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Showing posts from February, 2011

A Brave New Sudan... But Without Books?

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Imagine starting a country from scratch, a country devastated by war, poverty, PTSD, and crumbling or nonexistent modern infrastructure. Now imagine that your university--the centre for training your countryā€™s leaders--has no library. How do you rate your nationā€™s chances for stability and prosperity? Buk Arop is facing that conundrum right now, because his countrymen and ā€“women in South Sudan have voted 99% in favour of separating from the North. And Arap knows as well as anybody that without education, his ancient (and also new) homeland has no future. Arop, a tall, 29-year-old Sudanese youth worker with movie-star looks, a baritone voice and a gentle demeanour, is the president of the newly-formed South Sudan Development Foundation. The SSDFā€™s first major project is to stockā€”from scratchā€”the library of the Dr. John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology , named in honour of the late leader of the Sudanese Peopleā€™s Liberation Army and Sudanā€™s First Vice ...