South Sudan and International Days
6 min readBy Kut Moortat
“It is midnight, it is not time to write,” my wife tells me. But I have to. I insist because this issue keeps bothering me. It bothers me more than any other issue I can remember. I am also being bothered because why doesn’t this particular issue go away? It concerns me why it bothers me. As a proud citizen of this country, I will confront the matter head-on, and not to retreat into my self-shell. At my early years in primary school, I learned that a calendar year has three hundred and sixty five days except a lunar year. I am yet to figure out if anything, I repeat, if anything is behind this arrangement. Why not assign each and every year equal number of days? This secrecy, this behind-the-scene arrangement implants in me the oddity of questioning. You know our history, it is a history characterised by conflict that has produced heroes and heroines, people such as Nyuon Bany, Dr John Garang, Kerubino Kuanyin, Nyankol, Joseph Odhuhu and Ageer Gum, you name them. These courageous individuals deserve to be accorded national days in their honour, however when I pull out my calendar on the wall, I learn that there are more holidays to be named than the number of days available in a year. There are less than a dozen days unfilled, and are already booked by international organisations. We are sliding into a nation of international holidays.
Most of the days available to be assigned names of important people are public holidays on their own right. What is Sunday? Isn’t it the international day of Jesus Christ? What is Christmas day? What troubles me is leverage pre-arranged by these smart dudes. I will explain this: Jesus or his dad (not God) give Sunday the frequency you have never seen with any other international holiday on this planet. When a country becomes unconventional and remains unreformed and unrepentant, you call it a rogue-state (state of concern). What name do you give a holiday that occurs with a break-neck speed? – A holiday of concern. While the saviour fixed his birthdate on 25th of December with leverage, which day of the week is worth his name at that particular year? He gave Sunday a leverage of a date of the week that is worth his name at that particular week. The messiah has taken a lion share in this case, though he advocates for equality for all.
What infuriates me is that, just like a land as an inelastic commodity, number of days in a year is fixed. While we are confronted with new international days, some of which I have never heard of in my entire adulthood life, whether in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia or even in Australia where I am currently, have you heard of world toilet day? What about white stick international day? International Hand washing day? Older persons’ international day? The list is long; but all these find their way to our country, why? I don’t know. It keeps worrying me why holidays that never existed during our liberation struggle just surged and overtook every other important day in our nation. Our country is a ‘new’ nation, but does it mean that every other thing is new? Is our culture new? What is oxymoron with these days is the misplaced resources and time. While they were more important and essential in places such as Dimma, Itang, Dadaaba, Pagnido and Kakuma, none was there to offer these services when they were most needed. This ridiculousness makes me ask just out curiosity: is what motivates these people an ethically driven or self-regarding act?
This flourishing situation is bothering. I consider it a scramble for our national resources. What else can you say? Our people are not new, our land is not new, and our resources are not new, only that our oil was not freely accessible. What is new is peace; it is this security that gives them freedom to operate. Many people see no connection between our resources and the NGOS services. We are a sovereign state and member of the UNHCR, AU and the World Bank. South Sudan pays its fees to these multi-national organisations which is in turn used by these bodies to fund these subsidiary NGOs. It will be naïve to believe that we are being given services out of generosity. We have been paying for peace process directly or indirectly as long as we were in any situation that called for negotiations or peace talks that involved a third party. We pay facilitators, equipment and venues.
Though these so-called international days are bothering me, they’re both embarrassing and insulting. Some of these organisations have websites that are left to rot. They are never updated. If these sites were physical structures, they would have been inhabited by serpents. The time they burst to live is when that particular anniversary day arrives. They get hold of everyone that they can lay their hands on, from a junior civil servant to your governor, from a nursery school kid to a retired general, just to be told that your culture is primitive and therefore needs re-education. Imagine being assembled with your kids, in-laws and grandpas and be lectured about nothing under the blazing sun. What is insulting the most is that, those who claim to be experts have no knowledge of our cultures.
I become so cautious and wary about the term ‘NEW’ (I will come to it later). Nevertheless, I will use it. There is nothing new about these international days, only the context in which they are applied, for example, take a white stick international day. In other words, it’s a day for blind people. Our people have used guarding sticks for centuries no matter what colour it is. We have been going to toilets long before we could even use guarding sticks. Our mothers taugh us how to wash our hands. So, next time you have idea of international holiday, we can discuss it in privacy prior to the village summon. The term ‘NEW’ is not new. It is as old as English itself. South Sudan is not new either. In fact, it is older than the previous one. So, what does it mean to be called new? Hang on; when you are referred to as new, it means you are naïve, inexperienced, irresponsible, wild, careless, and vulnerable; I am avoiding the word foolish here because it is both impolite and offensive; it means you are only to be seen not heard, that you are not better than a water pot or rubbish bin.
I want to sleep for I have relieved my chest, but I yearn to share this with you. Our folks, nothing is wicked, however the staggering thing is, how our people perceive anything that is international. To say that it is mind-boggling is under-estimation. Have you ever heard someone tell you that he has applied for international passport, international driving license, or pursuing international studies or even international medicine? God forbid. I have no particular hatred towards ‘Global thing’; the point is that, honour those who do or did us pride. In case you have personal animosity against those I have mentioned earlier, I will not abet very much, however, I will suggest a few names in lieu of international holidays for God’s sake. They are not in any particular order: Daniel T Arap Moi, George W Bush or Tearz Ayuen.
Kut is a member of Amnesty International and Red Army veteran. He can be contacted by e-mail: kut2za@hotmail.com
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