The Guardian has published Zed Nelson’s lovely photo essay documenting the individuals helping to build South Sudan, the world’s youngest country. Among the frontiers(wo)men: a beauty queen, a gold-grilled hip hop artist, a Chinese restauranteur, the son of the deceased Southern Sudanese hero John Garang.
My favorite commentary comes from Dr. Pauline Riak, chair of the nation’s anti-corruption commission. “When I came in 2006, nobody talked about corruption because the word did not exist in any of our 14 linguistic groupings. We did not have banks. Money came in suitcases. We paid for everything in cash. This is an environment conducive to misappropriation. But things are changing.”
