By Majier Michael Mading,
Nov 1st, 2015(Nyamilepedia) — As life gets worse and worse every day, every Tom, Dick and Harry in South Sudan’s capital Juba is amazed and stricken by how things are rapidly becoming hard. In one of the statements attributed to the dormant VP,Cde James Wani, who is more popular for jokes, he confessed that life is indeed getting difficult given the way things are now but as we all know Cdr James ever since the Liberation days, he had not been known for giving solutions.
He said the government is aware of the deteriorating economic situations, full stop, and there was no any plan for the way forward. Now, the traffic on the streets of Juba is reduced due to fuel shortage. Traffic lights stopped functioning and accidents are on the rise caused by the few traffics running any howly because no lights indicators .
Water tankers are parked with households sewage systems malfunctioning with increasing risk of the outbreak of waterborne diseases. The little bottle of water, 250mls, now costs 3 SSP. The bigger one goes at 5SSP. A plate of Egyptian beans with one bread costs about 15 SSP. A fried chicken decorated with salads goes at 45 SSP. Fried or call it roasted meat at 40 SSP. Zietuna , a small bottle for 45 SSP .Boda-Boda transport is untouchable.
The chamber of Commerce and Businessmen Associations in several interviews complained that the Ministry of Commerce is uncooperative and are now suspected of being anti-government for trying to speak for the ordinary people who are bearing the brunt of this situation.
On the streets of Juba, you can see only the small boys selling bottles or litres of fuel or diesel for 200 SSP and they are mainly from one ethnic group just like the dollar boys in Juba Market. The International community at large should be aware that, we, the South Sudanese, have become victims of our votes for independence because at the end we are being ruled by tyrants, kleptocrats, corrupt, tribalistic and self -seeking military commanders-turned politicians.
They have robbed us of our rights and opportunities. They plunged this country into a senseless war imposed by none other than the party we resisted the heat to vote it into office. This bold decision is mistaken for our weaknesses. We were never forced to vote but it was out of conviction and from the bottom of our hearts. I am calling upon the AU, IGAD, IGAD -Plus and the Trioka to expedite the implementation of the CPA recently signed by the warring SPLM groups so that life returns to normalcy in the Country and prepare for the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Then from there, we will elect who to rule us and how we shall be ruled although elections in Africa always don’t meet the expectations and aspirations of the voters. We pray to God to hear us in this difficult situations. Omnipotent God, You did not place us on this soil in order to be mistreated by people you created in the same image of yours like us. It was thy will and not theirs. Forgive them and deliver us from this yoke in the mighty Name of Jesus Christ . Amen!
The author can be reached: mading2015@yahoo.com
20 comments
Traffics are waste of energy and money.Traffics have been changed into Circle Squares in the NL,but it is very modern and good. Throw away money,while our people are barefoot ,big cities need to wake up because things are changing.
Change Traffics to modern Circle Squares,but it will take many years to do so.Sleeping government begin to awake.
Dear Majier
Please South Sudan is a New country with it’s Huge empty land. I think South Sudan shouldn’t become a Density in Africa.Give the government a time because there is no too much Traffics in the old Ten States. Thanks,28 States will do better than now.
Please, mr beek, South Sudan is a news nation. But salva imposed himself onn chair,and he never said he lack of experience to lead a new country. Because a honest person to his lovelly country wouldn’t accept knowingly he has no capacity to rule young country. After all, he has been a leader that never got anything done during his ten yrs in office.
However,he has created tribalism war among southerner in which it will never have an end. And yet he like to be a leader for life. In addition, he doesn’t like to be responsible for out break of this war.
This mistake by all south sudan create in modern world to be leading by killer that they thought once as thier truly son, but to be very own enemy.
I would agree with Majier’s economic Analysis. Good economic analysis use the statistical data and examples to drive the point homes. So,the price increases of basic food and other commodities in the capital city, Juba is much worried if the author is correct in his analysis of the situation. In addition, author (Majier) mentioned, the authority has no way forward to resolve the problem soon, but mention their acknowledgement of the economic deterioration in the country (quoted, vice president, James Wani in the article para.1).
