By Dan Morrison
JUBA, Sudan—Call it Peter Adwok Nyaba's modest proposal.
As southern Sudan hurtles toward its July debut as the world's newest country, Adwok, a highly respected Cabinet minister who hails from southern Sudan's Upper Nile oil patch, has a simple plan to ensure his homeland's economic security: shut down the oil wells. This may sound like suicide to a less radical observer of Sudan, given the south's Stone Age poverty and its reliance on oil for 98 percent of its revenues. But to Adwok, the $10 billion of oil revenue that has kept south Sudan afloat in recent years has also made the region a model of corruption and inequality. He would destroy the economy to save it.
"Cut the oil," he says, and he's serious. "It would be good for the country."...[continued]
