Dec 25th, 2012: Christmas Reflection for my Beloved Land
By Nyan Nyiir
As I sit here in my room this Christmas day of 2012, I can’t help but to recall the best and happiest day of my life during the Christmas holiday of 2011 when our country finally became a free nation. I could clearly remember all the joy I saw on people’s faces around town that day and the prior days leading to Dec 25th, 2011 because I was in Juba, South Sudan, which had many churches marching on the roads everywhere you go. It was just beautiful! The love for Jesus Christ, unity, and peace was spread all over town and I thought that, that spirit will last forever because it was the kind of joy that one mostly sees in movies with happy endings.
But I am sad today, and have remorsefully reminded my dear self that the joy it saw last Christmas has died away with the season of that year of Independence. South Sudan has now regressed back to its old worst stage. Before Independence our nation was busy fighting the enemy in the North, and after Independence South Sudan has spent the year 2012 fighting each other. We have become our own worst enemies, killing, kidnapping, terrorizing each other and hindering the development of the nation. This is mainly because somewhere along the excitement of freedom we lost or had forgotten what brought us this far in the historical struggle of South Sudan.
This Christmas day of 2012 I hope we put aside all the negatives that took place in the past year, and start a new chapter. As the sons and daughters of South Sudan, we have to take sometimes to slow down and reflect on what matters the most in our lives and how to accomplish it. It is my prayers that we find that peaceful soul within that will bring us back to our sense of loving one another as one nation, putting aside our differences and working for the betterment of this lost land. South Sudan has great potentials in the world but this can only be achieved if we unite ourselves, putting aside our tribal differences, finger pointing, and living in denial. Above all, in the spirit of constructive criticism, let’s commence holding our government and ourselves accountable. Let’s become one in the fight for equality, peace and prosperity by restoring security and political stability in our country. This is only achievable through the fostering socioeconomic development of our young beloved nation.
Former US president John F. Kennedy once said, to paraphrase him, ‘ask not what your country can do for you but instead ask what you can do for your country.’ As we all know this is not the Republic of President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Therefore, we need to stop blaming Kiir for all that goes wrong or not to our likings. We need to be committed citizens. The government is each and every one of us since nothing will ever move forward without our inputs and support. The government is the people and the people are the government; without supplementing each other, they are doomed to nothing. While we the citizens must demand, peacefully, what we want to see in the country, the duty of the government is to deliver those demands that will make us all happy and on the same agenda and direction.
My appeal is to those South Sudanese intellectuals around the world to please come back home with your skills and let us build this nation, because all it lacks is the brilliant minds that incubates great ideas. If you all come back home, our country will be like those other nations in the West that we enjoy living in. South Sudan could be the best it could be if we brought back the knowledge and work hand in hand to apply what we learnt in the Diaspora. We would be able to build those castles and huge mansions. There is nothing impossible to the determined mind, because there is always a way where there is a will. Most importantly, let’s build a strong self-esteem and love for our nation.
Happy holidays and may this year be a year of positive change around the world in general and in Junub el Sudan in particular. May God bless the citizens of South Sudan in their quest of better days and years! And may God bless our leader, Kiir Mayardit, with a better vision as he leads this nation forward! May love, peace, and prosperity be with you all, Amen!!!
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