Network resources

Sudan-list anniversary samples

Dear Sudan-L netter,

Saturday, April, 29 means a year has passed since the creation of Sudan-L as a Sudan-Discussion group. Congratulations to all for the first anniversary. The membership has being wide and diverse with the number of subscribers approaching 200 (198 to be exact). Your contributions have made it successful and hopefully a lasting discussion group. In this anniversary occasion, I would like to share with you few memories from the first few weeks after the list started. After the announcement of Sudan-L in several internet sites, one of the funniest and dejected thing happen was during the first week when I received ten and tens of messages from new subscribers who confused Sudan the country with a software package called SUDAAN (see sample of these messages below). It was funny to see how these knowledgeable statistician and computer users made ignoramus of themselves mainly due to their illiteracy of the existence of a country by the name SUDAN. It was sad, however, to discover that many people do not bother to know our beloved Sudan or may be they knew Sudan but excluded the notion of a poor country like Sudan to have a discussion mailing list. Of course they all signoff.

Early during the second week of the list one of the landmark occasion was the merger of Sudanlist with Sudan-L. Sudanlist, as described by its owner Dr. Albrecht Hofheinz, was not actually a real list (i.e., a Listserv), but a purely personal effort by the list owner to use the net to exchange information relevant to the Sudan among people who are interested in and concerned about Sudan and who happen to have e-mail addresses. Most of the 36 Sudanists and Sudanese to whom Dr. Albrecht use to distribute material have joined Sudan-L. The addition of these people has contributed to the success of this list especially helping with specific questions about Sudanese materials e.g., Colloquial Arabic discussion.

Noteworthy mentioning is the Solar Oven discussion and the malaria vaccine information as well as the continuous exchange of opinions and experience about the current issues affecting Sudan today.

All these may have provided easy access to valuable sources of information about Sudan to both the academics, "students and teachers", and non-academics. This was the main focus of this list: to help serve all through interactive exchange.

I hope, despite heated debates at sometimes, ALL have benefited from the list and continue to contribute to it's success. This is no one person job and we look forward to contribution from those who were standingby all last year. I ask Allah the almightly to help our people and bring peace to our beloved country, the Sudan and to all other countries.

Best wishes.
List owner

Excerpts for this last year

To:younis@rmy.emory.edu From: jwcassell@UNC.EDU
To: Statistical Consulting Discussion , SAS Users Discussion List , por@gibbs.oit.unc.edu, Social Science Research Methods Instructors

As some of you already know Sudan is a software package for analyzing data from survey which use complex sampling designs. Now there's someplace to post questions about it's use--an hopefully get informed answers :-> I'm not affiliated with the folk running this list, so please direct and and all questions to Dr. Abdelmoneim I. Younis (younis@rmy.emory.edu).

Jim Cassell jwcassell@UNC.EDU Institute for Research in Social Science
Phone: 919-962-0782 University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Fax: 919-962-4777 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3355 USA

Message 2 ...... From: "'D. A. Scocca'" Subject: sudaan list.... ¨
To: younis@rmy.emory.edu

I just recieved (via STAT-L) an information posting about your Sudaan listserv... and noticed that the information had the name of the package misspelled (it's SUDAAN, from SUrvey DAta ANalysis, not SUDAN)... Was this an error in the information posting only or also in the name of the list?

* The Minstrel in the Gallery "Heteroskedastic" *
* D. A. Scocca scocca@gibbs.oit.unc.edu *
* "My love does not, cannot _make_ her happy. My love can only *
* release in her the capacity to be happy."
--J. Barnes *

Message 3

I just received a forwarded message about this list. Do you have any information about the Sudan software package for complex sampling designs? Thank you.

David L. Elliott BITNET: DELLIOTT@SNYESCVA.BITNET
Center for Distance Learning INTERNET:DELLIOTT@sescva.esc.edu
SUNY Empire State College 2 Union Avenue Saratoga Springs, New York
12866 518/587-2100 ext. 300 (voice) 518/587-5404 (fax)

Example from Solar Oven discussions

From: "a. h. elnagheeb"

Subject: Solar ovens for Sudan To: Sudan-L Discussion Group

My questions to Dr. Kammen

Thanks to Dr. Kammen's for his efforts to help Africa conserve its forests and energy resources. I have some questions about the solar oven which I raised to Dr. Kammen (thru special E-mail) and I hope to get some answers:
(1) Does the oven have to stay in the open sun or does the oven receive sun's rays through special devices without it being in the open sun? The reason for this question is the suitability of the solar oven for urban cities where is there is some shade due to the large buildings. I know in rural areas this should not be a problem.
(2) The safety of the oven: has it been tested that the emissions from the oven (if any) will not cause any health problems (e.g. cancer)
(3) Is there any work going on to speed up the cooking time (it seems that it is slow)?
(4) How portable is the oven? and is there any relation between size and efficiency (cooking time)?

with best wishes of Abdelmoneim H. Elnagheeb

Dr. Dan Kammen's Answers

Dear Dr. Elnagheeb, To address your questions:

(1) The oven, but not the cook, must stay in a sunny (or partially sunny) area to cook. There are no complex or expensive focusing devices in this design. Therefore, the oven will remain hot, generally 140 - 170 C while receivng sun. As you note, the oven cooks slowly, but at the same time, there is no need for the cook to remain in the sun with the oven. In fact, the communities in Eadt Africa where we work generally leave the oven in the compound and go about other business. The low cooking temperature, and thermal equilibrium between the top and bottom of the oven mean that food will not burn, so monitoring is not necessary. While the oven does not focus, it has been shown to be highly effective in urban areas as well. Rooftops or other areas with some exposure to the sun prove to be very effecitve as well. In fact, some of the most effective programs to disseminate soalr ovens in India and Latin America have been in urban areas where charcoal smoke is seen as a particular helath problem.

