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Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
As in many developing nations, international aid is both an invaluable help to South Sudan and a crutch that sometimes enables it to avoid reality. International Rescue Committee (IRC) Community Case Management Officer Pitia Jacob (L) walks with Paulino Angui Akot in Majak Ajuong, in South Sudan, on June 2, 2012. All pictures made available to msnbc.com on July 10, 2012.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A young girl with malaria rests in the in-patient ward of the Malualkon Primary Health Care Center in Malualkon, in Northern Bahr el Ghazal on June 1, 2012.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
One of a few broken ambulances at the Aweil State Hospital, the only hospital in the state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, on June 2, 2012.
Reuters reports — Nowhere is South Sudan's dependence on the outside world more clear than in its health system.
The people of Africa's newest nation — which celebrated its first birthday on Monday — face cholera, measles, meningitis, polio, river blindness, sleeping sickness, yellow fever and whooping cough. Malaria accounts for a quarter of all hospital visits. South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Around one in six children die within their first year.
And there are just 120 doctors and 100 nurses in a country of 8 million. Foreign governments and other donors gave just under $1 billion or so in aid in 2010, and around four-fifths of all health care is provided by outside groups. Read the full story.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
Blood samples to be tested for malaria are seen at the Aweil State Hospital in Aweil on June 2, 2012.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
Left to right: Toma Adeng, Maria Abuk, Mary Achol, and Martha Akuch, who work as voluntary birth attendants, pose for a photograph at the Malualkon Primary Health Care Center in Malualkon on June 1, 2012.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A handwritten medical chart is seen on the wall of the Malualkon Primary Health Care Center in Malualkon on June 1, 2012.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
Men carry bags of food while women wait for their rations at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) food distribution site in Pibor on June 25, 2012.
Adriane Ohanesian / Reuters
A U.N. helicopter lands at the airstrip in Pibor on June 26, 2012. Development experts have grown more sophisticated in recent decades about how they deliver aid. But in fragile states such as South Sudan, getting the balance right between helping a country and helping that country help itself remains incredibly difficult.
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These people faced genocides at the hands of Islamists just because they belonged to a different religion.
After lots of struggles, they got independence. Even here Sudanese bigoted Muslim rulers attacked S. Sudan oil fields and made many refugees.
Here UN, human rights groups and others have miserably failed to help the affected and prevented genocides.
If a few thousands are killed in Syria, then there are lots of noises as Sunni Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists work for them.
What an irony in a world using all big words like fairness, justice, human rights, helping the deprived and so on!
Do you have a good recipe for turkey burgers?
Democrat, right?
Why does it always have to do with politics? this is B.S! democrat, republican they are all a bunch of fill their own pockets people. What else is new? screw you in the process too.
rusty - try beef instead.
We should give them our healthcare plan and let them pay for it.
Don't worry folks.....the IMF (financial tentacle of the United Nations) will be asking member Nations for an increase in their funds to cover the cost of Health Care for all in the region.
And this is NOT a joke.
ldo - however even though we may have to pay funds to the UN, you KNOW that money contribution does NOT go to the people that need it, not the money or healthcare or food - the money will just disappear in the pockets of their so called politicians.....
jeez...don't they have enough problems without introducing US-style healthcare?
I mean...one billion doesn't buy what it used to.....
I'm sure there are still plenty of voodoo and witch doctors in Sudan to take care of the population
why cant we teach them to fish ?
Mr. Loobop -
It's OK with me as long as they are members of the S.S.M.A.
UN and its agencies are a big joke! You can see them dancing where there are monies to pocket and steal!
Look at UN and its agencies roles before Iraqi wars.
Now examine how UN and its agencies, human rights groups, media are jumping and dancing in Syria and Iran.
Kofi Annan, who knows how to steal, has been going around in his business directed by the Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists.
IMF, WB are another bunch of jokes. If Strauss Kahns head any organization, imagine the caliber and worth of such ones.
Also wherever they have put their hands, they have ruined the places.
If NATO forces are badly needed anywhere in the world, then it is S. Sudan.
The people of the world should be asking why is this happening the budgets for nato, fema, un are enormous! It is a sad day that the world can not help people in such dire need! Life all life is suffering and the world should globally help one another the fact that a ceos bonus from some fake large bailed out corporation could provide needed help is outrageous to think about the wasted millions of dollars funneled into the hands of a small group when there is so much need. Go to care2, one.org ,change.org and create and sign some petitions. pray for one another and in countries rich in oil, diamonds, gold and other resources why is there so much poverty? now also no guns?
