By Beatrice Jeschek

© Pete Muller/AP

For all those who always wondered how it feels to live in the leg of a massive rhinoceros, South Sudan offers the solution.

On first glance, it looks like a wild dream of a slightly confused but animal-loving architect come true.

In fact, it needs a full ten billion dollars and at least 20 years of work to bring the extravagant vision of capital cities out of the African dust and into the shapes – all inspired by the Sudanese state flag.

A rhinoceros? (Jamba city) A giraffe? (Wau) A pineapple? (Yambio)

These shapes will only be identified as such when pressing one’s nose against the plane window to see the cities. An ambitious fantasy, especially when considered the dusty poverty and lack of even basic infrastructure of South Sudan.

It is high standards, not moral obligation to its own people. Those who live to at least 90 percent on less than one US Dollar per day will not be experiencing a quality shift in life just because of fancy shaped cities, created to attract foreign investors.

Who might be able to afford living in these new prestigious towns? The rich. Will it bring work and new roads? Maybe. The status quo of most people will be unchanged or worsened, as the money there is will be invested in the project instead of elemental needs.

"It doesn't seem like the government of Southern Sudan should be using its resources or staff time when the people of Southern Sudan lack basic services like health care and water," argues Nora Petty, an aid worker with the Malaria Consortium in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

Ironically, the police department is painted in the mouth of the rhinoceros-blueprint as being swallowed by the corruption of their own country.

If Juba will be transformed into Rhino-City with two pointy horns, it will not be the first area shaped like something pretty. Shiny could-be-equal-to-gold Dubai built palm shaped accommodation in the water. Also Argentina set their adorable Eva Peron a monument in form of Ciudad Evita – in form of her head.

However, the combination of a poor country like Sudan with animal shaped city fantasies is fascinating. As if the government was searching for new and strong symbols after all these years of civil war. The hope of an independent future now lies in form of fruits and animals.

This article was first published 26/08/2010 on maltastar.com.