Won, Monica

Project 1
Professor Coleman
29 June 2014
South Sudan and Theip
The video chosen for this assignments is a documentary found on the youtube
channel, Vice. The video is called Saving South Sudan. The video is of a group of men
who attempt to encounter and document, first-hand, the gravity of South Sudans civil
war. The video begins with a brief history of the newest nation in the world, South
Sudan. In an effort to establish peace in Sudan, South Sudan was made into its own
nation in 2011. President Salva Kiir Mayardit appointed Riek Macher Teny to be his Vice
President. All was well until December 15, 2013 when President Mayardit accused Vice
President Machar of orchestrating a rebellion. The nation was conceived with hopes of
becoming a democratic and violence free nation. However, with corruption and "black"
gold hungry merchants, the nation quickly spiraled into a war-ridden country. Journalist
Tim Freccia and Robert Pelton accompanied by Machot Lat Thiep venture into the
depths of South Sudan. The video highlights the journey of Machot Lat Thiep, a former
lost boy who had the privilege of escaping the violence and establishing a life in
America as a Costco Manager, and his attempt at changing the fate of South Sudan.
The journalists meet the former vice president of South Sudan, Riek Machar, who
grants them access to the front lines of the war, Malakal. Upon the arrival in Malakal,
Theip and the journalist are met with the Nuer white army. The white army is a group
rebels who have lost family members over the war and are out to get revenge or even
out to make a profit. The journalists begin to grasp the chaos in Malakal as members of
the white army begin to argue with their own commander. Thiep is dismayed by the
state of his country and returns to America having admitted defeat to the fact that
South Sudan is in too deep to be saved. The paradigm best aligned to this video would
be Conflict theory and on a lesser note Functionalism. Conflict Theory because the
rebels are attempting to gain the power of democracy and the President is fighting to
retain a totalitarian state. Racism, security, and power are great violence motivator for
the white army and the presidents army, the Tiger Battalion. The conflicts lie between
rebels and the President accused of dictatorship or their greed for power; the conflict
between journalists and Thiep as they struggle to gain control of events; and lastly,
within Thiep himself as he attempts to let go of his desire to save South Sudan.
Functionalism is also embedded because South Sudan is a society of unrest and
disorder. Families are forced out of their homes in order to seek safety; there is no
order or rules of living. Every man for himself is the rule of South Sudan. The formal
norm that the South Sudanese government may have written is obsolete because the
rebels disregard it and cause chaos by raiding villages and looting their goods. Car
owners will nonchalantly admit that they killed the car owners and took their car
away. The bullet-riddled bodies are left to rot in the streets without a proper burial.
Karl Marx was a witness to the ugliness of capitalism and the exploitation of
subordinates. He strongly opposed the idea of the rich benefiting off of the poor.
Weber agreed to his opposition but to a much less severe level. Marx and Weber would
see the South Sudanese conflict as the people attempting to gain back the power and
accuse the President, who has money to build armies, of exploiting and ruining his
people. Comte, who founded positivism, would have viewed the human corpse left to
rot in the streets and the murdering with disdain. Comte asserts that laws are made to
bring order, the white army has been disregarding the formal norms and creating
chaos. Durkheim would have seen the conflict in South Sudan and recommended that
the rebels, rebel from the government by doing good and not by violence.