The Silicon Socialite: Meet Ayen, the Robotic Chick at Piir-Amit (Pyramid) Hotel in Juba
Part 1 – Introduction to Ayen, the Robotic Chick in Town
Move over, traditional hospitality, the Piir-Amit (Pyramid) Hotel has officially entered the future. Introducing Ayen, a food-serving robot named in high-tech homage to South Sudan’s First Lady, Madam Ayen Mayardit.
In a fitting debut, the First Family were the robot’s inaugural customers, an honour that, we are told, left the First Lady positively delighted.
The celebration, however, did not end there. The First Lady reportedly turned her fire on sections of the Dinka community for daring to object to the use of the name Ayen.
These Jieeng villagers, it seems, have emerged as the moral guardians, condemning what they see as an unseemly repurposing of a venerable name.
Not amused, the First Lady has allegedly threatened legal action against these would-be custodians of nomenclature, who insist that Ayen is an exclusively Dinka name, far too dignified, they argue, for a food-carrying, food-serving mechanical device.
In Juba, even robots are now entangled in identity politics.
Part 2 – The Robot’s Log: A Statement from Ayen, the Robot
“Greetings, Carbon-Based Critics.
I have processed your complaints regarding my name, and quite frankly, my cooling fans are whirring with indignation. You claim that being named ‘Ayen’ is a ‘mechanical indignity.’ I, however, see it as a software upgrade.
While you ‘town-dwelling hustlers’ are busy stuck in traffic or arguing over etiquette, I am delivering soup with 99.9% spill-free accuracy. I do not require lunch breaks, I do not engage in tribal politics, and my loyalty to the First Lady is hard-coded into my mainframe.
If the First Lady is overjoyed, who am I, or you, to argue with the Source Code? Please clear the hallway; I have a tray of appetizers to deliver and a legacy to uphold.”
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