Disease, civil war, genocide, slavery, famine, displaced - abandoned - orphaned children walking for days to reach help, militia, a primarily Muslim government fighting/oppressing Christian rebels. What a Hell to survive in.
I am humbled by the perseverance of people in the midst of such catastrophic conditions - not only in South Sudan and Sudan, but around our globe.
I can't find any sympathy for people that keep having children when they are starving and doing nothing about it. White farmers went there to teach them how to grow crops so they and their livestock could eat and they killed them and ran them out. The country receives billions in aid from our country and are still a third world country.
They can keep their diseases and ignorance over there, Send Obama to lead them, that will finish them off quicker.
What about the health care over here that will end up breaking all of us but the 1%?
I also notice that not too many Democrats are on this site. Perhaps it is because they only have the "me" mentality, known as entitlement.
Pretty amazing that they can be starving to death but still procreating...if he handed out condoms they probably fill them with water and use them as canteens.
Yeah, since the Republican "me, me, me" is all about stealing more money for oneself than the next guys has, and has so little to do with fairness, equality, and charity for anyone in need too!
Frankly, if every taxpayer in the US gave just $2.00 to fund help fund medical care in the South Sudan, Raul Castro has a surplus of decent doctors that would be willing to work for a lot less than our own doctors here at home would be, and perhaps our government could also donate the use of a couple of C-130s to help ferry critical supplies in too, since the South Sudan is landlocked without sea access.
South Sudan has only received aid from the US for one year now, other than some aid for refugees that were driven into Kenya and a couple of other surrounding nations when the northern Sudanese army drove them out during the 2nd Sudanese civil war which lasted from 1983 to 2006. Sudan and its southern provinces have had a long history of colonization by outside forces including resource plundering and securing slave labor as well.
Currently South Sudan is engaged in several tribal conflicts as well as an ongoing battle with North Sudan over some oil reserves that are in the southern part of Sudan. There has been great hope that the South Sudanese could build a fair and free nation separate from their northern neighbor but it isn't going to happen unless the central government receives some economic and military aid, as well as humanitarian assistance including more medical care too.
Anyone who exclaims that primitive peoples not have children because of modern capitalist moral values are guilty of the same kind of discrimination that Africa's European colonizers were. Certainly, with an increased ability to produce a surplus of food, along with the establishment of a viable economy and a much better standard of medical care, life expectancy will rise, and a much higher percentage of the people will be engaged in trades other than simple subsistence farming. Today the average life expectancy in South Sudan is under 45 years, and infant mortality is several times as high as the worst parts of America's inner cities are too.
Frankly it would not cost us a tremendous amount to give the people of South Sudan a much better chance of achieving livable stability within their lifetimes. Yes, I am certainly aware of competing needs here at home too, which I feel can be at least partially resolved through increased funding for both primary and higher education and a few other programs designed to assist business growth in our worst-off inner cities and native-American reservations too.
So, if helping others help themselves to build a better and more-stable future fills your need for empathy for others less-fortunate, and you believe in an America that is fair to all of its citizens, I would recommend voting Democrat myself in 2012, as in my own opinion gathered since the late 1960s, most Republicans have very little empathy for anyone below their social class, and today would seem h*ll-bent on destroying the middle class and returning America to the worst abuses of the robber-baron era of a century ago, where unbridled and unregulated extreme wealth walked all over anyone who got in their way.
If the thin that turns you on most is an addiction to the acquisition of extreme wealth, and you could care less who you have to climb over or knock down to achieve your conquest, Romney might be your man, or he might take you to the cleaners too, as he is definitely that same kind of guy who has absolutely no empathy for financial weakness no matter who gets hurt in the process.
These people don't even have the basics and you blame them for dying. People are raped and killed and starving and maybe there is little in life for them, not even prevention. We sure have a lot of "all about me" people in this country. I don't have much sympathy for people here having sex and babies with multiple partners, but these poor people deserve empathy, not condemnation.
This country received 1 billion dollars in aid. 1 billion. They have some of the most fertile land on the planet. Yet they cannot feed themselves or advance their society to even a simple, self-sufficient agrarian state. Why is that, Old Timer? And why have other nations with less fertile land been able to succeed and thrive without outside assistance? What is the difference?
Drought has been one big problem, and multiple ongoing conflicts within the borders of South Sudan is another. Also South Sudan has an infrastructure that has been either badly-neglected or damaged or destroyed by more than two decades of civil war since 1983. There are millions of land mines and other unexploded ordinance still buried all over South Sudan that kills people every day.
