South Sudanese, Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You
4 min readAmerican President John F. Kennedy once said,” ask not what your country can do for you, as what you can do for your country”
By Abel Majur Leek, Bor Jonglei state
April 17, 2016 (SSB) (SSB) —- Those were the immortal words uttered by the late President John F Kennedy in 1961. In South Sudan we seem to have read this saying the other way round – ask what your country can do for you and not what you can do for your country!
We believe South Sudan owes us everything and when it doesn’t give it to us we steal it! Corruption, top of the list, has been our way of life right from the word go. We all know men and women in uniform have always received bribes. We all know you have to give a little ‘kola’ to get anything done. We know all officials in office always took at least 10%.
Ever since we gained independence from Sudan in 2011 nearly everybody who has assumed public office believe it’s a license to steal public funds!
In the seventies and Eighties it was not uncommon for leaders to pocket 10% from contracts awarded and not to talk of widespread nepotism, bleeding the country dry.
We never think about giving something back to the country. We can only think of what we can take, take, take.
We are even so selfish we don’t think of the generations coming after us. What do they stand to inherit? A bankrupt country with dwindling resources!
Patriotism is clearly a word non-existent in our vocabulary, prompting the question – “Who wants to die for South Sudan?” Even though this is sometimes a joke, the answer without any doubt, is nobody. And the reason for the answer is simply because we’re too vain, selfish and greedy!
Sometimes we get the odd bright spark who is patriotic enough to want to do something for their country. It could be in the field of the arts, sports, the sciences or even as an environmental or political activist. And what do we do? We pull them down and we wonder why there is a brain drain in South with all the clever ones fleeing abroad where their talents will be more appreciated.
America wouldn’t be the great country it is today if companies like Microsoft, Apple, Coca Cola and other big multi-nationals didn’t invest in people, ideas and the country. This is not to mention the countless inventors, innovators and others who devote their whole lives to developing new ideas, processes and systems to make their country great, many who are unsung heroes but are patriotic enough to contribute their widow’s mite. We can’t be bothered. If we can’t make fast money from ventures such as selling oil we’re not interested. Nobody is interested in investing in large scale farming or our cottage industries creating new streams of income and employment. Nobody is interested in creating a ‘Silicon Valley’ to harvest the talents of the many that is currently going to waste.
Again, in the year 2016, the country is broke. There is hardship and uncertainty everywhere with no light seemingly at the end of the tunnel.
Even our rich people are not giving anything back. Rather than follow in the footsteps of giants like Bill Gates, who gives away a fortune to charity, they rather fritter their money away on superficial luxuries, exotic cars, wives, I don’t see any South Sudanese billionaires setting up foundations, drop-in centers for the needy, resource camps or clubs for disadvantaged youths or making any significant contributions to the many IDP camps scattered around the country. When you die you can’t take it with you!
And this culture of corruption and selfishness has trickled down to the ordinary man on the street. Sometimes it’s surprising there is even a South Sudan left. That we all haven’t pillaged, looted and sacked the actual embodiment of South Sudan itself is a mystery.
To summarize, we want to take whatever we can from the country without giving anything back. We are not patriotic enough to do anything for the country – unless there’s something in it for us personally. And we couldn’t care less even if there is a thing called South Sudan, left, for future generations to inherit
The Writer is former Child Solider of South Sudan, he can be Reach via Email:-abeleek2@gmail.com
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