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May 6, 2008 (Trail, BC, CA) - Walking along the Columbia River [last week], it was peaceful save for a few lone cars roaring away at a distance and a few tired-looking girls passing by. It began to pour rain and I ran home cursing the gods that let the water loose from the sky. Nonetheless, the Hare’s Vision was born. Sitting on my couch in an old apartment that has been home for the last four months, I began to count how much longer I would stay here. Five days is the number. I wonder if I will not miss this river that has been a reliable friend in this far away somewhat lonely countryside. Continue reading »

May 6, 2008 (Honeoye Falls, New York, USA ) - Dr. Garang’s mysterious death seemed to be the South Sudanese’ fate. I think our government needs to be realistic and starts to apply a strict scrutiny standard in boarding the so-called ‘ancient’ or ‘brand new’ planes to stop mysterious deaths from repeating itself as it did. Indeed, the thousands of thousands of people we have lost in the North-South strife died for our cause of freedom and pursuit of happiness. I suppose we are all aware of that.

Simple flying objects, such as planes should not be the defining fate in determining and taking the lives of our surviving heroes or heroins, in vain as it did. We need to find a formidable solution for these incalculating deaths. Continue reading »

April 21, 2008 (Edmonton, AB, CA) - When the veteran Sudanese journalist, writer and politician, Arop Madut Arop, author of Sudan’s Painful Road to Peace, was in England last month, I talked to him on the future prospects and direction of media in South Sudan.

“We should not import journalism. We should have it based on our culture,” Arop contended. He said there were two types of journalism; socialist journalism where newspaper is a tool for political control, and Western journalism based on profit making, and feeds on sensationalism. Arop said, like Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah once proposed, African journalists should pursue a midway journalism between the East and the West - that which “informs and motivates the people.” Continue reading »

To mark the Golden Jubilee anniversary (which begins this weekend) of the publication of the classic - Things Fall Apart – the quartet of Okey Ndibe, Joyce Ashuntantang, Sowore Omoyele, and Oyiza Adaba had a session with the author, Professor Chinua Achebe. It is vintage Achebe, the master story teller himself.

Congrats, Professor Achebe, on the 50th commemorative year of Things Fall Apart. Let’s begin with a somewhat predictable question. When Things Fall Apart was published fifty years ago, did you ever suspect that it would travel as much as it has throughout the world?

Of course not. There was nothing like it that I knew about. I did not know very much about writing or publishing. There was no plan. It happened, and thinking back now, I can theorize that the story wanted to be told at all costs, and why it chose me to tell the story, I don’t know. It could have been anybody else, the story would have been different, of course, because every person has his or her story. This is my story, and it wanted to be told.

It’s remarkable that you should make that point about the story choosing you. On the way here, I was telling Professor Abunaw that Things Fall Apart is the kind of novel one would expect a novelist in his 50s or 60s to write. It’s not the kind of novel you’d expect a young man at 28 to have written—and that’s exactly how she explained it, that the novel must have come to you. It’s intriguing that you speak about this mystical connection, that the story made itself a sort of gift to you. Could you talk about what inspired this novel? Continue reading »

April 20, 2008 (Trail, BC, CA) - The good Americans are at it again. Talks attended by high level delegations from the US and the Sudan just ended this week in Rome, Italy. Their topic of discussion? That [the] time was right for the US to get into complete romance [normalization of ties] with the National Islamic government of the Sudan. In the past, they have had a few sweet encounters during their cooperation in “the war against terror.” And the Bush administration has found out that the Sudan is an irresistible partner! Before I take you down this path, you may want to review my previous article on this cooperation(http://www.newsudanvision.com/opinion/carrying-knowledge-palm-tree-my-ta....)

Why does the Bush administration want to normalize ties with the Sudan government? It has been reported that the US is ready to normalize relations with Khartoum if Sudan accepts deployment of units from Thailand and Nepal in the United Nations - African Union Peace Mission. Continue reading »

Pennsylvania, U.S.A - Recent controversy over SPLM’s decision to suspend the census until the party’s concerns have been addressed has sparked a rather strong reaction from the NCP and a number of Sudanese (southerners and northerners alike). The NCP had the nerves to say that the Movement was indeed jeopardizing the CPA by suspending the census process while forgetting that the situation got to this stage because of its failure to listen to the SPLM.

From reading various opinions and columns, one theme was particularly unsettling and borderline absurd: That is the SPLM as a party is failing the South and risking the life of CPA.

What these individuals fail to understand is that the Movement wants the census conducted in a manner that will assure Sudanese of the credibility of data. Continue reading »

Calgary, AB, CA - Does SPLM have a plan; a national strategic, political and development plan? Has it been made public? I have no idea and I would want to know. Ralph Waldo once said that 'few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line." Yes, the SPLM and the GOSS seem to be just at the last dot.

It would be a waste of time to argue whether a decision by the SPLM and the GOSS to pospone the recent census kick-off until the end of the month was right or wrong. We can all take sides depending on what appeals to us.

I, for one, and to go against my argument: the decision wasn't bad. But that's not my concern for now. Mr. Kiir and Mr. Beshir have ironed things out, supposedly. Continue reading »

April 17, 2008 (New York, U.S.A.) - First of all let me start by congratulating the Government of South Sudan, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in particular for its decision to suspend participation in the scheduled census in Southern Sudan. This decision does not only keep the history of Africans and non Muslims of Sudan alive but it also sends a strong message to the marginalized people of Sudan wherever they are that the SPLM is truly a Movement for the people.

The South Sudan Parliament must urgently call a session to deliberate on this step and endorse President Kiir’s decision to suspend the census until the unresolved issues are solved once and for all. The Supreme Court of South Sudan needs to be heard on this as well. Continue reading »

April 13, 2008 (Trail BC, Canada) - Professor Job Dhoruai Malou, Government of South Sudan (GOSS) minister of Education has spoken. Last week, it was reported in various South Sudanese online websites and I here quote for the purpose of my audience; "The Minister of Education in the Government of Southern Sudan Prof. Job Dharuai said that the Southern Government intends to fire teachers with physical disabilities from lower teaching institutions across the south. Prof. Dharuai said the Ministry of Public Service will take care of those disabled teachers after establishing their numbers in the ongoing teachers head count" [Miraya 101 FM].

Dhoruai was further quoted as saying that to cut expenses, GOSS intends to open four boarding secondary schools namely: Rumbek, Juba Commercial, Loka and Aweil. And that these schools will be fed by the World Food Program (WFP). Continue reading »

Kordofan, Sudan - It is NCP's season of migration to lay eggs in the nests of northern Sudanese political oppositions. The lavish financial spending by NCP on organizing, persuading and possibly buying other northern based political parties to its wounded side has reached a proportion that can be identified even by common folks in as far as Umdafoq in Darfur. Every evening, new members from northern opposition parties are brought in before Sudan Television. This is to show that things are going on rightly before 2009 general election. NCP is taking the "god-fatherism" position with ease.

It all began in mid 2007 with a "national consultations" licensed to former retired Sudanese military ruler General Abdel Rahman Suar el Dahab. This body was shortly taken over by NCP to engage "outsiders" who are lying in the cold out of CPA's national unity government. Continue reading »