In memory of chief Jubek, Mobil roundabout's another victim after CE & Juba market

By Deng Kiir Akok,

I was a bit late to arrive at London Cafeteria in Atlabara, Tumbura road where a friend of mine invited me for lunch last Thursday Jul 20, 2017.

On my way to cafeteria, I received almost five telephone calls from him asking for my current location while coming. I told him I was at Mobil roundabout.

As though I had invited the problem, one bus passenger that was sitting next to me nodded his head, feeling sorry with the name I used to call the roundabout.

" What? Come again! Why don't people ask for the name of the place if they are not familiar with before locating themselves to others," said the passenger in a loud voice. Then he looked around trying to see his sympathizers.

In 2011, the then Central Equatoria state demolished the part of the Juba Market with the intention to turn it into a Square.

The part of the market that was demolished was then fenced off from the neighboring buildings, including Juba main prison in the south-east, Juba northern sector police in the east, Ivory bank in the north and Jubadit store in the west.

People were trying it very hard to figure out what exactly would the state do for the demolished part of the market.

A rumor didn't take patience and it had that this place, once the demolishing is over, would be surveyed and redistributed to their former owners. So shockingly, it was signposted Jubek Square overnight.

The square was named after Jubek, a British colonial period Bari paramount chief with his base at Kondokoro Island. Also the current capital of South Sudan, Juba derived its name from him.

It was time for Jubek state to put something to honor their fallen hero. He was to be remembered in this particular place thought other places with such name are coming soon.

In 2015, the president of the republic of South Sudan, Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, had issued a decree creating twenty-eight states from ten states. This was the first time for South Sudanese to give names that are not of geographical or political background to their States.

Most of the former ten States' name didn't make comeback in which the former Central Equatoria State was one of them.

The move marked the end of the British colonialists' and Khartoum's meaningless and war mongering names for the southern Sudanese residential areas such as Atlabara, Rujal Mafi in Juba, Jubek State and Kor-Sahud in Kuacjok, Gogrial State.

However, the northern Sudanese and British colonialists in particular seem to have been defeated in pronouncing southern Sudanese names for people and places.

But they never gave up calling these names. Thus, their poor pronunciations led to the creation of different names apart from the existing ones as the like of Gakrial that becomes Gogrial.

The same thing happened to the present day Wau which was called Wath. Toc becomes Tonj, Mading Ayuel to Awiel, and other towns that share the same grievances and didn't appear in this list.

No name that got correct pronunciation from the colonialists. Thus, every name for the people of southern Sudan or the place was getting wrong in the mouth of northern Sudanese and British colonial masters.

As the time went, the correct southern Sudanese names were gradually forgotten and completely gone.

Since the current thirty-two states are maximizing freedom within their territories, the governor of Jubek State, Augustino Jadallah Wani renamed Mobil roundabout 'Jubek roundabout in May 18, 2017.

The renaming ranked Mobil in third position in the list of places that saw a drastic change of their original names into chief Jubek's name after the former Central Equatoria State and part of the Juba market.

Mobil is an American oil company that operates petrol stations in many countries including South Sudan. It had in the past a petrol station at this roads join lying between All Saints Cathedral church and Juba teaching hospital before selling it to Patronas, then to foi and finally to the Nile Petroleum Corporation.

The majority of Dinkas assumes that the place was called Mabil, a Dinka word for a male cow with dark brown color covering large part of its body with some white colour. Instead, it was just a coincident that brings their bull's colour Mabil near to Mobil.

Although the statue of chief Jubek at the roundabout is now looking good with a cowboy hat, hoe, bow and arrows, still it would miss many generations without calling it Jubek roundabout.

The council should have learned from the experience of the former Meridian Hotel at Suk al-Arabi in Khartoum which was renamed Regency. No one never calls this accommodation industry with its newly acquired name.

If at all the city council wanted to have a good number of places named after chief Jubek, they should have looked for nameless places. Streets are good examples.

To conclude this piece of writing, I hold no bad intention against the State's will but just putting suggestions so as to help it avoid clashes of names like the current confusion in the former Mobil roundabout.

Another thing for the city council to have done was to put a signpost bearing the new name for the roundabout such that it directs whoever pass that  place.

