The indelible truth that more people are losing their lives to suicide in the country is so visible. It would not be surprising if a report came out portraying even more numbers inclusive of those in the states. Should we give ourselves to the wolves now because of wild the times have become?

“Soldiers are being poorly paid, and everybody has to agree on that. They don’t get enough salary, and what they get is very little. It is not meeting the market forces since the rate of the dollar is very high. So, I can say that soldiers have resorted to other things, and they can be indiscipline if you don’t take care of their welfare. You cannot command them if you don’t take care of their welfare.” Chol Thon Balok – Minister of defense said this in relation to the many reported soldier related thuggeries, robberies and atrocities that have been reported to the concerned authorities. Does this statement indicate that the soldiers are therefore free to loot whomever they want at will to justify their nasty actions?

If it does, are the citizens also therefore at liberty to loot their neighbors because they possess the gun? “Guns are everywhere in Juba and in the countryside. Farmers and officials own guns…” would the public then say, ‘we are paid peanuts; we were hungry, so we attacked the neighboring town because we have guns.’ Are we leading the country into pure barbaric, immoral because of the increasingly biting poverty daily. The issue of the local currency losing value against the USD daily is no longer new but what has the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank done sincerely to make sure that South Sudan no longer wails the same grievances every year? Every finance minister and Central Bank governor brought in as a replacement is worse than their former. What lessons should we draw from this repeated carelessness in the people that are picked to give solutions but are doing the contrary?