South Sudan at Heart

Does South Sudan have civil society groups? By: Abraham Daljang Maker KAMPALA:   I have been so puzzled about some unpredictable events which keep unfolding themselves, making me to wonder if we really have civil society groups in the country. Are they really there? And if so, why then are some of the things keep emerging every now and then without any agitation? Do we know the roles of these groups anyway? Are we aware that such associations are crucial when it comes to issues of the public concern? Well, whatever the answer; we ought to know what these civil society groups are and what role do they play in improving the well-being of the citizens. These groups which we might or might not have are usually voluntary, self-organized advocacy groups whose roles are to advocate for some issues that affect the general public. Such issues in most cases are consciously or unconsciously abandoned by the government or pay little attention to them. So it is the role of thes...

I am a member of the ICC but I am contemplating of pulling out. By: Abraham Daljang Maker. I was once a member of the Rome statute of the international criminal court. I willingly accepted to sign and become a member. Although it was adopted in 1998 when I was in primary 5, and entered into force in 2002, when I join secondary school; it was my cheer ignorant to accept the membership. It was established for four core international crime: genocide, crime against humanity, war crime and crime of aggression.   I knew I would not commit any of these, neither would I likely to commit one and that is why I had to accept it.   But the wise friends, USA, Israel, people’s republic of china, and others refused to because they knew that some of them will be engaged in foreign intervention which might constitute crime against humanity.   Alas! I was not aware that there will be violent during the presidential food selection, which they (intruders) called the post-selectio...

THINGS THAT I MUST DO TO SOUTH SUDAN TO MAKE IT PROUD OF ME By: Abraham Daljang Maker I will fight against tribal syndrome, since this cannot be called apartheid. I will stage a peaceful demo against those who preach the tribal sentiment. I will offer to be arrested and taken to Juba bridge hotel where I will be detained for 27 minutes and given a harsh condition of eating nice food, playing cheese and sleeping in a football pitch size bed. When I come out from Prison after 27 minutes, I will be elected as the first young anti tribal syndrome president and I will step down after one term (three weeks in office) this will teach south Sudanese to know that I offer my productive time in prison(hotel) for 27 minutes so that they remains brothers and sisters. It will also help the leaders who want to be second Mugabe to step down after their term limit. I will write books with a lot of slang words like cool, chilling out, etc. this will replace the long read books of Shakespea...

Not everything which glitter is gold By: Abraham Daljang Maker KAMPALA:   I believe that this is an old adage that everyone is familiar with, but have you ever stopped and give a second thought before you take up any decision and weighing the consequences at the same time?   Wait a minute; I am alluding to how people take normal things to be extra-ordinary in our nation, South Sudan.   The recent additional celebration days on the calendar puzzle me and I am pondering why they are so important to others when in actual sense, they are just normal. When the government announced to the whole world that it has finally decided to shut down our oil, it was such great news. As a result, we took to the streets in all the ten states in celebration for having successfully shut down our pipelines. On the contrary, the celebration was short-lived because 98% of our economy depends on oil and this gave birth to a term called “austerity measures.” Consequently, our potb...

Cattle’s raiding is the primitive act that must be shunned  By: Abraham Daljang Maker KAMPALA: It is my duty as a citizen to always point out something which I think is not very good for the progress of the country. One of the things that hurt me every day is cattle’s raiding which is being practiced by the cattle keepers in South Sudan. Cattle keepers in Unity state and Lakes state are leading a cat and a dog relationship daily. It is hard to know who should be blamed because the two are in a constant practice of this vice of cattle rustling. It is high time people realized that the world is advancing with new things, but our fellows in these two places seem to be still behind the clock. There have been series of accusations between the two sister states about cattle raiding, notably between Rumbek center and the neighboring towns of Unity state. Lives have been lost in such incidences where each group takes revenge when there is alleged raid by the other. Howe...