Farewell and all the best

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Dear friends, ex-colleagues, dear all,

Having shared information with few colleagues starting in 1999, just
after the crisis in 1998, until today, i ended up sharing information,
daily, to 752 persons involved or interested in South Sudan, this
beside my own work until i came what i call home o 25th of September
2016, exactly 1 year ago today..

An old friend sent me a mail, few months ago, to inform me that, on
this day, he had received exactly 75,000 emails from me, that is
75,000 times going thru the web, cut/copy/paste/send etc...

After 18 years as a social worker in a very big european city working
with street kids and young adults, mainly females, and a new life with
32 years spent in the South of Sudan then South Sudan, I feel a bit
tired.

I don't want to become a bitter old man, while i cannot avoid to
become more and more grumpy.

My South Sudanese friends, my former "friends" or working relations
like Riek Machar, Salva Kiir, Paul Malong, John Garang (who didn't
live to see what is taking place) and many others who became generals
or ministers, or both, and who, over 90% of them, were spoiled by
power, money and greed, will continue the struggle without me.

I don't judge them, maybe some of them, as I believe no country had
avoided one or several bloodshed civil wars: starting with mine, whose
bloody one in 1789 was a very bloody business indeed, and recently in
Kosovo and other places, that should prevent the westerners to bully
or lecture the South Sudanese.

Unlike when I started my Google Group, now, practically every NGO or
UN base has his good enough connection to the internet. Most
humanitarian workers will not accept to work in the field without it.
Long gone are the days when there was no other connections than our HF
radio and that 6 months were spent in the bush without contacts other
than radio messages.

It is a very different world now and the humanitarian workers are a
different kind as well.

So, after 40 years dealing with very often difficult human beings, and
i know quite well about them, being one of them, i am now spending
time with animals, who are called beasts, while the real beasts are
not them. I spent time as well with my grand children and their
friends and with nature that we are all busy to destroy.

My only bitterness, if any, has been to witness for 32 years the
mistakes repeated by the big powers, the donors, almost all of them
not understand anything, and pretending to have the solutions. The CPA
in 2005 was an unfinished business, the follow up an unbelievable
amateur and irresponsible mess, the follow up of 2011 another one, but
enough of all this.

So, after this too long email, I wish you the best, courage and
everything you aspire to.

Farewell,

e j (not her/his real name as they say in the news -:)

PS : I have to say that it took me some days to decide to stop my
group. I did it in 2011, in November, and resumed after 3 days
following pressure from many of you. But, by then, I was actively
involved, not anymore. And July 2016 started to tickle my brains as i
could not run as surely as in 1990 in Jonglei, but that is history.