War in the Era of Artificial Intelligence
Mohamed Abdel-Majid
In the United Arab Emirates, the past few days witnessed the celebration of an Emirati astronauts historic journey to the moon, or almost reaching it. This achievement is credited to their scientific progress and ceaseless practical efforts. Meanwhile, in Khartoum, we struggle just to cross the Shambat Bridge, and even access to the Arab market seems unavailable, even to satellites. I believe that electricity, water, and a functioning network are unavailable in the heart of Khartoum.
Humanity as a whole has been left out of the equation. The only service it receives is the service of transitioning to the afterlife.
In Kassala, airstrikes found their way to two children before they received their vaccinations and relief milk... Why are we so intelligent in killing, destroying, and then covering ourselves with the garments of innocence and patriotism? There is no shame in convincing your victim that you are doing it for the sake of the nation. The wolf that ate Joseph was none other than his brothers! The innocence of the wolf here is beyond doubt, even though it is a wolf!
This equation demands our attention. Imagine that the wolf is innocent of the blood of Joseph, and it was his brothers who were guilty. Was the wolf kinder to Joseph than his own brothers? Those who brought him out of the wilderness, as strangers to him, were probably kinder to him than his own brothers who cast him into it.
Did you know that reaching Klakla in Khartoum has become more challenging than reaching the moon in the UAE?
Damn those who turned our struggle into a fight for bread and medicine and tightened the doors shut!! Damn those who wanted to hold us accountable for their struggle and settled for foreign passports. They have become, in the name of patriotism, holders of foreign passports!
Damn those who thought they have no existence, no return, and no appearance except in war, so they turned to tying their own nooses, while children die in bombings, and they, from the capitals of the Arab world, speak the language of Dad and Dad!
My friend told me that he was searching among the scattered bodies on the streets for his body! When my friend felt my astonishment and disbelief, he said, after careful consideration, Dont be surprised because every unidentified body is my body... My pain for those bodies is no less than my pain for my body if its among them.
The truth is that the unidentified bodies are a poisoned dagger stabbing our identity as the living. It is a disgrace on us, not on the bodies. Therefore, it is not the bodies that are unidentified; it is us who have lost our identity... Even morgues and refrigerators for the dead are refusing to accept victims. The only congestion refrigerators witness is the congestion of the dead. Refrigerators have become empty of everything except the bodies of the dead.
My friend added, with a sigh that seemed to dissolve him as I listened attentively, as if he were speaking about me: We must serve this country with our lives, not with our deaths. A nation that makes bullets its official language will never progress. If the blood that is shed in disagreement had flowed in agreement, Sudan would be in a different place now.
Gandhi, the freedom fighter, fought against foreign colonization without firing a single bullet, and Mandela believed in the same doctrine. Gandhi said, I am prepared to die, but there is no reason for me to be prepared to kill. He also said, Victory attained by violence is tantamount to defeat.
Islam calls for tolerance, forgiveness, and peace. Peace is one of the beautiful names of Allah, and we conclude our prayers with it and exchange it when we meet. It is the language of the people of paradise, and the Prophet, peace be upon him, was the first to pronounce it when he opened Mecca, even after enduring persecution from its people and being expelled from it.
Close to that, Gandhi says, An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. I am constantly in a test with myself and in a challenge with it, to practice tolerance towards those who have wronged us, as the soul tends toward evil. Test your humanity by your ability to forgive. Dont mourn these foolishness and violations. You created and promoted them to the point that making peace seems impossible.
I told my friend, whom I was speaking to, but do the military understand that? Power blinds ones vision. After failing in their field and their military specialization, they should not lecture us about authority, governance, and politics.
The destruction of the country is now carried out by its own children. I dont believe that when the Turks or the British colonized Sudan, they did to it what these individuals are doing in the name of the nation! The vendetta campaign and Kitchener were more merciful!
You dont need more than one bullet to kill a person. But if the entire world, with all its strength, knowledge, capabilities, might, and tyrants, were to come together to resurrect a person or bring a dead one back to life, they would not be able to do so, not even for a few moments. What they have expended in effort, power, planning, and scheming to destroy the country, if they had done it for the sake of building the country, Sudan would have been Gods paradise on Earth.
Some say that the location where the righteous servant met Gods prophet and His word, Moses, is the confluence of the two Niles, the Blue and the White. Professor Abdullah Al-Tayeb has interpretations of this saying. The confluence (al-Nilayn) that can bring together the righteous servant and Moses is now called the Two Fires (al-Narayn). Even the jinn fear to meet there.
I remember that my father, may he rest in peace, despite being an ordinary employee and having limited financial means, made it a point during vacations when I was a child to take me to the Muntazah Al-Muqran and visit the Zoological Garden. When we entered Khartoum wearing our Eid clothes, it was out of respect, admiration, and joy for the national capital. What my father did for me, I cannot do for my children today, despite the time difference, which was supposed to be in favor of this generation. Khartoum used to amaze us, to the point that when we passed by the University of Khartoum, our noses filled with pride, our foreheads raised, and our necks elongated.
