Alfred Sebit Lokuji:- Dream No. 3 & 4 Of 10 "It is heart-breaking to see Ugandans come in droves to provide water services on bicycles because South Sudanese consider it below their dignity." ..." I wish to live in my hut in Morsak, and commute from there to work in Juba". 13 August 2016
By Alfred Sebit Lokuji If Dream No 1 is attained (pro-citizen leadership) and Dream No 2 (everyone IS ABLE regardless of gender), we would easily see the logic in developing the skills of everyone willing and able for a productive life. Only through the development of skills can society reach that plateau where each citizen actively participates in work according to his/her abilities. The greatest sin, second only to the “Original Sin”, is a leadership that creates antagonism against education (skills development)! The connection between both formal and informal education and a productive life should be obvious. We recognize that not all will turn out to occupy the celebrated occupations (doctors, engineers, teachers, etc.) Some, due to triggers in their young life, will choose to remain on the farm, navigate the rivers for fish, and explore the forests for wood – nothing in human enterprise below the dignity of humankind. It is heart-breaking to see Ugandans come in droves to provide water services on bicycles because South Sudanese consider it below their dignity. Again, Ugandans, living in a more competitive economic environment see “money” in washing and ironing clothes for others – while South Sudanese go into seclusion and mourning should their son dare get into the laundry business! I asked my cousin’s wife in 2006 to exploit the market of the hungry by preparing “mula nyete” with “asida” for sale! “Shameful”! was her response to close the subject – only to see the neighbourhood awash with Ugandan food vendors by 2010. Roads need to be built and maintained, better longer-lasting dwellings to be constructed, pupil-friendly schools to be established, patient-friendly medical staff to be trained. It is individually, collectively, in high and low positions, that the country will be faithfully served by South Sudanese cadres – provided that the class that charts the course of development understands the need to facilitate, support and motivate South Sudanese to get things done through the requisite skills. In a South Sudan scenario of “one for all and all for one” we would see arrays of government employees at work, soldiers and students at national development work camps; villagers adapting and employing more productive farming methods and cutting the dependency on foreign imports or food aid! Once the national productive talent is recognized, developed, and deployed with each according to his/her ability and obstructions removed – the sky is the limit! Alfred Sebit Lokuji:-Dream No. 4 Of 10: Connecting All Regions of the Nation: Leadership, human talent, entrepreneurship in things mundane and complex can and ought to take place everywhere – not just under the bright lights of dense population centres such as Juba. But how can we ensure that the boy in Marial Bai, the young girl in Boma, the polio victim in Fanjak, the old cat in Kajokeji, and the retired King in Duk Padiet can all, like citizens of a beehive, be inclusively engaged? The answer is our fourth dream, which we can immediately begin to realize simultaneously with preceding dreams: connect them physically or otherwise by roads, by river, by air, by all means – on donkey, dug-out canoe and if need be, through a quasi-OLS connection. Eleven years, and only Juba and Juba-Nimule road to show for it! That is throwing the fortune of oil back in god’s face – no wonder She shows her irritation constantly, surely in 2013 and 2016 – reminded of the arrogance of our original parents in that glorious garden of plenty. In “developed” societies, the city is abandoned to the “wretched of the earth” while the green suburbs and country-side become the ideal dwelling place of pro golfers, tennis stars and company executives and their mega-agric corporations. What is wrong with South Sudan? It is cursed through a leadership that has no vision, but monumental egos! I wish to live in my hut in Morsak, and commute from there to work in Juba – instead, it takes a whole Top Man to wonder: “a Lokuji adi nye sida in jur ber kanyit kilu in jur?” [“Lokuji likes to live in the village, do his ‘colleagues’ live there?”] Damn my colleagues! (Sorry if you are one)! South Sudanese should be liberated from the suffocating negative psychology that success is measured by one’s ability to make a dramatic by-all-means-necessary permanent escape from one’s rural birthplace. If we initiate, plan, implement, and evaluate the way the Chinese do, within the next ten years (less than the 11 wasted), native sons and daughters, entrepreneurs, officials, diplomats and tourists should be able to connect directly between Juba and Pariang, Boma and Ezo/Raga via Rumbek, Kapoeta and Kajokeji via Nimule, Maiwut and Sakure via Bor, Renk and Magwi via Ayod and Lirya, Turalei and Kapoeta via Leer, Yei and Renk via Bentiu – and all other destinations in the ten (10) States of South Sudan. This will not happen simultaneously with V8s, years in hotels at government expense, nephews and grandmothers on payroll, headache treatment abroad, or through illicit transfers of foreign currency to buy homes in Australia, USA, Canada, London, or Kampala and Nairobi! Industrializing and urbanizing South Sudan through infrastructural networks will take focused and resolute intent, not magic numbers such as 28! (August 13th 2016). Posted in: Opinions - See more at: http://gurtong.net/ECM/Editorial/tabid/124/ID/19761/Default.aspx#sthash.DweYA4Vb.dpuf -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob View this message at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. 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