As I have learned the historical past, any country that is wagging or planning war, the first thing is how to pay for the war cost and second, the post war economic situation.
Rushing into the war and committed genocide and wagging tribal war to suite one’s ego is what get us into the condition we are in today. Without foreseeing this mess, we got into the problem of inflation, rising food cost, cost of living, rising imports products and deterioration of the value of SSP against the other currencies (i.e, dollars) in the region.
Two things, the government should do now is to end the war and second, the price control methods (the prices of the foods, medicines, hospital costs, commodities, import levies, etc. Printing more money will worsen the inflation and is not the solution to the problem, it is like putting the gasoline into the fire.
The incompetent, tribal warlord, power-hungry-greedy, traitor- Killer Kiir, plus the Dinka warlords-Generals, Kuol Manyany, Malong Awan, and the JCE(Dinka council of national resources looters-Ambrose Riiny-Bona Malual-Makuei Liar), and kinsmen, undeniably caused the economy collapsed because of their insatiable greed and gluttony nature period. To hell with these traitors
Only the mightiest, strongest, bravest-Naath-Sons, will and shall revives the economy of South Sudan.
Pray for the glorious coming of the Naath-Sons to Juba. Thy saviors and redeemers are near.
Possibilities thinking,Juba is too small that’s why the president has ordered 28 States to reduce that, I live in small city of almost 90.000 inhabitants with very few Traffics. There were a lot of Traffics when i came here,but they have changed it to something else.
Attention commentators:
Beek is, “AGUMUT”, the same jobless Bor lost boy(lost man now).
The Mightiest, strongest, and bravest Nuer geeks blocked his damn-ass-traitor-pen name “AGUMUT) three weeks ago.
AGUMUt(Bor lost boy/man), you are messing with the best and the brightest on this site.
Jiengs(slaves) have no safe haven(proven fact).
Concede the internet warfare defeat to Gatdarwich, fool!
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHA.
Mag be the name of his father is call AGUMUT.
I never ever never heard of the so-called Agumut in my life,maybe you can ask Nyamiepedia about that name.
AGUMUT/Beek,
You are a pathetic liar fool. You don’t have clue how I know you are the same Bor Lost Boy(Lost man now) who uses “AGUMUT” and “Beek”(the two aliases) on this site. You are messing with the best and the brightest pal !
Gatdarwich. dholemo ci riem Nueri dial tin la ken ka nak baang e yong. Ci kuothe cal ethuok. ke hoo jen ruace ke tak ke lome naa. Ciode ke thok JaanI ce lar. Ka cie ciode en thuok, e ciod raami goor kume diene.( rame mo ce luom) Gare me ee Judas en thuok. Ke ken Judas ni tin nak Nueri baang. Piny be baak dini tek. Jiok emo ce yong e teny, gua be we thino be lar cang kel. Ce lar agoa pinyi en hoo ciotde e ciot guan raam en ce luom. Gare me nie cieng mani ke ci ken de wie mi ce bath. E rami jiak mi thel lout. Yien Nuari gari tiete ro, te kon koor ke Jur.
And we have defeated you.
GatNor/WutNuer,
I am very mindful of the fact that Jiengs/Dinka are our distance cousins and neighbors, and will forever be regardless of our differences. The current deadly war will and shall be solved amicably by the two cousins-Nuer and Jiengs.
Mr. Mading, you have hint some points but I totally disagree with your last paragraph when God created our ruler in Hims image. Who told you that satan is created in the same image like God? Please go and join a theological focult in any powerful university in world. You will learn that the killers, looters, triblism are created in the emage of satan not God.
Jenge is not created in the image of God. And I can prove to you by the deeds of our president. He goes to church every Sunday but yet he orders the killing of his citizens by his jenge soldiers. God will never forgive the jenge and the jce. Believe me these people will cry like the rich man of the Bible who after he died, he cried callingg for Abraham to send to him poor Lazarous whom he mistreated on earth. Abraham told him, please rich man, you had been enjoying but Lazarous was suffering when both of you were on earth. Now it is time for this poor man to enjoy and you must remain in fire.