At the beginning of this century or the late last century, Tayeb Salih wrote: Doha, when I first arrived there at the end of 1974, was a small town that no one cared about. Its water often ran dry, and its electricity would go out. Its neighborhoods were scattered, its architecture chaotic, and its streets unpaved, with rats wandering freely in broad daylight. Living there was a struggle and suffering.
Look at where Doha is now! It competes with European capitals and surpasses them in elegance and grandeur. We dont envy them for that, but electricity and water have become our utmost wishes in Omdurman, and we, with our multiple and diverse civilizations, existed long before Christ, with civilizations like Kush, Meroe, Napata, Bajrawiya, Nubia, all the way to the Blue Nile, October, April, and the glorious December Revolution.
Omdurman was enriched by Khalil Farah nearly a hundred years ago, for he passed away in 1932 (a notable family in al-Maaleeg). Surely Khalil Farah would now be shuddering in his grave, as the hard-won Tramway is plowed through by tanks and abandoned by its inhabitants!
If a moment from the 1930s had the chance to visit Khartoum in our time and see how we are treating it, it would find that we are presenting Khartoum as a major waste bin. Whoever said that Sudan would be the worlds breadbasket has made foreign hands gnaw at our flesh until we killed the love we had for it. What are we waiting for?
The Sudanese writer Muawiya Mohammed Noor wrote an article titled Reflections and Sad Memories in the weekly newspaper Al-Siyasa (Issue 246) on November 22, 1930. This article, which was written by Muawiya Mohammed Noor, who passed away in 1942, reflects on Khartoum:
As I sit on a bench on the banks of the Blue Nile in the city of Khartoum, the Nile flows gently, as if it were a polished mirror. To my right, there are a few cargo ships on the river. In front of me is Khartoum Bahri, Tuti Island, and to the north, the city of Omdurman, covered in silence and shrouded in the thin veil of night. It occurs to me that the lush trees lining the riverside street and the tranquil river itself, with its bridge, the city, the island, and the sky above it, with its intense blue hue stretching to the Niles boundaries, are all part of the Nile itself, and that the Nile is the sky. Its an image that one could contemplate, derive inspiration from, and find a sense of revelation in. The passing ship seemed, at first glance, to erase the beauty of that scene, disrupting the serene stillness. But it did not detract from it; instead, it added color to the image, infusing it with life and vitality. It no longer appeared to me as a ship crossing a river, but rather as a pen drawing a line on a page, or a shooting star streaking across the sky in haste and swiftness! What a captivating sight the Nile is at night! Its beauty and grandeur know no bounds, and no other view can surpass the enchantment and magnificence I witnessed. Thoughts come alive, the mind becomes more expressive, and memories overflow, filling the soul with nostalgia and yearning, like when one stands in the presence of the Nile, and the heart longs, and all of it is filled with melancholy and longing.
Look at how Doha was when Tayeb Salih visited it in the 1970s (rats roaming around), and how Khartoum was described by Muawiya Mohammed Noor in 1930 (ships crossing). It is truly shameful and makes us say with shame, May God protect Sudan from its own children. As for its enemies, they are sufficient.
I dont think that Gordon Pasha, whose head was severed by the Mahdis army in Khartoum, wished us anything more than this. I feel ashamed, and the government is transferring its activities to Port Sudan, which has become the alternative capital.
Do you not remember when we used to watch the Anteriya of the authorities before the war, when peaceful processions took place in Khartoum? Have you forgotten when they used to close the Mak Nimir and Al-Manshiya bridges with containers? Where is the police that used to serve the suppression of the people?
Now they are moving the capital to Port Sudan, and Jabril Ibrahim is nowhere to be found, as he is displaced in the alternative capital due to the increase in fuel prices and passport fees.
How easy it is for you to relinquish and deny Khartoum. The Sudanese citizen dies in Omdurman and El Geneina from stray bullets or aerial bombardments, at a time when the world is advancing in artificial intelligence. That application that can make you hear Harami Al-Qalb Talleb sung by Um Kulthum and allow you to watch Ramy Kritikla in Liverpool and Mofaq Sadeq in Manchester City.
I watch Ronaldo, Mahrez, Mane, Benzema, Bono, and Neymar these days in the Saudi league. I dont know if that is a reality or artificial intelligence. The world is evolving and progressing every day in science and technology, while we lose what was built a hundred years ago. The world is already a hundred years ahead of us.
We have no hope for the future. Sadly, we are destroying our history. What is regrettable is that we have nothing left but history, so they decided to destroy it.
Look at Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, and learn from those countries without any reproach. We have become obsessed with the Niles presence and flood control, while rainfall could be happening. Sometimes I feel that the Nile committed its greatest folly by making its confluence in Khartoum.
Will the headquarters of Al-Nilain also be transferred to Port Sudan? Mohamed Al-Amin Turk dreamed of moving to Khartoum, so they honored him by moving the capital to Port Sudan. The thinking of the remnants is embodied in raising passport fees. Is there a stronger evidence than this? They are the remnants.
