FEAST OR FAMINE

The Canberra Times reports that the Republic of Macedonia has taken control of an empty building in Red Hill, a suburb of Australia's capital, Canberra, which used to operate as the Yugoslavian embassy. The move is part of an international carve-up of the former socialist state's assets. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is now assessing whether it can provide adequate security in the area so that the Macedonian Government can pursue plans to turn the building into a new embassy. The former republics that made up the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have debated for years how to share the diplomatic spoils of the dissolved state. Two weeks ago Yugoslavian successor states Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro finally reached agreement on the first allocation of the diplomatic property. Under the deal a range of buildings around the world are in the process of changing hands, including an embassy in Pr...

Tony and Masako, an American couple, holiday in Mexico in January 1985 for three weeks. By June, they had sold their house in California and moved permanently to the sixteenth century hill-town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. On Mexican Time (2001) is a true story by a travel writer as he leaves a hectic and jaded life (where people “are busy climbing up, clinging to, falling off career ladders”) for the leisurely pace and warmth of a neigbouring land. It is a place of bougainvillea, cobblestone streets, siestas and fiestas. It’s a place of margaritas, licuados, tortilla chips and steamed tamales. It’s a place where tourists repeatedly return to capture the seductive and charming ambience of a simpler life. It is here that Tony and Masako find and refurbish a dilapidated 250-year-old house (for the equivalent of a year’s salary) and become subsumed into the everyday activities of the town. The frustrations of any house renovation are magnified by the pace of “Mexican time:”...

Jul 15th, 2011 By Bikya Masr Staff The General Assembly admitted the Republic of South Sudan as the 193rd member of the United Nations on July 15, 2011, welcoming the newly independent country to the community of nations. South Sudan’s independence from the rest of Sudan is the result of the January 2011 referendum held under the terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the decades-long civil war between the North and the South. “At this moment… in this place… the world gathers to say in one voice: Welcome, South Sudan. Welcome to the community of nations,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the Assembly adopted a resolution, by acclamation, to admit Africa’s newest country. Ban, who was among the UN dignitaries who attended the independence ceremony in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, last Saturday, pledged the world body’s assistance as the country shapes its future. “The commitment of all Member States will be essential as South Sud...

[The following book excerpt is published to mark South Sudan’s independence on July 9, 2011] Sudan 2006 “The Sudan curse is oil,” said my companion. The discovery of black gold was both a blessing and a curse. The Southern Sudanese considered oil the prime cause of the north-south civil wars. The second civil war started in May 1983 with the discovery of oil in Bentiu in the old Upper Nile region—now called Unity State—in Faloj in northern Upper Nile State, and in Jonglei State. In 1998 efforts by sixteen chiefs from Unity State, Nuer, and Dinka tribes, international and local NGOs, and the South Sudan Students Union in Universities, claiming human rights violations and environmental concerns, failed to suspend oil exploration in Bentiu. In August 2006 the Government of Southern Sudan and state authorities convened discussions to agree to withdraw from contractual obligations with White Nile Petroleum and French-Total in Jonglei and northern Bahr-al-Ghazal States, but they did...

[The following book excerpt is published to mark South Sudan’s independence on July 9, 2011] Sudan 2006 My destination was Pagak, a pinprick of a settlement on the Ethiopian border along the Sobat corridor. Across the border lay the refugee camps of Fugnido, Dimma, and Yerenja; temporary homes to sixty-five thousand displaced Sudanese, waiting for the Gambella (Ethiopia) to Pagak (Sudan) road to open. Dribbles of families had commenced making their own way home. Almost everyone was naked, or close to it, and barefoot. A handful of residents draped in threadbare clothes and T-shirts meandered about carrying firewood. The better dressed were NGO officers at the health clinic or supervising infrastructure projects, such as the installation of boreholes. It was a town lacking basic amenities. Poverty and hardship flourished. Toxic, kelp-colored ditch water formed cesspools of cholera and dysentery near outlying tukuls, their dome-shaped homes. Victoria, the head woman...

[The following book excerpt is published to mark Southern Sudan’s independence on July 9, 2011] Since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, the Upper Nile had been divided into two states: the Upper Nile and to the south, Jonglei State. Jonglei State bordered Eastern Equatoria. Its capital was Bor Town. The region had a long and bloody history of violence, constantly prone to volatility and instability. Like the humid south it comprised numerous ethnic groups: Nuer (Lou, Jikany, and Gawaar), Bor Dinka, Murle, Anyuak, Mabane, Toposa, Kachipo, and Jie. Conflict primarily revolved around water, cattle raiding, and child abduction. The 1991 massacre in Bor, known as The Split, led to the flight of seven hundred thousand Bor Dinka south to Equatoria. The Sudd, the world’s largest swampland about the size of England, lay on the western side of Jonglei State. Sudd was Arabic for barrier; appropriately named for its dense tangle of papyrus, frequented by crocodiles, hip...