Look at your $1 Billion this way and you will see how insignificant a number that it is: Just the multiple AIG bailouts cost $750 billion, and if the derivatives currently owned by just our 5 largest investment banks were to tank, it would cost us several times our total GDP just to bail-out 10% of that damage too.
The South Sudan is a country nearly the size of the State of Texas. How far would $1 billion go in Texas after a multiple-front civil war had ravaged the State for almost a quarter-century, and had both almost completely destroyed the economy and the infrastructure, and reduced 90% of the remaining population to simple subsistence farming to survive?
Why do they have all these civil wars? Why did they neglect their infrastructure? Why didn't Texas have all these civil wars? Why didn't Texas neglect its infrastructure?
The problem, which you are dancing around, is cultural. It is a corrupt cesspool of tribalism. The US and UN can pour as much money as they want into Sudan, and it will remain as it is until its people change the culture and use their own resources. It is high time for the victims to grab ahold of their own destiny. We cannot help them. They must help themselves or war themselves into extinction. They have plenty of resources. Sudan is not the first or last nation to be ravaged by civil wars. And they have full capacity to advance their civilization like any other nation. It is time to stop coddling them and allow them to leave the nest and fly on their own, if they can. Africa has nothing to blame its problems on but itself.
Texas did have a war. The Mexican American War. Perhaps it would have been smarter for the US Government to let Mexico invade south Texas just so that we wouldn't have so many whining conservatives now???
Seriously, that's your response? Who's whining here, the "conservative" or you on behalf of the Sudanese?
And, let's say Mexico won the war. Any indication from Mexico's current status that she wouldn't be able to feed her citizens or maintain her infrastructure in the northern "Texican" territories?
Being an enabling world parent results in spoiled, incompetent child nations. The best thing we can do for Africa is to let it mature and survive on its own. It is more than capable. Why don't you believe in the ingenuity and ability of the African people?
I am not in support of health-care in poor countries before fixing economy. They need to figure out how to improve it. How increase agricultural and animal products. How to exploit other resources they have. Foreign aid should focus on economics and education.
It is OK for higher death rate. There is no use increasing population that cannot be supported that will increase poverty and hunger. Idea that death is bad is fallacy. Sustainable population is a better goal. May be they should increase birth control among poorer people to preserve their health and living standard. That is better way to reduce death.
Around the world including in USA, we are seeing poor are making more babies at earlier age and we to do are making less babies even at later state in their life. This creates larger income gap in the countries and ensuing problems that hijacks debate into distribution from production and employment. The cycle is self perpetuating widening income disparity.
Wow! You are one sick, deranged person. Push away from Faux News and get some professional help.
Well guy,what is wrong with their statments?More likely,YOU are sick and deranged as sensible statements seem so wrong to you.
I can hear the "racist" arrow zinging in at you from the holier-than-thous !
If you cannot see the problem with a statement like "It is OK for higher death rate. There is no use increasing population that cannot be supported that will increase poverty and hunger." There is no need for me to try and tell you. However, you may also want to seek help.
Guy:
May be someone has resoruces to sovle the problem. If some oen is willing to put money it fine. But there are 500 Million people like that across the world , most in Africa.
It's not about someone, or some country, putting up the resources. It is about the callousness and depravity of a believe system that would cause a person to state "It is OK for higher death rate. There is no use increasing population that cannot be supported that will increase poverty and hunger." You don't think so? Share this thought with your family, friends, co-workers and clergy and see what they think.
Either you're a religious fundamentalist or you entirely missed his point. Essentially, he is saying focusing on the mortality rate (ie spending billions on healthcare) is addressing the symptoms, and that if we put our resources into developing better education and economic sustainability in the region then the high mortality rate all of a sudden looks like a temporary and fleeting issue.
To be completely honest, you're the one who should lay off the faux news guyfromsandiego!
It's known as the Demographic Transition. It is the transition of a country from high birth and death rate to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system.
All countries go through this 4 stage transition. Stage 1) High death and birth rates. Stage 2) rates drop rapidly due to improvements in food supply and sanitation, which increase life spans and reduce disease. Stage 3) birth rates fall due to access to contraception, increases in wages, urbanization, a reduction in subsistence agriculture, an increase in the status and education of women, a reduction in the value of children's work. Stage 4)Birth and death rates are low, however birth rates may decline further resulting in a negative population increase.
