South Sudan’s animal-shaped cities?
File this under white elephant (pun very much intended …) Southern Sudan’s government revealed this week a multi-billion dollar plan to build new urban centers in all ten of its state capitals. The price tag may make some gasp, but the real surprise? The cities would be animal and fruit-shaped. The $10.1 billion plan proposes ...
File this under white elephant (pun very much intended ...)
File this under white elephant (pun very much intended …)
Southern Sudan’s government revealed this week a multi-billion dollar plan to build new urban centers in all ten of its state capitals. The price tag may make some gasp, but the real surprise? The cities would be animal and fruit-shaped.
The $10.1 billion plan proposes remaking cities in Sudan’s south into shapes found on regional flags. Blueprints and maps illustrate Juba in the shape of a rhinoceros, Yambio fashioned after a pineapple and Wau as a giraffe.
This is funny … until you realize that this is what counts for planning in advance of a vote that could see a newly independent state of South Sudan. Not that urban planning isn’t a good thing, but there’s a few other details to work out too.
Elizabeth Dickinson is International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Colombia.
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