Ayman Elkhidir

Sudan is one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the third world; torn with wars, sanctions and pverty. Still, it has one of the highest growth rates in the world for the last few years, reaching as high as 13%. The government’s efforts towards implementing a model of free market was always considered controversial, as it meant less government control on prices and forced more pressure on the already-suffering people. Through the last 15 years, some of the richest families in Sudan went broke and some previously no-bodies became billionaires, as they were able to absorb and cope with the changes. With the implementation of these policies, the government started a spree of ontroversial privatization moves of its operation, starting with the Telecommunications Public Corporation, and just recently reaching the national air carrier “Sudan Air”.

The decision to liberate the telecom sector proved to be a good one. Sudan’s telecom sector is now the fastest-growing in the world with a growth rate of 30%, with expectations to reach 80% by 2008. There are 4 companies providing mobile phone services:

• Mobitel (Operated by Kuwaiti MTC) using a GSM network.
• MTN (Operated by the South African MTN Group) using a GSM and 3G network.
• Sudani (operated by the local Sudatel) using CDMA.
• Canar (Operated by UAE Etisalat) using CDMA.

This competition has reflected very much on prices and offers with every company trying its best to get a bigger chunk of the cake. I’ve seen this starting a few years back and it still going. Call rates here in Sudan are shockingly cheap, causing a high penetration rate for telecom services. Even the president had to make a comment about it when he stated his amazement that the Sudanese people spent 3 billions dollars last year on phone conversation while he was urging the people to use time in a better way that talking on phones.

Some of the interesting offers valid now that show the fierce competition effect (1 SDG = 50 cents = 1.85 Dhs):

• All service providers have fixed international call rates flat at 1 SDG/minutes to any country in the world.

• Mobitel has 4 different mobile packages starting at 10 SDG purchase price which includes 5 SDG initial credit.Calling rates range 0.10 SDG to 0.19 SDG. Local SMS from 0.04 SDG (That’s about 7 fils) and international SMS for 0.25 SDG

• MTN offers pay-by-the-second (Reminds you of something?)

• MTN is the only provider offering 3G services. Video call charges are 0.40 SDG per minute which is not bad at all.

• Sudani is offering 100 years validity for their lines.

• Sudani has used its CDMA network coverage to provide a Mobile DSL (EV-DO) service with 2 choices; a PCMCIA card or a USB dongle. Rate is 250 SDG monthly which I think is great, considering the unlimited usage, the very wide coverage, and the high data rate that may reach 2Mbps.

• Canar is also providing EV-DO services but it is provided in packages that are different than Sudani’s. Canar offers two package options depending on monthly usage allowance, with 60 SDG/Month for 2GB usage and 132 SDG/Month for 5GB usage.

• Canar also has an amazing offer for their fixed phones (which are not really fixed as they are also wireless CDMA phones), which include FREE on-Canar calls from 12am to 6am everyday.

Fayrouz Mango

Even though I’m in the land of fruits and juices, I still miss that Mango-flavored Malt beverage. I just wonder if I’ll find it somewhere in khartoum. Nevertheless, I’m totally enjoying dirt-cheap fresh juices around here.

Cinestar

There are a few theaters over here, most of them are dedicated to Bollywood movies. The Sudanese people are just crazy about Hindi films that it is said that a Bollywood movie launches in Khartoum in the same week of its launch in Mumbai. There is only one semi-decent cinema that plays Hollywood movies, but only 4-6 months late.

Traffic Police

People in Sudan drive like they were riding their camels and donkeys a hundred years ago. There are absolutely no traffic rules. Priority at intersections is decided by who has a stronger guts. Even traffic lights, when found, are badly designed that if you follow them, you’ll definitely crash. To make that clear, imagine that both opposite lights for those going forwards and those turning left are green at the same time. So if you’re turning left or making a U turn, you should be prepared for the cars coming from the opposite side coz their way is clear as well.

It’s been a week since I arrived at Khartoum. I’ve been keeping a low profile and trying to catch up with sleep and didn’t even start thinking of going out but rather enjoy spending time with the family and arranging for a soon-to-be-disclosed good news.

I found out I escaped Dubai’s hot and humid weather to Khartoum’s heavy rains and mosquito bites. I still can’t decide which is better. But looking to the mosquito bite marks on my arms, I think I would settle for the heat of Dubai. At least there you can take a shelter with air conditioning, but over here, no matter what you do, those little creatures will reach you and suck your blood.

