South Sudan Statehood: July 9 Sees Africa's 54th Nation

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px} It is good to see that Now Public and other alternative media outlets are covering issues facing South Sudan at this important time of its independence. Fantastic! However, there are several errors or misrepresentations to the above article. You write that there are no proper roads in South Sudan. In fact, road construction is underway to link most larger towns, although most of the roads are unpaved. There are also roads to and from Khartoum and to neighbouring countries like Uganda where much of products are transported into and out of the South. A recent article (bit.ly/o9V3ar) writes about investment interests from China, which is not at all surprising. There is significant investment from USA and elsewhere too. South Sudan has oil but it is not only located in the contested Abyei region. there are productive oil fields in Unity State and in Upper Nile too. About 70% of oil production in Sudan is from oil extracted from what is now South Sudan but all infrastructure (pipelines, refineries) are in Sudan, so they will have to come to some agreement for each of them to benefit from oil export revenue. You state that all medical health is provided by foreign NGO, which is not correct. There are a select number of Southern Sudanese doctors who were were educated in Cuba and later trained in Canada with residencies in Kenya who are now important providers of healthcare in South Sudan. They will be important for the development of a future healthcare system in their country. (www.samaritanspurse.ca/ourwork/medicalcare/feature-sudan2.aspx). Many more are needed, obviously, but it is misleading to imply that they are not participating in providing healthcare within their own country. The South, contrary to what you write, has many resources to offer the West and anywhere else, although they may want to focus on providing themselves first. South Sudan holds much the nile basin and has very fertile land. It is a good combination to become an important crop growing region in East Africa to adequately feed themselves and others in neighbouring countries. They also have a huge potential for wildlife observation and safari type tourism to rival Tanzania that would be a fantastic alternative to oil and mineral extraction (southsudaninfo.net/2009/12/southern-sudan-oil-exploitation-vs-wildlife-protection/). So there are indeed challenges facing the Republic of South Sudan. Huge challenges! But they also have a huge potential that alternative media should also write about to avoid the uninformed clichés that are most often portrayed in mainstream and corporate media.