Reality Check: Everyday in South Sudan
By Peter Chol Duom, South Sudan
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May 23, 2015 (SSB) —- 1. We are sending children, women, elderly, and young people to the grave. Are we the ones originating non-renewable energy in Earth? Are you aware of formation of crude oil or fossil fuels? They are (were) formed over millions and millions of years by the action of heat from the Earth’s core and pressure from rock and soil on the remains of dead plants, humans, and animals.
May 23, 2015 (SSB) —- 1. We are sending children, women, elderly, and young people to the grave. Are we the ones originating non-renewable energy in Earth? Are you aware of formation of crude oil or fossil fuels? They are (were) formed over millions and millions of years by the action of heat from the Earth’s core and pressure from rock and soil on the remains of dead plants, humans, and animals.
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2. False myths. Before and after independent, we expected our land to produce milk, labourers (foreigners) to work for us, cut our fingernails, wash our pants, cook for us, bring water from our River Nile to our houses, drive us, build for us etc. Now who are they losers? Foreigners who are emptying our pockets or us who are paying money to foreigners? I think the game is over and it’s time to pick up what belongs to you……. It’s time we South Sudanese should discover our talents and follow our thoughts. Bishop Desmond Tutu was right to say “when the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened our eyes we had the Bible and they had the land.” Indeed foreigners in our country told us to close our eyes in pretext of doing everything for us. We finally opened our eyes and everything had gone. No water tanks supplying water to our homes because Habath or Ethiopians stopped, no fuel because Eritreans & Ethiopians were the ones supplying us with fuel, and no food stuffs because WEWE or Ugandans/Kenyans were the ones supplying us with foods.
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3. The number of widows is increasing everyday. It’s shocking to tell you that even the black blouses with black skirts or black dresses are getting finish in the market. There is high demand of black colour in the market by increasing number of widows. Again, if you go to camps in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, the ratio of men to women is 1:10 because all men are busy killing each other here in South Sudan. In refugee camps, you charge your phone just to hear bad news, so and so is killed.
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4. No water in the market yet there is abundant of water in River Nile. We do not want to make use of this water. Some foreigners have taken advantage of situation by boiling Nile water and selling it at a rate of 1 SSP. Water companies are complaining of shortage of reagents. We make poisons in some parts of our country. Can’t we use that knowledge for making reagents and not poisons so that we treat our water?
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5. Six months salary of dead rebel/government soldier cannot buy food stuffs for his or her funeral. In fact one month salary cannot even buy 50 kg rice or maize flour. What a curse leaving the world without relatives praying for your soul to rest in peace.
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6. Fuel scarcity. I think those with frog bellies should make use of this time. They should start exercising by walking to work so that their heavy weighted-bodies get reduced. For fuel scarcity, I think there is a chance of hiring mobile refinery and we start refining.
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7. Do you know that some of the militia groups, clans or tribes will get finished in this war? There will be no day a tribe will carry her portion of land to the space and lives there. If you think of forming Achol State, Bari State, Shiluk State, Dinka State, Nuer State, Mundari State, Lotuko State, Lokoyo State, Madi State ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Zande State, then remember a flower is beautiful when it has many colours. Our colours are our tribes making a beautiful flower call SOUTH SUDAN.
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8. Traffic jam on Juba Bridge every day. In 80s and 90s during the war, our heroes and heroines can glue empty drums together and use it as a bridge. Where has that divine knowledge gone? Can’t we even make local bridges so that our commuters can use if we cannot afford the one cars can move on?
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9. Whether you are from rebel, government, neutral, G10, G-dollar, or whatever group you belong, you deserve not to be killed and you deserve to live in this country.
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10. To be brief, this war has taught us many things. The poor has become clever, the average man is fully aware of what is going on, the rich has come to standstill because no dollar to trade with, pastors are getting tired of prayers because they are asking God for help but God is still training his troops that should come and save South Sudan, and the politician has become dull and stupid!!
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You can reach the author via his email: duomchol@gmail.com
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The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made are the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit the material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
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