Also, I would have welcomed the council's decision if it had built Schools apart from Jubek Model Secondary school in Gudele, public libraries, museums, and then name them after Jubek.

In doing so, all the people living in the capital Juba regardless of their nationalities would never miss to mention this Bari infamous name  in their everyday lives.

Dinka people - from liberators to MTN

By Deng Kiir Akok

It was on Friday, March 10, 2017 night when I was thinking of what would be the fate of the Dinka travellers on Juba - Nimule and Yei roads this time after the national prayers.

In the minds of South Sudanese people, the Friday national prayers were meant to change and prepare the hearts of the country's politicians to be ready for the involvement in the long awaited national dialogue which was due to start this month.

Another hope for the prayers was to forgive one another.  Some of us were praying to the almighty God asking if He could change the minds of the Equatoria's roads terrorists to abandon their evil nicknaming and killing of Dinka people.

The MTN's slogan, "Everywhere You Go," had been used by the killers along Juba - Nimule and Yei roads to categorically kill Dinka and leave non-Dinka bus passengers since the war broke out in 2013, between the forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President and rebel leader Dr. Riek Machar.

During the liberation era, the Dinka people from their areas in two regions of Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile, joined the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in thousands. And that material support was much appreciated by other southern's ethnic groups who had also taken part in the struggles.

Because the majority of those minority tribesmen and women with the exception of Nuer were able to made it to school. That scare opportunity at the time enabled them to enjoy military administrative positions among mostly cattle keeping experienced SPLA Dinka soldiers.

In fact, it's not too late for these small tribes and the Equatoria's roads terrorists in particular, to honour the services the Dinka people did for this nation by providing thousands of fighters in the two bitter south - north civil wars that gave the South Sudanese people, a separate state from Sudan in 2011.

Instead of giving Dinka people a credibility, the roads killers nicknamed them to be MTN. Not only that, they also hate them to death and kill them to make their hatred toward Dinka people a reality.

They search the travelling buses for the forbidden goods as their term to refer to Dinka people. When a Dinka is found in a bus, is mocked at for a short time and then ruthlessly kill.

Believe me or not, if those victims of Equatoria's roads would make their way back to life right now and asked whether they wanted to travel on the same roads, they would 'strongly disagree' with the question.

The reason why they would not choose to avoid these roads is very clear and no one would need more explanations for that. This is because of inhuman they had encountered and eternally took their dear lives.

Those roads killers with stone faces stationed somewhere in the outskirts of Equatoria's towns as they look for members of the Dinka tribe.

The fact that the Dinka people are found everywhere in South Sudan and especially on Equatoria's land, prompts the haters to match the matter with that of MTN's famous slogan.

What does this imply in the African tradition for Dinka's haters? No grounds that would deny they are bewitching the community.

But they lack knowledge that the Dinka being the largest tribe in South Sudan was a gift from God and no son of man could alter the creation as I always say. I also wrote on this matter in my previous articles.

Reducing their number by killing some of its members on roads would not finish them, but rather would put them on high alert for the threat poses by those hired assassins.

"You will kill them (Dinka people) till you get tired as the Arab did," wrote one writer on Paanluel Wel blog in reaction to the killing of Pope Ajiith Akuei, a former SPLA officer and Professor at University of Juba, last year on the Juba - Nimule road.

Of course, killing Dinka people on their ways from Juba to Nimule, Yei and other towns of the region that are not mentioned here, will not finish them anyway, but it would make the entire Dinka tribe develop a recurring hatred toward the people of Equatoria region.

One would be surprised and left mouth open if he/she hears that some of the non-educated Dinka people in the remote villages, deep in Greater Bahr el Ghazal are not aware up to the current time that they are called Dinka, but what they know is that they belong to Jieng.

So far, they don't know Nimule, Yei and Kaya where their beloved sons and daughters are killed around the clock.

To be frank, they heard of Juba and Malakal in South Sudan, Khartoum in Sudan, and Bilpam, Panyiido and Bongo SPLA military bases in Ethiopia for training during the southern Sudanese insurgency against the Khartoum government.

For one to make sense of  the current problem facing the Dinka community in the region, those Equatoria's roads terrorists might have fed up with the tribe's dominance of tea places, lodges, hotels, restaurants, churches, mosques, schools and market places of non-Dinka towns. Leave alone their present in the national government and the army in big numbers, which had already driven some of the Equatorians mad.

