Im Back....

I realise I haven't posted in a while, and that is because unlike these other bloggers, I have actual work to do. I mean did you see this post at Aidwatch? They had to shut down their entire operation because they decided to do a bit of work. While the rest of us are juggling to do both.....sigh*.

Anyways, Im sort of still recovering, both mentally and physically, so bear with me.

I did bring you back some goodies from my field trip to Akobo though....

Looks like your average oldschool radio right? Wrong! This badass little music machine also accepts USB flashdrives as well as SD cards.

Now this may not be a surprise to some of you, but I had not seen this before and it excited me in ways........

This is one thing I love about developing countries. In the developed world, where most technological innovations were made, the products have to be marketed in a flashy, shiny and high end way to make it appealing to a constantly bored market. Whereas for the developing world, the technologies have already been developed, so all they have to do is pick and choose which technology is practically relevant and market it in that way. They get to skip that bullshit "it came from the future so lets stretch this out over many many products" stage (am I still making sense?)

As a result, developing countries are able to be just as up to date with technology without the ridiculous costs.

Also, the wide availability of mobile phones with camera means that now its not just the white guy that gets to have a 'cultural safari' with the local community, but the community is now able to photograph the white guy as some exotic animal that has lost its way.

Hey, look at that. I still managed a rant. Looks like Im not too exhausted to be a dick.

A going away joke from the Lou-Nuer: A Murle cattle raider in Khartoum sees a Holstein-Freisian cow and tries to steal it......

HAHAHA get it?

*Oh and don't you try jumping on this boat with me Roving Bandit, all you do is copy and paste......and Im talking about your day job...ZING!

Khartoum Bombing *IN* The South...

Roving Bandit is having a panic attack over Northern Antonov Bombers flying and dropping bombs in the South.......Chill out brother....it's cool.
He asks, "What on earth is going on?! Is this real? How on earth is this not a huge fucking issue? This can’t be true can it?"

Well.... SPLA (South military) is fully aware of SAF's (northern military) recent operations against Darfuri rebels (JEM, specifically), therefore, Khartoum is not bombing the South, but rather is bombing IN the south. And while usually this may have led to retaliatory attacks, I believe that the Southern Government is trying to not involve itself in any Darfur related matters to prevent any further friction with the North at this critical stage of CPA discussions, especially following recent accusations that the South has been aiding JEM rebels.
So fear not.....it isn't necessarily a Northern strategy to scare communities away from registering for the referendum (its just the indiscriminate bombing of Darfuris...).
As the Gurtong article Roving Bandit refers to says;
"A member of the Southern Sudan Referendum Committee at Gok Machar Angelo Ker confirmed the incident and said registration has been going on from yesterday without any setbacks."
All this is happening in Northern Bahr el Ghazal where at the same time;
"Authorities from the southern state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal on Monday said the high turnout for voter registration in Aweil East County has overwhelmed polling centers."

Now, if your life is boring and you do want something to worry about, allow me to refer you to interruptions of the registration process in Tonj East County due to cattle raiding by youths from Mayandit. As well as the prevention of voter registration in Koch County because the referendum commission is unable to access the area due to its 'No-Go' classification by the UN following attacks by General Gatluak Gai's insurgency.

Ma'alesh Roving Bandit. Kulu Tamam......well, sort of.