Sudan: When Death Becomes Normal · Global Voices
SudaneseDrima

For most of us, witnessing someone’s death can be a traumatizing experience. However, when you’ve been surrounded by it for a long period of time, it’s just “one of those days” and no big deal. This is what SudaneseReturnee discovered after spending years abroad in Europe and upon returning to Juba, Southern Sudan, a place that witnessed two decades of bloody war:
For ages, I never knew the reason why I always thought I’d die young. In Juba, people talk about tragedy and death may be more often than Europeans talk about the weather.
… Just after 2 days in Juba, something happened that stunned me. I was seated with some friends at home under the night sky.
… then an loud screams of what sounded like pain, confusion or freight.
… It was an accident… His head was totally deformed… it looked like he died instantly when he was hit by whatever hit him. Then I heard someone say there was another fatality.
… He clearly looked dead, but some people would still kneel down to feel his pulse and without any emotion announce “aaah, de intaaha!” (this one is finished!)
… They were brothers from the same mother!
… The crowd slowly dissolved into the night… for most of them, it was just another day in Juba. For the mother and me, this day we shall never forget.
SudaneseReturnee was also feeling ill. He tried looking for Dr. Konyokonyo but couldn’t find him in his clinic. Maybe that’s because Dr. Konyokonyo was busy blogging a post on prioritizing health issues in Southern Sudan:
How do you chose which problems to tackle first? When the GOSS [Government of South Sudan] came on, they promise quick fixes for lots of things like building hospitals, clinics and health centers where none existed before. Old hospitals will be rehabilitated. Health surveys were done in all the states. What happend next?
It is unfortunate that many of the promises have fallen down the drain… We need priorities in health.
Drima, The Sudanese Thinker blogged about how a child was used for a failed assassination attempt:
Eyewitnesses said that an unknown man in the audience handed an explosive device to a child and asked to proceed to the podium where Kodi was present. However the device exploded before the child made it to the podium
He also posted this picture of Omar al-Bashir's recent visit to Italy in which he met the Pope!!
Little.Miss.Dalu expressed her thoughts on FGM as sexual violence:
I titled this entry “FGM as Sexual Violence” because I believe female genital mutilation is an act of violence against a woman's sexuality. The act objectifies her, her body is defiled and her sexuality is violated (silenced, removed, seen as unimportant). Her body an object set up for the pleasures of another (her husband). It's about control, put under the guise of “protection of purity.”
Wholeheartedly-Sudaniya asked the question “Darfur: who wants peace?”
… A rebel attack that killed at least 10 peacekeepers at an African Union army base in Sudan's Darfur region has sparked international condemnation.
(source)
I wonder what Darfurians have to say about this ” here we go again….the selfish idiots want to stop the peace at any cost..”
The Sudanese American commented on Khartoum’s recent crackdown on the SPLM:
This is the kind of things that makes efforts to keep Sudan a unified country more difficult. It sends the wrong message, not only to Southern Sudanese, but also to the Northerners. With national parliamentary elections coming up in two years, hopes that the “unity government” would pave the way for democratic change, and the ruling National Congress party would accept election results, are now in doubt.
Last but not least, allow me to end this round up of the Sudanese blogosphere in a symbolic manner by bringing you Path2hope’s post entitled “New beginnings”:
I’ve arrived in England and I’m happy to say that the weather did not disappoint, it was grey and windy with a bit of showers just like I expected.
… Tomorrow I take a train and head off to the university, Lord knows what I expect to find but I’m hoping for the best:) wish me luck!
While there are certainly positive things happening in Sudan, there are far too many negatives taking place. We Sudanese need a new beginning.