Those roads terrorists, intentionally refused to recognize the fact that the then country's southern tribes, including the Dinka whom they called MTN this day, had fought the north for one common interest before and after the independence of Sudan in 1956.

Last but not the least, it's time now for South Sudanese people to unite and forget their past grievances.

South Sudan should avert famine first and hold on building Ramciel

By Deng Kiir Akok

Famine by Dictionary.com is an extreme and a general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area. On February 20, 2017, both the government and the United Nations declared the present of famine in two counties of Mayendit and Leer in the former Unity State, blaming conflict and collapsing economy in the country.

Building Ramciel on the other hand, serves the vision of the late leader and founder of Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), Dr. John Garang de Mabior who proposed it to be a new capital of South Sudan when he visited the place now located in a newly created Eastern Lakes State in 2003. His promise was later left unfulfilled when the leader died in a Ugandan presidential Mi-172 helicopter crashed in 2005. To revive the building of a new capital, the Council of ministers sat on September 2, 2011 and resolved to relocate the city from Juba to Ramciel. Thirteen months later, a young nation slid into civil war, which shut down everything that was in progress.

Followed by the current economic crisis, the building of Ramciel was not and would has not been in the government plans or in the news till recently when the King of Morocco, His Majesty Mohammed VI visited South Sudan and brought back a 13 year old promised. The king enabled the promised saw the news once again. And this move, if implemented, would serve the SPLM vision of taking towns to people rather than people to the towns.

Some of the visions were perhaps seen coming back through the 2015 distribution of tractors to newly formed 28 states. This was much celebrated and welcome by the citizens. It was such a good decision taken by the president of the republic of South Sudan, Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, and was perceived as another score for SPLM vision that intends to transform traditional agriculture to the modern one. The South Sudanese public seemed hopeful after tractors' distribution to all states was announced on a state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC).

Unexpectedly, those tractors were privately owned and used by some ruthless commissioners as the like of Mr. Matem Yak Deng Akon of Awan Chan, an October 2015 formed 28 states' born county. In this county, the now sacked and its first commissioner since created, privately used the two tractors that were given to his county from Gogrial State. He didn't care as he always said to the citizens of Awan Chan county. With his little mind, he abused the county's properties by employing them in his farm and not in the county farm nor were they hired to the people of Awan Chan. Such behaviours in public office were unacceptable and shocking. As a result, this intolerance mismanagement of public assets by such kind of officials is a big problem facing some counties in South Sudan today.

Those distributed tractors didn't serve what they were meant for. And if I am not correct here, then why does a 50kg sack of durra is currently sold at SSP6, 000? Our citizens have really suffered a lot. No single word can describe their suffering.
The rest of the citizens from other parts of South Sudan apart from the recent former Unity State in which  some areas were declared with the food crisis, already have knowledge of present of famine in their states but waiting for official declaration by those responsible for declaring famine.

As it was declared in some parts of the greater Upper Nile's former Unity State in late February this year, it will soon cover the remaining states of the region, and then will encroach on Equatoria and Bahr el Ghazal during this coming rainy season. The former four states of Lakes, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap will be inaccessible because of bad roads. Thus, those citizens would have their day in a monster's mouth, the famine - Makurup, a Dinka word for famine meaning mass deaths by starvation.

In fact the famine does exist in the country right now, but those famine announcers are buying time to declare its present in the whole nation. But for those ones in Juba with chicken pizza as their usual meals would be surprised and try their best to criticize such an in-depth analysis by saying that this situation would never happen. In my view, if things don't change for better and continue as it is now, then it is not long before the whole country is declared in hunger.

It becomes difficult nowadays for an ordinary South Sudanese to provide daily meals for one's family in this current economic crisis, where a miniature bread is sold at SSP10. The cost amount of bread in Juba and in the states depends on black market dollar price. So, it is not fixed and could shoot up anytime. Thus, our citizens have no other choice than to feed on such life frustrating breads. One could eat as many as up to five of them and would still feel not satisfied. Anyone that is currently living in South Sudan can prove me right. The worst part of these breads is when one has a family of fifteen members, the minimum family size for South Sudanese. How much money would one need to feed such a number of people? It's a mind cracking issue.

