Global Politics Between Al-Tanbouri’s Shoe and Samuel Beckett _Captain Mohamed Hassan Al-Tahir

 

_Date: September 16, 2025_

 

🌍 In today’s world, where tragedy intersects with absurdity and the boundaries between reality and symbolism blur, global politics can be read through the lens of Al-Tanbouri’s shoe and Samuel Beckett’s play _Waiting for Godot_. Sudan stands as a vivid example caught between triumph and anticipation.

 

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*👞 Al-Tanbouri’s Shoe: The Burden of Power That Cannot Be Removed*

 

In Arab folklore, Al-Tanbouri is a man infamous for his worn-out shoe, which—no matter how many times he tries to discard it—always finds its way back to him, becoming a curse he cannot escape. The shoe is not merely leather; it symbolizes authority, decision-making, and responsibility—inescapable burdens for those in power.

 

Today’s global politics resemble this shoe. Major powers, despite their repeated attempts to disengage from the consequences of their interventions, find themselves returning to the same flashpoints: the Middle East, Africa, Ukraine, Taiwan. Each crisis is a new shoe, and every intervention is a failed attempt to shed the old one.

 

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*🎭 Waiting as the Absurdity of Politics*

 

In his absurdist play _Waiting for Godot_, Samuel Beckett portrays two men waiting for someone who never arrives. We don’t know who Godot is or why they wait for him, but they remain in a state of anticipation and futility. The play offers no resolution, instead reflecting the modern human condition—waiting as a political act, a strategy, a paralysis.

 

Global politics practice this waiting daily, proudly anticipating:

– “Godot” as the solution in Palestine

– “Godot” as peace in Sudan

– “Godot” as justice in Syria

– “Godot” as climate action at the Copenhagen Summit

 

But Godot never comes. And regimes settle for managing the wait, not ending it.

 

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*🇸🇩 Sudan: Between Victory and Waiting*

 

Sudan today lives a layered tragedy, where military victories intersect with political stagnation. The army may achieve tactical progress¹, but the people wait—for peace, for justice, for victory to be a beginning, not an end². Waiting in Sudan is not only absurd—it is bloody. Civilians pay a heavy price with each round of conflict.

 

Sudan is Al-Tanbouri, unable to remove the shoe of war. It is Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for the Godot of democracy. Every military triumph is followed by political inertia, and every temporary truce opens a new door to waiting.

 

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*🧠 Conclusion: Politics as an Unremovable Shoe and Endless Waiting*

 

At its core, global politics has become Al-Tanbouri’s shoe—a burden that clings—and Beckett’s play—a wait that yields nothing. Between them stands Sudan, a mirror of this absurdity, where victory does not mean salvation, and waiting does not mean hope.

 

Perhaps it is time to redefine politics—not as the art of managing interests, but as the art of transcending the shoe and the wait. The world does not need more Tanbouris, nor more Godot plays. It needs those who will remove the shoe, break the cycle of waiting, and walk toward real action.

 

Do we dare?