Now when you are in Khartoum, you’d definitely have a hundred topics to blog about. I mean this is where you find the worst policies, the worst decision-making, and the most corruption you would ever see. And all of those affect your life everyday.

Forget SALIK.. forget the high rent increases.. forget Dubai Metro headache.. This is nothing compared to what happens over here.. Here’s a couple of HOT issues around here in Khartoum:

• One of the major local newspapers announced the other day that authorities have caught 202 bakeries in Khartoum in one month only, using the illegal cancer-causing Potassium Bromate to strengthen bread dough. There has been lots of fuss about Potassium Bromate in last year and everybody in the whole country now knows that Potassium Bromate will cause you cancer. Now imagine finding out that 202 bakeries were caught in one months using it. Naturally, people avoided buying bread from that day. And to everybody’s surprise, the authorities announce on a press conference that the truth was that (samples) were taken from 202 bakeries and only 3 were found to use that illegal substance. On the same day, the famous newspaper confirms what it mentioned was wrong, but still doesn’t apologize, but rather blame (other newspapers) for that. No body knows how!

• The late announcement of budget performance for the year 2006 had some surprising figures. Money spent on Electricity bills for the presidential palaces was totaled to 700,000 pounds (350,000 USD), comparing to 100,000 pounds (50,000 USD) spend in a whole year on the development of rain-based agricultural regions, which compromise about 60% of the country’s area. Isn’t that something to talk about?

I came to know from my fellow blogger Amjad, through his comment on this post, it seems your favorite blog (yeah, right!) is blocked in the Sultanate.

Yes. Omantel has blocked my blog for some reason I can’t imagine.

Omantel’s advertising slogan is (Anytime, Anywhere, Together). Well, obviously we can’t disagree with Anytime Anywhere part. But they and I are definitely not together in this.

Anyway, I don’t think anyone in Oman (Other than Amjad of course) would be interested in this site.

Still interesting though. Sort of cool actually. Makes me feel good in a strange way.

I’m blocked!

An interesting story by Associated Press through Emirates Today on the hottest chili pepper in the world. The Bhut Jolokia comes from North India and it is indeed the hottest chili in the world. The people over there beleive that if you eat it, you will become a ghost. Thus comes the name Bhut Jolokia where Bhut means “Ghost” in the local language.

To read the story click on the picture below:

So, how can anybody decide this chili pepper is hotter than the other?

Well, those freak scientists did that and they even have a scale for it. The hottness of a chili pepper is originally caused by a compound called Capsaicin. The higher amount of this compound available in your chily, the hotter the chili is. And this is how a scale – The Scoville Scale – was formed. Scientists measured the amount of Capsaicin in every known chili pepper in the world and gave it a Scoville Rating.

I f you check the table, you’ll find Bhut Jolokia (a.k.a. Naga Jolokia) topped by three substances that aren’t natural chili, which makes it the hottest Chili in the world. On top of the scale is the pure Capsaicin with a rating of 15 Million units, followed by Nordihydrocapsaicin (9 Mill), which is also a sort of Capsaicin and followed by the well-respected Pepper Spray (2 – 5 Mill). Our Bhut is crowned king of all chili peppers with One Million Units.

Personally, I’m not a spice fan, even though I don’t mind some pepper in my meal. But I’ve known people that are crazy about chili pepper. One of my favorite college professors once told me a story on how he was such great fan of chili pepper and was always looking for a hotter piece. When he lived in the US, he came to know of some kind of chili pepper that grows in Mexico and the guy really chased it until he got his hand on some. So on a very homey weekend, he was inviting his friend for a Sudanese lunch he’s cooking and decided to surprise them with his new and exciting founding.

So he chopped a small peewee of this chili pepper into the whole pot which certainly made a topic to talk about during lunch. Later in the evening, he starts feeling some pain in his ear which he doesn’t give much attention to.

Later on, he finds out that this ear is flaming red and he starts thinking about it, even considering this is a sign of cancer. After lots of thinking, he remembers that while cooking earlier that day, he scratched that ear. Well, prof, meet the power of Capsaicin.

The strangest thing about chili pepper is that it was only discovered after Christopher Columbus got it back with him from the new world, trying to prove he found a new path to India (Fool!). It’s even said that he called these things (pepper) just to link them with the known Asian spice (Source). So wasn’t there any chili pepper in India back then? This deserves some research when I find some time for it.