Last year, I wrote an article titled " Gone is 2015 - 2016: What would year 2017 portends for the people of South Sudan? "  The article was to mark the end of difficult years of 2015 and 2016 in which South Sudanese people had gone through. Notwithstanding the fact that it was too early for me to celebrate the end of hard times. But not aware that 2017 would be another 2015-2016. Our citizens still have a long way to go. Moreover, there are no signs that show things will get better as the country's economy is collapsing.

As I write this piece, people in the greater Bahr el Ghazal are leaving for Sudan in big numbers, especially those of former Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Western Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap. The same thing is happening in the Upper Nile region. The ways that lead to Sudan and Ethiopia have to see a South Sudanese every hour. Also, not better in the greater Equatoria - people are going to Uganda, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo on a daily basis.

In conclusion, for South Sudan to avert famine is an urgent issue the citizens needed now rather than to build a new city. Building Ramciel will be the next. It's not a bad idea to build them a new capital, but it has coincided with wrong times - when the famine is knocking at our doors and the conflict in the country.

South Sudan should first of all, thinks of feeding its starving citizens and then come back later for this aging promised. If Ramciel is not built this year, no one will die.  But there would be dead ones for victims of recent declared famine in the former Unity State and other states that have not yet declared with famine.

Not to mention the countless sleepless nights, which those with empty stomachs will endure. But if building Ramciel is stopped for some time or completely, then those who prefer to choose building Ramciel over averting famine will not spend even a minute without falling into their deep sleeps. They will do it so because they don't feel its pain compared to the hunger that eat up people in their wake. No doubts that by next year, there would be grave for victims of famine. Hence, it will be a wise decision to avert famine. Famine or Makurup is a killer from hell.

Wedding in Juba - How can you tell if a bridegroom works for Nilepet?

By Deng Kiir Akok

The Nile Petroleum Corporation is a national Oil and Gas Corporation, which engages in oil exploration, production and marketing. Famous for its abbreviation Nilepet, has been a dream place of work for every South Sudanese that lives in Juba. Though the country's economy is nearly collapsing, the locals still see pastures greener in there. As a result, some of the institutions are losing their employees to Nilepet each day. Those job seekers think that getting employment at Nilepet will make them flourish like its current employees. Each one of them has a different dream from another and has to fulfil it once they are appointed in there.

For ladies that have got to Nilepet are by now driving the latest KIA models. Yeah, they have done with Arab as the saying goes for South Sudanese. Also on their wish list, include wedding in Freedom Hall, invite the President of the republic to wedding-Day, hire Juba-On-Time Studio photographer for coverage and spend the honeymoon in Dubai.

But for male employees' dreams is so complicated to tell. Any attempt to establish their needs will be an underestimation. They have a lot of problems to solve. From their fiancees' wishing to wed at Freedom Hall. Like Nilepet dreamers, Juba girls also have one thing in common, they think of and that's having their weddings at Freedom Hall. No girl in Juba had never ever heard of it.

Before Nilepet becomes a focal point for everyone in Juba, Central Bank of South Sudan employees was seen holding expensive wedding ceremonies. The bank staffs were able to pay for their bridals' beautification starting from henna to other necessities, the day before the wedding-Day at the most expensive hotels including Crown, New Sudan and Royal Palace hotel. Looking back on how the staffs were able to meet such expensive things in the past has now become a story in the light of the current economic crisis in the country.

The turn is now for Nilepet employees and the bank staffs become broke after the demise of letters of credit (LC). They were better than Nilepet employees in term of how to get money. Before the central bank ran out of dollars two years ago, there were letters of credit and the bank staffs by then knew how to deal with them. Currently, they can't even manage to pay for their birthday celebrations at Smart Camp in Thongpiny, the least expensive lodge in Juba.

As luxury weddings are increasing in Juba despite the country's shrinking economy, I witnessed one occasion last Saturday in which a former Lialy restaurant owner, now changed to University Medical Center along Malakia - Custom road found himself caught up in wedding cars of white Land Cruiser V8 while crossing the road from the property to the other side. He didn't know what to do in the middle of such speeding Japanese cars when he suddenly came to a standstill and cars passed by him from all sides. Thank God that he escaped being crushed. The man later complained to anyone that was near to him. He was heard saying, "even president Kiir's motorcade doesn't run like these cars."  

