cool site and hello Hello Donald,
Just checking out your blog... I think it is great; the photos are super. I hope all is well in your world. Say hello to your outstanding parents and sister from Chris and me.
Paul
Interesting Blog I stumbled upon your interesting blog with Google.
My daughter, Meghan, is living in Ikotos as a missionary and never mentioned these issues. Good to have another perspective!
Saabe Taake!
Nice Pics Hey HM, when the h*ll are you coming back? Looking forward to seeing you. I really enjoyed reading the comments from the School in Whistler-particularly from the kid who pointed out your spelling (or typing?) wasn't so good. Those who live in glass houses.... Anyway we're riding this weekend (of course) and I wish you could be there/here. Miss ya buddy.
Harden the FVCK up Don!!! Mate, reading this, your final Torit entry, brings a welling tear to both of my eyes. Sadly, I do miss Lettuce and her recent love of German Bratwurst, as well as Sandy the wonder woman. Both yourself and Yannick made the entire experience bearable, even amusing at times; especially when you both broke into lovely, heart (and ear) wrenching renditions of Celine Dion melodies. My heart will certainly go on after hearing your collective talents.
Sadly, all the fun of the UN is bound to come to a conclusion, much as we all enjoyed our time in the upmarket Torit area, or Club Refoogee as Scotty likes to call it.
I 'spose I'm gonna have to make an effort to get over to your country one day mate and when I do.....it's your bloody shout!
Cheers
Wowie! To most of my students: Remember our term paradigm shift? I'm seeing it more and more in you! You make me proud.
To a few of my students: Are you ready to see how evil I can get?
Canada is a great model for Sudan--many nations attempting to get along under one constitution. We have the British, the French and the many many first nations groups that make up our country in confederation, and then to add to the dynamics, we have all of our subsequent immigrant groups! We have definately had our fair share of problems--The White Paper, Residential Schools, Head Taxes etc but what we learned from our own history and take with us into the future is TOLERANCE and UNDERSTANDING. When we look back shamefully at our past wrongdoings to minority groups, it is a lack of understanding and acceptance that got us into trouble.
I believe Sudan needs education not in the form of ABCs and 123s but in the form of cultural diversity and understanding. Groups need to learn to trust one another. The question is--who will be brave enough to disarm first and show that he is willing to put his life and future in the hands of his enemy/brother?
Remember: "History, despite its wrenching pain, / Cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, / Need not be lived again."
See you soon Don!
Bri
It sure is Graham, my spelling is good, but my typing is not. You have a few good points. Here they have formed "joint units" between North and South forces, which will become the new Military of Sudan if the countires remain united. If the countries divide, the joint units will cease to exist. one of the problems we see here is that both sides maintain their "regular armies" and then contribute to these joint units. however it seems that they keep their best troops for their regular forces, and contribute the worst to these joint units, which results in problems with crime and violence perpetrated by some of these soldiers.
hi Don,
i am a student at whistler secondary school, in ms cords class, and she has been force feeding us your blog everyday for the whole semester which is pretty good considering it gives me precious minutes to study for all the tests that i'm completely unprepared for and she will make me write when she’s finished reading to us (so make your blogs longer, fill it with any junk you can to give me more time!!!). but lots of times your blogs are more interesting then the stuff that i am hurriedly studding (the lives of long dead, Canadian politicians squabbling for power in a sea of corruption and slander) so i just end up listening to your blogs anyway. i think its cool that your making a deference in a country that could use some help. i also felt sad when i heard that and how the wonder dog died :'( . i hope you have a good trip back to Canada where maple syrup is plentiful and its not so f***ing hot.
connor.
Hi Don
It is a really hard question, and it wasnt fair of you to post it, because now we have to do even more work! No in just kidding, but it is a really hard question to awnser, because I just simply dont know where I would start. I think that all the things that you mentioned as Suggestions to what we could do were good, but I think that another important thin is to get the people who live in the country educated, and teach them to respect for others. If they were educated tey could have a chance to improove the state of their country by them selves.
tough Question... Sup Don
Well, I would first put in schools so people can get a good education. Then I would put in electricity and water supply and build a good housing complex for the people to live in a safe environment.
Difficult Question... Hi Don,
Well, that's a pretty difficult question.
Honestly, I wouldn't really know, what to do first.
Maybe first of all, I would try to give the people the feeling of safety back and fight against corruption. (I know that probably seems much easier than it is)
Another big point would be to build hospitals and footbanks, as the health of the people is very bad in Sudan.
After that I would start building schools and increase the education, because the children won't get criminal so fast if they have a perspective for their future.