(2) The materials used in the interior of the oven are: sawdust or another insulating material, wood, glue, aluminium foil, glass, and a sheet of metal (painted black). The only materials that coudl give off any odors are the glue and paint. Once the oven is completed, it is generally left out in the sun (with the door open) to "bake out" for a day or so. This "cures" the oven of any odors. Even ovens in use for 10 years (Latin America) have experienced no sigingicant degrading of the oven, and no health risks or odorw from what is an inert box.

(3) My research team is not involved in any efforts to speed cooking time with the use of complex or expensive focusing systems or spoecial materials (i.e. those not locally available). There are, however, many designs of solar ovens available, many of which do employ additional systems to speed cooking time. Our phiolosophy has been one of simplicity and *entirely* locally controlled technology and materials. When individual communities which to experiment with the technology and move to more complex designs, we are happy to help them.

(4) Lerger, bulkier ovens do generally cook somewhat faster, particularly when the sunshine is intermittent. We concentrate our efforts on a relatively heavy wooden model that families generally leave outside in a small enclosure or on a bench/stones so that it is always available for cooking, boiling water, etc. ... Other lightweight designs do exist, but we have again not promoted those as they often do not use locally available materials.

Regards, Dan

Solar ovens for Sudan

From: ATTICERAM@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: sudan/solar ovens
X-To: SUDAN-L%EMUVM1.BITNET@uga.cc.uga.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list SUDAN-L
Content-Length: 346
Status: RO

Dear Dan Kammen,

Thanks for your offer to send solar cooker plans in the mail. If need be I'd be happy to cover postage, etc. I'm going to Sudan on July 1st to work on a U.N. sponsored ceramic project, but feel sure the plans would be put to good use.

Reid Harvey
32 Graves Ave. Northampton, MA 01060
413 585-8991

I recieved this nice message from Dr. Kammen.

From: Daniel Kammen
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 10:43:43 -0400
To: younis@rmy.emory.edu
Subject: sudan/solar ovens

hi: in fact, i had a project on solar ovens scheudled for juba, but have to wait for obvoius reasons. the solar oven can not be used to fry foods, so a BBQ is not going to work, but essentially everything else works fine in the oven. if you send me your US mail address, i'l send you a set of the very simple plans to construct one (takes untrained volunteers about 3 days).

regards, dan

Dear, Dan

Thank you very very much for the quick response. I sincerely appreciate your noble efforts to help the African people in general and the Sudanese in particular. The inability to apply this solar/oven project in Juba-Sudan due to the obvious reasons is another example of how badly this bloody civil war is hurting the innocent civilian in Sudan. May God help us serve our people and return peace and prosperity to (soon)

Sudan Moneim

Example from colloquial arabic discussions

From: Johan van Dijk
Subject: Re: colloquial arabic
X-To: SUDAN-L@EMUVM1.bitnet
To: Multiple recipients of list SUDAN-L
Content-Length: 825 Status: RO

Michael, Constance and other readers,

I can only comment on the use of the word "shok". Brushwood is used by the Beja of eastern Sudan in the building of permeable structures in water courses to divert small amounts of floodwater. This water is used for subsistence, mainly sorghum, cultivation. Other applications of brushwood include small-scale control of gully erosion, and reinforcenment of earth bunds in the local "teras" technique of rainwater harvesting. (Apart from penning in cattle, building etc.) However, not all brushwood in these particular applications is referred to by "shok" (or the other word used "libish"). Shok is most frequently used for the diversion structures. Quite some engineers are they not ?

Johan Van Dijk, University of Amsterdam,
Dep. of Human Geography.

Johan and others,

The word mungash could certainly be translated as tweezers. Yet, the word yangush does not mean "to remove" as such. If get it right, it is perhaps connected with the preparing the skin around the thorn before the operation. Note that the mungash has a needle edge from one side and a tweezers edge on the other end. The mungash is worn together with the hand knife on the left arm in most parts of the Sudan. The word yangush appears in at least two other related spheres in the West of Sudan. It refers to smoothening the surface of the grain mortar to enable fine grinding. More recently the word is also adapted to the mortars used in modern (diesel mills). It refers to smoothening mortars or grinders which also include renewing the tracks so that the floor falls down fast.

In central Sudan, the word yangush is frequently used to denote "to grasp or to understand/discover. You might already know that the word naggash in urban Sudan refers to builders who put the final touches "finishing" of houses (rooms). They job includes painting, plastering if any, cleaning and decoration.

Give me more information about traditional soil and water conservation to be able to respond to you. Hope these notes are of use to you

Abdullahi

Re: colloquial arabic
From: Albrecht Hofheinz
Subject: walad al-Sanduuq
To: Multiple recipients of list SUDAN-L

Encouraged by the recent discussion of the nuances of meaning of Sudanese colloquial words, I would like to ask if anyone has any idea what

walad al-Sanduuq (lit., "the son of the box")

could mean. The expression occurs in a sentence describing someone who had put money "under the son of the box" (taHt walad al-Sanduuq), from the context apparently a place where it was well hidden away. Has anyone heard this expression before? Thank you for your help,

Albrecht Hofheinz

walad al-Sanduuq End Included Message

This were just a few examples.
Sudan-L 1st Anniversary

Responsible for these Web pages is Knut S. Vikør. Archived 2.5.95