In the current economic crisis, most broke citizens of South Sudan, including this author have suspended their birthday celebrations until the economy recovered. But people are not sure of when things will get better such that life could go back to normal.

Here is our question. How do you tell if a bridegroom is an employee of Nile Petroleum Corporation? In case you come across his wedding cars out there on the roads. It's easy to tell. One need not to waste time guessing where could be his place of work.

Firstly, if wedding cars are of the Land Cruiser V8 models, then automatically that bridegroom works for Nilepet or simply call him a Nilepeter.

Secondly, the wedding belongs to an ordinary South Sudanese or Darfurian when Premio,  light buses, Reksha and boda boda (motorcycle) are used.

And thirdly, if it involves water tank trucks, Surf, Rav4 and blah, blah, then that bridegroom is either an Ethiopian or an Eriteran.

My message to Juba pedestrians is that, they should be watchful of wedding cars while crossing roads on weekends, especially on the road that links Freedom Hall in Custom, Marx Studio in Nimra Talata and Juba-On-Time Studio at Mobil roundabout.

With the above little and better than nothing knowledge, I hope that South Sudanese public by now, have known about how to differentiate between Nilepet bridegrooms and other bridegrooms that wed in Juba.

To end this piece, I would like to tell my readers that it's just a matter of time before I follow those heading for Nilepet in favor of high-paying jobs.

South Sudan: A tragedy of resignation and rebellion

By Deng Kiir Akok

Dictionary.com defined resignation as formal statement, document stating that one gives up an office or position. While on the other hand, rebellion is a resistance to or defiance of any authority, control or tradition.

Except for Nhial Deng Nhial's resignation in 2006 from his post as minister for regional cooperation of the defunct Government of southern Sudan. Since then the others who followed had been on zigzagging. No one has ever followed the normal resignation procedures.

In  normal procedures for resignation one needs to send letter of resignation to his/her employer and then wait for an approval that will not last for two to three weeks. In most cases for South Sudanese, they do not follow these steps. As a result, they quit before their boss sign or approve their letters. Some took an online resignation as the case of Thomas Cirilo, the former deputy chief of Staff for logistics.

Proper procedures were not applied in the Lam Akol's resignation letter last year as minister for Agriculture and food security. He made sure he was in Khartoum before announcing his resignation. The same method was used by Thomas Cirilo, The author of this piece is wondering why does most South Sudanese resign while they are outside the country? They usually resign their positions while in Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. Lam Akol and Thomas Cirilo  are now the living examples for those who resign while abroad. Akol did not take long in this position before resigning from last year formed Transitional Government of National Unity (TGoNU). He was by then in Khartoum.

He was waiting to hear the whereabouts of now exiled rebel leader and former first vice president Riek Machar who was forced to flee the country after the battle of J1. Until the Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS) comer ended up in hospital in Congo and was referred to Khartoum later for further medication.

Lam announced his intention to resign his position as the minister for Agriculture and food security. In his resignation letter, he cited that the peace agreement has failed.

As such, resigning and rebelling against the system is a new phenomenon facing the government of South Sudan.

Nobody knows what will happen next after Wol Deng Atak, former deputy head information commission, Lam Akol, former minister of Agriculture and food security, Thomas Cirilo, former Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) deputy chief of Staff for logistics and Gabriel Duop Lam, minister of labor, public service and human resources and Khalid Loki, head of the SPLA military tribunal, have resigned.

But for Dinkas that resign, their reasons differ from other tribes. The question that asks why the Dinka tribe is bigger than other ethnic groups and its domination of the army. That said after his resignation letter was approved.

But the question is that; what kill those who resign outside South Sudan if they resign while in the country? The issue is that, they have other hidden agenda in their hearts which is rebellion.

It could be a reason they make sure they are not in South Sudan before making their resignations public.

The fresh one is that of Thomas Cirilo. In fact resignation in the minds of some South Sudanese politicians goes together with the rebellion.

