News from Juba

1. The Assembly has passed the 2011 Budget. (Hopefully it'll be up on the GoSS website shortly)

2. The SSCCSE has published its 2010 Statistical Yearbook. (Take note folks writing about Southern Sudan...)

3. The New South Sudan Pound will have Garang's face on it. (Commiserations to the guy who wrote that report on post-secession currency options illustrated with a hypothetical South Sudan dollar)

The Curious Economics of the Newspaper Business

newspapers typically spend about 15 percent of their revenue on what, to the Internet world, are their only valuable assets: the people who report, analyze, and edit the news. Varian cited a study by the industry analyst Harold Vogel showing that the figure might reach 35 percent if you included all administrative, promotional, and other “brand”-related expenses. But most of the money a typical newspaper spends is for the old-tech physical work of hauling paper around. Buying raw newsprint and using it costs more than the typical newspaper’s entire editorial staff.

The Atlantic

Brad Delong on the New York Times

I have reached my limit with the New York Times: I think it would be a better world if it shut tomorrow--all of the best and some of the good journalists would go elsewhere and do their work, and a lot of bulls--- would vanish from the public debate.

Shut down the New York Times today

So Malaria really sucks (surprise, surprise).

But the real sickness only lasts for a few days. I made it into work on the third day (which massively impressed my Sudanese colleagues who told me to go take a week getting treated in Nairobi. Treated with what exactly? You get the same drugs wherever you as are as far as I can tell.) The annoying part is the lingering weakness, which makes you a prime target to be completely wiped out by some little cold. I'm really bored of being sick now, can't it just go away?

Anyway there's a reasonable Southern Sudan article in the Guardian today, (better than some of the hyperbole to be found in the Economist). It also comes with a great photogallery.

The one big error is the use of the word "stagnation" in describing Juba. One thing Juba is not is stagnating. That would imply a lack of change. You can't call it stagnating because IT IS CHANGING, probably faster than any other African town right now. And you would realise this if you had spoken to anyone who has been around for even 2 or 3 years and can remember when there were only 4 cars on the roads and no hotels and only 2 restaurants to eat in, compared to the hundreds of pizzerias and cappucino places you can find today. Lazy.