There are only two classes in Juba and you know where you belong.
Blame the government or anything because it won’t change the fact that each day one gets to live here is a gift, unmerited. The most privileged men of Juba buy fancy cars from Japan and estates abroad without paying attention to the plight of the other half, the poor.
The country’s super-rich, those who call themselves VIPs live in complete affluence. They begin and end the day with money. If they have 100 problems, money is the 99th problem. Some don’t even know if there are problems in this life. For the common people, money is the only problem. If I get $100,000 today, 99 per cent of my problems will be solved because, with that amount of money, I can be a millionaire in the next ten years and create employment opportunities for other young people.
The VIPs have got more than enough and yet they don’t know how to invest the money to empower the masses, which is why there are many V.8s in Juba with no roads. The civil population has been robbed and they are living through it with bravery even when they are not so sure when Juba is going to be a little kind.
Juba is like a boat and we are not so sure when it is going to capsize. We pray that it doesn’t but when it surely does, it will shuffle all those on board, the VIPs, VVIPs and the less fortunate altogether. If you don’t get it, let me make it clear, those who have a lot now will have nothing tomorrow and even if they continue to amass wealth, they will never cheat life. Another will take the VIP status. The have-nots of today will be the VIPs of tomorrow.
I am just telling you to watch the time. Time doesn’t lie. I am asking you to pay close attention to the wheels of time. But in the meantime, it is about pushing harder with little or no success. Accept your reality. It is free. Life is a journey of faith and it is unfortunately not going to get better.
If you have a smartphone now and a college degree, you are ten times richer than the son of an emperor who lived 500 years ago. It is something to think about considering your position in this life. It is the best time to be alive. Back in the days, around the 1800s, knowledge was only a luxury for the selected few. It is different today; you have all the information in your phone or computer. You can go to school and learn, which impossible 100 years ago was. The world has evolved over time but there has been an increase in wealth inequality.
There are about 2,000 plus super wealthy people in the world with billions of dollars and millions of people who live on less than $2 per day. If we redistributed just a tiny portion of their combined net-worth, we could end world poverty even for generations to come. Each individual could go with a million or more and our world would be an equal place, without the poor and the rich.
But do you know why it is going to be impossible? First, inequality started from the day we were created. You were given some talents and it is up to you to use it or not. Most people have specific talents and others have completely nothing or they may have it and are unaware. That is inequality.
The truth is that only 1 percent of the world’s population owns almost 50 percent of the world’s financial assets, the rest, 99 percent, are just human beings, like you, trying to figure out the meaning of life.
If the wealth was redistributed, all businesses would crash because everyone would quit their job. Presidents will lose their servants. For example, all those who work for President Kiir, especially his bodyguards will run away and even worse, he may lose power because everyone has been elevated. The education system will fall apart because nobody will want to sit in class again to learn hard stuff. The only reason why we pay money in school is to make more money when we graduate. If you have money already, you will have no reason to go to school again.
Everyone will be a millionaire and there will be complete chaos in the world. To keep order, there has to be inequality and a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots.
For millions of South Sudanese, life is not easy. It is a daily struggle to survive, to find something to eat, to be alive and to believe it is real. As the year ended a few days ago, many people celebrated because they were so lucky enough to live through the hardest months of 2024.
Others have lost their lives and loved ones. On the other hand, the richest men of the country (VIPs), got even richer in 2024 and they are going to make more through the year as the civil population continues to be mired in abject poverty.