But in a real sense, resignation  has nothing to do with rebellion. It's a new style for politicians in South Sudan. Something which cannot happen in the United States or in a democratic world. Because of my observations, Americans resign if there are grounds for resignation and stay in America. But that one cannot happen in South Sudan. What's wrong with our people? They resign their posts and go to America or Kenya for the case of Wol Deng Atak, Sudan for Lam Akol and Ethiopia for Thomas Cirilo.

Moreover, every person that resigns whether from the government or in the army does not miss Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) and its Dinka ethnic group out of their main reasons for resignation.

Those who resign their positions blame Jieng Council of Elders for being a big driver for president Kiir's government.  And that, Dinka dominates the national army, which needs to be reversed.

In my own view, this author would tirelessly work together with other ethnic groups in South Sudan to keep the Jieng Council of Elders away from the President's office if that's the only reason for these people leaving the government and the army in big masses.

By doing so, we would make sure that the office of the president is out of reach of Jieng Council of Elders. It will be a joint work by this author and other activists to call for it to distance itself from the state affairs. Or he will go as far as calling for it to move its office to Wau. This call will put it  under pressure from all the citizens of this country.

Also, activists will make sure it would not mingle up in running of the country. Yes, there is a solution to this problem of Jieng Council of Elders. We can build a wall around it. That idea would only work if we ever wanted to lock it up in a wall that we have built and forever forget about it.

But one thing will not happen. The balancing of ethnic groups in the army cannot and will never happen until any power would test the creator to turn hyenas into cows with horns. If those cows are without horns, then that one would be called a partial turning of hyenas into cows.

This is the fact that Dinka tribe are the majority. That's to say, in every corner of the world, there is a Dinka. There's only one country in this world and that's Somalia the author is not sure whether Dinka lives in it.

This's because they do not feel secure to stay in there. Take this simple example, in the Diaspora, Dinka are the majority. Leave alone the fact that Dinkas are in a large number of neighbouring countries.

They are now outnumbering Ugandans in Kampala and Kenyans in Nairobi just to mention the few. If any politician thinks s/he would ascend into power by any means and start the unstudied idea of balancing the ethnic groups in the army, or send home extra Dinka soldiers that would remain during the balancing, he would be committing suicide.

Because these soldiers that would be sent home will group themselves and form a militia that is more dangerous than the present White Army in Upper Nile. I do not know what would that militia be called.

In conclusion, resigning and rebelling with reasons that Jieng Council of Elders interferes with the state affairs and that Dinka tribe dominates the national army will not solve the current crisis. I think no one would be willing to question the nature. Why this ethnic group is bigger than the other? This is the question being asked by smaller ethnic groups. Even Dinka themselves do not know why they are majority in South Sudan. It's the nature that makes them like that.

I bet that any politician with a believe that s/he would cut the number of Dinka when s/he is in power would have his/her idea rotten at birth.

Garang John of SSBC: The Man Who Reads Condolence Messages on his False Death

By Deng Kiir Akok

" R.I.P Garang John, wrote one mourner sharing his sorrow with Garang John's family. I can't believe Garang John has gone, wrote the other."

I was taken by surprise when I read a post wrote on his Face book page at 8.57am of January 8, 2017. The post appeared on social media while I was taking tea at Jubadit (Juba town).

" Garang John,  a TV journalist was found dead in a car with unidentified woman. He was shot four times on the head after the car was sprayed with bullets at exactly 09:00 PM few meters away from national television premises where he works, reads the post in parts." What the hell is this post telling me, I asked in amazement those who were around me.

The hacker whom Garang called a gunman went as far as convincing  public on Face book they used Garang John wall as their family members and for easy reach out of millions of his fans and relatives.

Just few hours after a hacker posted the saddest ever post, Garang's account was bombed with hundreds of condolence messages from his friends, relatives and his sympathizers. He had this post later at 2.30pm disapproving his death post.

" DISREGARD ANY RUMOUR ABOUT MY DEATH. IT'S NOT TRUE. I AM ALIVE. MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY 'UNKNOWN GUNMAN' AND IT'S BEEN RECTIFIED. DON'T TRUST ANYTHING NEGATIVE. "

But what Garang has got here is that he had seen his mourners. Some of them perhaps were mentally prepared for his burial. He could say inside his heart to hell with those  who didn't sympathize with him. But as I observed, ah, bro you have thousands of mourners. You have really seen who could miss you in his/her life. But I could say no one minds about who will mourn or who will not mourn after one departed this world.

