South Sudan 4th independent anniversary: The unconditional celebration for hard-earn freedom
By Michael Mading Akueth, Juba, South Sudan
July 10, 2015 (SSB) —- I would like to thanks the people of the Republic of South Sudan wherever they are for celebrating their 4th anniversary despite the great challenges which are facing them daily in this country. Borrowing from the word of encouragement from President Salva Kiir’s speech on July 9, 2015 which Nelson Mandela once said “No easy walk to freedom anywhere in the World”; this statement energize me to continue looking my freedom as a joyous victory from slavery of economic depression and political marginalization which I should always celebrate unconditionally.
South Sudanese were so full of hope four years ago when the country celebrated independence from Sudan after 21 years of turmoil. After achieving their independent with great speeches of the devil is gone; the citizens of this oil rich country were not prepared for any difficulty on the road of independent.
There was more unrealistic belief that things will work well for us better than during Sudan rule. The problems that were being faced by the people of South Sudan were wholeheartedly belief by themselves that Khartoum government is responsible forgetting that when you climb a mountain you only realized that there are more mountains to be climbed.
Today, it does not matter which from part of the country anyone comes from – almost everyone is feeling the effects of this new war. Everyone wants this senseless war to end and bring peace to the country. No one indeed owns this War, the rebels and government call it senseless war so everyone else called it senseless war too.
We must accept that we are collectively responsible for the challenges that are facing in this country without pointing the finger to anybody. That is just a scapegoat attitude which had never healed any nation in the World history. We must end the war and heal the wound of hatred.
There are many challenges that are facing this nation that force us at some point to take an opportunity to highlight them for our leaders to fix them.
In this country of 11 million people, there are very few paying jobs outside the government which can offer qualified South Sudanese an opportunity to work to earn a living. There are no paved roads connecting the states, the cost of living has more than doubled, there is a critical shortage of foreign currency, and hundreds of thousands are unable to go home and plant their crops during this rainy season – meaning they will have to rely on food aid.
Many children are not able to go to school and there are little signs that the world’s newest nation is able to pull itself back up. Many diseases are killings innocent civilians everywhere. These issues need us to fix them.
July 9, 2015 news headline in all the international media houses was “little to celebrate on South Sudan’s fourth anniversary” due to the challenges which I have outlined in the paragraph above.
I want to advanced different thinking from the obvious that we don’t celebrated our independent because things are so good; we celebrate our independent because it is the hard-earn achievements which many generations had struggled to achieved and passed without witnessing it.
We are only few remnants who are favored by history. We did not choose to be a life on the expense of our comrades; they were killed at our watch by sickness and bullet wounds. We must celebrate our independent whether our country is stable or not because we remember the sacrifices made for this country.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that we will continue to celebrate in times of economic prosperity and political stability as well as in time of economic and political setbacks. This celebration is unconditional. We must acknowledge that all things shall pass away but South Sudan independent will remain forever. Amen!
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