The sad reality of our today's South Sudan
By Martin Ariel Majak, Alexandria University, Egypt
February 1, 2017 (SSB) — The ordinary South Sudanese have borne the brunt of the war that continues to simmer today – a war not of their own making but the consequence of their leaders wrestling over power and the honor and riches it brings.
These leaders can do whatever it takes to make sure they get what they want out of anything even if it means setting off a war in which many human souls shall be lost as long as their desires will fulfilled in the end.
And that’s why we’re now entangled in such a mess – it is because of our leaders who have badly led us down and are continuing to fail us. They tussled over power and successful triggered the war that rages on up to now.
And the war has been mercilessly unforgiving though; it has robbed us of our compatriots – both young and old – who never lived long enough to taste the fruits of our independence.
It maimed others and condemned them to the wheelchairs for their entire lives.
It devastated lives, properties and everything else. The war too helped our then stable economy in the early times of our independence come crumbling down which brought about the economic crisis of today.
As a matter of facts, in the early days of the economic crisis, the government was busy preoccupied with defeating the rebels than rescuing the sliding economy. And the economic crisis worsened.
The common South Sudanese on the streets begun to feel the pitch of the biting economic crisis.
The prices of almost everything in the market soared and in the end, the market became uncontrollably mad at the hands of the government. The government was reduced to a bystander helplessly watching on a burning house.
Angry citizens took on to local radio stations and social media sites like Facebook to vent their frustration and demanded that something must be done.
Songs like SUK SUK KARABU could be heard playing on different radio stations throughout. Traders became targets of some of violence as they were thought to be increasing prices of goods on their own yet they had nothing to do with it.
The government floated our SSP against the USD in anticipation of stabilising the market and the policy is yet make a difference as it was doomed to fail in the beginning.
Price hikes never stopped. Every day, the prices of goods were doubling. The ordinary South Sudanese cried out loud for help that they lost out their voices and let the economic hardships be part of life.
When one went to the shop to go and buy something and finds that the price has shot up, he/she will just pay that exorbitant price the thing has been tagged not because he’s happy but because he’s got nothing to do.
Energy was sapped out of ordinary South Sudanese. The citizens got worn out and surrendered instead after a long battle with the beast – the economic crisis and are lying prostrate before it.
Love it or loathe it, the economic crisis is gonna be grinding us against the wall for as long as it wishes – as there seems to be no rescue mission in sight. That is the sad reality of our today’s South Sudan.
The writer is a student at Alexandria University, Egypt. He can reached via arielmajak93@gmail.com or on Twitter as arielmajak93.
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