Have a good flight,
Michael
tough question!!! Hi Don, ..the goverment needs to get money, for better education, sportscenter and better conditions for food and living!!
Sounds easy, ..but to realize that project ..you need money, money, money!!
responding to your question... If I had to change a country lile Sudan then I would probably start with the government. I feel like changing the government and laws would help the whole country have more structure and rules to follow. Following the change of government there would have to be change in the security to make sure that everyone follows the new government and law. This would show the citizens how a country like theirs could be changed for the better. Health care and schooling could be changed as well (I know that that is a little off topic from government), there are many more changes needed to be made but those are some of the main issues that I feel strongly about and have noticed that are the worst.
Well I'm looking forward to haveing you come to class and speaking all about your trip...because we haven't heard anything about it yet (just kidding)
Good luck on the trip home!
Emily
"i have no idea" i do not have a clue were i would start in trying to re-build Suadan. like the kids dont have proper schooling, and they just beat there goats and meat sothatuget bones in your food instead of shooting it and then haveing no chunks of bone in your meat. but i dont have any more ideas how i woyld fix it.
Alex
ppfffft...grammar ok this isn't school so i won't spell or worry about grammar and sentence structure mr perfect.
I f I had to rebild a country like Sudan. A place that has suffered so much throught the years would probably take a long time to rebuild. I would start with sorting out the military and a police force and developing a proper law enforcement system. Then start to deal with poverty issues (including kids who can't go to school, healthy water, access to hospitals, more food) all that being a very long proccess.
Hey Isn't that a little bit hypocritical to tell us about spelling when I have seen a fair share of spelling mistakes from you.
ex. itimidation / extrotion, unlawfulin and benenficial. Any way to answer your question I would start with the army and change it into one small joint force to keep them both happy (both sides) then improve living conditions of regular people so farming seems better than war. Then give the police more power than one side alone because the possibility of them joining forces is improbable then I would create a democratic government with both sides having advisors in this government.
Re-building a Coutry Hey Don. If i were to Re-build a country, i would probably have to start with the Government. They must take away guns and the militaries power. The G-overnments police should have the power to arrest villans. The schooling should be more of a priority as well. Someone should also be looking into having a large majority of the population get jobs. Create more jobs by creating more food, or products that could help modenerise thier country. Anything, as long as there is a positive hand of athority controlling the population and keeping things in controll.
Answer?! I think i would rebuild South Sudan by taking all of the sudanise and send them to outerspace on some random planet. Then I would demolish all of the city's and villages and put 1 million Canadian citicens into Sudan which would then be called "Sudanada". Then Canada would support "Sudanada" and help them start over with some of Canada's money and all of the Sudanise money. Then Sudanada would be a happy little country and they would be friendly with all of the other country's. Oh ya, there would be many ice cream shops because nobady kills other people with an icecream cone in their hand!
Answer To Your Questions! That is such a hard question to answer because starting would be the hardest thing. First more schools probably should be built and teachers should be hired. Even if the teachers were brought from other countries of half-year periods. Then, more children will have the education needed to start a buisness and to succeed in this world. Building a better economy would help boot the buisness'! Overall, little by little if more people start coming to help Sudan, in a couple of years maybe there will be progress in some weak areas.
Sudan improvements Waz up Don,
I'm one of the kids in Ms. Cord's class and i'm going to answer your question about how i would improve Sudan. I think i start by what you did a little bit of. I would hire a lot of willing people who would go to Sudan, in peace, to help families and show them things that can useful to their lives. Also, like what you did, i'd go and make the children happy because they have to go through so much compared to kids in Norh America.
Hope that answers your question.
Brendan If I was in controll of the country the first thing I would push for is improving the economy. You cant start to worry about the education system or comunications when you have no money to do so. Everything can be done with money.
If i had to re-build a country that has had 22 years of civil war i would not know how to repair all that damage of the people and the land. I would probably tair every thing down and build new buildings like we have in out cities get pavement roads put into place and most of all a would have a hospital or clinic built like we have today. after a while we would have better electricity and plumming. turn all the dry dirt into soil for plants and food. we would do this all one house at a time one piece of land at a time, unitl everything is new and improved.
comment I would start by making it into two countries completely so that they could be completly diffrent it wouldnt matter they could have difffrent polititians diffrent rules diffrent cultures diffrent live and stuff.PS were not even getting marked for this just make sure ms cord doesnt get any eviler O and say that lukas deserves a better grade
Paul (a cousin in Ottawa)
non-member comment
cool site and hello
Hello Donald, Just checking out your blog... I think it is great; the photos are super. I hope all is well in your world. Say hello to your outstanding parents and sister from Chris and me. Paul