A decade decayed: South Sudan
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The world’s youngest state was born amid boundless optimism. But poverty is still endemic and ethnic tensions still rule politics; what hope for its next decade? Mass graves found at Canada’s “residential schools” have sparked a reckoning about past abuses of indigenous peoples. And marking 50 years since the final album of Karen Dalton, the forgotten queen of folk.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:17.1 | From the very start of Canada's national history, indigenous children were shuffled off to residential schools, |
| 0:23.6 | designed to strip them of their identities. |
| 0:26.6 | As discoveries of mass graves reveal the school's inhumane conditions, Canada is set for a reckoning. |
| 0:33.6 | And 50 years ago today came the release of the second and final album by Karen Dalton, |
| 0:40.3 | an extraordinarily gifted folk singer. |
| 0:43.3 | She was reluctant to perform or even to record her music, |
| 0:46.3 | and as a result, her talents are only now reaching wider audiences. |
| 0:57.0 | First up, though. I do hear by swear by the Almighty God, that as the President of the Republic of South Sudan, |
| 1:09.0 | that as the President of the Republic of South Sudan, |
| 1:13.6 | I shall be faithful. |
| 1:15.6 | I shall be faithful. |
| 1:16.6 | Ten years ago today, a new sovereign country was born |
| 1:20.6 | as South Sudan's president Salva Kier was sworn in |
| 1:23.6 | before a huge flag-waving crowd in the country's capital Juba. So help me God. |
| 1:29.3 | So help me God. |
| 1:31.3 | Then the celebrations began. |
| 1:34.3 | Sudan had been wracked by decades of successive civil wars. |
| 1:41.3 | Millions were killed as a rebel group fought for the independence of the |
| 1:45.4 | mostly Christian South against a government based in the largely Muslim North. Millions more were |
| 1:51.4 | displaced. This was a ceaselessly brutal conflict. Amputations by machete were policy. Death by stoning |
| 2:00.4 | was common. Out of those darkest times, |
... |
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