A leaked itinerary of the SPLM-IO advance team currently in Juba show a scheduled visit by all 150 members of the delegation to the blood bank there to donate blood to the hospital – Saakam has learned.
Continue reading “BREAKING: SPLM-IO advance team scheduled to donate blood to hospitals in Juba”
The 1000 tractors recently acquired by the Government South Sudan under suspicious and shady circumstances, appear to be heading straight to the ‘tractor graveyards’ of South Sudan after the National Ministry of Agriculture announced it does not have the necessary funds to start distribution of the tractors. Continue reading “1000 Tractors doomed to rot and decay due to lack of funds, will not be used this planting season”
South Sudanese Canadian and former child-soldier Emmanuel Jal has been banned for life from boarding WestJet flights after he claimed he had a ‘licence to eat humans’ and threatened to ‘eat’ a member of the crew mid-flight if he was not given more food.
In the statement published on the website of the Canadian low-cost carrier and circulating across all major international airports, WestJet lamented the on board behaviour of the former child-soldier, saying that WestJet flights are not to be confused with airborne feeding centres. The carrier, the statement added, is a reputable carrier in the business of flying passengers from one point to another – and no one has shown that level of starvation before in their flights.
“We understanding that the person in question had starved for many years when he was a child, but – to clarify some confusion that he may have – WestJet is not the World Food Programme (WFP) and the food we serve aboard is more than enough to get our normal passengers to their next destination where they can buy and eat as much as they can in the many restaurants when they arrive at their destination.”
The air hostess who was attending to Mr. Jal at the time, has been admitted to an undisclosed hospital for further psychological and physical analysis. She is said to have been traumatized and in a state of shock after the experience.
Although her conditional is not life threatening, the threat to be eaten by a scary-looking person is enough to leave a nasty, life-lasting unrepairable scar on her confidence, experts say.
A few hours prior to the release of the statement, Emmanuel Jal posted a video on his Facebook page – much to the dismay of the family of the victim – calling the encounter ‘funny’.
It is yet unclear whether the victim and her family, or the Canadian carrier will pursue further legal measures against Emmanuel Jal.
No statement or fundraising appeals to pay for the extra sandwich has yet been made by Emmanuel Jal or any of the many organizations he represents.
On his Facebook fan page, messages of solidarity have started to pour in. Some fans are pleading with him not to attempt to walk for thousands of miles to another country (like he did when he was a child-soldier) now that he is persona non grata with WestJet and affiliates.
Others believe WestJet’s ban is a bit too harsh for a silly and a not-so-funny joke by someone like Emmanuel Jal who has a long and sad history of starvation. According to some, he cannot be blamed for getting accustomed to being feed every time he says he wants food.
“Emmanuel Jal is the victim here,” one fan said.
Here is the video
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A group of UK-based pop singers and researchers are raising funds for an expedition to Africa to finally answer the question “Do they know it’s Christmas” that, for decades, has been haunting the conscious of the West, usually around the festive season of Christmas.
According to the researchers, the much-needed funds will be used to facilitate the acquisition of entry visas for the group, vital supplies such as food, water and toiletries, ebola-protection suits; and communication hardware such as satellite phones and backup power supply and generators for the duration of the expedition.
Funds have started to flow in, but the group is already reporting difficulties in finding the embassy of Africa in the UK. They have asked their online community and those who visited Africa recently to advise them on how and where to apply for an entry visa for Africa.
According to the group, “after we land in Africa and communicate our coordinates back to our Mission Control Centre in London, we shall seek to make contact with the locals. We shall then carry out of exploratory expedition under the burning sun to determine if anything really grows there..”
Using the lyrics of Band Aid serial best-selling hit song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, the pop singers and researchers will seek to address some of the facts documented in it.
[part of the lyrics]
It’s hard, but when you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window
And it’s a world of dread and fearWhere the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of youAnd there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they’ll get this year is life
Oh, where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow
Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?The researchers have also prepared a questionnaire with pictures of a Christmas tree, snow, wrapped presents under a Christmas tree, a chimney, and Santa Claus. According to them, how Africans answer those questions will determine for a part whether they know of have experienced the feeling of Christmas before.
However, not everyone is pleased with what the researchers will find.
A representative from Band Aid, a charitable trust comprised mostly of British and Irish musicians and recording artists who have used the question to sell millions of records every year for the last 30 years, said the question is too big and broad for a group of self-funding researchers using unconventional ways to answer.
But others believe Band Aid’s reaction to distance itself from these pop singers is purely out of fear that an affirmative answer to the question may ruin their chances of ever selling and making millions out of an old and insulting stereotype of Africa.
The group plans to arrive Africa before Christmas – that is if they find address of the embassy of Africa to issue the visas.
Editor’s Note:
Here are some links you may find interesting
– Ebola survivor Will Pooley calls Band Aid ‘cringeworthy cultural ignorance’
– Celebrity Musicians Can’t Feed the World
The women of South Sudan are broadening their unorthodox strategy aimed at ending the war by denying sex to their partners by appealing to foreign workers in service in South Sudan to join the strike as, according to campaigners, peace benefits all – housewives and whores alike.
In what started as a suggestion to pressure stakeholders to ‘end the DIRTY war by denying SWEET sex’, the campaign has gained international praise and momentum, even among foreign sex workers who have equally suffered from the conflict that started close to a year ago. Campaigners are hoping that sex workers, meanly foreigners who are on tour in South Sudan, to join hands (or literally close their legs) in solidarity with local housewives for a better and more prosperous and peaceful South Sudan.
The wives of the President and the rebel leader have also been asked to do their uttermost best in pressuring their husbands to end the war if that means denying them sex or giving them a lot of it until they bring peace.
One group of hookers, the association of Sex Workers in South Sudan (SWISS), locally known as the SWISS Girls, posted a message of solidarity on their Facebook page saying they “feel the pain and suffering of the people of South Sudan, and applaud the efforts the ‘wives’ in South Sudan are exploring to end the war”.
Although SWISS fell short of calling on their hookers to join the strike, campaigners are positive that an understanding will be reached with the group.
However, another group of strikers is suggesting staging afternoon and night vigils around lodges and hotels in Juba, the capital to spot, report or shame offenders of the strike.
Until this latest show of solidarity by SWISS, the gang of pricey hookers were known to generally refrain South Sudan politics. Local observers say their part-taking in the strike will be a game changer.
Note: Single members of our staff – male and female – are joining the strike in solidarity. Spread the word and keep the legs closed
Saakam! 