Games brings no development but poverty

By Ngor Arol Garang

March 5, 2008 — As I always walks and rids around Juba city as part of
my daily duties and responsiblities, I see many young
men and ladies sitting under trees or at certain
verandahs at home playing either lideo if they are
young ladies or cards if they are young men from
morning to sun set without sparing time to go around
and see what is happening. They take time playing
even at time they go without food. I always find very
young and energetic people playing cards and lideos in
Juba city centre and along parliament and ministries
roads instead of going to try their luck for
employment.

Playing without bothering to look for what to do is
contributing to no development but encouragement of
poverty and hunger.

This is a wastage of time and it has to be stopped
soon if we are committed to fighting poverty in
southern Sudan.

Development in this region needs no time to spare for
games during work days. Let’s do some thing about it
now. Tommorrow never. Please look across the horizons
or climb some ladders if we are interested and
committed to bring change in this region.look at how
Khartoum is developing from resources in the south.
They spare no time for games unlike us here in the
south.While in Khartoum this month, i visited Dongola,
ten hours drive from Khartoum and Gezira which was not
far like Dongola from khartoum just to see myself how
far have these towns gone with their development
compare to our Juba, Malakal and Wau. In Dongola we
arrive late in the evening at ten thirty to find that
traffic was working actively just like in the morning
for our traffic in Juba.

The towns are developed to the standard that will Juba
ten years to reach because their sons and daughters
waste no time playing games for a complete day like we
do here in the south.

Every time i go to Khartoum, i see new thing than when
I return to Juba even if I spent more than a month
out. This is because people and the government there
don’t waste time unlike our government of southern
sudan where a senior government puts on chair his/her
official working cloth and get out only to return
after lunch or at five for closing signature .

Official letters takes three to four months to reach
the final office because there is no accountability
system.Workers comes and leaves the office as they
decide without having to worry of punctuality.
Is this something beneficial to our people? No, this
is just waste of time and resources.

We are thousands far from any developing world in
Africa and the world at large. our region needs more
manpower to produce our own than continuous to import
goods that we can produce like drinking water from
other countries.

Let’s stand aganist this, dependency ratio in our
southern communities has risen because we are all
accustomed to sharing things collectively which in
turn deny others from relying on their own. Being idle
won’t do us good thing in life than allowing us to
remain wearing thesame shoes and shirts throughout a
year. We have to contribute something individually
towards developing of our young nation as alternative
to fight poverty in Africa as a whole and South Sudan
in particular.

Playinng games for a complete day without doing any
beneficial thing to your people is also an increase
of responsiblities of our mothers and fathers who had
hoped we would be a relief to them than a burden
again.

Games do not just contributes to poverty only but
are also sources of fights that we hear and witness
these days.

Wasting time playing games during working days is of
no good, better one pass time in libraries and other
learning institutions.

The author is based in Juba, southern sudan