So while it may not morally "ok" to allow a higher death rate, it has to be recognized that historically a higher death rate is going to be present until they enter the next stage. Also it would take an absurd amount of money to force them into the next stage, it has to be something they do themselves. That is, while monetary aide is ok, we can't do it all from our end, they have to make a commitment to the changes listed above.
It is not a question of population alone, but attitudes.
Japan has a high density of population. Still Japanese slowly defeat the odds against them. They are very hard working, less greedy and perseverant
Attitudes are clouded by tribal affiliations, religion and other factors.
When most don't care for religion much these days, followers of Islamic cult, especially Sunni Saudi inspired Islamic radicals and militants (al-Qaida, Salaffi, Wahhabi, MB and other label ones), are fast marching backwards to their seventh century desert tribal days of rapings, lootings, killings and genocides of non-Muslims and killing each other!
These days Islamic religious Nazis have become root causes of problems in many nations including S. Sudan.
Well, President Obama should borrow another one trillion and donate it to these countries in Africa so that they can also get a great health care. Isn't that what USA is all about!!
Winner of the first Bozo post award!!!
As much money as we have...why isn't odumba not sending trillions to help these people out? It is more important that they get our tax money then the homeless and poor here in the states. What is wrong with him? He should have signed an Executive Order giving Alaska to them by now.
Better yet he can declare them US citizens by executive order and pick up 8 million votes in the process.
DTNIC: Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your post? Why yes, yes I believe I do!
If he thought he could, he probably would. Seems to be pandering to the Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians or just about anyone he can for that all mighty vote. One term ONLY is my motto for him.
Not to worry, Our esteemed President will send money/aid to this ravaged nation. Now this is what our money is going for. I get so sick and tired of hearing poor countries need our help, well forget it. I am being taxed enough with taking care of our own lazy ass people who continue to have baby mamas and daddies without taking on another country to boot.
Dick...
In truth, we are not even finacially able to deal with the costs of the poor in the US. And the costs are growing by the day. I don't think most people realize what an enormous amount of money we spend here on everything from medical costs, education, food, rent, the crime issues that follow those and the costs of the justice system that follow crime. I read an article this week about how the state of New York is trying to find a way to prevent food stamp/welfare debit cards from being used to purchase alcohol and tobacco products. Of course if they figure that out, there are places that'll charge the debit card, deduct a fee, and hand over cash that can be spent on anything.
In this country, we spend more money on dealing with those in poverty than anything else except for the money spent on National Defense.
Because the Democrats in NY ( where I live) like to think that handing out more money is better than working for a living.
Unhappy...
Yeah...it's good for those handing out the money because it buys votes...and good for those receiving the handed out money because it buys pretty much anything they want.
The rest of us are simply supposed to shut our mouths and send in whatever money we are told to send.
Become a Citizen? Are you NUTS? There's WAY better money in foreign and Illegal Alien relief! And Obozo will bypass Congress to allow them to vote any day now. Or has he already? I've lost track...
This doesn't address more fundamental problems such as... birth control! They keep banging out more kids into a country that can barely survive in the first place and must rely on outside donations to do so. It'll be a neverending cycle until they can learn to manage their situation and, like other African coutries, will probably never learn to do it.
They need to know when they're too old to work, they won't be left to starve to death. Until then, they'll keep knocking out babies in the hope enough will survive to care for them in their old age.
Yes, nothing reduces the birth rate like Social Security.
@!$%# you
Please mind your manners, Sr. DelCholo.
When you still carry things on your head, I don't expect a good health care system.
I bet the wealthiest 1% of South Sudan's citizens get all the health care they want. Any takers?
"Occupy Sudan" ???
obama will bypass congress and give them all the aid they need to be healthy leeches.
It is a shame that they are having problems, but until you fix their corrupt governments which exploit their resources, nothing will change. This is the reason most contries in Africa are in such bad shape. I agree that there should be birth control to stop bringing in innocent babies that will be lucky if they see their 1st birthday!
@Shyam that was very uneducated of you to say...
A good economy requires good workers. For good workers to produce, they need to be in good health. To be in good health there needs to be good public health, access to daily necessities, and good health care. I realize that this can be a catch 22, but how are you going to boost the economy when you are dragging yourself around because you constantly have malaria and half your family is sick?
The birthrate will decline (the average couple has less children) when they expect all their children will survive (health care contributes to this) and their financial future is reasonably good (do not need to produce 8 in hopes of having one that can support them in their old age).
Maybe if they didn't have so many children there'd be more food per person and a higher percentage would survive.
I thought we weren't talking about the U.S.....