The moment I enjoy in the post content is when Garang John was shot four times on the head after the car was sprayed with bullets at exactly 09:00 PM few meters away from national television premises where he works. What could be the worst to have four bullets in the head?

To make sense of this text why did Garang's hacker want him (Garang) to receive such many bullets in the head. If at all a bullet could hit anywhere on his body and could kill him if his days are numbered by the creator. No one knows when one's day will come. It might knock at the doors of those wishing Garang to die. May be those who masterminded the hacking will go first before Garang.

Lastly but not the least, you Garang should try to do something on protection of your account. Because it's not the first time your account has been hacked. Why do you always be a victim of hacking. I don't want you to compliant here and there on such issue next time. Should it happens again, I will be the first to share and type a big R.I.P (Rest In Peace) against it bro. Although you will have some blah afterward, I will not listen to them. In God will, you will live untill you grow grey hairs.

How My 2016 Last Dinner Ended Up in a Brokers & Bus Drivers' Restaurant

By Deng Kiir Akok

This restaurant is on the side of the road that comes from malikia to Konykonyo and near to Malikia mosque. I was alone last evening when I went to this restaurant. It was because a friend I go with him was away for his personal stuffs. The restaurant has no official name yet.

But it's likely to be named "Brokers & Bus Drivers' Restaurant." It's mostly brokers, bus drivers and their bus conductors who mainly eat in it. This place is where ever broker and bus driver that lives in Juba is found during the day time and late evening. They make sure they have their dinner in it before quitting.

My friend and I sometimes use to take dinner from there for reason that they are professional in making salad. And because salad is my favorite food, I went down to this restaurant last evening despite the fact that I was alone. It's advisable that you shouldn't go there alone. Going there needs you to move in group. That's from two to three in number. As you are two or so, one of you will be tasked with bringing the food you ordered and the other one to find a place to sit.

 Since akul-barou (eating alone) is not recommended here in this restaurant, I have some bad experiences last year when I decided to go and eat alone.

 What happened to me was a bad incident. There's one thing this restaurant is known for and it's what I hate most.

On an asida cooking size and length stool known as bamber in South Sudan, sits a heavily weight woman whom brokers refer to as Haja (a woman who went to Mecca for pilgrimage) to manages food. She never goes anywhere from her bamber until the food gets finished.

But what is funny in this restaurant is when you make an order for a food. You don't go to look for a place where you can sit and wait for food to be brought to you by waiters. Never think of such things. You keep around the Haja waiting for the food you ordered to be called out and then you take it yourself to a table to eat it.

The brokers, bus drivers and their conductors enjoy this restaurant practices. But for someone like me was not a simple job when my dish of salad ended up in the hand of a street boy who was standing near the Haja.

"Weno bita salata de, asked the Haja." Without stopping for a second, I replied her call to the top of my voice, ana be jai ya Haja but she didn't hear me. She rolled her eyeballs around trying to see where I am and she didn't succeed.

While I was repeating myself saying ana be jai ya Haja.....suj, she didn't listen to those words. The Haja then turned around and saw  a very smart street boy standing by her side and whose she later falsely gave my food.

"Ooh, here is his bus conductor, give it to him, said Haja in a trembling low voice to one of her girls. Although I roared out loudly in Arabic saying la, la.......(meaning no in English) it was too late for me. I am not a bus driver and that I had no bus conductor here with me, it was not fruitful. The street boy took my food and looked very fine with it.

According to Haja I was left with two options. The first one was to pay half amount of that food a street boy stole between me and her that it was my negligence. And the second one was to order for another one. I made neither of them because what left with me was SSP 25 which I spared for water and bus fare.

 In my excellence budgeting of last year last dinner, I budgeted SSP 105. This amount was divided into three parts. SSP 80 for salad, SSP 15 for water and SSP 10 was for bus fare. But whatsoever I arranged in my budget was dismantled after the incident.

I wish a good blessing new year, the year of 2017 to all the people of South Sudan.

Big Oyee to 2017.
God blesses South Sudan.