The United States and South Sudan

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Alan Johnston introduces personal reflections and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition, Mark Mardell explains how much the Republican primaries in the USA can resemble the crunching pile-ups of the Wacky Races cartoons, while Robin Denselow listens to some of the cattle songs of South Sudan. Politics as demolition derby Somehow, in the USA, presidential electioneering never really ends. As soon as one race is over, there's avid speculation about the next. But it's around this time - a little more than a year before the next election - that things get really serious. The Republican candidates who'll challenge President Obama are starting to run, and run hard. Our Washington correspondent, Mark Mardell, was sceptical about "primary fever" when he was still based in Europe. But now, living in America as all the mad clamour of the campaign to be the Republican contender is beginning to build, he's had to admit he's gripped. Ode to a bull named Makuei South Sudan is the world's youngest nation. It only became an independent state last month. And the first steps in its new-found freedom were bound to be difficult: not only is South Sudan one of the poorest places on earth, it's also having to cope with at least half-a-dozen armed rebellions. The new country's vast territory is home to many ethnic groups - like the Nuer, Nuba, Dinka, Shilluk and Mursi - whose songs, poetry and art have long intrigued outsiders and anthropologists. Robin Denselow has been finding out, however, that violence is now posing a threat to cattle-rearing traditions that lie at the core of the local culture.