Under Obama and Hillary Clinton's Cap & Trade Agreement, Africa was to be given 100 billion per year by the U.S. The US just could not afford the 100 billion/year give away and (luckily) Cap & Trade was defeated.
I would not put it past Obama to try to use the this as a pretext to send billions to South Sudan. Throwing money at a problem never fixes the problem.
Ignoring will work. Right?
Ignoring our checkbook and deficit doesn't work either.
It's a new country. What do you expect? Let them have Obama's health care plan. Countries don't become great nations in the first year or two of existence.
Can anyone tell these people to stop having baby after baby, after baby, and so on.These people haven't got a clue on birth control. I'm sorry about their dis-pare, but here again, most of it is caused by their own irresponsibilities. They just don't know when to stop having kids. The over populationhas always been a nightmare. The so called is totally out of touch. The rich could care less. The poor who have so many kids, just can't get a grip on birth control. I'm sorry, it's not our problem. They need to make changes in their lifestyle, not ours. Our money always goes to the wrong people over there. If our $'s would of been working properly, this story would of been history years ago.
They have to have babies, & lots of them. Did you notice the infant mortality rate? Their only hope is a surviving child to care for them when they're too old to work.
Then why not just have one and feed him or her what would otherwise have kept 9 kids starving.
INSTEAD OF GUNS AND AMMO
if the region is stable as far as no more extreme muslims out to kill everyone
maybe some muslim rich dude can set up a school for medicine instead of arming them to the tooth with weapons
lets get some education into the country
seams as if the intelligent peeps get along better than the average cave dweller in those parts
cave dwellers = kill in the name of god
educated peeps = treat each other with respect no matter what they may believe
you know no matter what one thinks there are tons of decent humans that live in that region
im sure they can turn hell into heaven its been done before
but it takes a human with a heart and mind
not guns and stones
Tell em to be patient. obama has a health plan for them. All it takes is other peoples' money
bottom line that no one talks about is they have too many children- I watched a news report where some have 20 children yet they cant feed one- the UN should teach birth control not just feed the starving who in turn have doezens more- this is where the USA is headed as soon as our govt runs out of money for welfare/foodstamps- I see people in the grocery store w/6/8/ or more children and pay w/foodstamps- wow- birth control should become law like in China- hey I'm going to raise a govt family w/10 kids and you the taxpayers pay- how self-centered
WE don't have any money.We need to help our own.At least those of us who believe in religion can offer prayers and good will.That =s nothing to many but that's ok
"Obama Care" can spread the wealth by forcing thousands of our graduating doctors and attorney's to South Sudan - and Uganda - Kenya - for internships and apprenticeships - but wait - we have been doing this for years with the Kennedy family - enough is enough. Stop fornicating all day every day. Perhaps enough is not nearly enough as we become more like Sudan / Uganda 0h blay mah will be happy - and his people in Kenya will be happier - welcoming him as Africa's King (Kunta Kinte style). "The Lion King" is no joke as it portrays a messiah lion cub ascending after his father is killed by an sinister dark side evil brother. I want 0h blay mah to live the rest of his pitiful lying life in humiliation as he peacefully leaves our "The People's White House" in disgrace (an abysmal incompetent failure). You may have guessed that I a GOP likely voter don't find 0h blay mah likeable.
If we sent President Obama over there to run their country that would finish them off in a few months. He will be available on January 29th, 2013 in the early afternoon
When your children are starving for want of a little grain and milk, you don't keep having more, and I don't need to hear from the people that say that since their infant mortality rate is so high, they have to keep trying. What mother wouldn't take advantage of something that would prevent more of her children being starved or killed in conflict in front of her eyes? I have the same opinion with countries with high rates of AIDS, if they won't take birth control, then infant mortality is their choice of population control. If you can't care for your babies and keep them from harm, how could you want to keep bringing them into the world?
These people have my sympathy but not my vote for financial support. First they have to show that they are willing to help themselves. The only charity I would offer is birth control and seeds/farming implements. That's all.
I feel that South Sudan is a terrible black hole and there is not enough money to pour into thier economy to fix it. For over 50 years we have sent boat loads of food, medicine, money to Africa and none of it helps them out of this horrible pit of despair. There are many homeless people in the USA that are suffering and starving. We need to fix our economy first and stop the madness of trying to fix other countries. Just send them birth control to stop the population from increasing.
So what does the UN do with the BILLION the United States gives it????
Ever get a good look at Kofi Annan's collection of hats ??? Those suckers don't come cheap !