See how much we suffer in the hands of jenge? Do you think God is stupid to forgive the jenge. any tribe is mistreated by the jenge and most of the jenge will go to hell. See how many innocent citizens are killed in Wunduruba and in the rest of our beloved country?
Breaking News!
1-Many Dinka used beg using Dinka language in streets of Juba.
2- South Sudanese Woman was caught by Police yesterday when she was trying to sell her child of two week for 10,000 SSP due to shortage of Food. G-d help South Sudan it is too much!!!!!!!
There you have it. I think the writer has skillfully touched some of the tormenting and dire situations in Juba today, situations that transcended through immediate results of amature politics and ill-minded oppressive regime.
The economy of the nation is in freefall and the pain is mercilessly piercing through the bones of every single poor South Sudanese, sharp and deep. This will get worse if the leaders don’t show leadership for peace.
No, we didn’t see these coming few years ago on independence, as we cheerfully wagged back and forth our national flags high spirited, full of joy and aspirations.
The detachment from the arabs felt so good and we all thought, things will be different this time. We are one people and nothing can touche us now, we are free, come what may, we have crossed the difficult part, now we can develop our nation, sing hallelujah, care for the elderly, reproduce, produce, share equally and support one another and brace for the bigger challenges, like global terrorism, climate change, epidemic and pandemic diseases.
We thought we can now exhale and be grateful for the sacrifices every South Sudanese had contributed, direct or indirect, now dead or still alive, and that from now on a different culture of inter-tribal understanding precedes over divisive toxic past. We thought we can now heal wounds and avoid the past to repeat itself.
But all that was just a dream, dream of a starving child dying in the arms of her mother, dream of that little girl raped, tortured and killed in front of her father, dream of the father that was stomped on, kicked then forced to eat the flesh of his own son, dream of the land owner who was tortured then killed b’cos he was protecting his rightful property, dreams, dreams, dreams!!!
We the people of South Sudan must learn the culture of disagreeing without violently disagreeing with one another. Given our miserable State powers we must use our brains to solve problems instead of our poor muscles.
Nobody can do good to us more then we to ourselves.
We must listen, digest then react, than prematurely hear and explode. Feel good where we belong and stop permanently disturbing our neighbours. These are good hints for South Sudan.
The executive, legislative and judiciary powers should only be exercised by those who think far beyond tribal lines. This tribal dominance must end, it has brought us to where we are now…..,
PEACE!
We thought & dreamt very touchinges. Much more difficult times are ahead in piecing back togather the shattered fabric of the Nation of South Sudan, though it seems impossible it’s worth trying to rebuild again. The cowards are leaving for diasporas carrying with them the loots and guilt concions fearing imminent revenge against them. Do I have any impathy for them? Not yet but maybe when justice is granted to the victims but at this point it’s being denied without shame sympathy. So really it’s not over.
War is not good for an economy of every country. Investors become nervous and supply roots get cut off or foreign suppliers look elsewhere stable to do businesses with local populations without fears of insecurities from wars threatening their lives and their assets.
Few commodities which remain in South Sudan have become bubbly,meaning the demands for basic consumer products such as fuel,bottles of water and few others which the author mentioned in his article above become so high, while their supplies remain fairly low. Some products that are mentioned in the article are not manufactured in South Sudan and suppliers who bring them from neighboring countries have ceased to market them in South Sudan, because there are no US dollars to change local pounds into.
Scarcities of those products and their high demands give those who are now selling them a good idea for raising up prices on those products as a way of making profits.
Other amenities such as poor electricity and lack of maintenance are probably responsible for malfunctionings of traffic lights on motorways in Juba. This results in accidents of cars colliding with other cars with fatal consequences as drivers behind the wheels of those vehicles see no traffic lights’ signals such as indicators or green lights that can assure them to go ahead or take turns safely at intersections.
