Sudan has been something of a pioneer of revolutions. Since independence from Britain in 1956, the Sudanese have twice risen up: against the military government of General Ibrahim Abboud in 1964, and again in the face of the dictatorship of Gaafar Nimeiry in 1985.
The current protests - which young people in Sudan are already calling the "Third Sudanese Spring" - were started by people frustrated at the government's recent policies, especially its austerity measures. The protests have since escalated into something much more.
As in past uprisings, demonstrations at the University of Khartoum proved to be the precursor to a broader student movement spanning universities across Sudan.
Students have adopted slogans calling for the overthrow of the regime through civil disobedience, and on June 16 were violently confronted by police and riot forces for the first time. That increased tensions at subsequent demonstrations.
In the following days, police broke into the boarding houses of female students and arrested some for inflammatory acts such as using Facebook and Twitter. This provided a spark for more unrest in many universities.
The tone of the protests has also changed. Anti-government rhetoric has gradually escalated, until the Friday two weeks ago was proclaimed "Ketaha Friday" - "ketaha" being a Sudanese term meaning sandstorm. The day lived up to its name: it was a perfect storm pitting protesters against police in a number of neighbourhoods in Khartoum. Around the country, thousands of students took to the streets. By some accounts, half of the student population of Omdurman, the country's commercial capital, demonstrated in the streets.
But the biggest demonstrations were yet to come. A close ally of President Omar Al Bashir and a member of the ruling National Congress Party, Nafi Ali Nafi, warned protesters: "If anyone tries to hit the streets and remove the regime, the day they lick their elbows is the day they will topple the regime."
The protesters considered the statement (which alludes to a Sudanese expression of what is impossible) provocative and dubbed the next Friday "jomaa lahs al kouo", the Friday of elbow licking. Protests that day in the capital were forceful, and police attacked protesters with tear gas.
It is astonishing that the Sudanese media has almost completely ignored these movements. When media outlets do speak about them, they call them "gang sabotage" or use a phrase attributed to Mr Al Bashir: "shuzaz al afag", or vagabonds.
This attitude has pushed young people towards new media, especially Facebook and YouTube. Given that new media has demonstrated its usefulness in other Arab spring protests, it is foolish to underestimate the medium. Sudanese officials apparently share the sentiments of Habib El Adly, Hosni Mubarak's last interior minister, who is said to have told Mr Mubarak: "These are some young children, Mr President, and I swear I will get rid of them."
These social networking sites have become a breath of fresh air, an engine of change and a place to organise. Despite the information blackout attempted by Mr Al Bashir's government, it is clear that young Sudanese have finally decided to join their counterparts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria in making a new reality and leading a new Middle East.
* Omer Mahmoud Salih and Mohamed Osman Makki. Mr Salih is a documentary filmmaker based in Khartoum.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5