Southern Sudan in 2006 [The following book excerpt is published to mark South Sudan’s independence on July 9, 2011] The rich, fertile Kidepo Valley—upper, middle, and lower—that stretched across five administrative counties from northern Uganda through Eastern Equatoria in Southern Sudan was ideal for cattle herding. In the past, the bucolic valley had witnessed intense conflict as part of the north-south tensions, and, more recently, the presence of the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army. Now, in 2006 rival ethnic groups were engaged in cattle raiding. We packed the vehicle with goods and people and headed for the gateway to Juba. Mary, a young woman working for a NGO in Kapoeta, joined us. She was returning to her hometown near Kimatong, which she had evacuated in 1986. With a bundle of goods, anticipation, and hope, she was going home. She sang to herself during the sweat-filled journey. Mary guided us to her village. When we stopped the truck, a Toposa wo...

[The following book excerpt is published to mark Southern Sudan’s independence on July 9, 2011] From Kapoeta, I was traveling to Lauro and Chukudum in Eastern Equatoria, the southernmost part of Southern Sudan. Once considered an ungovernable border town between Budi and Kapoeta, Lauro used to be a market place. Residents had been pushed out in 1998, and in 1992, the northern Government of Sudan overtook the town until the SPLA reclaimed it in 2002. With the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, locals expected fifty thousand people to return to the Kapoeta region. Each day families and fragments of families returned. In Chukudum, the situation was similar. “Cattle rustling continues,” said a leader, standing and pointing to his herd. He wore a brown string ring on his wedding finger and orange thread wound around his left arm. “Not the big raids like before, but thefts of single cattle.” “We need government services,” said another, and added, “law...

[The following book excerpt is published to mark Southern Sudan’s independence on July 9, 2011]  The Sudan conflicts are said to have their genesis in the sixth century when the Nubians first encountered Christianity. More recently British aspirations to join the south of Sudan with Uganda failed in 1947 when an agreement in Juba unified Southern and Northern Sudan. In 1955 dissent among southern soldiers fuelled the first Sudanese civil war that continued until 1972. Eleven years of an unstable peace was sandwiched between the first and second civil wars. The second civil war—from 1983 to 2005—was the bloodiest. The government of Khartoum in the north coveted natural resources in the south—oil, water, gold, and minerals—transporting them north. Nothing much moved south in return. A clean-cut division between the Arab Muslim north and the African Christian south was therefore complicated and protracted. African Muslims traditionally co-existed with Arabs, but in South...

The district of Christianshavn in Copenhagen dates back to 1618. Across the channel from Old Copenhagen (the heart of the city), the buildings are just as medieval. Not only do people live in the many old and modern apartments, but they also live in houseboats. Many restaurants are located on the cobblestone streets, including Noma, the restaurant that topped the S.Pellegrino list of the world’s best restaurants for the second consecutive year in 2010 for its innovative gastronomy. Unfortunately reservations are made months in advance, or as people say in Denmark, it’s easier to get an invitation with Queen Margrethe than it is to acquire a seat at Noma. Christiania is a must see area of Christianshavn. Back in the 1970s a group of hippy intellectuals made it their own community by taking over the abandoned military barracks and named it Free Town. There’s an ongoing debate over its politics, independent rules, and the selling of cannabis. Walking down Pusher Street, people...

The heart of Copenhagen features buildings dating back to medieval times with Renaissance copper domes, spires, and bell towers. Cobblestone streets are still designed for walking and cycling, and many streets are one way or closed to traffic. Canal tours provide a wonderful, relaxed overview of the city plan. Copenhagen is best seen by foot, bike, or boat. The old city’s focal point is Stroeget, a two-kilometre long pedestrian shopping street with bargain buys and high-end luxury stores, including Danish-made designs and jewellery. On one end of the street is the City Hall Square where people can climb the clock tower for a great view of the city. Its bell tower still chimes every hour. For those wanting to appear on local television, the live Aftenshowet (the evening show) broadcasts daily on the square from 6:00pm. On the other end of the street in Kongens Nytorv (the King’s new square) which is actually a large roundabout. Featuring around the square are the Royal Theat...