Malfunctioning of households sewerages which may lead to an outbreak of waterborne diseases is a consequence of none proper constructions of drainage or used-water elimination dumping systems.
Many years of none developments of Juba and lack of updating this city to a level of modern urbanism, in terms of infrustructure similar to what is seen in major cities around the world, are largely some of the contributing factors to economic difficulties people in Juba face today.
Previous civil wars between the North and South,as well as failures of previous governments of the Republic of Sudan, are without doubts blamable for these consequences.
South Sudan has a very low GDP which makes it hard for its economy in terms of revenues generated from the sales of home based commodities. This is because the country has not enough previous and current existing manufacturing industries.
sources of finance which its economy now depend upon, is money from the sales of crude oil whose its maximum production has hit the lowest levels due to unpopular civil war which South Sudanese have been fighting amongst themselves since the first day it broke out in Juba and financial donations which international community used to pump into the economy were stop.
Even without this recent civil war between the government and rebels,the economic difficulties which average citizens in South Sudan are now facing may also be felt in future,as oil exportation fee paid to Sudan for the uses of its pipelines and seaport to access overseas markets leaves the country with less revenue generated from this oil.
Drops in oil prices at international markets worldwide reduce how much money is gotten from production of South Sudanese oil that is exported and sold over there.
South Sudan is the newest country on this planet, a fact that should not be isolated and since South Sudanese have never inherited their new country from the North with good infrastructure and manufacturing industries which may be contributing to their current economy and make life less difficult for all, means much work needs to be done for along time before such economic difficulties which are written in the above article could be lessened. As they Rome was not built in a day, so will the development of South Sudan take along time.
Prominent figure ,Vice President James Wani whom the author wrote to have confessed that the life is getting difficult given the way things are now and that the government is aware of deteriorating economy but also acknowledged that there is no way forward,seems to have demonstrated that honesty is the best policy.
Fixing an economy is not a simple thing that Mr Wani and his team can do alone,because what causes this bad economy, is lack of peace and stability in South Sudan.
Implementations of the peace, signed recently should be the first priority for completion. Once all is done,including the return of IDPs to their homes and complete stability in place, the economy should start to recover automatically, as foreign investors may return to the country without concerns of insecurities.
Coming back to Juba by the armed opposition members and former detainees,as well as reforms that the government will do with them on financial institutions,should minimise mismanagement and probably boost the confidence of international financial donors to start subsidising the economy.
none active oil extracting facilities which the rebels shutdown in areas they captured during the war will be back in business, increasing the current oil production and its revenue, a good way to rescue the economy.
A possibility of successful renegotiations between the government of South Sudan and Sudan on the need for reducing oil fee which South Sudan is now paying will probably add some few dollars to the economy.
Other natural sources that are not being explored and exploited for economical benefits now should attract new inventors,once stability has come back to the country and licences are granted to these potential investors.
Agricultural expansion which is now not taking place due to the war should be undertaken to help contribute to the economy.
Finding markets in other countries for livestock, fish and promoting tourism industry to the outside world should assist in strengthening the economy of South Sudan.
As indicated by all preceding texts, there are unlimited ways to rescue South Sudanese economy and they will work because their effectiveness are attached to success of peace that was signed recently,along with stability that it will bring to the country.
Peace and stability are the only ways forward to fixing the economy of South Sudan because of their significant powers to keep citizens secure,united and work socially to achieve a nation’s development that is benefitial to South Sudanese.
People around the world enjoy freedom,security, unity and prosperity that are attached to peace. This is why foreigners were helping,investing and doing businesses in South Sudan before this civil war occured. When insecurity brought by the conflict threatens lives in South Sudan, most foreigners left with out finishing the businesses they were in this country for and called on South Sudanese to have peace.This perhaps should lead people to believe and conclude that peace and stability are the only significant ways to resolve every difficulty that the citizens are now facing in South Sudan.