scientists and academics. There are almost certainly business people and people working as advisers for Sudanese companies.

Sudan might be poor, but it's not North Korea. It does have links with other countries, including in Europe and the US.

Poppyred

Seems to be lot in a poor African country……

I read that some are refugees who originally fled the danger yet felt safe enough to return for the holiday. It does seem unusually high number seeing that Britain left Sudan years ago.Are we a soft touch?

We have friends there
They tell us this all came about because of a deal with Russia to use a port on the Red Sea.

We were in Iran at the time of the revolution and, although the situation was nowhere near as bad as Sudan, it was difficult making arrangements to leave. I sympathise with all those waiting to leave.

The difficulty isn’t the numbers, it’s that many people are in outlying areas. It’s difficult for them to travel to get to the capital. There are checkpoints and the roads aren’t always good. It must be very frightening. I think more people were out there just at the moment because it was Eid recently. People travel to spend Eid with their family. I travelled to New Zealand last Christmas to spend Christmas with my daughter and her children.
It was announced on the lunchtime news that the last plane will leave for Cyprus shortly. I hope most people have managed to get to the capital.

GrannyGravy13

Our AC tells the same Witzend

It’s always extremely difficult on the ground in multiple ways

I think the problem has been that communication with the public has been poor. A number of government ministers have been telling different stories. You would have thought the Foreign Office would have sent round an urgent memo telling MPs to stick to one official version for interviews - they usually do - you can tell because they don't answer questions directly and use the same words.

Katie59

Poppyred

Seems to be lot in a poor African country……

Not surprising at all, there are 24,000 of Sudanese heritage living in the UK they will have family members and business interests back home. Many of them will be from middle class backgrounds in Sudan, teachers, shopkeepers, civil servants, it’s natural they travel back and forth for holidays and family events. In addition there are Britons that have development or business interests in Sudan.

This is true of many nationalities, especially commonwealth countries, when you are living in an unstable country your perception of risk is much lower

The figure I read was that there are 35,000 people who were born in Sudan and now living in the UK, usually with British citizenship. As you say, they travel to family events and try to be with their family at Eid.

In my list of British citizens I forgot to include NGO workers and teachers. There are numerous reasons that British people might have for being in Sudan and I don't think 4000 is that big a number.

Our AC tells the same Witzend

It’s always extremely difficult on the ground in multiple ways

It’s all too easy to criticise when you’re sitting in the comfort and safety of your home in the U.K.

A dd has worked in sundry natural disaster zones (earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, severe drought) as well as the dangerous conflict zone of Afghanistan, and more than once has despaired over criticism at home (why aren’t they doing A and B, why aren’t they doing A and B more quickly) - she’s said that so many people at home have absolutely no idea of the difficulties on the ground, including those posed by uncooperative local officials, not uncommonly demanding bribes, which her organisation invariably refused to pay.

Poppyred

Seems to be lot in a poor African country……

Not surprising at all, there are 24,000 of Sudanese heritage living in the UK they will have family members and business interests back home. Many of them will be from middle class backgrounds in Sudan, teachers, shopkeepers, civil servants, it’s natural they travel back and forth for holidays and family events. In addition there are Britons that have development or business interests in Sudan.

This is true of many nationalities, especially commonwealth countries, when you are living in an unstable country your perception of risk is much lower

My partner works with polysaccharides and glycoproteins, which gum arabic contains (that's how I knew what GG13 was talking about). It's a natural emulsifier and, as you say Meryleene, it's useful stuff with multiple uses. Disruption to the main supply chain will undoubtedly lead to empty shelves/increased prices.

We use gum arabic in art college. It is added to either the water or the paint when painting watercolours. It makes the picture more glossy looking. Our tutor uses it to highlight reflections.

growstuff

I think it's called gum arabic. It's used in weight-loss products too.

Yes that’s it.

(Contrary to another thread, my brain fog is due to Granny duty, the two staying over aged 3 & 5 have just gone to sleep, I have every thing crossed)